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Missions – and you!“I am only one, but I am still someone. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. Just because I cannot do everything does not give me the right to do nothing.” Amish maxim An opportunity for all to share the joy of giving of themselves! Mission – giving and doing for others – is at the heart of the life of St. Peter’s United Church of Christ. Many of our members are directly involved in and deeply committed to a variety of service ministries and organizations that reach out to people in need within our communities, across the nation, and around the world.
St. Peter’s Church is a leader among the churches of the United Church of Christ in our mission support. Either through the greater church or directly, with our monetary gifts or with our own hard work, we contribute significantly to many missions. The largest portion of our total giving to St. Peter’s Church goes to missions – the work that is so important to us. We contribute to five missions in the local area, now coordinated as St. Peter’s UCC Greater Phoenixville Area Local Mission Outreach.” We also support two missions in Pennsylvania and two overseas, one in Micronesia and one in South Africa. Another mission we support, Heifer Project, is both national and international in its scope.
Most of our mission work is accomplished through our Mission Teams. Each Mission Team is made up of a number of our members who take responsibility for deciding how best to meet the needs of their particular mission, organize volunteer opportunities, plan activities to involve other members, and raise funds. We also have service groups within the church that regularly reach out to others, such as the Women’s Sewing Circle and Wayne’s Ministry.
The purpose of this pamphlet is to introduce our various Mission Teams, the other mission-oriented groups and individuals in our church, and our various mission offerings that are regularly received throughout the year. We strongly encourage you, as members of St. Peter’s UCC, to commit your support to one of these vital mission teams.
GREATER PHOENIXVILLE AREA LOCAL MISSION OUTREACH
How it really works – a true story! A young, single parent seeks help at one of the homeless shelters we support. This person is granted temporary housing until our Single Parenting Association or the Community Coalition can find more permanent housing for the family and employment for the parents. A St. Peter’s member offers a training and employment opportunity at his company. Daily support by volunteers are needed to support the family’s needs. Wayne’s Ministry helps to furnish their home or apartment. The Habitat for Humanity Mission Team offers many “sweat equity” hours to help the family eventually move into a new dwelling. This kind of compassionate caring is what our local mission teams’ efforts hope have provided in the past and, with God’s help and yours, will do so in the future.
· Community Coalition – Bob and Carole Frederick, 610-935-2144, Chairpersons · Bethany Children’s Home – Harriet Alexander, Chairperson, 610-948-4290Bethany Home in Womelsdorf, PA has been serving the needs of young people for well over a century. Founded as a home for children orphaned during the Civil War, the home is now a modern treatment facility for children and adolescents in need.
At any time at the Home, more than 100 young people are receiving therapeutic residential and outpatient services. The Home is a ministry of the United Church of Christ and is supported by many of the congregations in our area.
Each fall, one of the choral groups from the Home visits St. Peter’s Church and shares its gifts with us. On occasion, a representative of the Home visits and reports on the latest developments and the good work being done for young people there. Each summer in August, members of our church visit the Home when they have their annual open house.
It is our tradition that offerings received at our Hanging of the Greens and our Christmas Eve services are directed to Bethany Home. Recently, our members also supported the Home’s capital campaign, “Brighter Futures For Kids,” with gifts that totaled more than $25,000.
Our newest mission. MISSION: The statistics on illiteracy are staggering. UNESCO estimates that worldwide there are 770 million illiterate people, two-thirds of which are women and girls. More than 115 million children aren't enrolled in primary school.
Room to Read partners with local communities throughout the developing world to build schools, libraries and other educational infrastructure. They seek to intervene early in the lives of children in the belief that education is a lifelong gift that empowers people to ultimately improve socioeconomic conditions for their families, communities, countries and future generations. Through the opportunities that only education can provide, Room to Read strives to flight illiteracy and break the cycle of poverty, one child at a time.
Room to Read doesn't swoop down on a community and shower it with its Western-funded largesse. Room to Read requires strong local participation for its projects. Villages must cover a portion of a project's expense, often by donating labor, land or materials. In the group's view, the local commitment is critical to a project's success and sustainability. The majority of the nonprofit's 150 staff members and 1,000 volunteers live in countries where its projects are located. Indeed, they hire local staff who are personally vested in their nation’s educational progress and empower them to make key programmatic decisions within their country. They are already familiar with the language, conditions, customs and governments and understand the specific needs of the educational system and work to ensure Room to Read crafts new solutions to existing problems.
BRIEF HISTORY: John Wood, Founder and CEO, launched Room to Read after a trek through Nepal. He visited several local schools and was amazed by the warmth and enthusiasm of the teachers and students. He was saddened, however, by the shocking lack of resources. Driven to help, John left his senior executive position with Microsoft and built a global team to work with rural villages to build sustainable solutions to their educational challenges.
Currently, Room to Read has launched projects in Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zambia. It has plans to expand to Bangladesh and Latin America.
RESULTS TO DATE: Since its inception in 2000, Room to Read has helped more than 1.7 million children in developing third world countries. It's established 5,160 libraries, constructed 442 schools, published 226 children's book titles in local languages (totaling some 2 million books), donated over 3 million English language children’s books, established 155 computer and language labs, and funded 4,036 long-term scholarships for girls, which pay for tuition, school supplies and uniforms. This is all in eight years of operation!
In summary, John Wood states it best: “Without access to education, people don't have a reasonable chance of rising out of poverty. Yes, people need immunizations; they need access to clean water," he says. "But there's a failure to realize that we're asking people to fight with one arm tied around their back if we don't address education."
More information is available on Room to Read’s web site: http://www.roomtoread.org/ Or better yet, read Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood. It might change yours!
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