PCUSA

	Plant With Purpose		R.H.I.N.O. Rebuilding Hope In New Orleans
	Kenya		Presbyterian Woman
	Navajo Mission		Nicaragua
	Missionaries

Plant With Purpose

Every day subsistence farmers in developing countries destroy more virgin forest to make room for their crops. The world’s forests provide the wood, water, and fuel neded by millions of people. People in all countries rely on these forests to help maintain global temperatures. Poverty, deforestation and global warming are advancing hand-in-hand.

But now, Plant With Purpose, a Christian non-profit organization, helps farmers grow wood products and fruit trees n place of soil-destroying traditional crops. These farmers are halting deforestation, starting reforestation and improving their incomes at the same time.

Plant With Purpose also has a vital Christian witness and encourages its farmers to participate in their local churches.

Working in the Dominican Republic , Haiti and Mexico over:

900 loans have been made, 
two million trees planted, 
2000 families’ lives have been changed.

Plant With Purpose’s program has made it possible for thousands of people to be better nourished, more hopeful, more aware of their savior, and exposed to new opportunities. There are 10,000 people who no longer need to rely on handouts in the future

Kenya

2011 KENYA MISSION TEAM REPORT

Members of the 2011 Kenya Mission Team: Bob and Jane Barr, Al and Judi Cline, Monte Cline, Jeannetta Mouncey, Joan Butler, Joan Verboys, Marvin and Mary Ellen Miller.

After 28 hours of travel, the team landed in the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya, on Friday evening around 8:30PM. We were transported to Brackenhurst Christian Retreat Center, arriving there around 11:00 PM. Brackenhurst, which will be our place of lodging, is a beautiful, restful retreat center, situated on a former tea plantation and is at about 7,000 feet above sea level.

On Sunday morning the ten worshipped with the Nyathuna Presbyterian (PCEA) Church , and had a wonderful time with our sisters and brothers there. After the service we gave out gifts for the children - around 150 excited boys and girls. The team had lunch at the church and then went back to Brackenhurst for some much needed rest in the afternoon.

On Monday we went to the site where we will be working all week - RUKU Presbyterian (PCEA) Church. The day was spent getting acquainted with the women and men who are helping in the new church building project. The main focus of the day was to introduce them to the two solar ovens we brought along- purchased with funds contributed by members of First Presbyterian Church. They were a BIG hit. They are very excited about the possibilities of using the solar ovens and want to see them used by needy families that have only a smoke-filled kitchen in which to cook their meals.

On Tuesday we visited a nearby primary school, also PCEA supported, of nearly 700 Children. We gave the school gifts of writing tablets, pens, pencils, geometry sets, art supplies, and three soccer balls. The students were so very pleased and exited about their gifts and the school officials were moved by the generous supplies we contributed.

We worked on the new church building , and helped to cook lunch and then left for a visit to Kazuri Beads, where single and needy mothers are given employment to make some very beautiful beads for sale around the world. We ended our Tuesday with dinner at Brackenhurst, inspired, enriched, and moved by the generous and kind people with whom we worked and fellowshipped.

Click here to learn more about the 2012 mission trip to Kenya

Navajo Mission
Chinle , Arizona

Sponsored by Peace River Presbytery’s World Mission Committee, a group of interested members traveled to Chinle , Arizona to build relationships with two Navajo Presbyterian Churches. The group helped with facility repair, improvement, cleaning and maintenance. This time provided an opportunity to bond with our Navajo brothers and sisters in Christ.

Beginning in 1998 and running three consecutive summers, about 30 church members from a dozen churches in the presbytery spent a week on the Navajo Reservation working, playing and praying with their Native American brothers and sisters.

First Presbyterian Church Sarasota continues to support this Navajo mission through our Presbyterian Women’s group.

Nicaragua

Members from First Presbyterian Church of Sarasota along with some members of First Presbyterian Church Bradenton, have worked with CEPAD, an organization of Evangelical churches in Nicaragua. We have gone to aid with construction of homes, to assist with harvesting crops and to create a fish pond to raise Tilapia. These are spiritually powerful experiences for all who help and are helped. The love of Christ is felt by all.

R.H.I.N.O.

Rebuilding Hope In New Orleans

(RHINO) is an outreach ministry of St Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church. We have sent eight mission teams to work with other volunteers in New Orleans since October 2005. This mission trip provides meaningful service opportunities while building relationships and witnesses to God’s good work.

Missionaries

Frank & Nancy Dimmock 
Maseru, Lesotho

Frank and Nancy Dimmock's first term as people in mission with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) began the day they were married: June 1, 1985 . They interrupted their honeymoon to be commissioned during the General Assembly that year. The Dimmocks served at Scott Hospital , a mission hospital in Morija , Lesotho , for six years. In 1992 they moved from Lesotho to Malawi , where Frank is the health coordinator for the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) and southern Africa regional health consultant for the PC(USA). Frank coordinates the CCAP's health management and administration. He facilitates the sharing of ideas and solutions to common problems and concerns to each of the health units and assists with communication between the three synods in Malawi . Nancy supports this ministry with hospitality through their home and raising their eight children

Doug Orbaker

Managua, Nicaragua

Doug was appointed in January 2004 to serve in Nicaragua with CEPAD, the Council of Evangelical Churches in Nicaragua. As delegations coordinator, Doug develops the programs carried out by the many “mission teams” that go to Nicaragua to work with and learn from Nicaraguans.

Since he first began to organize and lead groups to Central America after Hurricane Mitch in October 1998, Doug saw that short-term service wasn’t primarily about getting things accomplished. “I tried to develop these groups not just to work,” he writes, “but to learn of the cultures and histories that have created such poverty, and to live in friendship with the people with whom we work. These experiences of different culture and language have always been a source of joy for me.

Rebecca Young
Indonesia 

Rebecca Young was appointed in July 2007 to serve as instructor of Systematic Theology at the Jakarta Theological Seminary in Jakarta, Indonesia. In addition, Rebecca has a part-time assignment with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance as a consultant for PDA’s ongoing recovery work for the tsunami in Aceh Province of December 26, 2004.

Prior to her appointment, Rebecca worked for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in Indonesia.

She has also worked as an adjunct professor at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia, teaching world religions, philosophical ethics, and women in world religions (2000-2003).

Prebyterian Woman

Presbyterian Women (PW) includes all women in the congregation who choose to participate in or be supportive of the organization in any way. It has its own leadership, program and budget in a covenantal relationship with the Presbyterian Church (USA).

In our church there are seven Presbyterian Women’s Circles. Each circle meets monthly. They study the Bible and its stories using a different Presbyterian Women’s Study Guide each year. All circles meet together at the Gathering held the first Tuesday of the month January through May and October through December. Here they have a social gathering time, a luncheon and a program which may stress our commitment to nurturing our faith, our support of the worldwide church mission or the work of peace and justice in the world. There is a strong emphasis on mission by the women. Some of their many mission endeavors are folding bandages for White Cross – International Aid, assisting a child at Thornwell Home and School for Children, supporting our colleges and seminaries and also giving to the Mother’s Day Mosquito Net Project. Locally they support many community mission projects. Yearly they contribute to the Least Coin, the Presbyterian Women’s Birthday Offering and the Thank Offering.

You are invited to active membership in Presbyterian Women. Please call the church office at (941) 955-8119 for meeting locations and further information. We are a friendly group and we want to know you.

Our Purpose:

Forgiven and freed by God in Jesus Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to:

• Nurture our faith through prayer and Bible study.
• Support the mission of the Church worldwide.
• Work for justice and peace.
• Build an inclusive, caring community of women that strengthens the Presbyterian Church (USA) and witnesses to the promise of God's Kingdom.

ANSWERING THE CALL TO SERVE

Local programs include: Angel Tree, Beth-El Mission,  Blood Drive, Caritas, Community Mobile Meals, Church Food Pantry , Church Scholarship Fund Good Samaritan Fund, Habitat for Humanity, Linnie Dalbeck Infant & Toddler Center, Resurrection House, S.U.R.E. , Three Cents a Meal

Church-wide and other programs receiving P.W. support: Columbia Friendship Circle Scholarship, Crop Walk for Hunger, Doctors on Call for Service (DOCS) , General Assembly, Synod, and Presbytery Worldwide, Mission Haven, NetWorkers, Presbyterian Historical Foundation, Presbyterian Women, Peace River Presbytery Fund, Thornwell Home and School, White Cross.

In addition, we participate in two offerings received by Presbyterian Women nationwide: the Birthday Offering and the Thank Offering. These are used for special programs over and above those usually supported by our national organization. Joining women all over the world, we also give our Least Coin to help others with special needs.