Presbyterians have been stepping up to help Afghan families feel welcome in the United States, from providing meals and housing to helping children get registered in school.
Congregations now feel the full impact a two-year global pandemic has had on their ministries, leading them to assess the cost of connecting in new ways.
An undercurrent of fear ran through the celebration for graduates of English as a Second Language classes conducted by the refugee resettlement agency World Relief at Carmichael Presbyterian Church in Carmichael, California, a city 11 miles northeast of Sacramento.
When heavy rain led to flooding in the Mississippi Delta in June, members of First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, Mississippi, were among the volunteers who streamed into nearby Mound Bayou to help residents begin the process of recovery.
During 2020, Knox Presbyterian Church in Baltimore faced both the start of the pandemic in March and the loss of its pastor, the Rev. Michael Moore, who accepted a call from the denominational headquarters in September.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s recent Week of Action concluded with a Day of Service on a Sunday that prompted youths and families from two churches in Buffalo, New York, to gather for a park cleanup.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) World Mission co-worker the Rev. Sharon Bryant has three Bible verses that guide her work theologically as coordinator of Christian volunteers for the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT).
Hurricane Delta clobbered southwest Louisiana on Oct. 9, making landfall just 13 miles east of where Hurricane Laura came ashore as a strong Category 4 storm just six weeks earlier. And, between these two direct hits, Hurricane Sally, a Category 2 storm with 105 mile-per-hour winds, dumped double-digit rainfall totals from Gulf Shores, Alabama, to Pensacola, Florida. Small, slow-moving Tropical Storm Beta caused severe flooding along the Texas and Louisiana coastlines.
Members of First Presbyterian Church in Winchester, Virginia, as young as 4 and as old as 84 years old recently participated in a program designed to eliminate hunger. The church has gathered twice in the past two years to pack meals for Rise Against Hunger, a program that turns pallets of food supplies into meals for the hungry.
It’s anything but business as usual for guests and staff at the Ladle Fellowship, the homeless outreach ministry of First Presbyterian Church in San Diego. As cases of COVID-19 increase across the nation, volunteers and church staff are continuing to serve their neighbors in need.
