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The Heart of Mission
October 27, 2020
Take a walk around the church and see if you can find Environmental Stewardship Committee’s new sign. Thanks to all who participated in this optical and avifauna feast! Enjoy the fruits of our labors below as you see how God’s Spirit is at work in our world.
Peace,
Rachel Matthews, Temporary Mission Coordinator
Our Mission Agency Announcements:
Community Mission Deacons – Tuesday, October 27, 4:30pm zoom.
COATS LEFT IN WESTMINSTER HALL – Every year coats are left behind and forgotten in the church. We have gathered them together and plan to give them to someone who can use them if they are not claimed. With cold weather upon us, we want them used. Check your closets now! Are you missing a coat? If you want Rachel to look for a specific item you are missing, call or email now, rachel@firstpres.church. Next week, we will be donating them!
STYROFOAM COLLECTION: This Saturday, Halloween, October 31, from 9am-11am, The Environmental Stewardship Committee is hosting a Styrofoam dropoff. Please wear your mask and bring your clean, #6 styrofoam, to the church for a contactless, drive through drop off. Let’s “treat” our earth.
DREAAM – Thank you to all who support DREAAM! We are so excited for DREAAM in that last week they opened the Dream Big Learning Centers providing educational and social emotional support to DREAAMers during COVID-19. In fact, our congregation and several others are using their facilities for in this important work. To do this DREAAM needs supplies for individual enrichment, such as educational activity workbooks for grades K-4th, small puzzles, Rubik’s Cubes, math and reading flash cards, word search books, and anything educational that an individual child can use. Sharing of supplies during COVID-19 is not safe. Each DREAAMer will have an enrichment tub to use when he has completed independent work. We are being asked to mail or ship donations to UniPlace/DREAAM, 403 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL 61820. We will have a drop off point at First Presbyterian for small items and someone will take them over to UniPlace if you cannot mail or ship them.
Salt & Light – Did you know that you can save while you shop at Salt and Light? Every dollar saved counts! Senior citizens can enjoy a 10% savings on groceries each Thursday while also supporting their mission through their purchases. And, every Tuesdays everyone 55 and over can save 25% on their entire thrift purchase. Here is what donors are saying about Salt and Light:
- “Friendly, considerate service, especially with Covid-19 requirements.”
- “I’m disabled so needed a pick up at my home. The helpers were so friendly and polite. I love Salt and Light!”
- “Your guys were very kind and very helpful. Thank you for your help. God bless you and all your staff.”
CU at Home: One Winter Night will be February 5, 2021 this year. Please keep CU at Home in your prayers regarding this important season in the work of CU at Home. If you are interested in participating please contact Rob@cuathome.us
- Would you join us in prayer for a friend who recently overdosed and is still fighting for his life? We pray that God would save our friends life and give him another chance to have a better life in the future!
- Please pray for two of our friends who recently ended up in jail for various offenses. We look for these set backs to help our friends come out on the other side better and stronger!
- Would you also pray for two of our close friends hwo are struggling with a loss of a family member and severe medical issues with another family member?
- Thank you God for one of our friends without an address who recently finished substance abuse treatment and moved into our transitional housing program!
- Praise the Lord for a partnership with the Daily Bread and the C-U at Work program for giving two more of our friends without an address an opportunity to work, make money, be empowered, and provided dignity through serving for the greater good!
- Praise to Jesus for two of our friends who will be housed very soon! What a blessing to see the growth of these two men!
Opportunity International –For the last three years, Opportunity has featured innovative projects aimed at improving the lives of women and girls and empowering them to build safe and sustainable livelihoods. Enjoy the video regarding the 2020 WeGo Winner.
Friends of PEB – The Pakistan Group is hosting a zoom tea for sponsors of girls in PEB schools on November 1 to learn more about our school in Sangla Hill. If you are not currently a sponsor but are interested in sponsoring a girl’s education in Pakistan, email rachel@firstpres.church and Rachel will get you in touch with someone who can tell you more. Email her before October 27 if you are interested in the zoom tea.
A bit of history and a celebration: What is the Sialkot Convention? The Sialkot Convention has been in operation for 110 years. Christians from all over the world attend it, but it wasn’t always that way. John Hyde, a partially deaf son of a Presbyterian minister was born in Illinois in 1865. He came to the Punjab region to preach. Hyde was to become God’s main instrument of revival in the Punjab region. He became known as “Praying Hyde”, “the Apostle of Prayer” and “the man that never sleeps”. The revival started in a girls school in 1904 and by 1905, more than 300 people attended the convention for 10 days. Inspired by John Hyde’s prayer life, a group of missionaries formed the Punjab Prayer Union. Now, 110 years later, it is still in operation and still challenging people to follow God. PEB’s very own Veda Gill, had the great honor of being asked to speak at this year’s convention.
Faith in Action – Before the pandemic hit in March, over 700 people gathered at the Statehouse in Springfield to advocate for clean energy jobs. Now, it’s almost November and our policymakers in Illinois have yet to take action on climate change. We have one more opportunity when policymakers meet during Veto Session starting November 17th. Register for the first ever Virtual Advocacy Day on November 12 to tell our legislators we need them to take action on climate change by creating equitable clean energy jobs. Register today to hold your State Representative and State Senator accountable.
Presbyterian Border Ministry – For those of you who liked Frontera de Cristo’s “Coffee, Conversation and Compassion” – Registration for the 2020 Presbyterian Border Region Outreach (PBRO) event, “Gospel Hospitality & the Kingdom of God,” is now open!
This online event will be hosted by the ministry site Pasos de Fe y Esperanza in Ciudad Juárez, and presented through Zoom. The conference begins on Friday, November 6 and will conclude with morning worship on Sunday, November 8.
Registration is $20 per person or $40 for a household of 2 or more. Each individual or household will receive a Zoom link in order to participate.
The registration fee includes: pre-conference workshops, 5 sessions, 3 worship services, Saturday lunchtime workshops, a special concert on Saturday evening, and interpretation services during regular conference sessions. Please note: registered participants will choose from workshops in mid-October. Additionally, though we are not able to welcome you in person to the U.S./Mexico border, we still hope to give you a flavor of life there! Our ministry partners have contributed items for our Taste of the Border boxes. Items included support local individuals in Mexico. Taste of the Border boxes are $25 each and there are only 200 available! If you hope to purchase one, don’t delay in registering. Register at https://presbyterianborder.org/events where you will click the “register now” button at the bottom of the page.
Let us keep all our mission partners in our prayers, those who are waiting to go back to their place of ministry and those who are able to work where they are. Listen for God’s call to you in their ministry.
Our PC(USA) Mission CoWorkers:
Mark Adams and Miriam Maldonado Escobar (Mexico)
Farsijanna Adeney-Risakotta (Indonesia)
Jeff and Christi Boyd (Central Africa)
Jo Ella Holman (Caribbean and Cuba) – And, for the mission coworker you are preparing to take her place upon her retirement this month.
Bob and Kristi Rice (South Sudan)
Our regional and global mission partners:
Kemmerer Village (and Camp Carew)
Lifeline Pilots
Marion Medical Mission
Mission Aviation Fellowship
Opportunity International
Friends of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan Presbyterian Cuba Partnership
Special Offerings of the PC(USA)
Theological Education Fund
Young Adult Volunteers
Here in Champaign – Urbana:
CU at Home
CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE
CANTEEN RUN
COURAGE CONNECTION
DREAAM
eMPTY TOMB, INC
FAITH IN ACTION
JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY
THE REFUGEE CENTER
RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY
SALT & LIGHT
Here at First Presbyterian Church
FPCC Amateur Preachers
FPCC Environmental Committee working with Faith in Place
FPCC Presbyterian Women
FPCC ESL
FPCC Children, Youth and Families
FPCC Mission Possible/Go and Serve
302 W. Church Street
Champaign, IL 61820
217-356-7238
info@firstpres.church
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