| |
The Heart of Mission
December 8, 2020
The 2020 Angel Tree
I mentioned last week that the Community Mission Deacons hosts an Angel Tree every year for our community mission agencies. This is a picture of 2019 Angel Tree. Some of you have already contributed to the 2020 Angel Tree $25 gift card tree. This year we do not have an actual tree for you to take an angel tag off of and replace with a gift but we are $25 gift cards from Salt & Light, Target or Walmart to give to our mission agencies. You can identify which you would like your gift card to go to. Some of you have already done this. You can continue to bring the gift cards to the church office Tuesday through Thursday mornings before December 15 so we can deliver them to the agencies before Christmas.
There is more….
Community Mission Deacons is adding a gift, a large gift, to the Angel Tree that will be given to Eastern Illinois Food Bank, designated to the Champaign-Urbana area to help alleviate food shortage in our community due to Covid-19. Many of our agencies use the Food Bank in their food distribution ministries. You are invited to add to the starting gift of $4000 by going online or mailing your check to the church. We already have someone who has pledged $1000 to that amount. Don’t wait. We want to send our gift to them before Christmas.
Our agencies that we are giving gift cards to are
CU at HOME
CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE
COURAGE CONNECTION
DREAAM
eMPTY TOMB, INC
FAITH IN ACTION
JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY
THE REFUGEE CENTER
RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY
SALT & LIGHT (for their staff)
Also for CANTEEN RUN we will be collecting gift cards or in kind items: large to 3x-l winter shirts, GLOVES, socks, LARGE-2 X-L MEN’S UNDERWEAR, coats, hats.
Peace,
Rachel Matthews, Mission Coordinator
Mission Announcements:
Mission Team: Meets Dec.8, 4:30pm zoom
THE 2020 ADVENT OFFERING will be taken for the whole month of December.
Christmas is the season of Advent. What love, joy and redemption we have in the birth of our Savior! And so, it is with thankfulness that each year at this time we have our annual Advent Offering. This year-2020- the year that is like none other we have experienced, your World Missions Committee is asking that our Advent giving go to 2 organizations that will help many people. The first organization is our own Presbyterian Disaster Assistance that is comprised of 2 components: National Relief and International Relief.
Several months ago, as fires were raging across the west and Pacific coast areas, your World Missions Committee was able to send $1500 to PDA and earmark if for U.S. fire relief aid.
If you Google “ Presbyterian Disaster Assistance”, you will see how aid is distributed to United States and to international countries that are in crisis situations. Each entity has vital needs that are being addressed by PDA. We are very thankful that our denomination is able to help alleviate pain and suffering in so many places and in so many lives through your generous donations. 2/3 of your Advent giving this year will go to PDA.
The 2nd component of our giving will go to our own sister church, Luyano in Cuba. This is a year of isolation between our 2 churches due, among other things, to COVID19. None of us is allowed to travel between our countries this year. We are not able to carry supplies to them nor can we send money directly to them. The Luyano church is in dire need of help. We are able to aid them through PCUSA and our own church’s Cuba Committee is requesting this help. It is in gratitude to our relationship with our sister church that 1/3 of our Advent offering will be earmarked for our Luyano brothers and sisters.
We know this has been a tough year for each of us. However, we also acknowledge that God has continued to be our source of strength in these times. May we also be a source of strength to those who need to rely on us.
In Hope, Peace, Joy and Love,
The First Presbyterian Church World Mission Committee
ESL Café Time
What? We miss seeing you and catching up like we did in person! This will be a monthly café time on Zoom for us to see our friends and tutors from other classes. We will be split into small groups so that we can discuss and catch up. This is a great opportunity to practice speaking in English. Bring your favorite hot drink and a snack to café time.
When? Second Thursday of every month at 10 am. The first one is December 10th at 10am. The next café times are:
- January 14th at 10am
- February 11th at 10am
- March 11th at 10am
- April 8th at 10am
- May 13th at 10am
Zoom Information:
Please email jeanette@firstpres.church for the Zoom meeting information.
Faith in Place: Just a reminder to our Green Team and all those interested in God’s Creation:
Join us at Light the Way, Faith in Place’s first ever virtual Annual Celebration and Fundraiser! Tuesday Dec. 8th | 7:00-8:00pm CT Join at 6:45pm CT for the Pre-Party with DJ Antonio Cesar. To register go to https://secure.everyaction.com/ZSDCSQkhsk6PVlhw_kvLZQ2
CU at Home: Update #5 for One Winter’s Night: One Winter Night 2021 is only TWO MONTHS away! We are thrilled that we already have nearly 60 committed Box Dwellers registered, five brand new Business Sponsors this year (23 total), and more than $30,000 has been raised thanks to a phenomenal response to our Giving Tuesday campaign!
As we move past the “early bird” phase of our OWN 2021 launch, we want to reach out to those of you who have participated in some way in the event in previous years with a personal invitation to join us again next February. Over the past nine years, hundreds of individuals have participated in One Winter Night. We would love to see this 10th Anniversary OWN become something of a reunion of all of you who have made this event an annual demonstration of faith, hope, and love to our friends and our community!
If you are already on board, be sure to come by our facility on any Monday to pick up your OWN 2021 yard sign. Of course, you can still join us with a simple click at our website: be a Box Dweller; be a Volunteer; or be a Business Sponsor. Keep the momentum growing!
And now, here’s Rob . . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnuwn20feVo&feature=youtu.be&blm_aid=253367297
Friends of PEB – In case you missed it last week, Friends of PEB sends thanks with a special online Advent Calendar. All you do is click the link and begin. https://calendar.myadvent.net/?id=b594e0aaf5cb14378b197c821b14b287
Frontera de Cristo
Dear sisters and brothers,
We celebrate Advent in a time of darkness, both literally as the days grow shorter, but also figuratively as we are seemingly dividing up more in more into our religious, social and political clans unable to recognize the humanity of and divine image in one another or speak to one another a word of love much less form part of the peaceable kin-dom.
We have three events coming up in the next two weeks―on December 8, 10, and 15– to help us prepare to welcome anew the Christ Child into our lives who comes to us in surprising and unexpected ways throughout the year. Your presence with us will be a blessing. The Zoom links for each of these events are shown below.
Thank you for your partnership in ministry that helps us share hope, peace, love and joy throughout the year.
Peace,
Joca and Mark
Join us on Tuesday, December 8, at 5:15pm MST (4:15 Pacific, 6:15 Central, 7:15 Eastern)
for our 1,040th vigil, as we witness to the presence of Jesucristo with our sisters and brothers who are suffering and dying in the desert. Email mark@fronteradecristo.org to attend the vigil in person,
or participate by Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83852133901
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.
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
|
|
