Last year’s Alternative Gift Market was a HUGE success! The market raised over $18,000.00 to be dispersed to the missions that were highlighted that year.
The missions represented for 2023 are all listed below. Please enjoy reading about the ministries online from: Church World Services, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Faith in Practice, FINCA, Living Waters for the World, Heifer International, Let Hope Begin Here, Haiti Education Foundation, and Solar Under the Sun.
When is the market? Saturday, November 11 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm in Ryan Hall. The market will be open again on Sunday the 12th from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm.
The goal of Church World Services (CWS) is to build a world where there is enough for all. After working toward this goal for seven decades, CWS has the faith and experience to know the goal can be reached. CWS has seen gardens flourish in barren land, migrants and refugees find a home even after every other door has been closed, and houses standing strong against nature’s worst disasters. That’s the power of CWS’s compassion linked to human resilience. CWS needs your compassionate support to keep moving towards it’s goal. To read more about Church World Services, here is a link to their website at www.cwsglobal.org.
Your donation to Church World Services through our church online giving platform will support areas of great need. Click here to make your donation.
FINCA’s mission is to alleviate poverty through lasting solutions that help people build assets, create jobs, and raise their standard of living. Its programs benefit millions of people across five contenents by offering small loans or access to savings accounts to low income people. FINCA is using innovative technology and new approaches to reach more financially excluded people, especially women. FINCA’s loan recipients are among the most responsible and trustworthy borrowers in the world. Without access to credit, poor people have no way of investing in their own hard work and good business ideas. When helping people in remote areas, FINCA’s mobile phones allow loan recipients to bank their proceeds from sales, instead of being required to bury their money or carry it on their bodies. To read more about FINCA, here is a link to their website at www.finca.org.
Your donation to FINCA International through our church online giving platform will support areas of great need. Click here to make your donation.
Faith in Practice is a non-profit, ecumenical medical ministry that is guided by Christian principles in its service to the poor in Guatemala. Its volunteers share their faith through their gifts, talents and deeds, which are performed in a manner reflecting respect for all people as those created in the image of God. They appreciate the cultural differences and nurture and encourage community volunteer support. Over 1500 U.S. volunteers each year donate their time and cover their travel expenses to bring hope and healing to more than 30,000 Guatemalans.
Faith in Practice has a core group of 100 Guatemalan volunteers who provide continuity of care to those who live in the most remote areas. These Guatemalan leaders become like family to the patients in their journey to be healed. They identify patients in the greatest need and manage the logistics of securing clinic space and local volunteers. Over 1000 additional volunteers are trained and used to help set up local clinics. Last year, Faith in Practice received its 17th consecutive 4 star rating from Charity Navigator. To read more about Faith in Practice, here is a link to their website at www.faithinpractice.org.
Your donation to Faith in Practice through our church online giving platform will support areas of great need. Click here to make your donation.
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and does not have free public education. Frances Landers and Pere Albert had a vision to bring schools to the rural and mountanous areas of southern Haiti. Forty-one years later that vision has grown to include 33 schools! HEF partners with Living Waters for the World, Solar Under the Sun, Trinity/Hope and Haiti Healthcare Partners to bring more than education. These partners provide clean water and solar power to the schools as well as a free meal and healthcare to students and their families. The majority of Haiti’s children continue to search for hope as they grow up against a backdrop of poverty, unemployment, civil unrest, disease, disasters, hunger and illiteracy. Almost half of the Haitian population over the age of 15 is illiterate. Haiti’s future depends on the education of the upcoming generations. 100% of your donation goes directly to Haiti with nothing deducted for administration. This ministry has a matching donation opportunity that ends November 30. To read more about HEF, here is a link to its website www.haitifoundation.org.
Your donation to Haiti Education Fund through our church online giving platform will support areas of great need. Click here to make your donation.
Heifer helps address the issue of hunger with programs that begin with agriculture and build sustainable businesses. These programs not only cultivate a secure source of income for individual families, but also help build a future with farmers and private sector partners who share Heifer’s values. Heifer International has been an ongoing ministry fighting hunger and poverty for over 75 years. It works with communities in 21 countries around the world to strengthen local economies and build secure livelihoods that guarantee a living income to local farmers. In Ecuador, in indegenous communities high in the Andes, the efforts of Heifer International are helping shape a future full of hope and security for the Quechua people. Ancestral fiber arts are being revived, using the wool spun from alpacas, which are uniqely suited to the Andean highlands. The Alpaca also can be used for breeding stock, their meat can be eaten, and they provide fertilizer for crops. Futhermore, they are good for the environment of the paramo, a sponge like terrain which is the source of water, because their padded feet do not disturb the ground beneath them and they have a gentle way of nibbling the tops of grasses, rather than yanking their food out by the roots. Heifer’s philosophy of a hand up rather than a hand out is changing hunger and poverty into hope. To read more about Heifer’s programs, here is a direct link to its website www.heifer.org.
Your donation to Heifer International through our church online giving platform will support areas of great need. Click here to make your donation.
Living Waters for the World is a ministry of the Synod of Living Waters, PC(USA). Its mission is to train volunteers to establish and lead water mission teams that partner with communities to implement and operate sustainable water purification systems and provide health education programs. LWW supports every phase of a water project as its volunteers work with and empower communities to treat available but contaminated water.
Since 1993, LWW has helped provide clean water to over 1,000 communities across 26 countries. Today the ministry focuses within 11 network regions. Network services are designed to facilitate the development of relationships between mission teams and international partners, develop the capacity of citizens to address water issues in their country, and further LWW’s ministry by enabling more efficient and effective operations in diverse social, political and ethnic settings. To read more about LWW here is a direct link to its website www.livingwatersfortheworld.org.
Your donation to Living Waters of the World through our church online giving platform will support areas of great need. Click here to make your donation.
PDA is the emergency and refugee program of the PC(USA). Most of its budget, including administrative and staff expenses, is funded through the One Great Hour of Sharing special offering at Easter time. However, designated gifts are used to provided or expand the response to a specific disaster area. PDA responds to natural and human-caused disasters such as floods, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, and wars. It seeks to bring hope out of chaos in all parts of the world. Emergency relief helps improve health conditions, makes clean drinking water more accessable and provides food and non-food necessities. PDA is also involved in long-term recovery programs that address the physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs of individuals, families and communities long after the initial crisis is over. To read more about where PDA is currently responding to crisis situations, here is a direct link to its website www.pda.pcusa.org.
Your donation to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance through our church online giving platform will support areas of great need. Click here to make your donation.
Solar Under the Sun is a ministry of the Synod of the Sun PC(USA), the Synod that includes our Mission Presbytery. Its ministry is to help alleviate energy poverty. Its solar schools equip team leaders with the necessary skills to form meaningful partnerships with communities in the developing world, assess their need for solar power, and design and install a solar power system. Since its beginning, graduates from the Solar Under the Sun school have installed solar energy systems that are powering Living Waters for the World water purification systems, wells, schools, churches, orphanages, health clinics, and homes in places that lack reliable electricity. There are 1.2 billion people with no access to electricity. Solar Under the Sun’s ministry started in Haiti and has spread to Kenya, Uganda, Ukraine, Guatamala, Porto Rico and Honduras. To read more about SUS, here is a direct link to its website www.solarunderthesun.org.
Your donation to Solar Under the Sun through our church online giving platform will support areas of great need. Click here to make your donation.
Guayabales, Guatemala
Let Hope Begin Here
Let Hope Begin Here is a non-profit organization headed by Dr. Scott Robertson, a longtime friend of Jane Ragsdale. The non-profit grew out of the efforts by members of our church and others to help the small rural village of Guayabales, Guatemala. Numberous projects have been completed over the years by these volunteers working side by side wtih the villagers. Jane Ragsale will travel to Guayabales on January 20, 2024 for a week long mission trip with Let hope Begin Here.
This year the organizations goals include repairing and maintaining the gutters on the water catchment system, and repairing the footbridge over the Rio Esclavos, (a shortcut to the nearest city). The villagers eageraly labor along side the volunteers and learn new skills that will benefit their small village. The team will also teach low cost nutrition and distribute garden seeds, restock the EMT kits, deliver fabric and notions for the sewing classes, award 5 full time scholarships to area secondary students and continue the full time scholarship for a nursing student. The volunteers will continue to offer personal medical consultations and supplement school supplies. Your conributions to Let Hope Begin Here will help meet these goals and helf fund future missions trips.
Your donation to Guayabales-Let Hope Begin Here through our church online giving platform will support areas of great need. Click here to make your donation.
