Thank you to all who have contributed clothing for refugees in Columbus.
The bins are filling up. Please look in your closet this week or next to see if you’d like to donate items you never wear anymore. April 28 is the last day to donate!
Mission Updates
The Drop-In Center needs volunteers for 2 hours shifts.
The shifts are from 10 – 12:30 pm and 12:30 – 2:30 pm. The center must close if there are not enough volunteers. The center provides a meal, a place to receive mail and charge a phone, but most of all a place to rest when you are homeless. This might be a way to serve your neighbor.
Would you like to know more? Contact Ellen at eclark@granpres.org. This might be a way to serve your neighbor.
FPC collected $3142.00 for this year’s OGHS Offering!
Your generosity will touch lives through the Presbyterian Disaster Relief, Hunger Program and Self-Development of People.
100% of your donation will be sent to Presbyterian Mission Agency. Thank you!
Graduation 2024!
Starting Strong, an organization supporting teens who age out of Foster Care, has 13 graduates this year!
These young adults, once they graduate, will no longer be supported by Foster Care. They are basically on their own. The fact that they graduate from high school is a positive step for their future. Let’s help them celebrate their accomplishments. Most of these graduates will not have a celebration like we are accustomed to. Our church is collecting gift cards for each graduate, to help them get started on their own. Come to Heritage Hall, find the “Giving Tree”, and see what this is all about. Cards are requested by April 21. Thank you to Wonderful Wednesday for getting the tree ready for us all.
CRIS (Columbus Refugee and Immigration Services)
in conjunction with Denison University is collecting gently used clothing and accessories for the month of April.
FPC is participating with collection bins in Heritage Hall . We hope you’ll take this opportunity to donate items you no longer need. Please bring all donations by April 28. Thank You!!
Spring warmth is fast approaching!
The Coat Drive continues through Sunday, April 7th. We are receiving all sizes, for all ages. Thank You! Thank You! To all who have given!
Did you know? 1500 Trees has new projects about to launch!
Grad Grove – Granville High School students have committed to creating a common space at GHS to commemorate graduates with trees planted in their honor. Our own Ava Rose Pastis and Izzi Fuller are working with Jim Redding, a GHS AP Environment teacher, and partnering with 1500 Trees.
Chakoian Legacy Trees – Working in partnership with Watkins High School students, 1500 Trees is collaborating with the Southwest Licking County School District to complete a landscape design for the new high school. 1500 Trees will be planting trees in honor of Karen Chakoian and her 24 years of ministry at First Presbyterian.
Bradford Pear “Bounty” Program – Partnering with Pollinator Pathway, 1500 Trees will help replace invasive Bradford Pear trees located in public spaces in Licking County.
Candlelight Walking Tour - 1500 Trees and the Granville Chamber of Commerce will continue to provide live trees instead of cut ones during the 2024 Candlelight Walking Tour.
On April 21, Earth Day, we will hear more from 1500 Trees and this incredible ministry. You won’t want to miss it!
Come and learn about different values, hidden rules, and languages among different socio-economic groups. It’s fascinating!
Join Us!
Participants experience “aha” moments every time we offer Bridges Out of Poverty. Seeing all people with different lenses and opened hearts happens in beautiful ways. Come to one of the next sessions and experience your own “aha”! Every Sunday in April from 11:15 – 12:15. In the church basement. Email Ellen with any questions.
Have you ever been curious about our church’s Mission Committee and what they do?
Have you ever felt a nudge to join? If yes, we’d love for you to “come aboard”. It is not a closed group, and no invitation is needed.
The Mission Committee meets monthly to guide our congregation in the ways of Matthew 25. Please contact Ellen if you would like to know more. You can also speak with Mel Fraley, Alan Mabry, Jody Sturgeon, Chris and Sue Cherney, Mike Schmidt, or Brian Fuller.
Team 78 visited the Warming Center – Drop-In Center at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Newark this past Sunday.
Thank you, No’el Fortner for helping get us there! We toured the site and learned some of the conditions people experiencing homelessness face daily. The pastor, Deb Dingus shared that the centers provide a place to charge phones, grab a meal, rest from the elements and have a mailing address.
Team 78 made 50 bag lunches for the center and were then able to see where the lunches were used.
In Her Words…
I attended the Wonderful Wednesday at which the speaker was the husband of Tracee Laing (Tracee was ill), founder of Healing Arts Missions. He explained that conditions in Haiti are truly awful due to gangs controlling much of the country. Healing Arts Missions was forced to close its medical clinic and, most recently, suspend all medical services. (They do still support a school and water program.) The doctor who ran the clinic has friends who were kidnapped. Basic services and food are scarce. Hearing all of this, my heart went out to the people of Haiti.
A couple of weeks later, I was reading the newspaper (Luddite that I am) and saw an article on displaced residents of an apartment complex in Columbus. The complex had been closed due to unsafe and unhealthy living conditions. The article said that many of the displaced residents were Haitian immigrants and that many of them had come to this country through a trafficker who lied to them and swindled them. Had I read the article earlier, I would have thought “How could they be so stupid?” But after the Wonderful Wednesday presentation, I realized that these folks may have been in a situation where they were desperate to get out of Haiti- that anything might seem better.
We at the church were invited to show up for the people of Haiti by coming to the presentation and learning about their conditions. At the time, I thought, “That isn’t doing much”, but I was wrong. It made me “think” differently. It changed my understanding and opened my heart to their plight.
Winter Coat Donation in Spring!
Spring is in the air! Tired of winter coats? Kids outgrowing theirs? It's a Coat Drive! There is a box in Heritage Hall to receive all sizes! Coats will be sorted and distributed among local needs. Thanks for your generosity!
Mission Going Forward
new logo designed by Courtney Swisher
Our Mission Team, consisting of Carol Apacki, Sue and Chris Cherney, Mel Fraley, Brian Fuller, Alan Mabry, Mike Schmidt and Jody Sturgeon, spent all of 2023 planning, advising, researching agencies in our area to become our “Pilot Program” and more. All the while, continuing to support several local agencies with mission dollars AND many hands-on opportunities for our FPC members. Courtney Swisher also spent hours keeping us on Social Media, creating videos, fliers and our Bridges logo! We are now partnering with Starting Strong as our pilot program going forward. If you were not able to attend the Annual Meeting, you can ask Ellen for a recording to hear from the Director of Fostering Further/Starting Strong, Yvonne Williams. We are moving in a faithful direction to “build bridges in our community, drawing closer to God, to our neighbors and to ourselves.” A heartfelt thank you to your Mission Team and to all of FPC for living out Matthew 25 then, now and going forward!
75 years of 1 GREAT Hour
On Palm Sunday, March 24, we will have a special offering in worship. The “One Great Hour of Sharing” collection goes to Presbyterian Hunger Program - (36%), Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (32%) and Self-Development of People (32%). The children are also collecting coins for their traditional Fish Banks. You’ll find more information in the next few worship bulletins. On Palm Sunday, “If we all do a little, it adds up to a lot!”
Thank you, Team 78
Thank you to our seventh and eighth graders for making 50 sandwiches and assembling 50 sack lunches for the Drop-In Center in Newark. The center was so grateful when the lunches were arrived on Tuesday.
And, a special thank you to Mark Atchison for overseeing it all this past Sunday!
Each Wonderful Wednesday in March, we will be collecting individually wrapped food items for the Newark Drop-In Center. The center is only open 3 days a week. The center serves people who are experiencing homelessness who need a mailing address, a place to charge their phone, help with getting needed documents for job hunting, a sack lunch and for some….just a place to rest out of the elements.
Our church has committed to preparing 50 sack lunches each month for the center. We are collecting the following individually wrapped items in March:
Gatorade
Chips
Cookies
Granola bars
Trail mix
A huge THANK YOU to Mark Bruce and the Kroger organization for providing gift cards so we can purchase meat, cheese and bread for sandwiches. Together we can serve our neighbors as Jesus asks of us in Matthew 25. Let’s do this together!
After touring the Food Pantry Network in Newark last week, there are great changes happening!
The organization has rethought how they distribute food, creating FPN Markets.
Food pantries in Licking County are converting their model of distribution to be more intentional about respecting people’s dignity.
Clients will have a “regular” grocery store experience, instead of being handed a box of food at each visit.
Clients can “shop” for themselves, taking what they need and leaving what they don’t.
They can shop at any location, not just the one assigned to them, at the times they are assigned.
March is the pantry’s largest community-wide drive to fight hunger in Licking County – Operation Feed.
With an increase of 29.5% more households requesting food assistance this year, our support for the FPN of LC is important!
For more information on how to support our neighbors, visit www.foodpantrynetwork.net.