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Westminster members grew in faith and friendship as they helped others in the summer of 2009
 Westminster members worked in Detroit July 26–31 with Blight Busters, Fort Street Presbyterian Church Open Door program, Heidelberg Project, Evangelical Theological Seminary Everyone Eats program, and Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church Fine Arts Camp. See their photos . . .
 Westminster Omegas (high school) were in Chicago July 12–17 working with D.O.O.R. See their photos . . .
 And our Westminster Alphas (middle school) spent a week at Littlefield Presbyterian Church's Peace Camp. See their photos . . .
 Westminster members recently spent a day working on a Habitat house in Ypsilanti. (larger view)
Challenging cultural adjustments enhance YWAM missionary training
Rachel Smallish has begun formal training for mission work, beginning with five months at a Youth With A Mission discipleship training program in Ghana. You can read posts from Rachel on her online blog. Thanks also for being a prayer partner for Rachel; she greatly appreciates it! |
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What is Riverside Community Gathering?
It’s been mentioned in sermons, referenced in the Weekly, discussed at Session and in mission committee meetings, but what is it really and how might you get involved?
What is it? Riverside Community Gathering (RCG) is a joint Mission and Outreach project conceived nearly two years ago through a working team of representatives from Fort Street Open Door, First Presbyterian Church Ypsilanti, Hope Clinic and Westminster. Modeled after ministries like it in other neighborhoods in the Detroit Presbytery, the primary goal is to build community by bringing together otherwise isolated and fragile individuals and families. The target geographic area is within walking distance of the Ypsilanti First Presbyterian Church, and the target demographic is single parent families and seniors. RCG officially opened in May 2008, takes place weekly on Wednesday evenings from 5 to 6 pm, and will be in existence for a minimum of one year. Fort Street Open Door brings and prepares the food, First Presbyterian Ypsilanti provides the facility,
Hope Clinic refers families and seniors, and Westminster funds the project and provides a weekly volunteer base.
What happens there? Week after week, between twenty-five and thirty people from the community gather to share prayers, a meal and conversation. Volunteers from the hosting organizations and guests serve one another and eat together. Relationships and connections are intentionally nurtured. The children have created an art gallery and weekly add their creations.
How can you get involved? Volunteers are always welcome to host dinners and support the activities. Andplease pray . . . pray for the people from the community
that they would open their hearts to one another . . . pray for their strength and for their health and life . . . pray for the host partners . . . for compassion and wisdom . . . pray that all who come to the table together would see Christ in the eyes of one another, and in so doing, come away changed. To find out more, please contact Al Flynn of the Mission Committee. |
My air mattress and earplugs are my best friends . . .
and other essential learnings from a summer of mission trips
At one point this summer, I think I figured I had been away five of seven weeks, so it’s no wonder I’m feeling a bit dazed and confused and incredulous that it really is time to shop for back to school items, football season really is upon us and a new season of Wednesday Night Live is around the corner. With mission trips coming one right after another, I was left with little time to process each one, so I’m grateful for an opportunity to pause and remember some of the things I learned this summer:
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“This is not Disneyland” Whatever mission trips are, they are most definitely not Disneyland, we learned from our host of the D.O.O.R. (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) Chicago Omega mission trip. He told us this on the first night of orientation, we reminded each other throughout the week, and it came in handy throughout the summer too: mission trips are not for our entertainment, they do not come with 5-star accommodations, usually we do not get to choose which attractions we want to ride, and the coordinator of the trip is not a cruise director. In our hosts words, “God designs the experience,” and it depends upon our faithfulness to enter into it with open hearts, open minds, checked agendas and open-ended outcomes. Jesus didn’t lay out specific itineraries he simply said, “follow me” and he promised that “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields . . .” (Mark 10:29–30)
 And I can testify that I met a number of new brothers and sisters in Christ, worked in a number of fields–gardens really, and stayed in a number of houses–which weren’t mine, but whose owners or stewards extended gracious hospitality and welcomed me with abundant food, warm showers, and hearty fellowship.
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“Peace, peace starts with me” Easy to say, much more difficult to live, this phrase began one of the cheers we learned at the Littlefield Presbyterian 10th Annual Peace Camp Alpha mission trip and is the core of any sincere peacemaking effort. Each day our Ann Arbor group of Christian middle-school youths joined with the predominantly Muslim youth of East Dearborn and together shared peacemaking strategies and practiced being neighbors with one another. Daily we said the following pledge together:
“I am a Peace Builder. I pledge . . . 
To praise people,
To give up putdowns,
To seek wise people,
To notice and speak up about hurts I have caused,
To right wrongs.
I will build peace at home, at school, and in my community each day.”
Throughout the week, I was reminded of Paul’s encouraging words, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” (Romans 12:18) Hmmm . . . talk the talk and walk the walk . . . be a peace builder at home . . . at church . . . in my community . . . in my world . . . AND on mission trips–living closely with people 24-7 is a perfect place to practice the hard work of peace building–Amen?
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If you set the table, they will come. For me, it was a first to invite the neighborhood to a wide open picnic in the middle of their neighborhood . . . to host a block party on someone else’s block. But during the Detroit mission trip, we did just that–twice in fact. On Monday night we hosted a fresh local foods picnic for the Heidelberg Project and on Thursday night we hosted a fresh local foods picnic for the friends and neighbors of the Artist Village of Blight Busters.  Approximately 45 people attended each meal and miraculously, there was just enough food for all. It felt kind of like being in the center of one of the gospel stories–maybe a cross between Jesus’ parable of the Great Banquet and the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus said, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed . . .” (Luke 14:12–13)
The funny thing is that in both of these dinners, I felt blessed to be in the company of people that had such strong kingdom vision and were abundantly rich in the strength of community . . .. I felt a little like the blind one and the poor one . . .
So, my summer was filled with mission trips . . . but thanks be to God our lives are filled with opportunities to serve in the mission field of our own homes, our own church, our own workplaces and neighborhoods every day. Serve boldly, pursue peace tirelessly and love extravagantly and live in the knowledge of God’s grace.
Blessings—
Cathi
King
Individual mission—A portion of the mission budget has been set aside to provide scholarships to individuals associated with the church who are donating extended time to short term mission related activities. (Short term is generally defined as 2 weeks–3 months). These scholarships are intended to help defray costs associated with the mission activity or to help offset lost income. Past trip participants have returned renewed in their faith and enthusiastic about further opportunities for service. Please prayerfully consider joining a future mission team to serve others in the name of our Lord. For more information, please contact Pastor Stephen Carl. |
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