Outreach Update

Spring, 2009

Up Front

Off to a great start, the 2009 Outreach Pillar meets monthly to determine overall direction, consider member initiatives, and share responsibilities for building Outreach leadership this year. Meeting dates are posted on the Outreach web calendar. In addition, the team enjoyed a get-to-know-you lunch last month and has plans to discuss a chapter from The Missional Church (Darrell Guder) after lunch at Pastor Learned's house in May. This year's Pillar members are: Lewrene Glaser (chair), Peter Backlund, Al Bissell, Gabe Chikes, Charlie Glendinning, Amy Greber, Doug Learned, and Sally Metcalfe-Wittig.

Eager to know what is happening in NPC missions? Have a look at our newly organized Outreach section on the Serve Ministries webpage. You'll see how Serve Ministries is organized, check out each of our supported missionaries and ministries, and watch for upcoming events on the Outreach calendar. This calendar is also the perfect place to publicize the events of NPC ministry partners with which you may be connected. In addition, the new Outreach section features, for each of our partners, a logo, photos, NPC contacts, and links to the organizations' websites. Don't forget to look through the Missions binder on the Information Desk in the church foyer. It shows how our mission budget is divided, with the amount allocated to each ministry, and contains the ministry's most recent newsletter.

Comings and Goings

Member missionary Keith Patman returned from Central African Republic, after teaching in a three week translators' workshop. Keith said it was interesting to be working with translators having a wide range of experience, from people who are learning and practicing translation principles for the first time -- some even seeing computers for the first time -- to those who are quite advanced.

NPC Youth Ministries announces a variety of mission experiences in camps and trips for this summer. Scroll to the bottom of the Youth Ministries webpage to learn more about these exciting options.

NPC member missionary, Mary Lou Lyon, will be traveling to Romania to minister to the 50 national staff women of Campus Crusade for Christ at a 4-day conference, May 7-10. Along with individual counseling time, her topics will include: relationship with God, relationships with others, maintaining boundaries in ministry, understanding depression, and ministering as a single. Pray for Mary Lou as she travels on May 3.

Phyllis Wolfe and David Wallace, who are part of the member-initiated Moldova Marriage Ministry leadership team, will be traveling to Moldova April 27-May 3 to meet with ministry leaders who form the Advisory Board, including New Hope's Hank Paulson and Oleg Reutki, and Valeriu Ghiletchi, president of the Baptist Union, who has just been elected to the Parliament. Howard and Miley Frost will join the Board meeting via conference call.

The progress of Moldova Marriage Ministry is exciting. Petru and Viorica Bragaru, who lead this ministry, are conducting The Marriage Course in two cities this spring. In Orhei, a town near Chisinau, 14 couples are in the course. In Belts, a large city in the north of the country, 30 couples are attending the course. NPC began its Moldova ministry in Belts many years ago in the 1990's. 74 couples have now participated in the course since NPC's Moldova Marriage Ministry team of couples visited in June 2007.

You Should Know

NPC welcomed visiting Thai pastor Chaiporn Panya in worship services on March 8. Chaiporn participated in English language tutoring from NPC short-term missionaries in the past and is now in the area for immersion in English language and culture. This will permit him to pursue the advanced theology degree necessary for him to retain his teaching post at McGilvary College of Divinity. Chaiporn is staying with Claude and Betty Bennett. Inviting Chaiporn to share a meal or an outing would be a great way to learn first-hand how Christ is at work in cultures you may never be able to visit.

On Member Missionary Sunday, February 1, six NPC member missionaries were able to greet people and share about their ministries in informal conversations in Stone Hall after worship services. Of special note was the presence of Wycliffe missionary Steve Quakenbush, long-time NPC member who has worked with his wife Janice in Bible translation in the Philippines since 1984. Steve will now be serving as International Academic Coordinator at the Wycliffe-affiliated International Linguistics Center in Dallas, Texas.

Always a time that invites reaching out to others in need, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays gave NPC members an opportunity to serve others. Nearly $400 and a generous offering of canned goods were given on Thanksgiving Day. These were distributed to local ministries that feed the hungry (Third Street Church of God, Martha's Table, and S.O.M.E.). Leading up to Christmas, many NPC members contributed scarves, gloves, and hats, then worked together to assemble nearly 200 care kits for the homeless. These were distributed by Third Street Church of God at the annual Christmas luncheon. Pastor Learned, the Serve Ministries staff, and NPC members joined Third Street volunteers to help with preparations for this meal.

Did you know that NPC has provided over 600 books to libraries at two seminaries which our church has supported over the past decade? These donations were made to the College of Theology and Education (CTE) in Chisinau, Moldova and the Evangelical Theological Seminary (ETS) in Osijek, Croatia. It was a coordinated effort involving NPC's library and two bequests of books, New Europe Vision (ETS' US ministry affiliate based at Gordon-Conwell Seminary), Crossover USA in Columbia, SC, (which received books for subsequent transmission to Moldova), and NPC members who packed and shipped the books.

In South Africa, a ministry that embodies racial reconciliation and unity has a powerful platform for witness and work. Unsung Heroes is such a ministry. NPC members joined others in welcoming director Lance Carr (Executive Director) and co-worker Madoda Nzima (Field Director) to the DC area during a recent visit. Madoda and Lance share a deep brotherhood and reflect the profound promise that a reconciled South Africa can offer to the world. The gathering on March 7 gave NPC members who had participated in past short-term trips to South Africa a chance to visit with Lance and Madoda and hear an update from this ministry partner.

On the Horizon

NPC has a long-standing partnership with African Enterprise. Their director from Kenya, Stephen Mgobo, is currently pursuing theological studies in California and will visit NPC on June 14. He will be introduced in the morning worship services and talk with people at a potluck lunch afterwards. Hearing directly from someone who is in frontline ministry in a troubled area is a catalyst to your own faith development.

An excellent example of what a few members can do when they care about a particular ministry, an overview of the Thailand Initiative will be presented at the Wrestler's class on Sunday, May 17, in the 9:30 period. Claude and Betty Bennett, who have carried this vision forward over the years, will give an audiovisual presentation called: Christians of Thailand and The National Presbyterian Church: A Partnership Overview, 1998-2009.

Serving Together

Opportunities to help

Urban ministry is alive and moving at NPC! For those who have a heart to serve in local ministries, here are three opportunities to get involved as this ministry team gets going:

1. Join a prayer group that will meet to pray specifically for urban partners and opportunities for urban and local missions.
2. Join a group that is now being formed to develop a vision for and provide support to an ongoing urban and local mission emphasis at NPC.
3. Participate in a Christmas in April home renovation program partnering with Vienna, Idlewood and Covenant Presbyterian churches on Saturday, April 25th. Open to 15 NPC members or friends.

For information on any of these opportunities contact: Gabe Chikes at gchikes@pdsdc.org or 301-540-8950 or Sally Metcalfe-Wittig at smetcalfe-wittig@nationalpres.org.

Earning points on our dollars spent is something to which we are accustomed. How about benefitting an NPC ministry partner through normal purchases? Unique Learning Center announces that this organization is now registered as a cause at onecause.com and ULC can begin receiving contributions as a percentage of purchases made from hundreds of well-known merchants.

Did you ever ask why we face hardships and challenges as we try to serve God and others? Maybe one reason is that it gives us an opportunity to experience community as others draw near to help. NPC partner Capital Interfaith Hospitality Network had to deal with a lengthy and costly eradication of bedbugs at the St. Paul shelter for homeless families. As a result, all the contents must be replaced with NEW items. If you would like to donate a Target card or make a contribution, please contact Shayna Hadley at 202-363-5198 or the NPC Outreach office at 202-537-7483 for more information.