The National/International Missions Committee will present a Concert for Haiti

Saturday, March 20 at 7:00 p.m. 

Come enjoy lively music and dancing provided by the Irish Breakfast Band and Boyle School of Irish Dance.   100% of donations will go to the Hospital Bienfaisance De Pignon through the Community Coalition for Haiti, which continues to provide medical treatment and supplies to thousands of people injured in the earthquake.  For more information contact Janet Riksen at jriksen@wpc-alex.org.

 
Spirit Lake Mission Trip Involves You

   A group of our members traveled to the Bdecan Presbyterian Church on the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation, North Dakota July 25 – August 1 to support their members and help strengthen their worship, music, membership recruitment, and a host of other things with our presence and labor.

     The Indian Reservation is a flat, 405 square mile area in East Central North Dakota bordered by Devil’s Lake on the north and the Sheyenne River on the south. It is windswept with harsh winter weather. Almost all of their 6,000 residents are struggling and living in poverty. Westminster has had a six year relationship with the Bdecan church, which has no assigned pastor and only three elders who keep the church operating and in fact have made it one of the most successful in the Dakota Presbytery. Three of our members visited the area with their parish pastor who serves four area churches including Bdecan, determining that their church is in desperate need of help – and we can make a real difference in their lives.
   
     This is the largest intergenerational group we have had committed to going on a mission trip in a number of years.  Please pray for the Bdecan church,

Thanks be to God!
National/International Mission Committee

Middle School Youth Summer Mission Trip 2009: Harvest of Hope Gleaning Weekend (JULY 24-26)

This year, the middle school youth group traveled to Shawsville, VA (10 or so miles south of Roanoke), where they participated in a weekend long hunger-related program sponsored by the Society of St. Andrews. (For more information and a helpful video, go to www.endhunger.org.)

They joined other Middle School groups and learned about the very real hunger needs of people in our very own country, heard how God calls us to help them, and worked to alleviate that hunger by gleaning.

What is gleaning? Gleaning is the Biblical practice of hand-gathering crops left in the fields after harvest; Gathering uncollected food so that hungry mouths may be fed!

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:9-10)