Category: Missions - Edmonds Presbyterian Church

Missions News

8/26/2021

Quarterly checks were sent out to our mission partners by the session mission committee. We thank all the membership for your faithfulness in continuing your contributions to the church during this long spell of having to meet virtually due to the COVID-19 closure. It is indeed a pleasure to be meeting again at the church and to be seeing most of you on a regular basis.
We have received many Thank-You notes from our mission partners which are on display in the Friendship Hall. Among them is a letter from Tyler and Rochelle Holm giving thanks for our prayers for them and the people of Malawi. They are now living in Richland Washington and have enrolled their daughter Mphatso in the local school while waiting to return to their missionary position in Malawi. They want to continue to be in our prayers and for us to pray for all the people with COVID.
Haiti has received a double whammy in that a severe earthquake hit the island earlier this month, ruining thousands of homes and with thousands of people injured, then the island was hit by Hurricane Grace, dumping a deluge of water on the helpless residents. The US Navy and Air Force have been helping find victims and getting them to medical treatment, but there is a great need for help including food, water, and medical supplies. If you can help the people of Haiti please send a contribution to Presbyterian Disaster Relief-Haiti in care of Edmonds Presbyterian Church.
The mission committee would like to have more members, so please contact me if you have an interest in selecting our mission partners and deciding how to dispense our funds.

Margaret S, Mission Elder

Missions News

7/29/2021

Mission Projects currently supported by EPC are :

Eagle Wings: Serves people with handicaps, many of whom need caregivers. During normal years these people suffer social isolation and frustration in performing activities of daily living such as dressing, eating, or even getting from place to place. The Eagle Wings staff make routine calls to shut-ins, provide social activities with games for the young and encouragement for the caregivers.
Jean Kim Foundation for Homeless Education: Jean Kim founded this foundation to encourage homeless men and women to improve their lives by attending school or college, thus enabling themselves to earn a living wage and earn their way out of poverty. The foundation provides a small house equipped with electricity and a safe place to sleep and study for each student accepted into the program.
Opening Blind Eyes: Prison Ministry with the aim of bringing hope to the men of Monroe Prison. Pastor “Rip” Van Winkle provides counseling, bible studies, hospital visitations, and pastoral care to inmates and staff along with prayers and evangelism.
Puget Sound Foursquare: In support of Jan Griffin, our missionary to Sweden.
Puget Sound Christian Clinic: Mobile Dental and Medical Clinic provides free care to those in need. (Pledge of $100 per month)
Renewal Ministries Northwest: Reverend Dianna Kunce reports a large growth in the number of people seeking spiritual direction and an expansion of their programs during the past year thanks to their use of the Zoom format. They plan to continue using Zoom after returning to their normal in-person activities in Mill Creek.
Everett Gospel Mission: Offers food and shelter and a Christian message to homeless men and women and children.
Cancer Pathways: Offers support and transportation to those receiving cancer care.
Habitat for Humanity: Provides an opportunity for low-income families to work to earn their own home.
Menaul School: A boarding school in New Mexico offering education and opportunity for growth to students through high school, partly supported through box tops for education. Many graduates continue on to college and successful careers.
Northwest Coast Presbytery-United Mission: This is our own Presbytery.
Pregnancy Resource Center: Cares for pregnant women with medical services, tangible resources and community referrals. Encourages sanctity of human life.
Presbyterian Hunger Program: Administered through the Presbyterian Church USA.
Salvation Army: Everett Office
Vision House: Provides apartments and support to homeless women and children.
Whitworth University: Spokane based Presbyterian College.
World Concern: Changing lives all over the world by helping people help themselves, by digging wells for clean water, teaching how to raise crops and livestock, offering medical care, saving girls from sex traffickers, and child marriage, and being there for the forgotten, the hopeless and the hurting.
Matthew House: Provides respite, food, and counseling to families of those in Monroe Prison.
Presbyterian Church USA Mission Partner: Tyler Holm, wife Rochelle and daughter Mphatso.

Margaret S, Mission Elder

Missions News

7/1/2021

Last month we sent $1800 to Presbytery for distribution to the following mission recipients: Eagle Wings, Jean Kim Foundation, Opening Blind Eyes, Puget Sound Foursquare (Jan Griffith), Lahai Health, and World Mission (Tyler Holm).

We received the following letter from Rochelle and Tyler Holm:
Thank you for your prayers and advocacy and we want to share an update about our next transition. The Furlough Home in Louisville, Kentucky, where we have been staying will be closing and we need to move out in July. We are grateful that with the prayers of many of you we have found an apartment in Richland, Washington, and while near family, it will also allow private space to remain socially distant while we quarantine on arrival from Kentucky. The short term lease gives us the time to get back to Malawi. We are set to borrow most things to furnish the apartment.

In Washington state we will continue sheltering-in-place and working remotely as we have been for the past year. Please pray for us as we pack up to move in Louisville, enroll Mphatso in a new school in Richland, set up our apartment, and for COVID-19 victims around the world. Please also pray for Malawi as COVID-19 has recently increased again and the borders were again closed for travelers. Thank you for your prayers, we will let you know more after our move to Washington state.
Grace and Peace, Tyler, Rochelle and Mphatso Holm

Margaret S, Mission Elder

Mission News

2/25/2021

When Manuel Nazario casts his net into the water these days, his catch is far less plentiful.
In the remote area of Bolivia near the Paraguay-Argentina border, Manuel and the members of his indigenous community are finding that fishing, their traditional livelihood, is now in severe jeopardy.
The Capirendita (pronounced CAP-IR-EN-DITA) community is grappling with the devastating impact of climate change, irregular rainfall patterns, prolonged droughts, disease and mining pollution. As a result, their age-old ways of life and their means of economic support are increasingly threatened. The degradation of the environment and the mounting lack of access to water threatens their very survival.
Manuel has emerged as one of the leaders in his fishing community. A born innovator and community organizer, he is now leading the families in Capirendita toward the promise of a better way, in partnership with a local organization called CERDET (Center for Regional Studies of Tarija). Together they are working to develop irrigation systems and to collect and store rainwater for safe drinking.
Because of gifts received through One Great Hour of Sharing, like the gifts you and I will make to this Offering here in our congregation, CERDET is building infrastructure to address the communities’ critical water shortage. Their goal is to create 500 meters of pipes to transport safe well water to those in need. Manuel will be responsible for carrying out the excavation work on the underground piping system. Our gifts will also support the distribution of plastic containers to collect and save rainwater.
One Great Hour of Sharing helps us address critical water needs in places like South Sudan, training technicians to dig water wells for their communities and on maintenance, hygiene and sanitation. And in places like Detroit, our gifts have joined We the People of Detroit to secure access to water for those who have had their water shut off during the pandemic. Imagine not being able to wash anything during the pandemic!
One Great Hour of Sharing is the single, largest way that Presbyterians come together every year to share God’s love by becoming “repairers of the breach,” joining with people in need to build God’s house, together. Together we are making a better world for those in need no matter where they are. Please give generously, for when we all do a little — it adds up to a lot.

Mission News

2/3/2021

In 1990, Souper Bowl of Caring began with a simple prayer from a single youth group:

“Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those without a bowl of soup to eat.”

Since then, more than $150 million has been generated for local charities across the country through Souper Bowl of Caring. It has become a powerful movement that transforming the time around the Big Game, into the nation’s largest celebration of giving and serving.

Share in God’s love for our neighbors in need and give generously on Super Bowl Sunday. 100% of every dollar or food item collected will go directly to our Souper Bowl of Caring Charity of Choice: The Concern for Neighbors Food Bank in Mountlake Terrace. We will collect this offerings at the church
Tuesday, February 2nd through Thursday, February 4th 8am-12pm. Please drop your canned goods in the box outside the church doors or mail a donation with your offering.

MISSION NEWS

12/1/2020

One of the most powerful things that Christians claim is that God saw the great needs of the world and offered a perfect gift in response, a gift that brought God and humanity closer together. God’s perfect gift, Jesus Christ. “Emmanuel, God is with us!” our Advent dream proclaims, as God joins in human life, and draws us together as a result. “God is with us” shows God values togetherness and relationship with us, leading us to value togetherness and relationship with one another.
When we are all together — and even when we are apart.
During these past months, many of us weren’t able to be together in person, but we have always been together in spirit, and in faith. We have missed seeing faces we love — up close and personal, but the physical distance has also revealed, for us, the importance of those things which bring us together, even when we are physically far apart.
We offer our gifts during this Advent Season to the Christmas Joy Offering because God shows us the power and importance of being together, of “being with.” We might not be able to meet face to face with those who need the support that our gifts provide, be we are very much still together. We see the potential of students of color who will become our leaders and we seek to come alongside them, to encourage them, to be together with them. And we see church workers who have critical financial needs and we come alongside them, to assist them — we are with them. And we see the witness of the whole Church, either gathered in buildings or connected home to home, member to member, sharing what we have, together. We thank God for being “with us” through the gift of Jesus and for joining us together as the Church and, through our gifts, with those who have need.
Please send this special offering to the EPC office marked Christmas Joy.

MISSION NEWS

11/10/2020

CHRISTMAS FAMILY: Yes, we will have a Christmas family this year but we will give gift cards instead of gifts, and we will mail donation checks to church. Our family will be a mother and 2 children. We will not know the ages and sex of the children until mid- November, too late for this Caller edition. We are expected to give two $50 gift cards for each child and a $100 gift card for groceries. It would be nice to be able to give the mother a gift card for herself as we have done in previous years. If you would like to help our family have an enjoyable Christmas, you can mail a check made out to “Edmonds Presbyterian Church” showing on the memo line that it is for the Christmas family. Our family will be introduced in the December Caller, but we cannot wait that long for donations since the gift cards need to be delivered to Pathways the first week of December.
OPERATION NIGHTWATCH: 83 pairs of socks and $30 cash were donated to Operation Nightwatch the Sock it to Homeless sock drive. Thank you to all who gave.
Ruth R.

OPERATION NIGHTWATCH

10/1/2020

“Sock it to the Homeless” white sock drive will be held at our church during the month of October. Kim will put a box outside the front door each Tuesday morning during October. Socks may be dropped off between 9 am and noon. Socks should be white, crew length or longer. Cheap socks are fine since they are thrown out after use. Clean dry socks help a little to make life better for the homeless men. Operation Nightwatch does not have adequate laundry facilities to sanitize and re-use socks.

You may mail checks to the church to purchase socks if you prefer. Checks should be made out to Edmonds Presbyterian Church and marked clearly for Operation Nightwatch. Donated funds will be sent to Operation Nightwatch so they can buy the socks.

Rick Reynolds was sick with COVID –19 for 10 weeks earlier this year. Two of their tenants died in April and some had to be quarantined away from their units until it was safe to return. Their situation is better now, but not back to normal. Operation Nightwatch could definitely use prayer for the staff and clients.

One unusual, but wonderful event happened at Nightwatch this summer. Someone was baptized in the parking lot where meals are now being served. Larry wanted something different from the usual requests for food, water, socks or bus tickets. Larry wanted to be baptized. Every week, Larry would come for a meal, visit and pray with the street pastor. But Larry wanted to be baptized. One day Larry was baptized, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His homeless friends voiced their support. Larry, with a huge grin on his face, said "I can't wait to tell everyone! “

Rev. Dr. Jean Kim’s Jubilee!

10/1/2020

Jean Kim, “mother to the homeless”, was honored in a Zoom Meeting where all the participants celebrated: Jean’s Jubilee (50th year) of immigration to the United States, her Jubilee of Homeless Mission, her publication of 5 books, and her 85th birthday. The event was organized by her son, Sam, along with other family members.

Who is Jean Kim? Jean Kim wrote about her multi-faceted life in the book, Hope in the Color Purple. The book not only chronicles her struggles, but it also tells of her passionate community advocacy for the homeless. Jean was ordained as Presbyterian minister (the 2nd Korean woman ordained by the PCUSA), and she founded the ecumenical church of Mary Magdelene in Seattle, WA which also served as a community of support for homeless women.

The Jubilee event on September 12 was a wonderful community experience! The retrospective of Jean’s life and her many accomplishments was living proof of how tough problems can be overcome. Jean’s ability to bring people together formed the foundation for Jean’s work with homeless women. Jean acknowledged the special needs for homeless women to talk, learn, and have a community of support thereby creating a climate of strength, courage, and hope for the women Jean served. In Jean’s case, her personal challenges and insights about people living on the streets eventually led her to open Mary’s Place, a women’s shelter now located in Lynnwood. The spirit of community in the Zoom celebration was captured by the series of voices that shed light on Jean. Their words made it clear that Jean understands the true meaning of “partnership.” She teamed up with George Hurst of the Lynnwood City Council to create “little homes”, Dick Gibson, the Maplewood Church pastor, and Steve Woodard, a dean at the Edmonds Community College along with many others from all walks of life. Jean knows how to bring people together and inspire them to create something out of the ordinary.

Purple was a theme throughout the celebration. It seems that purple means something to Jean. In Jean’s book she references purple as the color of Lent and in that sense, it is about suffering. But for Jean, the color also represents power, hope, and healing. For the people who know Jean, the color represents Jean because Jean, like purple, has that unusual combination of warmth, love, joy, spirit, and power. Jean has that rare ability to lift up others, restore dignity to the marginalized, and honor the sacred.
Some of the moving words spoken about Jean included:

George Hurst: “Jean does not take no for an answer.”
Thelma Burgonio-Watson: Jean showed us that, “We are all under the same sky, walking the same earth…”
Samuel Chung: “Her work transcends ethnic groups and people from all walks of life.”
Marty Hartman: Executive Director of Mary’s Place: “Told the women of Seattle that they were worthy…she scooped them up.”

Toward the end of the celebration one of the women that Jean worked with at Mary’s Place, thanked Jean for how she changed the course of her life. Her presence and simple words of gratitude made it clear that the world needs more people like Jean. As Marty Hartman, the executive director of Mary’s Place stated, Jean “treated all women as the mother or sister, they wished they had.” Jean showed how words are not enough and action is what counts…”no” was not an answer to the problems Jean wanted to solve. Jean “walked the walk” and in the process turned hardship to hope and the lost into found.
By Margaret Kulkin

Mail-in Offering for One Great Hour of Sharing

9/3/2020

The One Great Hour of Sharing Offering provides help for people who have suffered loss during natural or conflict -caused disasters, for people facing hunger, lack of water and sanitation and inadequate income. It is early in the hurricane season and already people living in Louisiana and Texas have suffered damages. In Isaiah 58:7-8, God tells his people his will is for them to provide food for the hungry, shelter for poor wanderer, and clothing for the naked, just as Jesus told his followers in Matthew 25:37-40.

PRESBYTERIAN DISASTER ASSISTANCE works with communities as they try to recover from disaster, natural or human-caused. 32% of the total offering supports this ministry.

PRESBYTERIAN HUNGER PROGRAM works to provide food for the hungry and to help solve hunger problems by giving farm animals, seeds and tools to help people grow their own food. This fund also works to care for creation, and help alleviate systemic causes of poverty so there will be enough food and water for all. 36% of the offering will provide assistance with these needs.

SELF-DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLE helps those who are experiencing oppression, poverty and injustice. Small grants are given to help people start very small businesses to help lift them out of poverty. 32.5% of the funds will be used in this way.

Offerings may be mailed to the church. Please mark clearly that this offering is for the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering. Give with thankfulness as you feel God’s leading.