Profile: ABCCM Crisis Ministry

ABCCM has four crisis ministries in Buncombe County: Asheville, Weaverville, Candler & Arden.

The Crisis ministries distribute food aid, clothing aid and financial aid to people in need in Buncombe county. In 2013, the Crisis ministries served over 36,000 individuals through some crisis. We distributed 27,000 bags of food and helped 8400 households with utility expenses.

The Crisis ministries currently have around 400 volunteers: receptionists, counselors, clothing room operators, food pantry operators, meal preparers, etc. Many volunteers commit to one day a week for a 4-hour shift, but all scheduling possibilities are open. Every volunteer receives on the job training from ABCCM staff and other experienced volunteers.

State funds and Benevolence funds are used to address the wide range of crises that families are facing. ABCCM often partners with other local aid agencies to help families.

Contact ABCCM at 259-5300 to tour facilities and discuss volunteer opportunities

Or call (or email) Aaron Schnurbusch with any questions.

Profile: Mission in Haiti: Meet Mark Hare and Jenny Bent

Mark Hare and Jenny Bent’s ministry with Haitian people transcends international borders. Since 2004, Mark has worked helping Haitians learn to grow a lot of food on a small amount of land. Jenny began working with the organization as a volunteer after their marriage in 2008, but in 2012 their ministry base moved just across the border to Barahona, Dominican Republic. Mark and Jenny have two small children. Mark continues his work in Haiti. In 2011 Jenny came under mission appointment and began a new ministry with Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Jenny helps the Evangelical Dominican Church with its health ministries in the bateys, company towns largely populated by Haitian sugarcane workers.

Mark works with the Mouvman Peyizan Papay (MPP) in the Central Plateau of Haiti. MPP is a grassroots movement whose goal is to help small farmers improve their living conditions. It began in 1973 in the small community of Papaye.  Mark works with MPP member farmers, advising them on ways to increase food production. His work helps farmers provide adequate nutrition for their families and generate income by selling excess crops. Mark has trained a cadre of Haitian agricultural specialist—Road to Life Crews—that continual teach and share agricultural information with farmers. In 2012 Mark and a Community Leadership Team will begin to “Join Hands” with other farm organizations to share the successful experience of the Road to Life Crews in other regions of Haiti.

Jenny helps the Evangelical Dominican Church with their health clinics and with the development of its program to train health care leaders and develop community based health care programs. The Evangelical Dominican Church operates a community health program in bateys, company towns where sugarcane workers live. Many of these workers are from Haiti and work long days for low wages and live in conditions that often lack basic services and health care.

Mark’s work in Haiti demands resourcefulness. One of the most popular agricultural techniques he teaches involves making garden plots and red worm composting inside discarded auto tires. “In the dry season, there is no rain for five to seven months and people run out of food,” Mark says. “So the tires are a way that they can produce something even during the time when they normally couldn’t.” This and other productive practices developed by MPP and the Road to Life crews helped rural Haitians feed family members and friends who fled to the countryside after the 2010 earthquake devastated Port au Prince.

Grace Covenant has had an ongoing relationship with Mark and now Jenny since 2007. Bill Gettys traveled to Haiti in 2009 to help set up a medical laboratory for Jenny’s volunteer work in Papaye, where she is a medical technologist. In 2011 GCPC funded a water project with Mark to help provide water to home rain water collection cisterns to increase production during the dry season. Details about this project is reported in Mark’s August/September2012 Blog.

Profile: Mission in Malawi: Meet Dr. Barbara Nagy

The Nagy family

Nkhoma Hospital in Malawi

Dr. Barbara Nagy, of Morganton, NC, has been a mission specialist (internal medicine and pediatrics) of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) at Nkhoma Hospital in Malawi, Africa since 2004.  We at GCPC support her and the hospital along with ~40 other churches from the Presbytery of WNC (PWNC).  She writes fascinating newsletters about the mission at Nkhoma Hospital and life in general in the remote reaches of Malawi. Read this series of letters here.  Barbara’s family includes three adopted daughters: Melia (18) and Anna (16), both born in China, and Happiness (7),  born in Malawi.

 

Barbara and her family have just returned to The States and will be living at Mission Haven in Decatur GA for two years, while she gets a Master in Public Health at Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.  This will equip her for even better ministry on her return to Malawi.  In the meantime, Melia begins Rhodes College, Anna will be a sophomore at Decatur High School, and Happy happily starts the second grade.

Contact Ginnie Stevens to learn more about Barbara and Malawi (253-0159; vestevens2@gmail.com).   

Food Collection at Grace Covenant

Ever wonder what the grocery cart greeting you at the church entrance is all about? 

Throughout the year, GCPC members and visitors can drop off food in the cart, and it will be taken to ABCCM for distribution to those in need. Summer donations are especially important; according to ABCCM Director Scott Rogers, "This time of year the demand goes up because children are home from school and there's an influx of homeless people on the streets." Rogers also says they're in need of basic staples, and church-organized food drives, such as ours, are often a big help.

So please, let’s keep our shopping cart filled. The whole family can be a part of this giving ministry; make it a tradition to pick out items for donation on your grocery trips. Harry Summerlin makes a delivery to ABBCM every week, so don’t worry about our cart getting too full!

Some of the basic staples needed are listed below. Also, visit ABCCM’s website and look under Crisis Ministries to keep up with the changing list, as needs vary depending on donations received.

Please contact Susie Daw at 253-3201 if you have any questions. 

Current Food Needs at ABCCM:

• Cereal
• Tuna
•  Canned Goods
• Grits (quick)
• Jelly
• Juices
• Margarine
• Canned meats & stews
• Peanut butter
• Powdered Milk
• Self-rising cornmeal
• Flour      
• Spaghetti sauce
• Vegetable oil

Profile: Room in the Inn

What is Room in the Inn?  A program of the Asheville area churches for hosting up to 12 women, nightly, for one week about four times a year.  We partner in this ministry with the Unitarian Universalist congregation (UU).  

How does it help?  R.I.T.I is a major portion of Asheville's HOMEWARD BOUND program, whose aim is to have every woman in safe housing.  Women can participate for up to 90 days, during which time they are helped to find permanent housing and provided with the skills and support that will help them stay there.

What does GCPC do during that week?  Volunteers from both GCPC and the UU congregations provide all aspects of care for our guests.  This involves the following tasks:

• Receive and transfer mattresses from the preceding church - set up after worship on the beginning Sunday.  Several persons are needed for 30-45 minutes to convert Fellowship Hall into a home for R.I.T.I
• Pick up women each evening at A-Hope Center and deliver to GCPC.
• Pick up women each morning and deliver to A-Hope, near downtown.
• Provide breakfast for the women and our overnight volunteers (7 days)
• Provide bag lunches for all 7 days (The UUs have this responsibility)
• Provide supper during the week.  The volunteers bring the food, serve it, eat with the guests, and clean up afterwards. Often a family or groups will team up for this service. GCPC and the UUs share in this responsibility.
• Clean up on the last Sunday and deliver the mattresses to the next church.
• Stay overnight. The overnight volunteers are the backbone of the program.  Two members from each congregation are the overnight teams.  Fire regulations require that someone be awake at all times.  This means that volunteers may sleep through the night with the exception of their 2-hour shift.
• Overall coordinator or co-coordinators work with the UU coordinator to make sure we have mattresses and linens in place by the Sunday RITI begins, make sure the truck(s) are lined up for the last Sunday to deliver mattresses to the next church, set up a sign-up sheet and secure volunteers for all slots, and are available each evening as the women arrive, so they see a steady host/hostess

Further information on each role and other RITI info is available from Sharon Blythe, the director of the Asheville RITI program at A-Hope  828-252-8883 or riti@hbofa.org . GCPC coordinators are also happy to provide information and volunteer opportunities: Nan Clarke, Susan Presson, Sandy Jividen, and Beth Kissling.

Come and see, come and choose to show hospitality and caring for these women in the R.I.T.I. ministry.

Profile: HOPE to HOME

HOPE to HOME is a faith-based program that pairs teams of 8-10 volunteers from the faith community with a person or family who’s been homeless but is moving into permanent housing.  Each team commits to supporting their newly-housed partners for one year in four key ways:  financial, material, practical, and most importantly, relationally. See here for more information.

I was a member of one of the two pilot teams, and much was learned from our experience. Let me tell you about Bill.  There were eight of us from four different faith communities, and we each had our role.  One of our members was a retired nurse, and she was invaluable at helping Bill move through the maze of our broken heath care system.  Some were able to take him to his various appointments throughout the day.  Others helped him organize his apartment and mend his clothes. I brought him vegetables from our community garden.  We even had a Christmas cookie making party at the synagogue where we decorated snowmen, stars, and the Torah! 

While we helped Bill begin his new life as a housed person, all of us learned much from this experience.  At a dinner which marked the end of our year together, Emily Ball, the director of the program, led us in some reflection.  After our meal, we (including Bill) each drew one question from a pile of questions.  “What did you learn that you didn’t know before?” “How has your experience in HOPE to HOME changed you?”  “What did HOPE to HOME teach you about yourself?” “ What’s the greatest accomplishment of the past year?” were among them.

In thinking back on the experience, we thought about how every team helps their newly housed person with the demands of finally having a place to live.  Perhaps the team member helps the person learn how to budget and apply for food stamps.  Perhaps a team member helps the person set up the new apartment and get to appointments on time.  Perhaps the team member invites the person to dinner, the state fair, or on a fishing trip.

What is really important about this program is how much each member of the team learns about him or herself. The final question affected each one of us.  “When I think about HOPE to HOME ending, I feel…” Some folks shared their anger about a broken system.  Others shared how sad they were about the unfairness of our world.  One person vowed to get involved in advocacy work. 

Me?  I share all these feelings, but I also feel energized. I want to be involved in helping our community end homelessness, and HOPE to HOME is working toward this goal.  Three of us from Grace Covenant Presbyterian have committed to serving on another team and we’d like to try and form a team on our own. Being part of this team helped me put a human face on poverty.  Accompanying Bill on this journey strengthened my sense of perservance. Being a part of this team helped me see how the Body of Christ can really work.  Contact me puffer61@gmail.com if you want to join me.        

--Tamara Puffer

Profile: Steadfast House Cook Teams

The Steadfast House, located on Hillcrest Street near Claxton Elementary, provides

• emergency shelter and transitional housing for 26 single women and up to 7 families for a total of 43 residents,
• safe place with food and care, personal skill building, and life skills and job training, and
• the ability to work and save money for a new start and reintegration back into the community

Grace Covenant provides

• two cook teams, each of which provide dinner once a month
• one team initiated by the SOS group (young mothers at GCPC) and headed up by Amber Cook; another initiated by a smaller group of women and headed up by Nan Clarke 
• we provide, prepare, and serve the food
• we eat with the women whenever possible
• occasional other partnership
• SOS held yard sale to help fund Steadfast House wish list needs
• GCPC young parents sponsored a room renovation with materials and labor
• SOS group provided items for residents' Christmas gift baskets

How do I get involved?

Contact Amber Cook to be added to her e-mail list. We recruit helpers via e-mail each month, so you can join in on the months you are available and lay low when it does not suit your schedule. Volunteers are needed to donate menu items, prepare food, and/or serve the dinner at 6:00 the fourth Tuesday of each month.  The group consists primarily of GCPC young mothers, but all are welcome. The second group (Nan Clarke’s) serves on the fifth Tuesday of each month and does not currently need additional volunteers. If you’d like to start your own cook team, contact Steadfast House’s volunteer coordinator, Brittany Williams.

Profile: Reclaiming Christmas

[reclaim: to recover; to claim back; to convert to a more usable form] Do the excess, stress, and expense of the Christmas holiday seem far removed from the simple, sacred birth of Jesus? ‘Reclaiming Christmas’ is a way to honor the Christ Child by directly supporting those for whom he showed special concern — the poor, the hungry, children, and those who are hurting.
This year Grace Covenant’s SERVE Council has chosen to support 12 different charities that all fall under SERVE’s outreach foci:
 Hunger
 Homelessness / Housing
 Health / Education
 Caring for Creation

These 12 organizations effect positive change both locally and globally:
 ABCCM
 Homeward Bound of Asheville
 Veteran’s Restoration Quarters
 Asheville Youth Mission
 Black Mountain Home for Children
 RiverLink
 Healing Art Missions
 Guatemala Scholarship Fund
 Guatemala Mission Fund
 Nkhoma Hospital—Malawi, Africa
 Mark Hare—PCUSA Missionary (Haiti)
 Barbara Nagy—PCUSA Missionary (Africa)

To participate, find the Reclaiming Christmas Station in the narthex, pick the organization you wish to support, and follow the instructions.

Children can help reclaim Christmas by buying cards for friends, family, and teachers that help those in need. Their two gift options are:
 Food for the children of Malawi
 School supplies for the Guatemalan recipients of scholarships

Look for the special card just for children and be sure to write on the check memo line: "Reclaiming Christmas" then either "Food" or "School Supplies." There is no monetary minimum on the children’s cards. Thank you for your participation in our mission to reclaim Christmas!

Profile: Nickel a Meal

The Presbytery sent Nickel a Meal money to Sur Occidente and Suchitepequez
Presbyteries to buy food supplies for victims of severe flooding in 2010.

Nickel a Meal is a very simple plan. Everybody…young, old or in the middle…rich, poor or in the middle…can participate equally. Each person puts 5 cents in a designated container for each meal eaten, then brings it to church when the offering is collected, usually four times a year.






The money is sent to Presbytery where the Hunger Committee distributes it as follows:
International projects 55%
Regional projects 40%
Education and Administrative costs up to 5%
(with the unused portion allocated to international projects)


Ruben Morales, pastor of our partner church, Iglesia Jerusalem,
unloads emergency food supplies for victims of flooding.

In 2010 and until mid-year in 2011, Nickel a Meal disbursed $176,428.25. Programs supported by GCPC received grants as follows:


Regional
A HOPE Day Center $3000
Loving Food Resources $3000
Supersizing Souper Bowl at GCPC in 2011 $341.50
(Increasing the amount raised by our youth ($683.00) by 50%. Divided between Manna Food Bank and ABCCM).



International Programs
Haiti: Seeds for Haitian Farmers (Mark Hare) $6000
Malawi: Nkhoma Orphan Feed & Seed Project (Dr. Nagy) $30,000
Guatemala: Food Relief in Suchitepequez & Sur
Occidente Presbyteries after 2010 flooding $3,000

To read full 2010 Nickel a Meal report scroll down to Nickel a Meal at the Presbytery of WNC web site: http://www.presbyterywnc.org/content/mission_zone/hunger_program/.
Ginnie Stevens has the 2011 Mid-year report.  

At Loving Food Resources, food, health and personal care items are provided each week
to an average of 86 people living with HIV/AIDS or who are in home hospice care. 

The program has languished in the past year for lack of leadership so a group is being formed now that will both develop ways to promote participation by all ages in all three aspects of the program: prayer, discovery and action, and also take care of the practical details of managing it. Anyone who may be interested is encouraged to contact Ginnie Stevens: vestevens2@gmail.com; 253-0159 (h); 585-739-4890 (c).


Time Commitments & Responsibilities to be divided among the group according to interests, skills, and time availability:

+ A couple of 2-hour meetings in October and early November to develop a plan of action; then probably four meetings of about 2 hours each in 2011.

+ 1 hour two to four times a year to count the offering; maybe families with grade school and above children could do this once or twice a year.

+ Write some simple family devotionals or interpretative material for the SERVE blog, church newsletters etc. (A format will be provided for devotionals.)

+ Collect small plastic containers so children can make new banks.

+ Other as the group discovers as we move on.

5 Cents-a-Meal makes Sense…

and a Difference!



Profile: GCPC Community Garden

The Grace Covenant Community Garden, Asheville, NC is tended cooperatively by +40 member gardeners who grow vegetables primarily for food pantries and community kitchens farm style. The gardeners divide themselves into four (4) different teams to tend and harvest the garden. The garden was started 2010. First crops are planted mid-March. The garden teams tended to the health of the crops on an alternating week basis. The vegetables that are grown vary by season; in the spring the gardeners grow—broccoli, cabbage, kale, collards and many other cool weather, hardy vegetables. In the summer—squash, tomatoes, peppers, beans, eggplant and okra were grown. As fall approaches, the garden is planted again with cool weather, hardy vegetables.  This year an herb bed of annual and perennial plants has been added to the garden.

In 2010 approximately 75% of all the vegetables found their way to someone else’s table through a food pantry or community kitchen. Twice weekly teams harvest the vegetables as they mature. The fresh vegetables are boxed and bagged and delivered to the food pantries and community kitchens. The gardeners share the risk and rewards of growing fresh vegetables and along the way while bending, stooping and crawling among the rows of vegetables they do meet their neighbors and make new friends. About half of the gardeners are members of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church and the other gardeners are neighborhood residents.  Gardeners share a common agreement and usually work throughout the growing season. For more information contact Buzz Durham, hobblein@hotmail.com or 828.775.5593.

Gardener’s Agreement

·   My household/family members and I will work cooperatively with other gardeners in planning, tending and harvesting the garden produce. 

·   I will share leadership and responsibility for the myriad of duties and tasks to make the garden successful.

·   I will respect my fellow gardeners and share my knowledge, skills and abilities with my fellow gardeners.

·   I will participate in the decision processes and support team decisions.

·   I will volunteer and lead garden work 2-6 hours with my team members.

·   I will not bring dogs or other pets into the garden.

·   I will supervise any children I bring with me into the garden.

·   I will work to conserve resources and follow good gardening practices.

·   I will not introduce nor use unapproved materials or chemicals in the garden.

·   I wear protective clothing and shoes when operating equipment, and as necessary at other times, and follow good safe garden practices.

·   I willingly share in the risk and rewards of gardening and the expenses, estimated at $20 a year.

Profile: Caring for Creation (C4C)

 Purpose: Caring for Creation seeks to increase awareness and involvement at Grace Covenant in caring for all that God has created.  We empower members individually and as a congregation to actively protect and restore the world that God has entrusted to us.  We recognize the relationship between our spiritual values and our actions in living on the Earth, and we strive to be good stewards of all that God has created.

What have we done?  We organized our own EARTH DAY after church on June 5, 2011.  We’ve encouraged the church to no longer use styrofoam and plastic at potluck meals, but rather to use and wash the church’s dishes.




Earth Day at GCPC



What are we planning? We’re planning programs with the Youth as well as in Sun. School classes for the children.  We’re looking into the possibility of having hot water solar panels.  We’re planning to offer people an opportunity recycle batteries and light bulbs at church. We might do a program about an Update on Climate Change.  We will help with the garden dinner to “end all hunger” on 9/16/11.  We will try to put weekly spiritual, environmental “tips” in the weekly Grace Covenant newsletter.

We will love to have new ideas and ”energy” in Grace Covenant’s efforts to be spiritual stewards of the Earth at home, at church, and in the world.  We meet at called meetings, usually after church.  Contact Susan Presson at 255-9588(h) to join us!

Profile: Guatemala Partnership

In our SERVE profiles, we will offer a closer look into the work of a service group at Grace Covenant. The first profile is for our Guatemala Partnership. Thank you to Lynne Meacham for providing the content of this profile!

GCPC team makes pastoral visits to Guatemala, 2010

What is the Guatemala Partnership?

Our sister church Iglesia Presbiteriana Jerusalem (Jerusalem Church) is located in Coatepeque, a city in southwest Guatemala a short drive from the border with Mexico.  For over 15 years, our churches have built close ties through visits both in Coatepeque and Asheville.  These are deep relationships based on our shared faith and our response to the call to join as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Projects we have worked on together include creating gardens, home repair and construction, and educational scholarships for elementary and high school students.  We always learn from each other new ways of being in ministry in our communities.

What are some activities or accomplishments of this group over the past year?

• Invited Jerusalem Church's Alejandra Solano to attend Presbyterian Youth Triennium with other young people of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina.
• Sent GCPC team of 2 adults and 3 youth to Jerusalem Church.
• Raised funds for Timothy Project scholarships for 35 children, a program administered by the Jerusalem Church.

Some of the youth who receive Timothy Project scholarships.

•  Held "Mardi Gras" party to raise funds for a November, 2011, visit from four of our Guatemalan brother and sisters from Jerusalem Church.

Mardi Gras musicians

What kind of service opportunities exist for church members or visitors? 

• Pray for the Jerusalem Church and its members
• Plan ways to support and encourage Jerusalem Church
• Develop relationships between people of the two churches
• Seek to learn from our Guatemalan partner
• Host, feed, transport, entertain, accompany, interpret for our Guatemalan brothers and sisters when they visit us 
• Translate letters and documents English/Spanish 
• Contribute to the scholarship program 
• Develop ways to teach our congregation about the needs and opportunities in Central America
• Travel to Guatemala to visit our partner church for relationship building and other projects (construction, gardens, educational)

When someone “joins” your group, what kind of time commitment/long-term ownership is expected or required of that person?

Monthly one-hour meetings, though more time is required for special projects (fundraisers, visits). 

Alejandra Solano and Fredy Paz Rivera attended Presbyterian Youth Triennium with youth from Presbytery of WNC

Is there an unspoken culture to this group?

 There is a core group that has been involved with the partnership for years; however, we welcome new members.  We usually meet after church one Sunday a month.

Who is the current contact person for this group, and how can that person be reached?

Lynne Meacham, larkm99@gmail.com, 828-505-7277