OUR NEW MISSION STATEMENT

As Presbyterians, we embrace the Reformed tradition as we strive to support Christ’s mission within our church, our community, and worldwide, celebrating the life of Christ by reaching out to all people.

Our Mission Connection

Introducing Brenda Harcourt

     Brenda Harcourt was appointed in January 2009 to serve as a leadership trainer with the Presbyterian Church of East Africa in Kenya. She works in the eastern and Mt. Kenya regions where she works with both professional and volunteer church workers to improve their leadership skills. She trains Sunday school teachers and evangelists as well as pastors ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament.

     Brenda’s service in Kenya is not her first appointment as a PC(USA) mission worker. From May 1989 to November 1991, Brenda was a seminary instructor in Peki, Ghana, serving with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana.

Since she ended her first term service as a PC(USA) mission worker in 1991, Brenda has continued to be active in mission. She has led many groups traveling to Ghana, Scotland and Kenya, and she has conducted orientations for Africans coming to the United States as well as for Americans travelling to Kenya.

     Brenda has served the church as a pastor and worked in several camp and conference ministries. She also taught classes in world religions and philosophy at Highland Community College in Freeport, Illinois, for five years.

Prior to her appointment to Kenya, Brenda was solo pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Oregon, Illinois. While in this position, she served on the Mission Committee of Blackhawk Presbytery developing a rotating system for training pastors, evangelists, elders and deacons.

     Brenda’s commitment to the ministry of camp and conference centers is long and varied. Between 1997 and 2001, Brenda was program director at the Stronghold Conference Center, a conference, retreat and camping center of Blackhawk Presbytery. She was director of the Wildwood Christian Education Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and chaplain and interim program director of the Calvin Center in Hampton, Georgia. While serving as solo pastor of the Calvary Presbyterian Church in York, Pennsylvania (1991 to 1995), she was also director of Donegal Camp and Conference Center, the outdoor Christian education ministry of the Presbytery of Donegal.

     Brenda holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Divinity from Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

     Brenda was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament on September 27, 1992. She is a minister member of Blackhawk Presbytery.

Five for Five

Our congregation contributes to Basic Mission Support through our budgeted mission giving and receives four church wide special offerings each year.

 

Basic Mission Support
Basic Mission Support is the funding sent by congregations to support the mission budget of their presbytery, synod, and General Assembly. Basic Mission Support strengthens congregations, supports mission service personnel, and provides leadership training and scholarships.

 

Peacemaking Offering
First Sunday in October
Because of your gifts to the Peacemaking Offering, young adults were able to go to Colombia in January 2006 on a young adult travel study seminar, co-hosted by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and the Vice-Moderator of the Office of the General Assembly. These young adults met with and learned from Colombian Presbyterians whose lives are at risk because of their work for human rights on behalf of poor, displaced persons in Colombia.

Your gifts to the Peacemaking Offering allowed fifteen International Peacemakers from fifteen countries to spend time in sixty presbyteries, one synod, and one Presbyterian school to make connections with U.S. Presbyterians and discuss issues of justice and peace in the fall of 2005.

 

Christmas Joy Offering
Sunday before Christmas
Gifts to the Christmas Joy Offering support ministries that make real God's love in Jesus Christ throughout the year. Because of your gifts, the Board of Pensions was able to respond to the needs of church workers in hurricane-devastated areas of the Gulf Coast with emergency grants. Hundreds of students are able to attend racial ethnic schools to discover the gifts that God has planted within them, and to nurture those gifts to serve not only their own communities but all of God's people.

 

One Great Hour of Sharing
During Lent, especially on Palm Sunday and Easter
Since your gifts last year, One Great Hour of Sharing of Sharing responded to a record number of hurricanes and such other disasters as the earthquake in Pakistan. While these disasters require immediate and long-term assistance, even more of your One Great Hour of Sharing gifts have helped our sisters and brothers around the world address chronic needs. Through your outstretched hands, many more families have felt the embrace of God's love in very tangible ways: sufficient food, ready access to clean water and medical care, and a firmer grasp on hope.

 

Pentecost Offering
Day of Pentecost (seven Sundays after Easter)
Because of the Pentecost Offering, almost $1.8 million has been raised since 1998 by congregations like yours for ministries with children at risk. First Presbyterian Church in San Leandro, used its share of the offering to fund a senior high youth mission trip to minister to the very poor in inner-city Los Angeles. The Pentecost Offering makes it possible for your congregation to take an active part in bringing healing and wholeness to children at risk.

From “Five for Five” Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mission Education and Promotion Congregational Ministries Publishing A Ministry of the General Assembly Council