OUTREACH AND MISSIONS MINISTRYPurpose: Extend the outreach of the Church through a program of evangelism and Church growth, keeping in mind the Great Commission of Matthew 28:09 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

Patuxent Presbyterian Church tithes 10 percent of the annual budget for Outreach and Mission services. We support these services to share the joy we find in a God-centered life by reaching locally, nationally, and internationally to bring people closer to God. The Outreach and Missions Ministry leads these efforts at Patuxent Presbyterian Church, with the help of all ministries and supporting members of the church. Note that dedicated funds are those outside of the Outreach and Mission budget given by members of the congregation directly to the ministries.

INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS SUPPORTED IN 2018

Patuxent Presbyterian Church financially and prayerfully supported several international missions during 2018. These missions and missionaries met the guidelines of allocating God’s gifts to those who proclaim Christ’s salvation and to those who minister in Christ’s name rendering spiritual, educational, health, and basic need services to those without sufficient means.

Marlen and Aselia Zharmenovs serve with the Pioneers ministry focusing on refugees and immigrants in the UK and other parts of Europe. They are actively reaching out to Muslim refugees to share the biblical message of hope. We provided $3000 in support in budgeted funds for 2018. Additionally, the congregation provided $2,662.50 in dedicated funds.

Marlen, Aselia and Family Murat, Lyazzat and Family

Murat and Lyazzat Ibragimov are ministering in their homeland, Kazakhstan through Campus Crusade for Christ International (CRU). They support the Area of PACT that includes 10 countries (PACT stands for Persia, Armenia, Central Asia, and Turkey). Nine (9) out of 10 countries in their Area are Muslim countries, so having a strong ministry in Kazakhstan means sending opportunities to other Muslim countries within their Area. We provided $3000 in support in 2018 and an additional $256.90 in unspent budgeted funds at the end of the year. Additionally, the congregation provided $2410.00 in dedicated funds.

Through the Medical Benevolence of the Presbyterian Church Foundation, the Haiti Nursing School is engaged in training nurses at the Hospital Sainte Croix, Leogane, Haiti.  This nursing program is an effort to provide more nurses for the population. This organization also provides similar training and support for medical personnel in a number of African nations. We were very fortunate this year to send Jeannette Wolter, Eileen Miller

and Sam Wolter to Haiti for a week in January and Stephen Godfrey to Haiti for a week in November with teams organized by the Medical Benevolence of the Presbyterian Church Foundation. We provided $2400 in budgeted funds to the Medical Benevolence of the Presbyterian Church Foundation in addition to fully funding the Haiti trips for our members to participate.

Medical Benevolence Foundation (Haiti Trip)

Candi Bunch is a teacher of missionary kids (MK) and coordinates youth group meetings and programs through Wycliffe Bible Translators. She offers support to their families by ministering to their children, so they can focus on the task of Bible Translation. We provided her $2400 in budgeted support and $350 in dedicated support in 2018.

Candi Bunch (Wycliffe Bible Translators) Rev Josh Naidu (Thailand)

Reverend Joshua Naidu is a missionary for Youth with A Mission (YWAM) Thailand to serve the people of Thailand, a land where less than one percent of the population is Christian. In the month of October, he entered his 15th year as a missionary in Indo-China. We provided $2500 in budgeted support in 2018.

Michael and Rachel Weller are missionaries in Gambella, Ethiopia and we support them through the Outreach Foundation. Michael serves as a facilitator for partner programs, relationships, and activities and as an implementer of regional strategies to build up the church in this economically impoverished but spiritually active area. Rachel supports the PC (USA) regional work and draws upon her public health training and experience to support the Community Health Evangelism program in Gambella and three church-run clinics. Their country has been in a state of emergency for some time, yet they feel safe in their mission. We provided them $2400 in 2018.

Gambella, Ethiopia (Weller Ministry) Dr. Dennis and Cynde Morgan (Serge Austria)

Dr. Dennis and Cynde Morgan, serving under “Serge -World Harvest Mission”, are invested in ministry in Vienna, Austria where they support the New City Wien church planting team. They are focused on discipleship, outreach, and mercy ministry. Serge means “joining together rough edges to form a smooth seam.” We provided $1500 in support in 2018.

Kevin and Kelley Burgess support Young Life in Germany for DoD teenagers. “Club Beyond” walks alongside military high school and middle school-aged kids whose parents are currently serving in the U.S. Military. A ministry that was in need, we were able to increase our support to this ministry in 2017 and 2018 through contributions from the Church Yard sale and increased their budget in 2018 to $3000. They visited us for lunch in July to share their ministry activities.

Kevin and Kelley Burgess “Club Beyond” Presbyterian Church Agency

In a small village in Africa, a middle-aged woman named Linley dreamed of becoming a small-business owner. However, famine and lack of access to capital made it difficult for Linley to achieve her dream. Linley attended a local program sponsored by a Presbyterian World Mission partner, the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, and learned about a project funded by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to help rural women save money and obtain loans. Through the Presbyterian Church Agency, we are able to support this small village in Africa, to help rural women save money and obtain loans. We provided $2000 in support in 2018.

Samaritan’s Purse Hunger Relief program works to meet the physical and spiritual needs of people around the world through several hunger relief programs, including therapeutic feeding for malnourished children and nursing mothers, emergency food distributions in crisis situations, hot meals for orphans and the elderly, and food parcels for families in poor neighborhoods. We provided $2500 in budgeted support to Samaritan’s purse and contributed $865 for Hurricane Florence Relief Efforts through Samaritan’s Purse. Also through Samaritan’s Purse, Rachel Portillo led Patuxent Presbyterian Church’s support to Operation Christmas Child by filling by sending over 800 shoe boxes (an all-time high for our congregation) and almost $1600 to help bring joy to children in need in 2018. This year we had great participation spanning across the ages from member ranging from two (2) to 70 years old.

The Navigators, an international organization currently serving in over 100 countries, began in the 1930s to support Christian ministry activities in the U.S. military. This ministry has expanded to college campuses and to inner cities in the U.S. and around the world. The Patuxent River Naval Air Station Navigators organization is coordinated by Robert Boidock even though moved to Texas. We provided $600 in funds to the Navigators in 2018.

Joey and Yisel Zorina (Tokyo)

Joey and Yisel Zorina support the Bridge Church Plant with the mission of making disciples of Jesus by building Gospel-centered relational bridges and multiplying gospel-shaped communities in Tokyo, Japan and the World. We provided $360 in support in 2018.

Patty Smith started a new chapter in her life in Lima, Peru with Network of International Christian Schools. NICS received $6,709.61 from our congregation in designated funds for 2018 and is in our budget for 2019.

Patty Smith

NATIONAL MISSIONS SUPPORT IN 2018

Outreach and National Missions are supported at Patuxent Presbyterian Church by our congregational members who give their dedicated time, talents, prayer, and resources to travel and give aid to sustain important Presbyterian initiatives.

The Union Presbyterian Seminary in Virginia, from which both Pastor Mike Jones and Pastor Ben Garris graduated, equips Christian leaders for ministry in the world — a sacred vocation that requires deep learning, commitment to service, and an ability to read culture and circumstance in the light of the rich resources of Scripture and theological tradition. We provided $500 in support in 2018.

Union Presbyterian Seminary Massanetta Springs Redeemer Broadcasting

Located in the heart of Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley, Massanetta Springs is a place where guests experience God’s grace and hospitality. We often use this site for fellowship for our congregation. We provided $600 in support in 2018.

This was our second year supporting Redeemer Broadcasting with $300. Redeemer broadcasting is a broadcast ministry whose desire is to glorify God through means of reaching people with programming that reflects the whole counsel of God in Holy Scripture.

A member of our church, Noah Varner, is a senior at West Virginia University. Over the past several years he has been involved with the Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru), which has grown his relationship with the Lord. In 2018, he was on the Cru staff and we supported him through a dedicated account with $2100. He has been added to the Outreach budget for 2019.

LOCAL MISSIONS SUPPORT IN 2018

Outreach and Local Mission efforts in Calvert and St. Mary’s Counties MD continue to provide opportunities to expand our activities in the community and share our faith with our neighbors. Many of the local outreach organizations are experiencing challenging financial times and Patuxent Presbyterian Church continues to respond to these increased needs by renewing our focus and commitment to local missions. Several people from our congregation continue to volunteer their time and talents to support the Care Net Pregnancy Center, a life-saving and life-building ministry. Care Net provides care and supplies for pregnant women and associated family members in its program of medical, counseling, and educational services for mothers and babies. Kim Hagan is the Center Director at the Leonardtown office. We provided $1500 from the Outreach budget and $100 from dedicated accounts. Patuxent Presbyterian Church generously supported the Care Net Pregnancy Center of Southern Maryland once again for this year’s Christmas Outreach. This was our third year supporting Care Net and we provided formula, diapers, pull ups, gift cards (~$800) and new toddler clothing for those greatly in need. Three carloads of items were taken to Care Net this year and were greatly appreciated.

Funds and volunteers supported Hospice in both Calvert and St. Mary’s Counties this past year. Hospice provides expert medical care, which includes pain and symptom management that is personalized for each patient. Hospice also provides emotional and spiritual support to patients and affected family members. We supported these organizations with $250 each in 2018.

The Pastoral Counseling Center of St. Mary’s provides a unique form of psychotherapy that has the option of using spiritual resources as well as psychological understanding for healing and growth. Pastoral counseling is client directed and responds to the emotional, mental health, and spiritual needs of persons through developing healthy therapeutic relationships. We provided $2500 to the center in 2018.

Patuxent Habitat for Humanity is part of a global, nonprofit housing organization operated on Christian principles that seeks to put God’s love into action by building homes, communities and hope. Patuxent Habitat for Humanity is dedicated to eliminating substandard housing locally and worldwide through constructing, rehabilitating and preserving homes; by advocating for fair and just housing policies; and by providing training and access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions. Rita Reeves is the treasurer for Habitat for Humanity. We provided $2000 in 2018 to the Habitat for Humanity.

Fill the Chancel Steps

Two food pantries, Service Makes Individual Lives Exciting (SMILE) in Calvert County and Helpers Overcoming Problems Effectively (HOPE) in St. Mary’s County, were supported through funding and also food contributions from the 2 Cents a Meal Program during worship on the last Sunday of each month. The 6th annual “Fill Up Our Chancel Steps” effort resulted in carloads of non-perishable food being delivered from the church to the two locations before Thanksgiving. Additionally, we support a food drive before Easter to help the pantries when they were low. Each pantry receives $2500 in budgeted funds and splits almost $4000 from the 2 Cents a Meal Program. Kathy Mazur and Patsy Davidson lead us in our support for SMILE and HOPE, respectively.

HOPE (Church of the Ascension) St. Mary’s Caring Community Ministry Calvert

St. Mary’s Caring, a community soup kitchen, received funds and regular food delivery to the facility provided by the Creative Christian Cooks. Several members of the congregation serve regularly at St. Mary’s Caring. The annual church yard sale provided $1175 to this ministry. Another $3000 was sent in 2018 as part of budgeted support.

Community Ministry Calvert is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing emergency grants to people who need them in Calvert County. They provide assistance with rent and with utilities including electricity, gas, oil and water. We provided $1000 in support in 2018.

Christmas in April St. Mary's County, Maryland, Inc. in partnership with the community, rehabilitates the homes of low-income homeowners, particularly the elderly and disabled, so that they may live in warmth, safety, and independence. Our team, led by Leon Anderson and Tim Springer, worked on 28 April for Christmas in April’s community project. The volunteers worked throughout the day of service helping to make a difference for a member of our community. We provided $1000 in support in 2018 in addition to our volunteers.

Intervarsity Ministry at St. Mary’s College and the local Young Life chapter at our local high schools serve young people in our community. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is a vibrant campus ministry that establishes and advances witnessing communities of students and faculty. Young Life has a presence in Great Mills High School. They have an all-county ministry to middle schoolers called WyldLife and are supporting Young Lives that serves teen moms and their babies. We provided $1200 and $2000 in support in 2018 to Intervarsity and Young Life, respectively. Patuxent Presbyterian Church supported at the partner level ($500) for the Young Life Crab Walk Run 5K on 9 June. The event proceeds send middle and high school children to Young Life summer camp.

Christmas in April Esrael Seyum (Intervarsity)

WARM (Wrapping Arms ‘Round Many) has become not only a program, but a community organization in St. Mary’s County, devoted to providing “a warm, dry, and safe place for men, women, and children to sleep during the cold weather months of November through March.” Over one hundred of our members participate in providing food, serving as monitors, doing laundry, and generally providing hospitality and care for our homeless neighbors. Bruce Dale, Rachel Portillo and Cherie Crescini led our effort to support WARM for 18-25 March which provided many members of our congregation the opportunity to serve.

Cedar Lane Senior Living Community relies on donations and volunteer support from the community to help cover the critical programs, services and facility improvements that help enhance the lives of our senior neighbors. We provided $1000 in support to Cedar Lane in 2018.

Southern Maryland Community Resources promotes social recreational and educational opportunities where individuals with developmental differences can contribute their unique gifts and develop their potential. Bruce Dale supports game nights that occur monthly in our Fellowship Hall through Southern Maryland Community Resources for adults with special needs and their caregivers. The Joy Prom for Southern Maryland Community Resources on 28 September had over 100 attendees to support individuals with developmental differences. Supporting members included a decorating team of Ken and Jean Reamy, Susan and Amanda McKinley, Kim Hagan and Barbara Davit. Event

support included Bruce and Mary Ann Dale, John Dixon, Cherie Crescini, Abryl Munoz, Kevin and Beth Miller, Dylan Miller (with Ryken friends), Rachel Portillo and Ben and Paige Garris. It was a magical night for all! Additionally, Patuxent Presbyterian Church participated in the third annual Dragon Boat Race on 18 August that raised funds for Southern Maryland Community Resources. The Patuxent Presbyterian Power Paddler team consisted of Rita Reeves, Tim Springer, Nicholas Bradney, Jim Donnelly, Jill Gaskin, Abigail Crescini, Grace Prelog, Nicholas Crescini, Sarah Prelog, Drew Tolarski, Robert Miller, Paige Garris, Ben Garris, Mike Paul, Debbi Paul, Paul Norton and Jacob Gaskin (the Drummer). They paddled with honor! We supported the Joy Prom with $600 in support and $2000 in support for the Dragon Boat Race in 2018.

Boundless Expectations, Inc. is a student centered nonprofit that strives to work collaboratively with the public and private schools, assessors, and related service providers in order to create educational solutions that yield high outcomes for students with learning differences. We provided $1200 in support in 2018.

Creative Christian Cooks

The Creative Christian Cooks (CCCs) continued to provide regular food deliveries to local outreach food providers. These men and women come together regularly in our church’s kitchen to prepare and then deliver food to St. Mary’s Caring and Three Oaks Center. Special snack bags were provided to children who eat at St. Mary’s Caring during the summer months. The CCCs prepared baked goods for their annual bake sale on 9 December to benefit HOPE and SMILE raising $1,550 in donations. This team continued their support of the food served to our WARM (Wrapping Arms ‘Round Many) guests and cooked many of the WARM meals in the church kitchen. Becky Stevens and Patsy Davidson led the CCC in 2018 and provided them a budget of $3500.

“The Mission”, a local community Christian outreach, has the first and foremost purpose of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The second, is to minister in practical ways to our community. They offer showers to the homeless, food pantry, clothing, job placement,

and computer training.  They are a faith based ministry that believes in helping our community one person at a time. We provided $4050 in budgeted support and $210 from dedicated support in 2018 to the Mission.

Three Oaks Center offers programs that provide the homeless in St. Mary’s County with housing, stabilization, assessment, and referral to appropriate resources so that they may return to living productive, self-sufficient lives in our community. We provided $2000 in funding to the Three Oaks Center in 2018.

Other Outreach Activities

As mentioned above, the Patuxent Presbyterian Church Small Groups support numerous outreach efforts. For example, in 2018, the Mary Martha’s Circle supported Operation Christmas Child, Southern Maryland Community Resources, Wounded Warriors at Bethesda, Church World Service Blankets, Presbyterian Women-National Capital Presbytery Thank Offering and Birthday Offering of Presbyterian Women in support of mission projects that make a difference in the lives of women and children.

Ministry Expo Three Oaks Center at the Ministry Expo

The Ministry Expo on Sunday, August 26th, was a success that highlighted our many ministries and organization that we support through funding and volunteering. Representatives from SMILE, HOPE, SMCR, CARENET, HABITAT FOR HUMANITY, CHRISTMAS IN APRIL, BOUNDLESS EXPECTATIONS, OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD, ST MARYS CARING THE MISSION, THREE OAKS, Patuxent Presbyterian Small Groups and our Ministries participated. There were over 300 participants showcasing how our congregation not only makes a difference, but supports those that make a difference.

In 2018, we began sharing a monthly “A Minute for Missions" message at the worship services to spread the good news of those we support.

Once again, our congregation supported the Church of the Ascension’s annual coat drive to provide a blessing to the community that was only possible because of the generous donations of clothing, blankets, and time, graciously given by so many. Patuxent Presbyterian Church provided three car loads of new and gently used winter items (coats, hats, scarves, gloves/mittens, sweaters/sweatshirts, boots, blankets and sleeping bags) for distribution on October 27th at the Church of Ascension. Patsy Davidson supported the distribution effort.

In conjunction with the Worship Ministry and our Church Office Manager, the Outreach and Missions Ministry provides publicity and materials for church services and special events. We also ensure that notices in our local media, such as newspapers and online publications are timely and accurate.

We joyfully participate in the New Members Classes and Luncheons, working with the Pastor, Elders, and Deacons to welcome new members into our family of faith.

We look forward to greater opportunities in 2019 in spreading the word with your support!

Outreach and Missions Ministry Leaders and VolunteersMIKE PAUL, JIM OSTERHOUSE - CHAIRPERSONS BRUCE ROBERTSON/KATHY MAZUR – SMILE FOOD BANKPATSY DAVIDSON – HOPE FOOD BANK/CREATIVE CHRISTIAN COOKSRITA REEVES - LOCAL MISSIONS, HABITAT FOR HUMANITY TREASURERBETH WRIGHT-LIAISON TO PRESBYTERIAN WOMENTIM SPRINGER – CHRISTMAS IN APRILLEON ANDERSON – CHRISTMAS IN APRILBRUCE DALE – WARM COORDINATORCOURTNEY CULBERTSON – VISITOR FOLLOW-UP (St. Mary’s)RACHEL PORTILLO – VISITOR FOLLOW-UP (Calvert)/WARM/Operation Christmas Child/CARE NETCHERI CRESCINI –WARMBECKY STEVENS – CREATIVE CHRISTIAN COOKSGEOFFREY ENGLE – WEST VIRGINIA WORK CAMPKIM HAGAN- CARE NET CENTER DIRECTOR (LEONARDTOWN)