Purpose:
Our FPC Mission Ministry is dedicated to serving God and Mankind… putting our faith into action with generosity and compassion, and helping those persons with physical, spiritual, emotional, and hunger issues .
Objective:
To strive to develop more hearts for Mission within the congregation at FPC Conroe
Some of our efforts were:
One Great Hour of Sharing - This Easter special offering supports Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and their worldwide responders, as well as supporting the Presbyterian Hunger Programs nationally.
Mission Sunday – In 2021, our focus for this special offering was to provide financial support to help to continue our efforts with the FPC Homeless Project…providing meals and fellowship to the local homeless community. We were successful, raising over $7,500!
Presbytery Grants - We applied for and won 2 grants of $,2000 each during 2021:
1) An Outreach Grant to support the purchase of foods and supplies for our "FPC Homeless Project' , partners: Salvation Army Soup Kitchen, Family Promise, and Compassion United (CHOP).
2) A Social Justice grant to support our work with Freedom Place…providing shelter, hope, and life skills training to victims of human trafficking.
FPC Homeless Project – We surpassed our goals by again providing over 9,100 meals this year to the local homeless population, providing Family Promise clients with lodging, training, and meals, providing Salvation Army with Covid/brown-bag lunches, providing Conroe House of Prayer with Covid/brown bag breakfasts, and providing Freedom Place with our resources used for refuge, meals, and life skills training.
NOTEWORTHY RECOGNITION: Our Mission team wishes to recognize the generosity of those congregational volunteers who not only provide their time and talents to this Project, but ALSO purchase foods and supplies for the Homeless Project partners and do NOT request reimbursement from Mission Funds. This is the kind of generosity that has kept our Mission programs functioning during this period of reduced budgeting. We are grateful.
Christmas Joy Offering - On behalf of retired Presbyterian Church workers in need of housing, food, and healthcare because of natural disasters or illness, and also on behalf of students in need while attending Presbyterian schools, this Christmas Eve tradition resulted in our being able to join with PCUSA to contribute financially to these causes.
Mission Partners:
Benevolent Missions International – We provide volunteers to this local agency that supplies eye surgery, medications, eye exams, and glasses to the underserved in Fiji and Belize. ( For more information, contact Tom and Susan Young, Chuck and Janet Pohla, Glenn and Anne Elms, and Pat Vorhees.)
Compassion United/Conroe House of Prayer – We provide financial assistance for our volunteers to purchase, prepare, and serve breakfast at this local outreach to the homeless. (For more information, contact Team Captains Henry and Betty Blott, Ron and Margie Bailey, Bobby Ezell, Gordon and Susan Juhl, Jerry and Ine Webb, Tom and Susan Young).
Family Promise of Montgomery County – We supply volunteers to organize our church building for week long visits where we provide shelter, meals, transportation, training, and compassionate assistance to homeless families with children. In addition, in 2021, we provided funds to be used in the expansion of their office and housing facilities. (For more information, contact Jean and Danny Ball, or Donna and John Fisher.)
Freedom Place – We provide funds, Mission Sewing Group Love Bags, and volunteer hours to this effort
to find, retrieve, and restore victims of human and sex trafficking in the Houston area. (For more information, contact Sally DeStefano.)
Salvation Army Soup Kitchen – We supply financial assistance to our volunteers to purchase, prepare, and serve lunch for the Salvation Army’s outreach to the homeless. (For more information, contact Team Captains Roy and Liz Kessler, Bobby Ezell, Ron and Karen Hethershaw, Larry and Cindy Bailey, Dana Corbit (for Youth), John and Suzie King.)
Salvation Army Bell Ringers – We supply volunteers to man a Salvation Army collection stand during the Christmas Season. (For more information, contact Donna and John Fisher.)
The Seafarer’s Shoe Box Ministry – Our Presbyterian Women organization sponsors the collection of funds for goods to be packed in shoe boxes and delivered to the far-from-home merchant seafarer’s docking at the Port of Houston during November and December. (For more information, contact Susan Buckley.)
Mission Sewing Group - (For more information, contact Joan Lowery)
January 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021 Items made by the Mission Sewing Group For First Presbyterian Church and Friends:
(Activities of Mission Sewing were severely restricted due to church closure and low attendance due to Covid restrictions)
• 4 Knitted/Crocheted “Prayer Shawls”
For the Community:
• “It’s My Very Own Bags of Love”
• 2021 Sew-a-thon cancelled due to Covid
• Donated 129 children’s quilts to be given to children who are removed from their homes by CPS
• Texas Children’s Hospital
12 Baby Afghans
17 Infant Bereavement Layettes
• Montgomery County Animal Shelter 76 dog pillows
• Area Nursing Homes
102 crocheted lap robes
46 adult clothing protectors
7 Alzheimer patient fidget mats
• Houston Veterans Hospital
57 Crocheted chemo caps
• Goodwill
Donated several hundred yards of fabric
• Dress A Girl - Dallas/Fort Worth
Donated two Bags of Fabric
For World-Wide Missions:
Caps to be included in the Seamen’s Christmas boxes
100 Knitted/Crocheted Caps
• Children’s Emergency Relief International (CERI)
(Mission trips to Moldova orphaned children suspended due to Covid)
486 Knitted/Crocheted Caps
320 Knitted/Crocheted Scarves
• Presbyterian Women’s Giving Catalog
Donated $100 to purchase two sewing machines for mission field training
Special Contributions - We are blessed to be supported by our congregation in ways not shown above. For these “extra” contributions, we are indebted to the outstanding Mission work of: 1) our Youth; 2) our Mission Sewing Group; 3) the Seafarer’s Ministry Team at Christmas; and 4) those individuals, Small Groups, Women’s Organizations, and Sunday School Classes who provide funds, food, and hours of volunteering to the unfortunate, homeless and displaced.
Fund raising efforts - Since 2016, our Mission Ministry Team has, because of necessary stresses upon the Church budget regarding debt service for construction costs, become proactive in finding ways to raise extra funds to be used for Missions and thereby help to alleviate this financial pressure on the church budget. We are proud to report that, because of the generosity of our congregation in responding to our fundraising efforts on Mission Sunday, the diligence of our team in applying for and winning grants, and the "pass the hat" or "fill the shoebox" efforts, we were able to continue our Mission efforts. This, of course, does not include the many hours of valuable time spent by our volunteers.
This proactive plan is working well and we can be proud that our Mission efforts are being rewarded and are proceeding strongly. This plan was originally designed to exhaust funds at year end 2025. However, it now appears that, if we can continue to creatively manage our funds in this or a similar manner, we can grow our Mission work indefinitely.
NOTE TO CONGREGATION FROM MISSIONS:
Although our mission work has remained very active during this period, and we are grateful for the support that we have received, we have noticed a decline in the number of contributors. Where we once had 75-100 contributors (families or individuals) contributing to our fundraising efforts, we now have 20-25. Knowing how FPC has such a heart for missions, we hope to see this number increase in the upcoming years. Please help in supporting this effort!
