Since God’s love won’t stay cooped up in individual hearts, nor remain hemmed in by city limits, then we must follow where it leads, and that means out into the whole world.
International Mission: Chimbote, Peru
A growing group of PPC members and friends head to Chimbote, Peru each year to work in the impoverished community of the parish, Nuestra Senora Del Perpetuo Socorro. They build houses, take the handicapped and disadvantaged on a beach outing, including lunch, and prepare a fish stew for 200-300 community members. They also take the generous cash donations of PPC members to prayerfully use in the care of patients of the hospital for the poor, La Caleta. These funds pay for operations, blood transfusions, prescriptions, patient transfers to larger city hospitals, patient family assistance and many other worthy causes not covered by the government medical program. Due to the pandemic, our mission trips did not occur in 2021 or 2022, however, we are tentatively planning our next trip for late January 2023. Working with many of the same folks each year allows relationships to be built up over time. Call the church office and we’ll put you in touch with the right folks to learn more.
Youth Missions
Each Summer, and sometimes at Spring break, our youth head out on mission trips. The High School youth mission location is scheduled on a four-year cycle. One year is a foreign mission trip, another year is out to the western US, another is an urban mission experience, and another is to a rural community. Recently, the youth have served in Haiti, Washington D.C., West Virginia, and New Mexico. Our Middle School group also travels to various locations for mission work, including Asheville, NC where they worked in a variety of community relief efforts. In previous years, our Middle School Mission trip was to CROSS which is a local mission through Myers Park Presbyterian Church. In 2016 our High School Mission trip went to the Dominican Republic.
During the school year, our youth raise money and walk in the CROP Walk; shop for, buy and deliver Thanksgiving dinners to families unable to do so; promote the Souper Bowl of Caring offering; help with the Loaves and Fishes Canned Food Drive; and pack meals for Stop Hunger Now.
Other Missions
We host packing sessions for STOP HUNGER NOW, an international organization seeking to do exactly what its name implies. Providence has packed well over 100,000 meals that have gone to places such as Haiti, Dominican Republic, and several areas of Africa.
At Christmas our congregation makes honorary and memorial gifts which help support a variety of organizations such as Presbyterian Disaster Response, Heifer International, Habitat for Humanity and other international aid organizations. Our youth and numerous adults have packed shoeboxes for and volunteered at Samaritan’s Purse.
