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- Missions
- "What does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8
Summer Missions Trips
Little PBPC is in touch with God's big world!
Members of PBPC traveled in several different directions over the summer to
serve the missions we support financially with hands and feet as well.
- Cindy, George, Javier, Jon, Judy, Margie, and Maritza all
traveled to Albania to work with Alongside Ministries.
For more information, click HERE.
- Merrilee traveled to Malawi for a six week mission trip with Charmaine Fiumos with Rafiki Foundation.
- Bekka and Tim went to Germany and Italy to serve as
junior leaders at Young Life camp with Josh Butrin.
East
Bay Area
 - Operation Christmas Child brings joy and
hope to children in desperate situations around the world through
gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God's love. This program
of Samaritan's Purse provides an opportunity for people of all ages to
be involved in a simple, hands—on missions project while focusing on
the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus Christ.
For Christmas 2007, PBPC children and
members collected over 65 shoeboxes to ship around the world. These
boxes were filled with school supplies, personal care items, and small
toys and then wrapped for Christmas.
Operation
Christmas Child webpage |
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Oakland
.
In Oakland, CityTeam Ministries
is carrying on work that began in 1897,
providing hot meals, safe shelter, showers, and clean clothing to this
city's
homeless population. CityTeam Oakland also has a wonderful caring medical
staff that provides medical attention to over 250 needy people a month. A
recovery program is in place for men that are on a road of
destruction from drugs and alcohol. CityTeam is involved in real life
situations with the people that walk through their doors. The caring staff
at CityTeam, reaches out to those people in need and helps transform a
life, heal a family, and break the cycle of destructive behavior or poverty.
It shows people there is
real hope in Christ to formulate an everlasting real change in
their lives.
CityTeam
Ministries webpage |
 Habitat for Humanity
- East
Bay - A Habitat for Humanity Affiliate
As an expression of God's love, the mission of East Bay Habitat for Humanity is to create home ownership opportunities by building decent, affordable houses and by enhancing neighborhoods through partnerships with
homeowners and the community.
East Bay Habitat
webpage |
A grassroots, multi-ethnic, inter-denominational Christian organization,
Harbor House welcomes children, youth, adults, and families to personal, social, and spiritual development through access to
emergency food, clothing, job referrals, mentoring, tutoring--whatever
will better their quality of life spiritually, economically, or socially.
Harbor House celebrates the diverse, vibrant San Antonio community of Oakland, California and creatively
responds to its needs.
Harbor House website |
- World Impact
- Oakland Ministry
World Impact’s ministry is in West Oakland’s Prescott community, a low income area
still struggling to recover from the Loma
Prieta earthquake. Volunteers and interns assist in the after-school and summer activities. Bible teaching, sports, music, computers, crafts, cooking,
games, piano lessons, tutoring, and a reading club are a regular part of the program for kindergarten through eighth grade. Adult
Bible study and teen club are just beginning. The basketball court at the Campbell Street house is a daily attraction for the
neighborhood children.
World
Impact, Oakland webpage |
 John Smith at Young Life
Oakland
Young Life goes where kids are, loving them unconditionally, earning the right to be heard and communicating God's love in terms kids can understand.
For John, this means going into Oakland's high schools. Young Life leaders care enough to leave the comfort of their adult worlds and enter the arena of high school and middle school life.
You will find John sitting in the stands at football games, walking the streets of
Oakland neighborhoods, driving carloads of kids to the shopping malls or
the Metreon in San Francisco, or sharing a latte at Starbucks. In fact, you will find
him almost anywhere you can find kids. Young Life leaders model trust, respect, and responsibility to their young friends, and they do it within a meaningful context, within the context of a teenager's world.
Young Life International webpage
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 - Mills College, Oakland
In response to God's love, grace and truth: The
purpose of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA (IVCF) is to establish and advance at colleges and universities witnessing communities of students and faculty who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord: growing in love for God,
God's Word, God's people of every ethnicity and culture
and God's purposes in the world. Yu-Shuan Sho is IVCF's representative at
Mills College. She facilitates a Bible study for Christian students
on campus and looks for service opportunities for them. She
also meets with several students who are curious to know what
Christianity is.
InterVarsity
Christian Fellowship webpage
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- The Bay Area Rescue Mission offers help for the
"whole person":
- - Food, shelter, warm showers and fresh clean
clothes for the body…
- - A gospel message of eternal hope for the
soul…
- - Biblical studies, computer aided learning,
and GED preparation for the mind…
- - Job skills training in culinary arts,
warehousing, heavy equipment operation, office work, construction,
security, janitorial service, and automotive sales and service for
the hands…
- - Parenting classes, job preparedness, anger
management, counseling, and personal financial management classes
for the character…
- - Compassion, friendship, fellowship, retreats,
outings, and prayer meetings for the heart…
Bay
Area Rescue Mission webpage
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- National
and International
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Dr. Beverley Booth (Nepal)
Since May of 2000, Bev has been serving in Nepal with
the United Mission to Nepal (UMN), where she is the director of policy and
strategy. UMN is an organization that facilitates Nepali
organizations in the work that they do. Bev’s focus is in the
areas of food security, women’s and children’s issues, primary
education, peace and conflict transformation, relief, HIV/AIDS, and
enterprise support.
PCUSA
Beverley Booth webpage |
 Charmaine
& Terry Nelson at Rafiki Foundation (Liberia)Charmaine
and Terry are returning from sabbatical and going back to Africa, this time to
Monrovia, Liberia, to work with Rafiki Foundation. Rafiki is a
Christian organization whose goal is to help orphaned and vulnerable
children in Africa to become godly contributors to their communities and
the world. They do this primarily by establishing Rafiki
Villages. Each Village is a home and school for AIDS orphans.
It has ten cottages plus a medical center and a school. Ten children live in
each cottage with a national mother who lives with
and cares for them. In the Monrovia Village, Charmaine will be teaching and Terry will be a
plant manager.
The Mission of the Rafiki Foundation is
- To support BSF classes and local churches in teaching the Bible and training leaders
- To operate orphanages that provide love, accommodations, and education for abandoned children
- To operate vocational training centers for women and girls in order that they may become self-sufficient productive members of their communities
- To use professionals to work in selected existing institutions
- Charmaine
& Terry Nelson's webpage (click here to see their latest newsletter)
- Rafiki Foundation
webpage
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- Josh & Alex Butrin at Young Life
International & Military
Community Youth Ministries
- (Headquarters in Colorado Springs)
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The journey from adolescence to adulthood has never
been easy. In every generation and in every place, teenagers have
struggled to come to grips with their place in the world. They want
to know if there is meaning to life in general and if their own lives are
important. The problems and struggles of
military teens are similar to those of the typical teenager, but
intensified because of their situation. Military installations, even
in the United States, are often isolated. Military teens are
frequently uprooted from familiar settings and replanted in a foreign
country with language, culture and customs they don't understand. Further,
the heightened pace of military operations in the post-Cold War and post
9/11 environment has meant more and more absences from the home of the
service member, creating in effect single parent homes for the majority of
military families for at least a third of any given year.
Obviously, there is a great need to reach these
young people, to build meaningful relationships with them and to
communicate the love of Jesus Christ in understandable terms. That
is the purpose of Military Community Youth Ministries (MCYM). MCYM
staff believe that a way to help military kids is to affirm them, build
personal relationships with them and strive to earn the privilege of being
heard. MCYM staff model trust, respect, and responsibility to their young friends, and they do it within a meaningful context, within the context of a teenager's world. Their relational approach can persuade teens to take an
intelligent look at Jesus Christ. Some will decide to follow
Him. Such a commitment usually has a beneficial, life-changing
effect on both the teenager and his or her family. Toward this end,
MCYM staff and volunteers seek to love teens unconditionally and provide a
model of Christian hope in our military communities.
For the Butrins this meant first going to US Army bases in Germany, staging bases for soldiers deployed in Iraq and other hotspots of eastern Europe and western
Asia. There you could find
Josh and Alex sitting in the stands at football games, walking the streets of
base housing neighborhoods, driving carloads of kids to the shopping malls,
tutoring students in study centers after school,
taking kids to camp in an old castle or on the Italian Riviera, or just shooting a few hoops at the park.
In fact, you could find them almost anywhere you
could find kids.
Now they have returned to the Young Life International Headquarters in
Colorado Springs to share their expertise, recruiting and training new
staff who will be going to US military bases all over the world.
Josh and Alex are excited that this new venture will allow them to reach
even more teens who need to know the love of Jesus!
- Young Life International webpage
- MCYM
webpage
- Pix of Josh and
Alex's Ministry
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 Alongside Ministries
(Albania)
Alongside Ministries International (AMI) serves with international partners to strengthen the church and advance the Gospel worldwide.
AMI comes alongside individuals, churches and organizations across
cultures with prayer, people and practical help.
Alongside Ministries International has been present in Albania since 1992, supporting the work of missionaries and the Albanian believers in Korçe, and presently
Erseka, in southern Albania. Small groups of ethnic Albanian believers are also being nurtured in Kosovo, as a result of the refugee crisis of 1999 that brought many of them in contact with the Gospel for the first time.
Long and short-term work has been very important in establishing and supporting the Church.
For more on AMI in Albania and on PBPC's upcoming mission trip there, see the Features page: click HERE.
Alongside
Ministries International webpage
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 Latin American Mission (Costa Rica)
Through the Latin American Mission, Leni Barber
ministers to women and children in Costa Rica. She ministers in a
shelter for abused women and their children, where she counsels, teaches,
conducts Bible studies and ministers inner healing. Leni's ministry
also includes contact with the women when they face the world again. She says, "I
believe God has called me to minister to these who are helpless and
hopeless; to offer hope, salvation in Christ and restoration."
Latin American
Mission webpage
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 Prayer for Burma (Burma)
Dave and Karen Eubanks work to provide spiritual and
medical care for the Wa people of northern Burma who are in the middle of
political conflict.
"Let me tell you a little more about
Dave Eubanks. Dave served nine years in the army in the Rangers and
Special Forces. His final assignment was as a commander of two teams, a
special reconnaissance and a high-altitude parachute team. Then he began
to sense a call from God to return to Southeast Asia where he had grown
up as a missionary’s kid. Through a remarkable series of events, Dave
and his new wife Karen moved to Thailand to begin a ministry with the
Talakoe and Wa people just across the border in Burma. When the Burmese
military discovered this, they clamped down on border crossings. Dave’s
sense of call to serve these people was so great that he continues, in
spite of the danger, to travel back and forth across the border
clandestinely in support of the people whom God has placed upon his
heart. And it was his Special Forces training that had enabled him to
carry heavy loads, walk for endless hours, care for the sick and wounded
and endure much discomfort and illness." --Pastor
Mark Toone, Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, http://www.chapelhillpc.org/pdf/03.10.02.pdf
- Dave and Karen Eubanks'
work with Free Burma Rangers
- Global
Day of Prayer for Burma webpage
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Annual Mission Auction
- Each October, PBPC holds its annual Missions Silent
Auction to generate additional publicity and financial support for several
of the missions it regularly supports. Auction items are collected
from church members and friends. After the Sunday morning worship
service, all are invited outside onto our patio to a fabulous pizza luncheon
catered by Italian
Colors and then inside to bid and vie for these wonderful auction
items. Past auction items have included such delights as a weekend getaway at The
Allen House in Mendocino, cases of Napa wine, original oil paintings,
memberships at Bay Area attractions (such as the Chabot
Space and Science Center), catered dinners for eight, airline tickets,
gift baskets, and two hours of professional landscape or computer consultation. In
prior years,
proceeds from the Auction were joyfully distributed to Charmaine Fiumos at
Rafiki Foundation in Africa and Josh & Alex
Butrin at Military Young Life. Plan to join the
fun again next year!
Albania
Mission Trip
For some tantalizing pix,
click HERE.
Albanian
Mission Team
PBPC recently sent this mission
team on a two week
mission trip to the nation of Albania. Six members of PBPC who have a heart for sharing the Gospel
were committed to serving and to adapting to the culture of this predominantly poor,
post-communist country. The trip was under the sponsorship of
Alongside Ministries and under the
leadership of Interim Pastor George Gilchrist.
PBPC will be sending another team next summer. Will you go?
The team will go to support Pastor Aryan Larashi and his wife,
Mimoza, at the
Evangelical Church in Bilisht in their work of evangelism, discipleship, and
youth and children’s ministries in southern Albania. Planted in 1994 following the collapse of communism, the church in
Bilisht has grown numerically and spiritually, reaching out with the love of
Christ to nearby villages and towns. Mission team members will participate in home visitation, street evangelism, worship, Bible
studies, and training seminars in Bilisht and rural areas where the response to
initial outreach is growing. The Team will also visit
Crossroads Camp and the ministry of Alongsiders Mark and Ruth Stoscher in
Ersekë.
A reflection from
the 'embedded' team on their last visit:
As I am writing this on my
laptop, we are traveling to Korça, the third largest city in
Albania. I am assisted by Eni Mulla and Çimi Qazoli, the former
a high school student and the latter a graduate.
The PBPC missions team are
serving with three other Americans through Alongside Ministries
International in Bilisht, Albania between July 26 and August 7.
We work with a team of 15 Albanians. Our day begins at 9 a.m.
with devotions and praise worship. From 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., we
have seminars on the topics of evangelism, discipleship, and how to
study the Bible. From 4 to 7:30 p.m. we visit nearby villages to
share the gospel and visit in homes. Many have neither heard
about Jesus nor have Bibles.
Thank you for your
prayers, encouragement and support.
On the Home Front:
Those who stay in California will support the Mission Team in prayer and in
practical ways. Donations of dried food will be collected to supplement their meals while in Albania and share with Albanian
team friends. A
Yard Sale
to support the church's sponsorship of this trip will be held at the church; all profits from the sale
will be used to help defray trip expenses. For more information on
Alongside Ministries, click HERE.
Other
Special Offerings
In addition to its Mission Budget,
PBPC periodically collects Special Offerings to support other
ministries. In prior years, PBPC members and friends have generously
supported Special Offerings for Alongside
Ministries, Bay Area Rescue Mission, The
Gideons, One
Great Hour of Sharing, CityTeam Ministries,
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Mills College, the
East Bay Metro Young Life Camperships Fund, scholarships for
InterVarsity's Urbana Missions Conference, the Open Door Mission, Glenview Elementary School,
Rafiki Foundation, Southern California Fire and other disaster
relief, Young Life International and the PBPC Wills &
Memorial Funds.
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