Missions Committee

The Missions Committee is a committee of the Session and is composed of a chairperson, a Session representative and members from the congregation at large.

The Missions Committee is responsible for overseeing the local and international mission programs of the church and for assuring that the church's contributions are expeditiously and effectively distributed. It also sponsors hands-on mission programs such as food drives, Novi Emergency Food Program, Novi Youth Assistance, clothing drives, homeless ministries (soup kitchen), and fund raising for the aforementioned programs.

Food Kitchen

The Ecumenical Theological Seminary (ETS) serves lunch to homeless people on Wednesdays in Detroit. The mission committee supports their efforts with monthly contributions as well as a support team to make and serve the lunches on the third Wednesday of each month. On Advent Sunday, 275 packets were assembled with socks, toiletries, candy, and a Christmas card for the luncheon guests at the ETS. These are distributed to those in need just before Christmas.

2010 Mission Trip

We are looking for interested people to join others from the Presbytery in the Presbytery trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There, we will assist with rebuilding the community from the recent flood damage. Hopefully we will be able to send a team in September 2010; for more details please contact Betty Nick.

Mission trips both domestic and international are an integral part of our outreach efforts. Intergenerational participation is encouraged. Most recently we have worked on house building and supporting a health clinic in Guatemala (2008 & 2009). At Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota we built bunk beds (2007 & 2008). Our next major evangelical outreach will hopefully be in Cuba. The details and visas are being worked on but no dates are currently available.

2009 Guatemala Mission Trip

In February of 2009 a group from Faith Community Presbyterian Church plunged into an experience not soon to be forgotten by any involved; we traveled to Guatemala to give of ourselves. It was not that any of us were remarkably brave or especially sacrificial; we simply capitalized on a unique combination of human empathy and extraordinary privilege and opportunity. We boarded a plane and, not without certain difficulty, arrived in an alien land. We proceeded to the north, far from our comfortable western sense of civilization.

For the next week we gave of our gifts in the form of sweat and occasionally blood. When the week ended our doctors had seen countless patients with ailments ranging from headaches to life threatening ailments offering treatment not otherwise available in these small villages. The rest of us worked to provide structures capable of providing shelter replacing older drafty homes full of holes. One house was about 1/3 done when we got there. We were able to finish that house and turn it over to Paullina and her daughter. It was the first time she had had her own home in 26 years.

For that week we worked alongside people who, like us, were willing to work and sweat in the interest of helping our friends and neighbors in the Lord. We struggled to communicate and to adjust to a foreign culture but we did not struggle to understand the gratitude we experienced for the small gifts we were able to share. Smiles and laughs that carry universal feeling and meaning were shared throughout the week. The result was that when we piled into the vans to head back to the airport preceding our journey home, we all knew we were taking more with us than we had left. None of us would forget what we had done.

In our group there were 3 doctors who worked in a clinic seeing people who have limited access to doctors. They worked from 9 to 5 or 6 or later for 5 days, even walking to a couple of homes to see people who were too ill to come to the clinic themselves.

In addition to building and medical support, about 6 of us also taught English classes. In my case I worked with a local pastor eager to learn English. The others worked with children ages 4 to 12. While in Guatemala we also attended a church service, taught Sunday school and participated in 2 other mid-week Bible studies

I think the most important thing we did was Learn:

• We learned what it is like to hear scripture two times and still not have any idea of its about because it was read in Spanish and then Keechay.
• We learned that in that part of Guatemala one is Rich if he or she has 2 changes of clothes. We learned what "they" mean when they say "Just up the hill."
• We learned that $200 is enough for one child for an entire year of school tuition, books and uniform.
• We learned that $2000 is enough to build a home, not a house like we imagine, but a building that God could fill with love and that can change lives.
• We learned that the most important part of a mission trip is:

Not what you do - but how you do it.
Not whom you help - but how you help.
Not what you say - but how you say it.

Help CROP Stop Hunger!

CROP Walk Update: Thank you to all who walked or were sponsors for the recent Novi-Northville CROP Walk on August 20. We joined several of our sister churches in the community in raising funds for hunger relief around the world. The total amount raised is still being collected, but 25% of our local Walk's funds stay local to support the Novi Emergency Food Bank., Northville Civic Concern, and First Step Shelter in Canton. If you sponsored a walker, please be sure to get your donation in by September 11. You can also still be a part of the Walk as a spirit walker by giving online at www.cropwalkonline.org/novimi. Please continue to pray for the victims of the suffering of hunger and the efforts of those working to relieve hunger around the world.

Novi Emergency Food Program

Church members distribute groceries to needy families every second Monday. We will be making special monthly collections of items for the food bank. Any donations can be put in the blue box in the narthex marked: Food Bank. Thank you.

Food Baskets

At Easter and Thanksgiving each food bank family is given a gift certificate to purchase food at a grocery store. Faith's "every person mission" encourages the congregation to bring in school supplies and backpacks for the school age children of the food program. At Christmas time, coded names of family members (from the food pantry program) are put on the Christmas tree and members of the congregation purchase the items they have designated.

Missionaries

October is missionary month and we host a missionary on the last Sunday of the month. This is preceded by a missionary breakfast at a church in the Presbytery where 15 to 20 missionaries come together to tell us of their work in various parts of the world. The Faith Community Church congregation hears first hand about how God's message is spread throughout the world

Heifer Project

The Sunday school children are raising funds for the Heifer project; a program that distributes animals to needy families. These fortunate families are then asked to "pass on the gift" by sending the offspring of their animal to a neighboring family. So far the children have saved enough to purchase a pig and a flock of chickens. They hope to purchase 2 more flocks before the end of the year.

Habitat for Humanity

In July of 2009, 6 members (Catharine McCloskey-Turner, Mark Turner, Mike Evert, Brooke Mcnight, Terry Kazakos, and Jim Ernst) of our church spent a week with over 100 members from various Detroit churches to help Habitat for Humanity to provide housing for the Jackson family in Detroit. The build was sponsored by the Detroit Presbytery and the Lutheran church and would provide 2 houses in the Detroit project.

We were involved in various home building tasks such as: wall building, kitchen cabinet hanging, door hanging, trim molding, drainage ditch digging and pipe laying, painting, and vinyl siding. We were working along side of the home owner and her children and by the end of the week we were able to have the house ready for carpet and outdoor landscaping. It was a hot week but very rewarding.

The Detroit projects plans to provide over 50 homes to needy families in Detroit. Habitat also provides classes for the new homeowners in things such as: basic finance, tax preparation, home maintenance, outdoor maintenance, and minor home repair. Hence, their success rate for new homeowners is very high and most new owners are able to keep and maintain their house without intervention.