Blessings Abound: Bread of Life Mission Meal

The First Presbyterian Church of Bordentown, NJ has always had a passion for mission in our local and surrounding communities as a well as world wide. A couple of years ago we learned about homeless families in the Mercer County area that were relocated to Bordentown motels when the motels where they lived were closed. They are eligible for the services available in Mercer County; however, they now live far away from those resources with little to no transportation available. We decided to take our passion for mission and turn it into “mission in action”. That has become our theme as we organized a team of volunteers to do mission work for the church.

We join with other local churches in a program called “Bordentown Area Caregivers” in an effort to provide meals for these individuals and families. One church providing one meal per month doesn’t seem like enough but when we combine efforts like this, there are meals provided almost every weekend. Motel residents have come to know that even when their resources have run out, there are Christians of all denominations preparing meals to help them. Many are transient; however, we see some of the same residents each month because they have disabilities and/or illnesses that require them to remain.

Blessings abound as we deliver meal after meal and we receive thanks. The gift that we get as a result of this combined Christian effort is much more than we give. When a resident says “that’s really tasty…may I have another” or some have said “this is the first hot meal we’ve had in days and my children are so hungry” it makes it worth all the hard work and planning it takes to successfully prepare, pack and deliver the meals.

Each month we have more and more volunteers from our congregation to help including the youth of our church. If we have leftovers (which are very uncommon) we package and freeze them to distribute to transient individuals or families that come to our church asking for assistance. It’s been a learning process for us and it never ceases to amaze me how we always seen to have “just enough”, nothing is wasted. I feel the power of the Holy Spirit working in our church and in our mission work and pray that we continue to have the resources to be Disciples of Christ.

To see a slideshow of Bordentown's Bread of Life Mission Meal.

Karen Chamberlin
Mission Team Leader
First Presbyterian Church of Bordentown, NJ

Growing Food Crisis - Prayers for those who suffer, Prayers for Guidance

I received the following message from Andrew Kang Bartlett of the Presbyterian Hunger Program. Please pray for those who suffer and for guidance on what we can do to respond. For starters on a response, I highly recommend the Bread for the World meetings we are holding on April 30.

"I'm sure you've been hearing about the growing food crisis (as if 25,000 people dying daily from hunger and hunger-related disease was not already a crisis of epic proportions!) due to increases in food prices. The short piece from the Globe and Mail gives a stark glimpse of this.

"I believe that we need to think, pray and work together to come up with the best strategies (that we can connect to and/or devise ourselves) for dealing with this. As the article mentions, higher prices could be with us for a long time - and it is estimated that for every 1% rise in food prices, worldwide 16 million more people become hungry.

"Please pray for those who are suffering. And let us pray for guidance about what our responses should be. Please share your thoughts and ideas!"

Bread for the World Meetings - April 30 - Cranbury, Tennent, and Bayville

The Presbytery of Monmouth and Bread for the World

invite you to a meeting to learn about

Special Guest: Bread for the World Organizer for the Northeast Region, Derrick Boykin

We will explore the possibility of forming a new Bread for the World chapter in central and/or southern NJ

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Choose from three times and locations:

10-11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 22 South Main St., Cranbury, NJ

12-1 p.m. at the Presbytery Center, 446 Tennent Road, Tennent, NJ

4-5 p.m. at Morning Star Presbyterian Church,1 Morning Star Way, Bayville, NJ

Because:

• More than 854 million people in the world go hungry.
• In developing countries nearly 16 million children die every year from preventable and treatable causes. Sixty percent of these deaths are from hunger and malnutrition.
• In the United States, 11.7 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. That means one in ten households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger.

* Bread for the World is a nationwide Christian movement that seeks justice for the world’s hungry people by lobbying our nation’s decision-makers.

Bread for the World Chapters: meet on a regular basis and study issues concerning hunger and poverty in the U.S. and around the world; create action plans to reach out to local, state, and national elected officials; create programs to reach out to other churches, community groups and campuses to become involved in the movement to end hunger.

For more info or to R.S.V.P. contact Rev. Phyllis Zoon

e-mail phylliszoon@gmail.com, phone 201-910-7047

Reflections on Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2008

I was one of over 700 people (109 of them Presbyterians) gathered in Washington, DC in early March for the sixth annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) Conference. It was a wonderful opportunity to explore new visions of security in our homes, neighborhoods, nation, and world. Having attended EAD in 2006, I felt a little bit like an “old hand”. I knew we would learn a lot about the issues; I knew the speakers would motivate and inspire us; I expected to greet old associates and make some new ones; I looked forward to the opportunity to learn and practice my skills in advocacy on Capital Hill.

And all of that was true—and there were some surprises.

When I arrived at the registration table, I learned that we had appointments with NJ Senator Robert Menendez and Representative Donald Payne but no one had been able to confirm an appointment with Senator Lautenberg. I offered to call and (after getting an idea of what to say and making two calls) was rewarded with an appointment!

At dinner time I scanned the room for other Hunger Action Enablers and found some. (Advocacy is one of the five program areas of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, and HAEs can be counted on to turn out for these events.) And I was so pleased to see Clint McCoy (what a great example!) and some other folks from the Synod of the Northeast who had been at the Stony Point conference on “Doing Theology and Ethics in the Context of Globalization, Migration, and Sustainability,”

The Reverend Dr. Mark Lomax, Pastor of the First African Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, was the preacher for the opening worship. He inspired us (and proved that not all Presbyterians are frozen chosen) by connecting the story from Daniel 3 to the current political situation. (In the story King Nebuchadnezzar sets up a statue and insists that everyone bow down—which they all do except for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who stand up and survive the fiery furnace.)

After workshops in the various tracks on Saturday, on Sunday we turned to the practical issues of how to advocate and broke up into our state groups to get ready for our trip to Capital Hill on Monday. The best surprise was meeting the Reverend Keith Rae, a United Methodist minister who works on Africa for the National Council of Churches. I knew him from my seminary fieldwork in East Orange. We decided to focus on issues in Africa when we went on our visits. Not only was legislation going to markup on Wednesday; but both of our Senators were on the committee where this would happen and Representative Payne chairs the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health on the Committee for Foreign Affairs.

For all of the interesting workshops, inspiring speakers, and visits to Capital Hill, there is one thing that stands out: a conversation I had with one of the men as we talked on the train going back to Newark. He remarked that there weren’t many “people like him”—lay persons who were not there because of their jobs in the church or other organizations. As soon as he said it, I realized it was true and decided to make it a priority to personally recruit folks for next year’s conference. Our pews are filled with wonderful, faithful, dedicated people. They need to be there—you need to be there.

Mark your calendar now: March 13-16, 2009.

For more inspiration, read the reflections of Elaine Newby--one of the people like my friend on the train.