Posts Categorized: Special Offerings

One Great Hour of Sharing: Disaster Assistance in Puerto Rico

  Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Response Quickly to Hurricane-Ravaged Puerto Rico Even before Hurricane Maria made landfall in September 2017, Edwin González-Castillo and other Presbyterian leaders in Puerto Rico received promises of help from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). Edwin, the stated clerk of the Presbytery of San Juan, says PDA lived up to its word quickly…. Read more »

The Piglet Challenge!

Have you herd? Give a piglet on March 1, and it becomes a pair!   We’re counting on your help to reach our goal of 75 piglets given today.  And thanks to a matching gift from a generous congregation, we’re already half way there!   Help Us Reach Our Goal!   Pig farming can provide stability to… Read more »

One Great Hour of Sharing: Hunger Program Helps Grandmother Feed Children

Grandmother overcomes challenges to farm the land that feeds the children in her care   Lovina Najjuma, a 56-year-old widow in Uganda, grows enough food on eight acres to feed the three children and eight orphaned grandchildren in her care. Without the crops that spring from this soil she carefully tends, Najjuma has no means… Read more »

This is Church: One Great Hour of Sharing

This is Church Have you ever taught a child to fold their fingers inside their hands and say the rhyme, “here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people?” The wiggling fingers teach children, and adults, too, that the church is not the building — the steeples, windows,… Read more »

One Great Hour of Sharing Promotional Guide

Resources for mid council leaders You shall be called repairers of the breach. —Isaiah 58   Around the world, millions of people lack access to sustainable food sources, clean water, sanitation, education, and opportunity. Each gift to One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) helps to improve the lives of people in these challenging situations. The Offering… Read more »

Rev. Forsberg: Gratitude Amidst Grief in a Season of Joy

Rev. Forsberg: Gratitude Amidst Grief in This Season of Joy In a season filled with joy that celebrates the birth of our Savior, we can forget that for some, the pain of loss and the reality of grief lingers. This year, the Christmas Joy Offering shared a Minute for Mission about Rev. Bob Forsberg, a… Read more »

Christmas Joy Gifts Bring Happy Endings After Tragedies Strike

Christmas Joy Offering Gifts Help Bring Happy Endings After Tragedies Strike From Celebration to Trauma In 2014, Elisabeth Scotland’s college graduation day turned from joy and celebration to  trauma and heartache in an instant. After receiving her diploma from Boston University, Elisabeth, along with family and friends, went to a baseball game at Fenway Park. While… Read more »

Christmas Joy Offering Helps Form PCUSA’s Future Leaders

The Christmas Joy Offering helps form future leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Their student days may have been a generation apart, but both Lemuel Garcia-Arroyo and his nephew Jasiel Hernandez found the Presbyterian Pan American School (Pan Am) to be an incubator for Christian leadership in their lives. Two Generations of Students Lemuel, now… Read more »

Christmas Joy Gifts Help Ensure Dignity for Church Servant

Christmas Joy gifts help ensure dignity for a faithful church servant’s final years As an urban minister for more than 40 years, Bob Forsberg dedicated his willing hands, generous heart, and sharp mind to serving people society had cast aside. Last year however, at age 91, the mental capacity that had served this Presbyterian minister… Read more »

What Would Calvin Think about #GivingTuesday

What Would Calvin Think about #GivingTuesday A guest post by Chip Hardwick Born just 70 years after Gutenberg built his first printing press, digital communication and social media were probably not even figments of John Calvin’s imagination. However, Calvin thought a lot about “helpfulness for our neighbor” and that is the thrust of #GivingTuesday, a… Read more »