Pine Springs Camp - Pine Springs Camp, located in Jennerstown, Pennsylvania, is an outdoor camping resort facility that has been supported by the Redstone and Washington Presbyteries since 1948. Redstone Presbytery holds the deed to the property. The money provided by our Presbytery pays the salaries of the Executive Directors, goes towards camper scholarships and is used for capital improvements. The camp is open to everyone, regardless of sex, race, religion, color or national origin. Though the focus of the camp is on the summer camping program, it also serves as a valuable retreat site year round. At Pine Springs, campers experience nature as a backdrop to Christian growth through creative programming and life changing experiences. (It’s building and expansion program contributes to the financial worth of the Presbytery.) It is valued more for its role in the evangelism, discipleship and fellowship opportunities it present to all who go there to hear the Good News.
Triennium - This is a nation-wide gathering of youth from all of our presbyteries within the Presbyterian Church USA, that takes place on the Purdue University Campus. It is a time of worship, fellowship and renewal for our young people. The Presbytery saves money for this event for three years to help defray the expenses to our young people.
Connellsville Community Ministries - Connellsville Community Ministries, located in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, provides needs based services to persons living at the poverty level or in crisis situations, while showing and sharing Christ’s love to the clients they seek to help. Their ministries include Partners for Life, a program that teaches goal setting, parenting skills, vocational skills, and financial management; a Furniture Ministry providing good and used furniture and appliances to those who need them; a Clothing Boutique which recycles good used clothing; PUMP, an eight week summer program which operates along the lines of Habitat For Humanity, repairing homes and installing necessary improvements; and Layettes for Newborns, providing gift packages to mothers who qualify under WIC guidelines. In the future, they hope to provide a short-term shelter in the Connellsville school district called Trinity House. The ministry seeks to follow the words of Jesus Christ, to feed the hungry and cloth the naked. It is supported by five different denominations in the Connellsville Area, employing only two full time staff people and many volunteers.
Westmont Family Counseling Ministries - The Westmont Family Counseling Ministries, headquartered in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was established in 1988 as a mission project of the Westmont Presbyterian Church. It is a small non-profit agency that seeks to assist and strengthen the families of the congregation, community and beyond who are experiencing problems of an emotional nature and whose finances are limited. They employ seven part-time counselors with master’s degrees who provide group and individual therapy to persons regardless of religious affiliation. Unlike secular agencies, they are willing to discuss faith issues. They offer client confidentiality and counseling in a home-like setting, at hours that suit the individual. Redstone Presbytery is the primary source of funding for this organization, but they have their own fundraising activities to supplement it because the need for counseling in the area exceeds their financial help. Their hope is to expand, adding to their free anger management groups for kids and divorce recovery groups for women. Additional groups for coping with grief and loss are also available.
PRESBYTERIAN MEDIA MISSION - Presbyterian Media Mission works through new and unique electronic and digital language to keep the Good News of Jesus Christ in the marketplace. In partnership with the United Methodist Church Passages and Survivors are aired free of charge in over 1000 radio stations worldwide. It is the only one of it’s kind. Key leadership is provided in National drug prevention and faith based media literacy. Redstone Presbytery benefited from the western PA media campaign “Come in Out of the Cold” in Advent 2001. Media literacy workshops were held for our Christian educators group and local congregations. Assistance is offered to local congregations such as in customized servant model evangelism as in Pleasant View Presbyterian Church in Smock. Synod- wide resource persons at Laurelville Retreat Center and Synod School Kids Club shared in literacy gatherings.
LITTLE PEOPLE LEARNING CENTER, INC - For 18 years quality affordable childcare has been offered for all children 8 weeks to school age in Cambria, Somerset and Westmoreland Counties. Scholarships are available to needy families. It is a mission of First Presbyterian Church in Johnstown to poor families in a highly depressed area reaching the least and the weakest with a Christian caring environment. The needs of special children with various challenges are met along with children who have English as a second language. Child care was provided for 68 children. Community service was done through entertaining on holidays at a nursing home and the Trike-A-Thon for St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital. There are 3 full-time and 9 part-time employees sharing the love of Jesus Christ through warmth and acceptance given to the children, celebrating appropriate holidays, and in their love for them.
VANDERGRIFT YOUTH CLUB (formerly Trinity Youth Club) - Averaging 65 young people mostly from the elementary school 2 blocks away, Vandergrift Youth Club invites unchurched children to come to a safe place. There they learn about the Bible, Jesus and the disciples, God and His love through skits, songs, worship and sharing a nutritious meal (the only one some get all week), and homework time. Most of the children live at poverty level and or are from single family households, and are kids lost in the system. Families are invited for dinner and worship and celebration. Mission is taught by mission speakers sharing the needs of others in the world, and sponsoring a girl in Honduras through Christian Children’s Fund. Horizons are broadened through hands on mission by singing at a local nursing home and Christmas caroling at a home for mentally disabled adults. Also there’s a week mission trip to Pittsburgh each summer and a 1-day Camp Youth Club in the summer. This is an outreach which was initiated by the pastor and volunteers of the Trinity Presbyterian Church, Vandergrift, and continues at the Vandergrift Presbyterian Church since the merger of Trinity and First in the summer of 2002.
University of Pittsburgh Johnstown Campus PROTESTANT CAMPUS MINISTRY - This is a campus ministry that seeks to meet the spiritual needs of college students on a daily basis by providing activities to challenge and encourage spiritual growth. Rev. James L. Gay is the campus minister who has been administrating the program for the past year. This ministry provides weekly services, Bible studies and offers spiritual counseling. During the school year students are given the opportunity to participate in community service projects that are geared toward presenting the gospel as well as a Spring Break Mission opportunity.
REDSTONE HIGHLANDS IN GREENSBURG AND THE JOHNSTOWN HOME - These two facilities have long standing connections with the Presbyterian Church, as we founded and funded much of their ministry at one time. They provide safe living environments for the elderly population of our area. They have different levels of health care, provide worship and chaplain services and other holistic resources for their residents. Presently, the mission money is given to their benevolence funds, which serve to cover the costs for residents with smaller sources of income. Redstone Highlands web address - www.redstonehighlands.org
PRESBYTERIAN DAY CARE CENTER - The Child Care and Development Center is a ministry of the First Presbyterian Church in Windber. It is designed to provide quality childcare and development for children of young families of the Windber area and surrounding communities. The CCDC serves children aged 6 weeks to 11 years and their families by providing a safe, loving care environment enabling working parents to feel a sense of security in their child care arrangements. Families served encompass all income levels, educational backgrounds and religious affiliations. Approximately 25% of families receive some form of fee subsidy. The congregation, parents, and community members all participate and serve in different capacities to ensure the success of this program. Our mission dollars help to fund those families who could not afford reliable daycare.
CHILDREN’S CLINIC OF KISKI VALLEY - The Children’s Clinic of Kiski Valley provides a learning environment for children that do not function according to age appropriate expectations in the areas of affective, cognitive, communicative, motor or social development. Currently, they are serving 19 children with various levels of developmental delay including vision, hearing impairment, social and motor delays and who do not qualify for existing programs because their delay is not significant enough. Referrals are accepted from parents or professional agencies, and children showing significant delays in one or more developmental areas are tested using the Portage Guide to Early Education. The Clinic is open five days a week to children aged two through six. They have served over 300 children in the past 30 years.
UNION MISSION - LATROBE - The Union Mission of Latrobe was created in 1985 to provide emergency shelter and support services to disadvantaged men. Since then, the program has served over 1,500 individuals. The Union Mission of Latrobe serves homeless men, ages 18 years and older, who have no place to turn. At the shelter they receive food and a place to live while they participate in a comprehensive treatment program. The program helps the men set and achieve education and employment goals, while providing counseling and job training. Area pastors conduct a house spiritual program during the week. The mission uses many volunteers who assist with fund raising, providing meals, distributing mailings and tutoring. The Union Mission is the only mission for homeless men in Westmoreland County. The mission meets the most urgent needs of homeless men in our area, providing them with a safe haven while allowing them to acquire the skills and education necessary to achieve independence.
Associate for Pastoral Care - This position is presently being filled by Rev. Carole Isley Corey. This part time role is designed to proactively provide for the spiritual, social and professional support of ministers, commissioned lay pastors and their families working in the boundaries of Redstone Presbytery.
PRESBYTERIAN MISSION RESOURCES
Redstone Resource Center - The Redstone Presbytery Resource Center serves all the congregations of Redstone with materials for programming and ministry. There are print materials, video tapes, periodicals, games, curricula and consulting services. Each year there are new materials added which bring congregations help for their work in spreading the gospel message. A resource catalogue has been printed recently and soon the up to date listing of materials will be available online through your computer.
Ministers’ Assistance - These monies are used to help ministers who may encounter emergencies and are in need of monetary resources. They are given at the discretion of the executive presbyter in consultation with the Committee on Ministry if confidentiality is not compromised.
New Church Development - Money from this line item has been used to help Westminster Presbyterian Church in Greensburg relocate and build a new facility. Now moneys are being added to build up this fund so that other new church developments might be undertaken.
Emergency Welfare Fund - This is a second recourse for ministers and their families who find themselves in critical monetary shortages for any number of reasons. The church works to support those who are in its ministry when they are faced with difficult times and these moneys are tangible evidence of such support.
Mutuality in Mission - As we live in partnership with others of faith around the globe, we have opportunities to interact by bringing some of them here to be in our midst. We can learn to understand Christians in other parts of the world through these times of being together. Our partnership with the Border Ministries has given persons beyond those who have traveled here for mission work an opportunity to meet some of the folks from our partnership who have come to be with us.
New Mission Opportunities - From time to time we have the opportunity to be a part of developing mission adventures for which we want to be prepared. This line item in our budget allows us to take advantage of such opportunities as they present themselves, rather than having to let them go by because we were unable to fund them.
International Mission Projects - Over the past years we have supported mission endeavors in Egypt, Slovakia, Africa, and Mexico. We have also supported a pastor’s mission trip to India to help our presbytery better understand that country’s needs. Being globally oriented is important as we recognize that all of the world belongs to God and we have responsibilities throughout God’s creation, and not just locally.
Block Grants - These grants, funded through the mission budget, are allocated through the Committee on Ministry for specific mission of congregations in Redstone Presbytery. There are applications for the grant and guidelines which must be met prior to the funds being made available. Grants can be for a one time amount, or for declining amounts over several years. They might be for purposes of revitalization, or for a ministry such as one to serve children and youth of congregations as two of the churches in Johnstown have joined together to provide.
Christian Associates of Southwest PA - This ecumenical organization works with a wide variety of denominations to minister to the faith needs of the region at large. Persons from our presbytery serve on its boards and committees. They sponsor events on specific topics of need such as addressing racism and support a chaplaincy program at the Allegheny County jail. Recently, they held a seminar in conjunction with Presbyterian Media Mission to address culture and the media. A number of our pastors and youth leaders attended. Web address - www.casp.org