Join us for a free play at the City Theater in the Roger T Sermon Center on May 31, sponsored by First Presbyterian Church.
Join us at 9:30 or 11:30 a.m. Sundays for worship!
Handbell and Chancel choirs add their "voices" to the worship service.
During our church mission trip to Guatemala in January, we met a young women from Chicago named Jackie Wonsey. Jackie worked in a clinic started in recent years by a Maya Quiché woman who dreamed of bringing healthcare to her people. One of the people seen by Jackie during her clinic rounds is a little boy named Carlos with a congenital heart defect requiring surgery, typically done in infancy. Carlos is 11 years old and his heart had struggled so hard to keep his body alive that it can literally be seen bulging through his chest. The best they could do for him at the clinic was send him home and pray for a miracle.
When Jackie mentioned Carlos to our group from Heartland Presbytery, one among those from First Church remembered a contact in the United States who is a pediatric cardiologist. Another had the medical training to make an assessment of the situation. Contacts were made and information shared, and within a week we had a name from Heart Trust, which coordinates and performs surgeries in underserved countries like Guatemala. Well, you guessed it, that led to a contact in Guatemala who is the head of cardiac surgery in the capitol city. He agreed to evaluate Carlos to see if surgery was possible and if so to perform the surgery for free.
Two things had to happen for this to be possible. Jackie Wonsey needed to be at the clinic and we needed to be in Guatemala to meet her. Jackie is a Young Adult Volunteer with the PC(USA), a program supported by this month’s Pentecost Offering. And as for being in Guatemala, if you or anyone you know is interested in going on Heartland Presbytery’s next mission trip, the dates have been tentatively set for Oct 26-Nov 3, 2012 – this year!
You can find a book chronically our travels in Guatemala on the coffee table in the Parlour. Stop by and plan to spend 30 minutes or so looking through it. Envelopes for our Pentecost Offering will be in our bulletins throughout May. It is only through the support of missions-minded people that we are able to draw so close to those in need and, thus, share in God’s love and care alongside Christian brothers and sisters near and far.
Continued blessings,
Pastor Dave
