Opportunities to Serve the Poor
Through Trinitarian Congregational Church
- Hurricane Katrina Relief
TCC sends teams of adults and youth down to New Orleans on average twice a year. We partner with a church where we are housed and fed, and work with families recommended by that church at rehabilitating their homes. TCC has sent four teams to date and rehabilitated on home. Our February 200 7 team had the great joy of Seeing Audrey and Carleton Roy, Who is diabled and would never have been able to complete this work, move back into their home, 18 months after the hurricane. Our next team will identify a new family with whom to work. This is a very inexpensive and rewarding way to serve. Contact: Gina Grenier: GPGrenier@comcast.net
- Dominican Republic
Twenty-two children in Batey #7 outside Barahona, DR need support each month. They are Spanish-speaking Haitians living in slavery conditions from which they cannot escape economically. $30 per month will give them food, clothing, and education through our colleague, Pastor Wilfredo Susana. Supporters will received a picture of their child and may correspond with him or her and send gifts. These children would be easy to visit, also. Support is sent through the church, and Rich Lippmann will help you select a child. Contact: Rich Lippmann:
rclippmann@verizon.net
3. India
Fifty-three orphans, eighteen lepers, and eight destitute women reside in the Joyce Scott Memorial Center in Tamil Nadu, India. TCC built this facility between 2004 and the present. $25 per month will support one of them, and our hope is that support will be needed for only two years. Supporters will receive a picture and can correspond and send gifts, and may travel and visit with the person they support. Support is sent through Glad Tidings India, whose President, Bill Teate, will help you select an individual to support.
Support: Rev. Bill Teate, 717.768.0388 Glad Tidings India, 53 Harristown Road, Paradise, PA 17562
www.gladtidingsindia.org
4. Haiti
We work through Rev. Dieseul Estivene, a lawyer and Pastor of the Berean Evangelical Baptist Church of Cite Soleil and Delmas. The school in the Cite Soleil church has a feeding program for 350 students that costs $3,850 per month. The meal is usually the only one the children eat each day. The church/vocational school/secondary school that is being built in Delmas may be completed for approximately $25,000.
Members of Trinitarian Congregational Church believe in obedience to the Lord's commission to go into all the world to preach the Gospel, to baptize believers, and to care for the saints. Recognizing the limitations of single individuals, the church has pledged to do its part in fulfilling the Lord's commission through its body of believers, by corporately supporting individual missionaries and organizations through prayer, monetary and physical gifts. The missions program of TCC also seeks to encourage members to consider missions as a full time vocation by promoting short-term mission trips as a means to expose individuals to mission opportunities. Trips to Haiti and Mexico have resulted in great spiritual growth among participants and heightened missions awareness among the congregation. More trips are planned.
The church financially supports 40 missionaries or families and 12 organizations. Of these, 19 missionaries and 2 organizations serve outside our country. The missions budget is approximately 28% of total church spending.
TCC has joined with four other churches to form the Eastern Massachusetts Missions Consortium. The Consortium corporately supplies 90% of its selected missionaries' financial needs. This encourages individuals from its congregations to consider missions as a career by eliminating the need for extensive fund raising activity, an activity that many called to Christ's work feel ill equipped to perform, which delays initial deployment to the field and absorbs furlough time intended for rest and rejuvenation. Each year, one missionary from among candidates from member churches will be chosen to receive 90% support. Three more churches are being sought which will bring the total to eight. The sponsoring church will provide 20% of the need and the remaining seven churches 10% each while 10% will be raised by the missionary from family and friends in order to broaden prayer support.
TCC presently supports seven missionaries who have grown up in the church and who are now serving in various parts of the world. Its commitment to and support of missions has been and will continue to be strong.
