Serve

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. — Matthew 25:34-40

Outreach commitments are a high priority for our congregation at First United Presbyterian Church. Individual members commit to life-long active service and join together to extend their reach beyond what an individual can achieve. Far beyond the corner of Calvin and Knox, our mission extends God’s love and compassion around our community, the Presbytery of Arkansas, the U.S.A., and the world. The Outreach Committee plays a small role to help support some of the many efforts of individual members.

Hands-on service

Community development work is a partnership

We stress hands-on involvement and becoming personally involved in serving as Christ’s hands and heart in the world is a goal for each member as emphasized in our congregational vision. These practical involvements sustain and uplift members who undertake them, and encourage the whole church family.

Some of us devote time for purchasing and sorting needed food and supplies or interviewing patrons at the food bank of Fayetteville’s Cooperative Emergency Outreach. Others may plan, prepare, or deliver a lunch meal for 100 patrons of Fayetteville’s Seven Hills Homeless Shelter. Others may join building crews at local Habitat sites or in more distant hurricane relief home rebuilding projects on the gulf coast, or those affected by tornados. Still others may teach and escort Sunday School children to the headquarters of Arkansas’ own Heifer International, which provides animals for sustainable agriculture around the world. We are working on new ways of organizing “hands on” service and outreach in order to make it more feasible for a larger percentage of our congregation.

It’s the goal of the Outreach & Service Committee that all members find a way to donate their time and talents to the community.  We have many possibilities and opportunities for everyone.

Get involved!

Global outreach

We have also set a goal of a longer-term involvement with one global outreach involvement that can become a sustained relationship of mutual support over a number of years. Our ministry with the Presbytery of Honduras includes working through PC(USA) missionaries and Heifer Project International to serve alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ building homes in rural Honduras. We also have partnered with other Presbyterian congregations in Northwest Arkansas and across Arkansas in extending Solar Under the Sun and Living Waters for the World into Honduras, bringing sustainable power to communities “off the grid.” Scholarships for children to continue their education past the 6th grade, when tuition is required, and Spanish language children’s Bibles are another part of our NW Arkansas ministry in Honduras.

Our legacy is firmly grounded. Individual members through the years have been instrumental in helping to found or direct important community outreach organizations in Northwest Arkansas, such as Butterfield Trail Village, Cooperative Emergency Outreach, Life Styles, Single Parent Scholarship Fund, local chapters of Habitat for Humanity, First School and others.

Financial support from First United Presbyterian Church continues to embrace local, regional and world-wide outreach efforts, in cooperation with the national PC(USA), the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. We strive to educate and inform members of the good their contributions do in spreading the gospel, serving the common good, and helping the world to better reflect God’s purpose of wholeness for it.

Some of the current Outreach projects:

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