This year we delivered close to 500 pounds of canned, boxed and personal goods to Echo, plus 75 pounds of fresh produce.
Members of our Mission Committee Denise Pentecost, Susanne Korta and Marlyn Weinell with bags for the International Refugee Committee.
These Hygiene Kits will be one of the first items clients will receive after living in refugee camps across the world, traveling for multiple days with no break, and arriving in Tallahassee with not many items of their own. Clients will finally be able to sit down and rest after so much travel and utilize these hygiene kits to clean their children, brush their own hair, feel better about themselves and feel clean after such long travels here. Hygiene is a basic right to feel the most confident in yourself and our church will provide that to these families.
Our Mission Outreach
The mission programs and opportunities we support include:
Dogwood Acres Presbytery Camp and Conference Center
E.C.H.O. (Emergency Care Help Organization)
Habitat for Humanity
UKirk Tallahassee (Presbyterian Campus Ministry at FSU)
Presbytery of Florida
Refuge House: homeless and/or those in need of shelter
Chelsea House: homeless, assistance, training
Girl and Boy Scout programs
Kearney Center: shelter and meals
Thornwell Home for Children, Clinton SC
Montreat National Presbyterian Conference Center
The Big Red Bus
The Big Red Bus Needs YOU! The Big Red Bus will be here: Sunday, April 14th from 10am-12:30pm Invite your friends and neighbors... let's ALL do our part!!!
UKirk Tallahassee
Lafayette wholeheartedly supports UKirk Tallahassee, the Presbyterian Ministry at FSU: financially, through Board representation, through service projects, and through occasional provision of dinners on Thursday nights, just prior to UKirk Tallahassee's "Listening Point." To learn more, visit PUC's website at www.ukirktallahassee.com.
Dogwood Acres Camp and Retreat Center
Dogwood Acres is the outdoor ministry of the Presbytery of Florida. The mission of Dogwood Acres is to provide a retreat environment in which individuals and groups can grow in faith, and enjoy wholesome recreation and Christian fellowship in a natural and unspoiled part of creation. View the website or, better yet, visit in person to experience first-hand the beautiful gift that is Dogwood Acres. Contact Ben Powell, Camp Director, for more information and to schedule retreats. You may also contact Kay Lachat at Lafayette Presbyterian Church for volunteer opportunities, including serving as retreat host for scheduled groups or participating in workdays and year-round projects at the camp.
Buddy Bench Ministry
We are sorry to announce that we no longer are able to participate in the Buddy Bench Project. If you do though have a need for 13 full garbage bags of caps, please contact the church.
E.C.H.O. (Emergency Care Help Organization)
Lafayette members regularly donate items to the E.C.H.O. center on S. Gadsden St. in Tallahassee to help those who need immediate assistance with food, clothing, and furniture. During the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons there are special drives, and we participate in the "Souper Bowl of Caring" each February.
Each year, Lafayette supports Souper Bowl Sunday, collecting cans of soup and cash for E.C.H.O. on Super Bowl Sunday.
Shelter Missions
Lafayette supports the Kearney Center, the Refuge House, and Chelsea House through donations and volunteer services
Crafts for Missions/Prayer Quilt Group
This group of caring ladies crafting handmade items for missions developed out of our Prayer Quilt Group. The Prayer Quilt program is currently inactive, but an occasional lap quilt or pieced pillow has been created. The Crafts for Missions group currently meets on the fourth Thursday of each month. They meet in our Christian Education Building at 1:30PM. The meetings are very informal and fellowship is a large part of the meetings. The group provides items for several different missions. The different missions are focused on in a rotating basis, depending on current need. New craft ideas and missions are always encouraged. Currently the group contributes to the following missions:
Operation Christian Child Shoe Boxes is one of our major missions. Some of the items that are crafted for the boxes include loom knitted hats, jewelry, crouched items of various types, jump ropes braided from T-shirt strips, sunglass cases, various toy animals, small skirts and shorts, and many other items.
To PSUSA Disaster Assistance the group sends flannel baby blankets, fleece baby and youth blankets, loom knitted hats, and various layette items.
Courage Through Cancer is a local mission and the group provides soft loomed knitted hats for chemo patients.
Little Dresses for Africa is a mission that sends simple but very cute dresses to under developed countries.
Westminster Oaks is a mission close to our hearts. Adult dinning scarves are provided to residents, especially in the Health Care Center.
Thornwell Children’s Home has been sent colorful pillow cases designated for children that come to Thornwell in a crisis situation.
Click on the button to the right to read much more about Missions at Lafayette.