A note from
Rev. Rob Warren
It’s been a month – so, for the benefit of a mission program that is already present here, I want to challenge you. A while back, the Presbytery of Western North Carolina realized how many families in our world live in need. They have challenged every member of every church to donate a nickel for every meal they eat. A nickel each meal averages out to about $54.75 per person, per year. First Presbyterian Church has answered that challenge and when we were meeting in person, the donations were collected on the second Sunday of the month. Since we haven’t been meeting regularly, our donations to support this ministry have not been as consistent as they once were.
That doesn’t seem like a lot (about $1.05 a week). Hear the good news, when you collect fishes and loaves from a multitude, God can intervene and things may multiply. According to our last statistical report (2020), there are nearly 14000 members of churches in this presbytery. If just 10% of the Presbyterians in this region participate, that is over $75,000 to feed families in and around our churches. If 90% participated? That would mean that almost $690,000 would be donated.
Those funds are donated to the Presbytery as a designated gift (for the Presbytery Hunger Committee) and then given out in grants to organizations that are following the Presbytery guidelines and are endorsed by local churches. 55% of the money donated goes to international projects. Forty cents for every dollar (2 cents for each nickel) stays in this region. Then comes administration costs.
What the program does in the world is important, but what it gives the church is just as vital. Every person from every church is invited to attend. It is a truly “equal opportunity” mission. It reminds each of us that we are blessed and reminds us, with each meal, we receive a blessing from God. Most importantly, it starts with the communion table, and reaches out into the world.
So, we’re putting the two together.
For the foreseeable future, we will be collecting the nickel-a-meal donations on the first Sunday during the public communion we host in the parking lot (First Sunday of each month, noon until 1pm). It is not a requirement to receive communion, but God’s offering to us in Christ has long been linked to our response to God’s grace by offering our lives – our skills, our time, our resources – in service to God. I hope to see you each first Sunday, and I hope this message finds you well.
Rob