First Presbyterian Church of Potsdam, New York

A community gathering in Christ and ministering as God leads

Serving Others

Disaster Relief Info

Disasters seemingly have multiplied in occurence this year all over the world, including here in the U.S. You can help the victims of Hurricane Katrina recover by sending your donation to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (Presbyterian Church USA). In addition, there are many good organizations, such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Socieites who report on humanitarian efforts around the world and provide you a channel for sending relief funds.

Continue to support victims everywhere with your prayers. Here is a prayer, written after 9/11, by The Rev. Dr. Clinton McCoy, Executive Presbytery of the Presbytery of Northern New York.

Each year the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance team puts out an annual report delineating all the different programs that have helped those in need. This year’s report is called “Out of Chaos” and is available for perusal in the Church Center. Please take the time to look at the many ways in which Presbyterians and their families have aided those in distress.

Global Mission Work

We celebrate the graduation of our tuition-funded Tanzanian students. Our other global mission projects include: General Mission giving, participation in the Heifer Project, support of the Malawi shallow well program, and our active participation in Crop Walk. We are active in supporting Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, sometimes through PCUSA and other times directly.

Service to the Local Community

By sharing our church facilities, we reach out to and serve the local community. Here is a partial list of groups who rent our facilities:

• Headstart
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• Tango with Todd

We recently improved our Church Center facilities: outside - replacing the play area fencing; inside - creating new storage space, remodeling the bathrooms, installing new flooring in the classrooms, and purchasing new lighter weight, adjustable, multi-use tables.

We offer the local community a faith journey ministry for all ages: for the younger children, a sermon just for them each Sunday, also weekly Sunday School and Vacation Bible School in the summer. There is also a youth ministry with weekly meetings and a special ministry to college students. Adult religious study classes are held throughout the year. Church members receive the publication "Presbyterians Today" as a way to connect with the greater mission work of the Presbyerian Church at large. The local community is invited to share in this faith journey ministry.

Ministry to the local community is one of the main missions of our church. We help provide monthly community dinners, and an annual Spaghetti dinner. We award grants to community groups whose plans show the face of God. Other important endeavors include participation in MINC (Ministries in the North Country) programs, regularly contributing to the food pantry and supporting local non-profit agencies. There is a service component to many of our church committees and groups, some are highlighted below.

MINC (Ministries in the North Country)

MINC-Rural Rehab projects

MINC-Rural Rehab Needs Your Help! Rural Rehab had a very productive summer again, our last Work Group has come and gone. Our summer projects began even before the first Work Group arrived, when Jim Bruno and Bud Skiff built a wheelchair ramp here in Potsdam so a lady who had had a stroke could come home from the hospital in the wheelchair to which she is now confined. We got the call, the Outreach Workers got busy, measurements were taken, materials were ordered and delivered by Merriman's, thanks to Ranota Hewitson, and the homeowner is now safe in her newly accessible home. Our own local group of volunteers recently finished a project in Star Lake. (More...) It is heartening to be able to respond to folks in need. We can use your financial help to replenish our funds for transportation and materials. Checks should be made payable to "MINC-Rural Rehab” and given to Eleanor Hopke or mailed to her at 68 Elm Street, Potsdam 13676. Please help us continue to be able to say "yes" when the call comes.

Here is a sample report on a MINC-Rural Rehab project in our local community that was accomplished successfully:

"Under the skillful direction of Gordon Batson, we met in the Church parking lot and journeyed out to Morley to dig a ditch and create a raised walkway so a very nice lady could finally get from her front door to her driveway without wading through mud. Linda Caamano, Norm Marshall and his sister (who probably thought she was coming for a quiet visit to Potsdam), Bud Skiff, Dave Morrison, Neil Johnson, Pastor Rich, Ray Toland (who brought his front end loader), and Cynthia Coleman dug dirt, shoveled and spread gravel, and carefully laid paving tiles. It was a beautiful day for working outside, and a wonderful experience to work together to make a family's home safer and easier to enter. As members of the congregation, you participated in this project too, since Mission funds were used to pay for some of the materials used. Thank you for caring about those in need, and supporting these kinds of activities."

Other MINC projects

Thanks to the generosity of our church and other MINC congregations, 30 Thanksgiving baskets were prepared for distribution to families in need. One basket came back to Potsdam, where the Deacons had identified a family to help in this way. Others were distributed over an area from Evans Mills to Chase Mills and Crary Mills.

Another MINC project is Foster Kids' Christmas, which prepares gifts for teens in foster care in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties. Many programs exist to provide for infants and young children, but teens are often overlooked, perhaps because they are a more challenging group. MINC Works with Social Services caseworkers who come up with suggestions on what gifts to buy for each teen. These suggestions are posted in the churches supporting this MINC Project. Some donate the gifts; some donate money, and some donate their time to buy and wrap these gifts, and then to distribute them. If you wish to donate money, please send a check to Bonnie Boyd, MINC Receiving Treasurer, 5 Douglas Road, Norwood, NY 13668, and she will see that it gets to the shoppers for Foster Kids Christmas.

Another important MINC project is the Emergency Fund which helps local families who need assistance to heat their homes in the winter. as the cost of heating homes continues to increase. We've already noticed the changes in our own bills. Again, Bonnie Boyd will be heartened to receive your donations.

Learn more about MINC - a mission program in the Presbytery of Northern New York.

Mission Committee (more...)

The Mission Committee disperses mission funds as appropriated. Approximately 12% of the Church's budgeted expenditures (based on church membership) goes towards General Assembly Mission projects.

Other budgeted mission funds were used recently to support: hurricane/flood victims relief funds (through Church World Service), Tsunami victims relief, Heifer International, and several local projects such as Rural Rehab, MINC Foster Kids Program, and "Helping Hands" (a home rebuilding project). Money was transferred from the Second Century Fund to provide grants to the American Red Cross (St. Lawrence County), Planned Parenthood of Northern New York, Renewal House (in Canton), and Hospice and Palliative of St. Lawrence County. And a contribution was also made to the Pastors Charitable Fund. The Committee organizes several special events: The Crop Walk, food collections for Helping Hands, as well as community dinners and the annual spaghetti dinner. The Mission Committee conducts special offerings during year: Souper Bowl Sunday, One Great Hour of Sharing, and Christmas Joy.

Deacons (more...)

The Deacons organize Jubilee Christmas (in 2004 providing gifts for 56 children in 42 low income households) and Jubilee Easter (in 2004 providing dinners for 42 low-income families). In addition, the Deacons provide weekly hospital visits to church members, and also maintain a prayer chain for all those in our local community who are in need of spiritual, physical and/or emotional support. Cards are sent to church members who are ill or who are suffering a loss or rejoicing in a happy event.

The Ladies Guild (more...)

The Ladies Guild provides their services for projects such as the spring and fall rummage sales, which benefit not only buyers who need items at very reasonable prices, but also donors who want to recycle items they no longer use.

The group also contributes soup to the joint Lenten Luncheons of local churches. Their craft talents show up in the baby quilts which are sewn for each new baby in our church; they also made the banners which adorn the Church Center. Their mission projects include helping to support SERRV (which provides a non-profit market for handicrafts made by families in Developing World Countries) by the pre-Christmas selling of catalog SERRV items. Their also make knitted and rolled bandages to ship overseas and donate their funds to world and local mission projects. The Ladies Guild has also taken upon itself the duty of "kitchen patrol" (refrigerator inspection and cleaning, and generally making the kitchen more user-friendly for church as well as outside groups who use our facilities).