Mission

First Presbyterian is involved in many dimensions of Mission. Foreign mission is of great interest. We are represented by two volunteers currently in India, five families with long term service in India, Brazil and Egypt, and three persons with short-term teaching in Egypt. We lend monetary support to the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS) in Egypt, and to mission work in Thailand, Ethiopia, Brazil and many other places. The Mission budget of $65,200 is 14% of the general church budget and is almost equally split between local and non-local causes. We provide support to projects developed by our Presbytery and we contribute financially to national Presbyterian offerings.

A distinctive feature of our high school program is our annual Mission trip led by the Youth Minister. Youth have been involved in work camp projects serving Native Americans in Alaska, Maine and Arizona, as well as the rural and urban poor in West Virginia and Seattle, Washington.

The building of a health clinic in El Paraiso, a community in the Dominican Republic, has become an annual work project for our college youth and Mission Trip alums.

We have also promised to walk with the Surma people in prayer for the establishment of the church in their land. To visit the Surma website, please click on SURMA.

MOCA

A new mission partnership of First Presbyterian is MOCA (Manse On College Avenue), a recovery facility for persons who are coping with mental illness. For one dollar a year, our congregation is providing the building space (the manse previously occupied by our associate pastor), ample parking, an overseer for building improvements (our Maintenance Director), as well as some supplies and volunteers for the effort. Local members of Kiwanis, Rotary, and Lions working together with the Wayne-Holmes Mental Health Coalition have come together to help renovate the manse and make it appropriate for its new use. We are excited to be a part of this ministry of social justice and peacemaking in the Wooster area.