MISSIONS AND OUTREACH
Do you feel as though to build your faith you need to exercise it - by collecting food for the hungry, tutoring children, visiting someone who is alone, or supporting missionaries overseas? To learn more check out the opportunities below to serve God at Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church.
MICAH MINISTRY
Micah is an outreach of Independence Boulevard Christian Church (IBCC) in the Historic Northeast and one of our Northeast PartNErship ministries. Every Monday evening from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., nourishing suppers are served to their neighbors in need, mostly the working poor. Unlike some meal programs, the guests are served at tables, with tablecloths, rather than having them stand in a line to be fed. Every Monday it takes 70 volunteers to serve dinner, staff the children’s ministries, clean up, and manage the clothing room.
Crop Walk
CROP (Christian Rural Overseas Program) Hunger Walks are community-based walk events held in cities and towns across the United States, raising funds to support the global mission oF Church World Service, a faith-based organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement and disaster. Twenty five percent of the funds raised are returned to the host community to support local hunger fighting efforts.
SUMMER LUNCH MINISTRY
For over 10 years the Raytown Summer Lunch Ministry has provided lunches to children during the gap between the end of summer school and the beginning of the school year. The ministry has delivered lunches to children at apartment complexes, schools and homes. During 2020 and 2021 the ministry is operating differently, by providing sacks of groceries once a week to families. We hope to return to the original plan in 2022. BRPC has supported this ministry by preparing lunches, delivering them to three sites in Raytown, and making a sizable donation each year.
PEB (Packistan Education Board)
For several years, the Mission and Outreach committee has sent funds raised at our "Sloppy Joe Cafe" to Friends of PEB, a US- based group of Presbyterians that channels money and other support to Presbyterian education in Pakistan. Our donations have helped build and furnish both a boarding school for girls and a day school for boys in Sargodha, Pakistan. Mrs. Veda Gill, the director, has visited with BRPC twice and preached in our pulpit.
NOROC (new opportunities for orphaned children)
In 2003, we began to support NOROC. At that time, Rev. Mary Ferris, was the missionary in Romania and worked with orphaned and abandoned children at two facilities. The following year, Mary visited our church and we were able to hear first hand about the work being done there.
Conditions in Romania were spotty, at best, and the government was hard to work with, but many innovative programs were started.
reap (Raytown Emergency Assistance Program)
The mission of REAP (Raytown Emergency Assistance Program) is to consistently deliver emergency services to those in need in the Raytown MO C-2 School District; making the clients dignity, self esteem and stabilization a top priority. These emergency services include rent, utilities, food pantry, etc.
Each spring Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church holds a Pancake Breakfast/Bake Sale to benefit REAP. It is a joint effort with Property and Mission and Outreach Committees. Check the calendar for the date!
blue ridge elementary
Blue Ridge Elementary School and Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church are directly across the street from each other. Through the years Blue Ridge Church members have had the opportunity to form relationships with both staff and students. Church members have provided food for special occasions to honor teachers and have attended and participated in fund raisers such as the school carnival. Some members have volunteered weekly in the classrooms.
We hope to continue in this relationship as the Covid virus eases.
Scouts
We have hosted BSA and GSUSA troops over the years. BRPC was hosting a Boy Scout Troop and a Cub Scout Pack weekly prior to the pandemic. We will currently be hosting Cub Scout Pack 550 on Tuesday nights. One of our members is the COR, Chartered Organizational Representative, for this Pack.
