What is new about CARITAS at TCPC this year? We are hosting Families this year. Being family focused will bring new and exciting experiences for everyone involved. It is exciting to have the chance to help families with children ranging from infants to teenagers.
If you are not familiar with CARITAS, or Congregations Around Richmond Involved To Assure Shelter, it began in the mid-1990's as a response to homeless adults during the cold winter months. Today, CARITAS has grown to become a year-round, full-serve shelter program for both single adults and families. By hosting CARITAS our congregation is serving as a first line of community support for anyone in need of emergency shelter. CARITAS fills an alarming gap in the shelter system by reaching segments of the population ineligible for any other program such as adults facing addictions, families without fathers, large families and families with adolescent sons. CARITAS also provides case management services to work with each willing client to address financial, legal, medical and mental health steps toward establishing self-sufficiency.
Many hands are needed when a congregation serves as a host site. Volunteers are needed for various tasks including: setting up cots and linens, preparing and serving meals and snacks, providing lunches, being overnight volunteers to assist the CARITAS staff person, transporting guests to showers at the YMCA, laundering the clothes of our guests, providing toiletry kits, providing newspapers & DVD's, playing games and interacting with guests, etc. In previous years interested volunteers have provided haircuts, assisted with sewing repairs and clothing alterations, provided welcome cards or placemats, sponsored a crafts night, assisted guests with income tax filing, and many more needs.
Please open your hearts and become involved in this ministry as our congregation prepares to host CARITAS. To volunteer and/or learn more, submit this form, find the sign-up boards in the Upstairs Fellowship Hall or contact Jim Behne (929-0217) or Heather Lufkin (741-7386.)
Did you know you stay informed about the church's work in Haiti via the Haiti Mission Network?
When TCPC-ers give to the 5¢-a-meal Hunger Offering, we are helping our Haitian sisters and brothers have "tilapia for dinner."
The fish farm in Bohoc, Haiti supplies about 600 pounds of tilapia per year to the Matthew 28 Orphanage - about 70 children plus staff and their families, and even to the Bohoc community. Our 5¢-a-meal Hunger Offering, totaling $3,947 in 2011, flows 100% to the POJ (Presbytery of the James) where one of the projects supported is this Haitian Fish Farm.
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Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will GO for us? And I said, Here am I; send me! And he said GO! Isaiah 6:8-9
GO! - a monthly outreach ministry event which takes us OUT INTO THE WORLD to help others and be Christ's hands and heart. Each month, beginning in October 2010, TCPC volunteers GO! We have traveled outside of our TCPC walls and provided hands-on assistance to a local outreach agency. Our goal is for EACH TCPC Member to participate in at least 1 GO! event this year. We are trying to schedule a variety of activities at a number of different locations throughout this year through this new GO! ministry. It is our hope that TCPC members young and older will participate as we GO! out and share God's love by donating our time, hands and heart in working with others who are doing the same.
Stephen Ministry gives TCPC an effective way to train and organize members to provide one-to-one Christian care to individuals struggling with a crisis like grief, divorce, loneliness, relocation, hospitalization, a terminal illness, or unemployment. The need for this type of care greatly exceeds what pastors alone can provide.
While the Prayer Shawl Ministry at TCPC began in September 2007, the concept of the Prayer Shawl Ministry began in 1998 in Hartford, Connecticut, with a group that combined care and the love of knitting or crocheting into a prayerful ministry that reaches out to those in need of comfort and solace. The website www.shawlministry.com is the source of patterns and prayers. Prayer for the recipient during the making of the shawl is a key concept. The hope for the prayer shawl is that it will bring comfort and remind the recipient of God’s love and of the love and support of the church community.
The prayer shawls go to church members and their family members in times of sickness, injury and death. Baby hats are knit for expectant mothers. We also honor special requests from the congregation and others who may have a friend, co-worker or family member in need. The members of the Prayer Shawl Ministry pray over the completed shawls and hats before delivery. A special card has been Prayer Shawl Ministrydeveloped with the church’s stain glass window on the cover.
Participants in the Prayer Shawl Ministry knit or crochet at home or in meetings at church on Wednesday nights from 7 to 8pm in the Work Room from fall through spring. In the summer, we meet once a month at a member’s home. Besides knitters/crochet-ers, we have volunteers who deliver prayer shawls and baby hats.
We welcome new members of all ages and all skill levels at any time of the year. We have excellent instructors in the group.
In the first year of this ministry, 95 shawls/baby hats were given; in year two, 132 shawls/baby hats were given; and so far in year three 103 shawls/baby hats have been given.
The Mission and Service Committee meets the 4th Monday of each month at 7:00pm in the Senior High Room at TCPC. All are invited --- Please come join us is outreach such as Domestic & International Mission Trips, CARITAS (Congregations Around Richmond Involved to Assure Shelter), Habitat for Humanity, Recycling and special Christmas Time Ministries.
We seek to support Seminary Students at Union Presbyterian Seminary here in Richmond... Follow the link above!
Welcome to Three Chopt Presbyterian Church!
We invite you to join us! We have Inquirer classes in the fall, winter and spring at 10:00 am on Sundays in the Parlor. This class gives you a chance to meet other prospective members, elders and leaders of the church, and to learn much more about Three Chopt Presbyterian Church. Review the following and contact one of the pastors with any questions.
There are several easy ways to become a member:
a. by Profession of Faith in Jesus Christ, and Baptism -- If you have not been baptized, you may join by making a public profession of faith and being baptized. Those previously baptized simply need to publicly profess their faith.
b. by Reaffirmation of Faith -- If you have been a member of a Christian church but have not been active in recent years, you may join by reaffirming your need of and dependence on Christ
c. by Certificate of Transfer -- If you have made a profession of faith and are a member of another church, you may join by transferring your membership. After you join Three Chopt, we will contact your former church and request your certificate of membership transfer.
The Day You Join - You will gather for photographs and a meeting with the Session. You will be received into membership by answering the following questions:
1. Do you trust in Jesus Christ and accept him as your Lord and Savior?
2. Do you intend to be Christ's faithful disciple, seeking to obey his teaching and to show his love to your life's end?
3. Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in your baptism, to be a faithful member of this congregation, to share in its ministry through your prayers and gifts, your study and service, and so fulfill your calling to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
You will be welcomed and introduced to the congregation at a worship service following your meeting with the Session.
TCPC hosts a food pantry to help provide people with their daily bread! CLICK on the Food Basket and learn more...
