wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Pentecost money helps needy children

[Deeanna Alford <dalford@CTR.PCUSA.ORG>]

04244
May 21, 2004

Pentecost money helps needy children

Annual Offering has 2nd benefit: Young volunteer finds calling

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Three years ago, Joann Ashley was teaching elementary school
in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, and she was happy.

	The 25-year-old Presbyterian had a good job, good friends and a
quiet home in the small town of Brevard, just 75 miles southeast of Bryson
City, where she grew up, went to high school and worshipped at Bryson City
Presbyterian Church.

	"Life was good," recalls Ashley, a 1997 graduate of Appalachian
State University in Boone, NC.

	But everything changed for the third-grade teacher when she "felt a
tugging from God" to be in full-time ministry.

	"I had no clue what that was to look like, but I knew I had to
explore the possibilities," says Ashley, now 28.

	She considered attending seminary, but decided that wasn't the
right path to take at the time.

	"I felt Christ was calling, but I just didn't know the answer," she
says.

	Her path became clear when she learned about the Presbyterian
Church (USA)'s Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program, which since 1994 has
provided yearlong mission opportunities for young people between the ages
of 19 and 30.

	Volunteers serve in the United States and overseas. They live
together in community, serve in Christian ministries and meet regularly for
prayer and Bible study.

	As of 2002, more than 600 young people had participated in the
program, which is sponsored by the National Volunteers Office in the
PC(USA)'s National Ministries Division.

	Ashley says she got exactly what she needed: "A year to serve God,
and a year to discern what God was calling me to do in ministry."

	In September 2001, she was called to North Presbyterian Church, an
urban congregation with about 100 active members in an impoverished
neighborhood in Cincinnati, OH.

	She worked with troubled children and served Churches Active in
Northside (CAIN), which provides crisis assistance to more than 200
families a month - helping them with food, rent and utility assistance, bus
tokens, clothing, and household items.

	Through a partnership between Cincinnati's Council of Urban
Churches and the YAV program, Ashley built relationships with people around
her "while developing a closer relationship with God."

	At the Cincinnati church, she led youth groups, took part in Bible
studies, taught Sunday school classes and escorted kids on mission trips,
including one to Mexico.

	Hoping to accomplish more, she got permission to stay in the
program for a second year. Toward the end of that follow-up year, her
calling for the immediate future became clear.

	"I came away knowing that He was not finished with me in
Cincinnati," Ashley says. "I had more to learn and more to do."

	She was soon hired by North Presbyterian as an urban missioner in
youth and children's ministry and by the Presbytery of Cincinnati as the
site coordinator for the YAV program in Cincinnati.

	"When I see these kids and their struggles," she says, "and to be
able to have an opportunity to make an impact in their lives and in the
lives of their parents ... is just an awesome responsibility, and it's very
humbling."

	She has the Pentecost Offering to thank for some of her
life-transforming experiences.

	The YAV program is supported by the Offering, one of four special
offerings of the PC(USA). It is collected on Pentecost Sunday, which this
year is on May 30.

	Sixty-percent of the money collected will go to national-level
PC(USA) programs for children, youth and young adults, including the Child
Advocacy Office, the Presbyterian Youth Connection and Young Adult
Volunteers.

	Congregations will keep the other 40 percent to pay for projects
for children deemed "at risk."

	The first Pentecost Offering was collected in 1998. So far the
proceeds have totaled almost $4 million, according to Billie Healy, project
manager for the Offering.

	This year's Offering theme is "Together with Christ We Will Be
Given What God Has Promised," from Paul's Epistle to the Romans. The
emphasis is the promise of the gospel - the certainty that God is with us
now and is propelling us into a future of justice and joy.

	Ashley's story and her ministry at North Presbyterian typify the
successes of the Pentecost Offering in making a difference in children's
lives, Healy said.

	"It is one concrete way people can make a difference, not only in
their community, but also in the church," she said. "We need to invest in
them - make space for their growth - so they can lead their church into the
next generation."

	How can congregations invest their portion of the offering? Among
the suggestions of the Pentecost Offering leader's guide:

	*Become a partner in existing programs in your presbytery or
synod.
	*Combine your share of the Offering with those of other
congregations in your area to address a community need.
	*Sponsor someone who works with "at-risk" children or youth.
	*Provide support for a local food pantry.
	*Purchase car seats for infants.
	*Support your local fire department's safety education program.

	Pentecost Offering packets were mailed to congregations in
February. To order additional materials, call (800) 524-2612. Many
resources, including some in Spanish, can be downloaded from the Offering
Web site: www.pcusa.org/pentecost.

	For more information contact Teresa Mader by email at
tmader@ctr.pcusa.org or by phone at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5121, or Healy
by email at Bhealy@ctr.pcusa.org or by phone at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5689.

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