Care Commission
Care Commission responds to the needs of our church members in a caring, compassionate manner in a number of ways.
Funeral receptions are provided by the wonderful volunteers on our Caring and Sharing Committee.
Each year every member is contacted by our Calling Committee as a means of connection and care.
Food 4 You, through the generous donation of many volunteers, provides frozen home-cooked meals to take to individuals and families in times of need.
Helping Hands coordinates a team that responds to the real-life, unexpected needs of individuals and families in the church.
Using their gifts of knitting, Knit for Others is composed of volunteers who create chemo caps, prayer shawls, infant booties and caps, stocking caps, scarves and mittens, to donate to those who need them.
The Prayer Care Team and the Prayer Chain offer a means of offering prayer for those who have asked for prayer or who have recently been hospitalized.
As part of the Special Pastoral Care Committee, trained volunteers serve as lay visitors to those who have difficulty attending church or who are in need of spiritual friendship.
Through our ESL/Citizenship Team, English tutoring and citizenship preparation classes are offered in our dedicated ESL classroom.
To learn more about the work of the Care Commission or if you have or know of a specific need, please contact Care Commission chair Becky Nohr.
Funeral receptions are provided by the wonderful volunteers on our Caring and Sharing Committee.
Each year every member is contacted by our Calling Committee as a means of connection and care.
Food 4 You, through the generous donation of many volunteers, provides frozen home-cooked meals to take to individuals and families in times of need.
Helping Hands coordinates a team that responds to the real-life, unexpected needs of individuals and families in the church.
Using their gifts of knitting, Knit for Others is composed of volunteers who create chemo caps, prayer shawls, infant booties and caps, stocking caps, scarves and mittens, to donate to those who need them.
The Prayer Care Team and the Prayer Chain offer a means of offering prayer for those who have asked for prayer or who have recently been hospitalized.
As part of the Special Pastoral Care Committee, trained volunteers serve as lay visitors to those who have difficulty attending church or who are in need of spiritual friendship.
Through our ESL/Citizenship Team, English tutoring and citizenship preparation classes are offered in our dedicated ESL classroom.
To learn more about the work of the Care Commission or if you have or know of a specific need, please contact Care Commission chair Becky Nohr.
What's Happening with the ESL Program - Lots!
Late last year we received a Passion Driven Ministry Grant from New Hope Presbytery to upgrade our computers and to partner with West New Bern Presbyterian Church (WNBPC) to better serve the New Bern refugee population with English language and citizenship training.
In February we upgraded our ESL lab with 3 new desktops and a Chromebook to improve reliability and flexibility for training our Montagnard refugees. We will be returning to our larger ESL lab room in August, which we were displaced from because of the hurricane. That will give us a more comfortable learning space with room to expand.
As part of the grant effort we are also focused on partnering with WNBPC and helping them setup an ESL program and lab to serve their refugees. They have many refugees who are eager to learn. We began limited classes with them in late March using a portable Chromebook. Hopefully we will have the ESL lab up and running at WNBPC in June with extra workstations. Also, we will be training their tutors in the near term.
For your information, the refugees come to our churches through the Interfaith Refugee Ministry, which is given Federal money to help them get a new start in New Bern.
The key to making all this work for our churches and sponsored refugees is volunteer tutors. We greatly need additional volunteers to help tutor our refugee population at First Presbyterian and the growing need at WNBPC. We have an easy to use web-based ESL application and one short training session will have you up to speed. If you have available time to volunteer on Thursdays at 6:00 pm at WNBPC and/or Saturday at 9:00 am in our Ministry Center, we would love to have you join us in this wonderful ministry. It is so rewarding to see the students progress in learning English and moving on a path to citizenship.
For more information about our program please contact Gene Peele.
In February we upgraded our ESL lab with 3 new desktops and a Chromebook to improve reliability and flexibility for training our Montagnard refugees. We will be returning to our larger ESL lab room in August, which we were displaced from because of the hurricane. That will give us a more comfortable learning space with room to expand.
As part of the grant effort we are also focused on partnering with WNBPC and helping them setup an ESL program and lab to serve their refugees. They have many refugees who are eager to learn. We began limited classes with them in late March using a portable Chromebook. Hopefully we will have the ESL lab up and running at WNBPC in June with extra workstations. Also, we will be training their tutors in the near term.
For your information, the refugees come to our churches through the Interfaith Refugee Ministry, which is given Federal money to help them get a new start in New Bern.
The key to making all this work for our churches and sponsored refugees is volunteer tutors. We greatly need additional volunteers to help tutor our refugee population at First Presbyterian and the growing need at WNBPC. We have an easy to use web-based ESL application and one short training session will have you up to speed. If you have available time to volunteer on Thursdays at 6:00 pm at WNBPC and/or Saturday at 9:00 am in our Ministry Center, we would love to have you join us in this wonderful ministry. It is so rewarding to see the students progress in learning English and moving on a path to citizenship.
For more information about our program please contact Gene Peele.
Outstanding Older Adult Award
Every year, the Session of each church in our Presbytery is asked to nominate an "outstanding older adult" from their congregation who has throughout their life exhibited extraordinary acts of kindness, charity and volunteered countless time to help those in need. This year the nominee form our church is Skip Bradley. We congratulate Skip for his work and for good deeds done, both seen and unseen. Skip will be presented with his award at a special worship service and recognition ceremony at First Presbyterian Church in Rocky Mount on Sunday, May 19th.
Grief Support Group/ Survivor Support Group
Thank you to everyone who so graciously attended and participated in our survivor support discussion on July 21st. We have created an email list and you should have received our minutes. We will gather again on August 14th in the early evening. Save that date and more details about that evening will be announced soon. Please contact Rev. Lloyd Griffith if you would like more information about this group or if you would like to be added to the this email list. (Lloyd@firstpresnb.org)
Anyone in our congregation who has had a significant loss of a loved one is invited to an initial meeting for a grief support group. We will gather on Sunday, July 21, in the Session House following morning worship. Our focus will be on ways we can best support each other when someone we love dies. Please let us know of your interest in participating in this group by signing up with the receptionist in the church office or contact Lloyd Griffith.