The Global Outreach Subcommittee of UPC’s Outreach Committee coordinates the Mission and Outreach work we do with partners around the world and further works to educate the congregation about the lives of people in other nations.
We meet on the first Monday of each month to plan on-going and new efforts. If you have a heart for international outreach, are excited about making outreach a part of the active life of this congregation and in learning more about our siblings around the world, we would welcome your presence and thoughts at our meetings.
We are proud that University Presbyterian Church so generously gives its collective prayers and its financial support for several missionaries from the Presbyterian Mission Agency:
- Karla Koll located in Costa Rica and working with the Universidad Biblica Latinoamericano
- A missionary couple working in the Middle East
For more information on the breadth of the work of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, see: www.presbyterianmission.org
Our Partners in Haiti
Haiti is one of our closest neighbors, yet remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. We are called to partnership with our brothers and sisters there, helping them develop the means to better their own lives, and we also have much to learn from them. University Presbyterian Church has been working for a number of years with several organizations in Haiti to do so, and has also sent mission teams to Haiti almost every year since 2002.
For more information about UPC’s work in Haiti, contact Kay or Sam Leaman or Carolyn Karpinos
St. Joseph's Family Homes
St. Joseph Family, based in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel, is an organization that ministers to the most disadvantaged populations in Haiti—children and adults with disabilities and economically disadvantaged children in the Jacmel community. St. Joseph’s is in the Petionville section of Port au Prince. Wings of Hope is a home for disabled children, and has just completed the building of a new facility in Jacmel on the southern coast of Haiti. To learn more about this ministry, visit www.heartswithhaiti.org.
Family Health Ministries
This Durham based group was founded by David and Kathy Walmer. Working with Haitian partners, they support programs in maternal and child health, nutrition, education and church development in Haiti. They have built and help staff clinics in Blanchard and Leogane, and support child nutrition and education efforts in the mountain community of Fondwa. Family Health Ministries has just completed the Carmelle Voltaire Women’s Health Center and Clinic in Tombe Gato. For more about this ministry, visit http://www.familyhm.org.
Haiti Outreach Ministries
Haiti Outreach Ministries is led by Pastor Leon Dorleans and his wife, the educator Jackie Dorleans. Leon has visited UPC and spoke from our pulpit. He and his partners work in the some of the poorest communities in Haiti, Cite Soleil, Blanchard and Repatriote, as well as in the village of Ibo beach. In each community, they have built a church, schools, and a small clinic, the later in partnership with Family Health Ministries. www.haitioutreachministries.org.
Other Global Partners
Ministry of Hope (Lesotho)
Originally started as a project by Presbyterian missionary, Nancy Dimmock in conjunction with the work of Mamonyane Mohale, the Ministry of Hope – Lesotho has emerged as a program designed to provide quality infant and child care for working and nursing mothers in Lesotho. The program directors there work to meet the basic needs of abandoned and vulnerable infants and young children. To that end, they help displaced children find their families and also attempt to find families for orphaned, lost or estranged children. At any one time, there are 25 children as residents at and under the full care of the Ministry of Hope-Lesotho. Funding for this project was originally and ably managed through Ministry of Hope, Inc. located in Black Mountain, North Carolina. With Nancy’s relocation to the United States and with the blessing of the Black Mountain Board, Government Street Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Alabama is now leading an effort to create a separate non-profit for the sole support of Ministry of Hope Lesotho. UPC is one of the churches that is helping in this effort and Global Outreach continues to support the Ministry of Hope-Lesotho annually. For more information about the work in Lesotho, Africa, visit ministryofhopelesotho.org
School and Leper Colony (Zambia)
Kathy Harding, friend of a UPC member, has founded a sanctuary colony for the care of lepers and a school for their children and for the children of the community of Kachale, Zambia. Harding’s long-time work there has been recognized by non-profits in Great Britian and in Europe, and Global Outreach is proud to be a partner of this community. Our contributions to this ground have been small in the past but have grown in the past two years, and the prayers of our community of faith for this work are bountiful.
Latin Patriarchate School (Palestine)
The Middle East was home to the Jewish people, to Jesus and to the early Church, and remains a home for many Christians, Moslems and Jews. This is a troubled time for the region, and children are especially vulnerable. In an effort to help some of the children caught in the conflict, our Church School has established a partnership with Father Firas of the Melekite Catholic Church and with the Latin Patriarchate School in Zababdeh on the West Bank. Father Firas refers to his work as “building peace on the desktops of children.”
Alternative Gift Market
Each year during Advent, UPC and the Global Outreach Committee host the Alternative Gift Market, offering each of us a chance to honor friends and family at Christmas with gifts that help people in need both in our country and around the world. Programs that your gifts can support include:
- Family Health Ministries, Blanchard Clinic (Haiti)
- Wings of Hope (Haiti)
- Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery (Lesotho)
- Refugee Assistance (Syria and Lebanon)
- Latin Patriarchate School (Palestine)
- Kachale Village – Leper families (Zambia)
- You may also sponsor projects from Alternative Gifts International.
