Join us in embodying the true spirit of Christmas by supporting the Justice Committee’s Alternative Christmas Giving, benefiting several international programs. Explore all our programs below. Donations can be made online or via check to NYAPC. Join us in giving the gift of justice this Christmas!
Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Program, Njoro, Kenya
Started in 2007 with crucial support from the Alternative Christmas program, the OVC ministry provides a Saturday program for 35 orphans and vulnerable youth in Njoro, Kenya. It offers comprehensive assistance: food, clothing, shoes and uniforms, school supplies, tuition fees, physical fitness equipment, and educational, spiritual, and recreational activities including tutoring. The program employs three teachers and two cooks. At the close of each Saturday, the students are given a bag of corn flour, a much-needed staple, to take home.
An additional support: a table banking initiative helps the guardians start their own small businesses. This initiative has led them to have more sustainable income to provide food and other necessities.
Most importantly, your contributions help to fund a full-time social worker who oversees the program. She is an invaluable asset! She visits the homes and schools of the children, assesses each child’s needs, and provides counseling.
The partnership is all about relationship. Perhaps the most important benefit to the children is the loving encouragement and spiritual support they receive from program staff, their mentors from the Njoro Church, and each other. More Info at nyapc.org (Ministries).
First Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Havana
An urban church whose peace-and-justice ministry resembles NYAPC’s, La Iglesia Presbiteriana-Reformada de la Habana is recognized internationally for rich and varied mission work. This self-termed “Light in the City” occupies Havana’s oldest Protestant sanctuary and also encourages house-based spiritual gatherings. Its programs have included a school for the elderly, a telephone hotline, a library, Tai Chi classes, active youth and young-adult programs, and distribution of clothing and medicines to the community.
First Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Havana has been NYAPC’s sister church since 1999 and a partner church since 2005. We mirror each other’s programs and commitment to ministry as two historic churches in our nations’ capitals. First Presbyterian’s history is storied. Its sanctuary, erected in 1906, is now a designated National Historical Site in Cuba.
NYAPC’s Christmas gifts to support its ministry and new programs are especially needed now: Church programs have been impacted by worsening economic conditions, energy shortages, rolling blackouts and lack of gasoline for transport; lack of medicines, medical equipment and supplies; and rising cost of food and its unavailability.
Your support for First Havana’s ambitious mission and outreach will be gratefully welcomed by the First Havana congregation. More Info at nyapc.org (Ministries).
Presbyterian Churches of Iraq
Our NYAPC congregation has had a relationship with the Presbyterian Churches in Baghdad and Basra since we hosted their Elders through the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. Elder Yousif al-Saka and Rev. Farouk Hammo of the National Evangelical (Presbyterian) Church in Baghdad have visited NYAPC, first in 2011 and several times since. Despite war and economic challenges, the Baghdad church has continued its outreach ministry primarily through it Good Shepherd Pre-School and Kindergarten that has operated since 2011. It serves primarily Muslim children and is expanding to include elementary grades at the request of parents and the community.
Similarly, the National Evangelical (Presbyterian) Church in Basra has been in relationship with NYAPC since 2013 when Elder Dr Zuhair Fathallah visited. The Basra church struggles with declining membership because of economic and war conditions but continues to operate a thriving pre-school and kindergarten for the community, a radio station, and a clinic.
Both churches appreciate NYAPC’s Alternative Christmas gifts to support their outreach missions to the communities and to be a beacon of hope and education for those to whom they minister.
Bright Stars of Bethlehem
Bright Stars was born out of the 1990’s outreach ministry of Dr. Mitri Raheb as pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran church in Bethlehem. With the desire to help the people of Palestine flourish, it now supports the arts/cultural heritage/design/culinary arts education of Dar al-Kalima (DAK) University, as well as local youth and senior citizen programs in Bethlehem.
“We believe these students will be the future creative leaders, the peace makers, the agents of social change in Palestine,” says Dr. Raheb, who recently visited NYA as a McClendon Scholar, speaking about his new book “Decolonizing Palestine.” Bethlehem is located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“Our aim is that our people, who admire stars, will dare to look up and dream, and develop a new sense of hope, community, beauty, and faith.”
– Dr. Mitri Raheb
More Info: Brightstarsbethlehem.com
