Every summer for many years, people from Bedford Presbyterian Church have packed up their tools and laced up their work boots, hopping in cars and trucks and driving about three hours for a week at Mission at the Eastward in Farmington, Maine. This summer, we are sending a group the last week of July.
Farmington is located in central Maine, where farmland and forests are plentiful, along with small towns dotted across the landscape. Like other parts of rural America, many people in this part of the world have seen significant economic hardship in recent decades, somehow staying in their homes but falling behind, financially and in other ways.
Mission at the Eastward, or MATE, is a ministry sponsored by the Presbytery of Northern New England that serves to meet the housing needs of people in the region around Farmington. It helps to keep them in their homes by doing repair projects and other renovations.
BPC has sent hundreds of workers to Mission at the Eastward over the years, and all of them come back talking about the amazing experience of helping other people. Often, the people who go on these trips will come back changed, with a new perspective on the complex realities of systemic poverty as well as how the Holy Spirit inspires our ministry to love our neighbors (whoever and wherever they may be).
If you want to go on this year’s Mission at the Eastward trip, click HERE: https://bedfordpresbyterian.org/bpcs-recovery-trip-to-m-a-t-e/.
If you cannot attend Mission at the Eastward with our team this year, fret not! There is another meaningful way to be involved. We are looking for sponsors to help with the expense of sending team members.
- For $350, you can pay half of someone’s way.
- For $175, you can pay a quarter of someone’s way.
Checks can be made to “Bedford Presbyterian Church” with “MATE Sponsorship” in the Memo line.
Just so you know, BPC is currently in conversation with the town of Bedford about doing a MATE-style project right here in town. This way, we can work with our neighbors to combat systemic poverty right here, at home.
We are so thankful for our congregation’s many gifts—from hands-on hammering to financial sponsorship and beyond!
Thank you for the ways that you continue to support our entire ministry!
See you in church!
Grace and Peace,
John
Prepare for Worship
This Week: “Who and Whose (Belonging to God)”
- Read Acts 2:1-21
- Read Romans 8:14-17
- Read or sing one of my favorite hymns. . . Hymn # 282 – “Come Down, O Love Divine”