A Summer Mission Review 2022
This summer, over 200 people from Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church answered God’s invitation to service. They used their hearts, hands and feet to serve in our local community and abroad. This is a brief overview of that work.
Our Local Partners
Lake Charles, Louisiana Disaster Relief
Focus: Disaster Relief and Relationships
Going in teams of 5-8 people, WHPC took monthly trips to our neighbors in Lake Charles, LA. In partnership with a local Presbyterian Church in Lake Charles (St. Andrews Pres.) We provide immediate resources and caring relationships for this devastated community. These monthly visits always consist of delivering large amounts of fresh food and produce to the food pantry that feeds the local community. We also held a clothing drive in the month of July which enabled us to make a significant impact (50 boxes) on the community in need of clothing. The importance of this work in the Lake Charles area is immeasurable as they rely on the local church to respond to their needs for food in particular. There is still much work to be done and we look forward to continuing our monthly truck runs as well as exploring other ways to support and encourage this community.
Contact: Weldon Whiteside - weldonwhiteside@gmail.com
Community First – King Park and the WALK
Focus: Community Building and Relationships
WHPC continues its storied relationship with Community First Village. This community provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for people who are coming out of chronic homelessness. One Saturday a month, a group from WHPC goes to the village and sets up a meal at King Park in order to continue building relationships with the community members there. This summer’s monthly visits included a Luau along with several new church members engaging with these neighbors. We also participate in and lead the WALK, a deep discipleship opportunity for the women of Community First Village.
Contact: Martin Hunt - martin.hunt@ieee.org
Afghan Refugee Local Resettlement Ministry
Focus: Education, Resourcing and Relationships
WHPC’s Afghan Ministry has come alongside 5 families totalling 43 people. Over 100 volunteers are involved between both WHPC members and friends in the community.
Below are a few stories written by Mission Committee member, Hilary Files and Carol Beckley.
Having discovered our 14 year old girl had the loudest heart murmur the pediatrician and pediatric cardiologist had ever heard, she was scheduled for a PDA-Patent Ductus Arteriosus Occlusion by a cardiac interventionist at Dell Children’s Hospital. Suffering from severe PTSD from trauma in Afghanistan, the teen refused to undergo any treatment. This is when God sent an Afghan Neurosurgeon into our midst. Using an anatomy picture book while sitting with the entire family, he explained the extremely complex procedure the interventionist hoped to use. He also accompanied the terrified girl to surgery along with our translator, Fatima, and both parents.
Following the procedure, the medical team exclaimed it was the largest PDA ever closed using this method. Last week, I watched this teen race after her toddler brother on a runaway strider bike. Tears filled my eyes as I realized I was witnessing the result of a miraculous life-saving cardiac procedure. She was not even out of breath as she pushed the strider back toward our group. Thank God for modern medicine and for the many helpers God places in our path.
In early August, volunteers from WHPC organized a field trip for Afghan Children.
The Austin Symphony conducts a summer program for children at the main library downtown. What fun we had taking three carloads of 17 kids to enjoy a brass quintet, a book reading, and the beautiful architecture and colorful displays within!
This week we were excited to move the Pashayee family of 13 into a 4-bedroom rental house in Northeast Austin. They have a yard to play in, and they are within walking distance to the elementary school and the grocery store. WHPC is supporting this family by paying half of the rent during the next year. Donations of rugs, kitchen supplies, clothing, and even a sewing machine are getting them off to a great start! WHPC volunteers are helping coordinate medical and dental appointments, utilities, and school registrations – but in many ways we are needed less and less because the families are becoming better connected to their resources and improving their communication skills.
We are beginning to see the possibilities as some of the older teenagers are now helping to translate for their parents. There are plenty of ways for people to serve alongside this team and community. As we head into the Fall, the work continues and we’d love to have you join in any way that you can.
Contact: Hilary Files - hilary.files@gmail.com
Manos De Cristo Blue Bags
Focus: Dignity, Education, Dental Clinic and Food Insecurity
This summer saw 240 blue bags delivered to our friends at Manos De Cristo. On a recent tour of the facility, I (Stephen Finkel) heard from the food pantry manager that WHPC has provided 50 tons of food over the course of our nine year relationship. That is a lot of food! Our monthly donations help them feed up to 30 families a day. Manos de Cristo empowers low income individuals with a loving hand of assistance without regard to age, gender, race or religious preference. They promote dignity and self-reliance by meeting basic needs with food and clothing, providing essential oral care, and furthering educational development. Manos De Cristo has several needs for volunteers.
Contact: Christine Reynolds - reynoldschris9447@gmail.com
Mobile Loaves and Fishes Truck Ministry
Focus: Food Insecurity, Relationships
Mobile Loaves and Fishes is a large organization that includes several ministries, including Community First Village. Their Truck Ministry delivers food directly to the food insecure wherever they may be. WHPC provides two truck runs a month. There is one team that prepares the food and another that loads it in the truck and takes it out for deliveries. All this takes place out of Saint John Neumann Catholic Church just down the hill from WHPC. If you are ever interested in doing the meal prep or going on a truck run, you can sign up here and join others from WHPC! Below you will find some stories and quotes from those who participated over the summer.
"The camping ban has not reduced the number of homeless in Austin, they may just be harder to find. There are still close to 2500-2600 people unsheltered around our city. MLF Truck Ministry locates these vulnerable folks and provides food, clothing, and resources to help support them. From Jan to July of 2022 the trucks have served approximately 17,000 meals, and there have been over 6 million meals served since MLF’s inception. Goodness is served on the trucks with the help of volunteers 365 days a year! We can only continue this ministry with your help!”
Quote from a youth who did a truck run this summer:
“We live in our bubble and know that people live like this but we don’t come into contact with it, so we forget or do not think about the things we take as a given, like a vehicle for transportation, food when you are hungry. This is a good reminder to always be reminded that God is at work and we can be a part of that work.”
Another youth who attended said “this has been the best part of my week"
Contact: Kathy Hopke - khopke@austin.rr.com
Family Ministries
This summer we saw 60 of our children and youth serve in different areas, both locally and internationally.
Hungry Souls Meal Prep
Focus: Food Insecurity
Our children worked hard and packed meals for Hungry Souls, a local organization that provides an opportunity for food insecure children in the greater Austin area to have the nutrition necessary to succeed, thrive and break the cycle of poverty.
Puerto Rico
Focus: Development, Partnerships & Relationships
Our High School students partnered with Praying Pelican Ministries in Puerto Rico - serving alongside the local church and experienced God’s work in a new culture. Read more about their trip this summer here!
Blueprint Ministries, San Antonio, TX
Focus: Structural Repair, Relationships
Our Middle School students worked with Blueprint Ministries in San Antonio, TX - braving the heat and restoring homes for low-income individuals and families, the elderly and physically diabled who live in substandard housing. For more information, click here to read 7th grader Audrey Veal’s reflection on her experience.
WHPC Partnerships through Summer
While many of our summer mission opportunities provide a chance for our congregation to participate with our own hands and feet, there are those ministries that we support who are doing meaningful work through the generosity of our mission giving!
Presbyterian Children’s Homes and Services
Focus: Foster Care, Education
Presbyterian Children’s Homes and Services offer a variety of residential and community-based programs along with initiatives to empower churches to support foster care families. Last year, the Christmas giving project was to build a much needed pavilion on their property to promote community and relationship building.
East Austin Young Life and Mo Ranch
Focus: Evangelism and Discipleship
We also supported significant summer camp ministries for middle and high school students who attended Mo-Ranch and Young Life camps. It' is such a joy to be able to engage with these ministries who so effectively reach out to the middle school and high school students just on the other side of town from us.
This is just a glimpse of what God invited us into this past summer! Our ongoing call is to continue partnering with these friends and neighbors of ours to see through the work laid before us. We invite you into God’s larger story as we follow Christ together through our mission partnerships!
Stephen Finkel
Associate Pastor // Mission and Outreach
