First Presbyterian Church

Our church partners with the American Red Cross to provide a blood drive four times a year. Donors are needed for whole blood of all blood types. Volunteers are needed to welcome blood donors and to provide and serve refreshments. At each blood drive we seek at least 40 donors. Contact Karl Thomason to donate blood or volunteer your time.

Each Advent finds “Angel Trees” located in our worship areas. The trees are decorated with tags listing requests for Christmas gifts for foster children, residents of Children’s Homes, and other local children and adults in need. Church members remove a tag, purchase the gift, and then return it to the church for delivery. We also operate an Alternative Gift Booth, providing opportunities to purchase a card in lieu of a gift, with funds going to support local and international mission needs. Contact the mission committee to get involved with either of these outreach activities.

Four times a year, our congregation participates in a special offering to support funds used for our neighbors in need. Many people in crisis come to our church asking for help with funds for rent, utility bills, and medicine. On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-4 pm, committee members interview those in need and decide how much help can be given. Volunteers commit to one afternoon per month. To volunteer please contact the church office.

The Nickel a Meal program is a strategy of our presbytery for increasing awareness and raising funds in response to hunger. By contributing 5 cents per person at each meal, we are reminded of the needs of others. We collect the special offering four times per year during worship. Take a Nickel a Meal can home for your table.

Every second Sunday our fellowship hall is the location for a hot meal for any hungry person. Four cooking teams share the responsibilities of preparing, serving and cleaning up after the meal. We serve between 75-100 each month. “Goodie bags” are also provided to all who attend. Volunteers are always welcomed. Contact Hank Grant, coordinator, in order to volunteer.

Church members volunteer to be a pen pal with a Longview Elementary School fourth grader, exchanging letters once a month during the school year. To be a pen pal for the school year 2011-2012, contact mail carrier Nancy Driver.

We support the work of Adult Life Programs in a variety of ways: as a part of our mission budget, as the location for various fundraisers over the years (baking and selling chicken pies and, more recently, a cake walk), as well as with members of our church serving on their board of directors and as volunteers. The mission of Adult Life Programs is to provide support, respite and education to caregivers and affordable, quality day and treatment services enabling adults to remain in their communities. Four day-care centers for the elderly and people with disabilities are operated throughout Catawba County. The centers provide daily care and socialization for adults 18 years and older. Activities and exercises are designed to maintain and increase a person's level of function. The director is Jane Rollins. For more information go to www.adultlifeprograms.com.

We support ALFA through our mission budget, and have been the location for the annual World AIDS Day remembrance in the past. ALFA is the only AIDS service organization in our four-county area. ALFA provides case management and support services to those people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS in the Unifour area. It provides education to the community about HIV/AIDS. Volunteers are recruited and utilized to assist ALFA in both client and non-client involved tasks and to provide adequate staffing for the organization. For more information, contact www.alfainfo.org

Annually we set aside funds to support several Children’s Homes, including the Black Mountain Home, Crossnore School, Grandfather Home and Barium Springs Home. There are various opportunities for “hands on” involvement at each home, particularly with our fall Family Mission Trip.

Centro Latino provides a Christian response to critical needs of Latinos in Catawba Valley and seeks to bridge the cultural gap between Spanish and non-Spanish speaking members of our community through education, advocacy and outreach programs. It is located in the “old Grandview Middle School” building off Highway 70. We support the ministry with financial donations as well as by providing weekly transportation for middle school students to travel from school to the Abriendo Puertas (Opening Doors) after school program at Centro Latino. Church members serve on the board of directors and our art class has contributed donated art work for Centro Latino fundraisers. Volunteers are always welcome in the Abriendo Puertas program. Spanish is not required. The executive director is Marie Connelly. For more information contact www.centrolatinohickory.com.

For one week during the summer our church works with other churches to offer a Vacation Bible School for children in the Kenworth neighborhood. Your talents in the areas of music, Bible stories, recreation, or crafts will be well used! Contact Janet Brooks to volunteer.

Exodus Homes is a faith-based United Way agency, offering transitional and permanent supportive housing for homeless recovering addicts, alcoholics, and formerly incarcerated people returning to our community from treatment programs and prison. Exodus Homes has a comprehensive array of services to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of our residents. Exodus Homes provides supportive housing, support groups, and job placement. A successful program has been Exodus Works!, a local moving, cleaning, landscaping, painting, etc. service which puts residents to work in our community. This program seeks to reunite families who have been separated by addiction and to provide spiritual and physical support for recovery. Executive Director is Rev. Reggie Longcrier.

Our congregation supports Exodus Homes through our mission budget, through gift baskets for residents at Christmas, as well as with church members who serve on the board or as volunteers. For more information, contact www.exodushomes.org

The Family Care Center serves homeless families with dependent children and teaches them to become self-supporting, responsible citizens. The agency provides those accepted into the program a place to live, food, job referrals and teaches the family such basics as how to shop wisely and budget responsibly. Adults in the family are expected to work and/or return to school. Our congregation supports the Family Care Center through our mission budget, during the Days of Caring (yardwork and lots of mulch!), as well as with church members who serve on the board of directors. The executive director is Camille Grumman. For more details, contact www.familycare-center.com

The Flynn Home serves as a half-way house dedicated to men with substance abuse problems. It is a place where men who are recovering from substance abuse live in a home-like atmosphere where they can continue their rehabilitation and prepare for a productive future free of alcohol and other drugs. Residents are accepted after completion of a rehabilitation program elsewhere. The Home is located at 708 Main Ave. SE, Hickory, NC 28602. Telephone: 828-6629. Our congregation supports the Flynn Home with our mission budget, with volunteers on the board of directors, and with gift boxes at Christmas for the residents. The executive director is Marvin Hewitt. For more information, contact www.flynnhickory.org.

GHCCM provides assistance for the needs of people living in poverty in the Greater Hickory area. GHCCM currently has five programs to serve persons in crisis: Food Pantry, Financial Assistance, Healthcare Center, Pharmacy, and a Thrift Store. Volunteers are needed in all areas: interviewers, pharmacy assistants, food pantry workers, nurses, doctors, and thrift store or warehouse workers. Our congregation supports the work of GHCCM through our mission budget, by collecting canned food during the months of January, June and October, by supporting their annual fundraisers (Take a Bite Out of Hunger in the spring and Harvest of Hope Walk in the fall). Members of our church assisted in painting at GHCCM during the Days of Caring in 2010.

The executive director is Dr. Roger Baker. For details, contact www.ccmhickory.com.

The Hickory Soup Kitchen provides a hot mid-day meal Monday through Friday and a bag lunch on Saturday for those in the community who are hungry. Sunday meals are hosted by local churches. Our church hosts a meal on the second Sunday of the month. Any adults and children in need of a meal are welcome. We support the Soup Kitchen through our mission budget, with funds from the Souper Bowl Offering on Super Bowl Sunday each year, with volunteers on the board of directors, and by serving food. To volunteer, contact director Austin Pearce or go to www.hickorysoupkitchen.org for more information.

Habitat for Humanity is an international program that builds housing in partnership with eligible families. Houses are sold to families at no profit to the organization with a no-interest mortgage. Operating expenses of our local Habitat chapter are covered by proceeds from the Habitat Home Store, donations from churches, and individual gifts. Together with other Presbyterian churches in our area, we sponsor one house every other year. Volunteers are needed to work on construction crews, to provide food to workers, and to share brief devotions with work crews.

In 2011 we are working on the home of Shaimaica Ferguson and her family. Shaimaica currently works at Southwest Elementary in the Preschool Program as a teacher assistant. She has two girls, Shashana and Zariah. Shashana is 5 years old and Zariah is 3 1/2 years old. They enjoy singing gospel music. They love to draw, pretend that they're princesses and read books. Shashana and Zariah also love the comfort of their "meme", Shaimaica's mom, Sandra Foote. Sandra helps take care of these 2 wonderful kids and enjoys going to church. Contact www.hickoryhabitat.org to volunteer.

Six churches in our community rotate the responsibilities of preparing and serving a hot breakfast every Saturday morning at the Sunny Valley Community Center in the Ridgeview neighborhood in SE Hickory. Breakfast is cooked at First United Methodist Church. Volunteers are needed for each of the Saturdays during two months out of the year. Contact Linda Grant if you can volunteer one Saturday in April or October.

The Salvation Army offers areas of service consisting of Boys and Girls Clubs for school-aged children (after school and summer time programming), a shelter for homeless persons which includes breakfast and evening meals, financial assistance, and help with food and clothing. The agency is the provider of toys and clothing and Christmas stockings for our community’s annual Christmas Bureau program for families in need. Volunteers are needed in the Boys and Girls Clubs, or to assist with serving the evening meals at the shelter. Our congregation supports the Salvation Army programs with our mission budget, by ringing the bell for several days during the pre-Christmas season, with church members on the board of directors, and with volunteers during the Days of Caring. Residents of the Salvation Army often attend our evening worship service, The Journey.

For information on the Boys and Girls Clubs, see www.salvationarmycarolinas.org.

To ensure adequate nutrition at home, backpacks filled with nutritious food are sent home with school children on Fridays each week during the school year. Our congregation assisted in donating the backpacks and in collecting food items. Through our mission budget, we support the purchase of food through the Second Harvest Food Bank. Vacation Bible School students have helped to fill backpacks as well. Volunteers continue to be needed to pack and/or deliver backpacks. To donate funds or find a way to volunteer, contact Amanda Freeland (AFreeland@catawbacountync.gov) at DSS.

During the eighth grade year, students who have the potential to succeed in college but are at risk due to family history, economic hardship, etc., are identified by their teachers as scholarship recipients. Project Potential matches an adult mentor with each student and promises the equivalent of one year’s tuition at Catawba Valley Community College. (Funds can be applied to other institutions as well.) Our congregation funds one scholarship per year through our mission budget, and several church members serve as Project Potential mentors.

Contact JoAnn Spees at Hickory High School (Speesjo@hickoryshcools.net) in order to volunteer.

In 2002 a Hispanic/Latino new church development opened up in our neighborhood! Members of this small congregation come from Mexico, Honduras, Columbia, Venezuela, Cuba and more. Our congregation joins five other Presbyterian churches in Catawba County and the Presbytery of Western North Carolina to financially support the pastor in that church. Annually we renew our covenant of support which includes prayer and fellowship as well as financial support. Members of the church participate in some activities at First Presbyterian throughout the year. The congregation worships at 12:30 pm each Sunday and always welcomes visitors. The worship service is in Spanish. It is located at 613 3rd Ave. NE, Hickory, NC 28601

Safe Harbor Rescue Mission provides shelter for women who fall between the cracks in several ways. A day shelter is open during the week on the ground floor of their facility with positive programming and support for women who are homeless. A residential facility is operated on the upper floor, with space for 6-8 women for several months at a time. The mission of Safe Harbor is: “To provide a Christ-centered community where women can work to rebuild their lives through immediate and long-term programs.” The executive director is Debbie Haynes.

Our congregation supports Safe Harbor through our mission budget, volunteers and Christmas gift bags. During 2009, our youth center housed the day shelter while the program was “in between” permanent locations. Volunteers from FPC worked in the yard at Safe Harbor during Days of Caring in 2010.

For more information, contact www.safeharborrescuemission.org.

As a part of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina’s Guatemalan Partnership, we have been a partner church with Iglesia Monte Hebron in Santo Domingo, Guatemala (and their mission congregation in La Selva, Arca de Salvacion) since the late 1990’s. Our direct financial support is minimal, as the partnership focuses more on sharing our faith with one another. We commit to pray for one another and have exchanged visitors on several occasions. Since 2007, we have collaborated with the Long Creek Presbyterian Church in Gaston County to provide scholarship assistance for elementary and secondary school students in both of our partner communities. Additional scholarship assistance is always welcome. Contact Cathy Rubel for more information.

Amigos de Guatemala (Friends of Guatemala) meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month to hear updates from our Guatemalan brothers and sisters and to lift their needs to God in prayer. Any church member can apply to represent our church on one of the annual visits to Guatemala. Spanish not required.

We have supported Dr. Barbary Nagy (originally from Morganton, NC) since 2004 in her ministry in Malawi. She has visited our church on several occasions, even holding Happy on her hip as she preached a sermon! For contact information, updates from Barbara or to donate, go to Dr. Nagy’s mission website.

Barbara was appointed in January 2004 to serve in Malawi. A specialist in internal medicine and pediatrics, Barbara is assigned to serve as a physician at Nkhoma Hospital, an institution of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Nkhoma Synod.

This isn’t Barbara’s first appointment to serve as a physician in Africa. She was a mission co-worker in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Zaire) from 1989 to 1993. “Soon after becoming a Christian,” Barbara writes, “I felt God calling me to mission. It’s both an expression of my faith in Christ’s salvation and an expression of God’s love for all. I feel privileged to be a Presbyterian because of the church’s rich heritage of mission and also because of the many missionaries I have known who have nurtured and inspired me in my faith.”

Barbara holds an M.D. from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and a Bachelor of Science from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She also has a degree in tropical medicine from the Prince Leopold School of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.

Prior to her appointment to Malawi, Barbara worked in family practice in Glen Alpine, North Carolina (1995 to 2003), and at Cannon Memorial Hospital in Banner Elk, North Carolina. She served in Tuba City, Arizona, and Rosebud, South Dakota, from 1986 to 1989 as a physician with the Indian Health Service.

Barbara is a member of First Presbyterian Church, Morganton, North Carolina, where she is active in the children’s choir. She serves as a volunteer physician at the Good Samaritan Clinic in Morganton. She was ordained to the office of elder in 1994 by Arbor Dale Presbyterian Church in Banner Elk, North Carolina.

Barbara is accompanied in Malawi by her three daughters, Melia, Anna, and Happiness.

Visit The Mission Website for Dr. Barbara Nagy

Since 2007 we have supported the ministry of Dr. Rebecca Young, a professor at the Jakarta Theological Seminary in Jakarta, Indonesia. She has visited our church and shared about her experiences. For contact information, updates from Rebecca or to donate to her work, go to her mission website.

Rebecca Young was appointed in July 2007 to serve as instructor of Systematic Theology at the Jakarta Theological Seminary in Jakarta, Indonesia. In addition, Rebecca has a part-time assignment with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance as a consultant for PDA’s ongoing recovery work for the tsunami in Aceh Province of December 26, 2004.

Prior to her appointment, Rebecca worked for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in Indonesia.

She has also worked as an adjunct professor at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia, teaching world religions, philosophical ethics, and women in world religions (2000-2003).

Rebecca was director of alumni/alumnae relations and church relations for Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia (1998-1999). She was interim pastor of Nacoochee Presbyterian Church in Sautee-Nacoochee, Georgia (1997-1998).

In health and development work, Rebecca worked with Church World Service from 1989 to 1993 in Jayapura, Irian Jaya, Indonesia, where she served as a nutritional consultant, trained village health workers, and did health and nutrition surveys in the interior of West Papua. She was a nutritionist in Johnson City, Tennessee, employed by the Upper East Tennessee Regional health Office to evaluate and monitor the nutritional status of children under 2 and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Rebecca has a bachelor’s degree, three master’s degrees, and a doctorate. Her bachelor’s degree is in psychology and international development from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She has a master of divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia; a master’s degree in public health and nutrition from the University of North Carolina Public Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and both a master’s of philosophy and a doctorate from Fordham University in New York, New York. Her dissertation subject was the Holy Spirit from a woman’s perspective, with emphasis on environmental and women’s issues.

Rebecca was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in 1998 by the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, of which she is still a minister member.

Visit The Mission Website for Dr. Becca Young

We have supported the ministry of the Hornes for many years. For contact information, to find out more about the Hornes' activities or to donate to their mission, please visit their mission website.

Harry and Debbie Horne were first appointed workers with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1983. Their most recent appointment, which began in July 2004, is in Lima, Perú, where Harry is assigned to the Recinto Universitario Teológico (RUT), a theological education institution related to the Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana in Costa Rica, and Debbie is assigned to Joining Hands against Hunger, Perú. Harry teaches Bible and biblical language courses at the RUT and Debbie is also the site coordinator for the Young Adult Volunteer Program. Joining Hands is the receiving network for the YAVs in Peru.

About the Recinto Teológico, Harry writes: “The story of the Recinto is the story of the ministries of our students. We have no resident students. They come from all around Lima. They come from busy lives, some as pastors and some as lay leaders with secular occupations, but all deeply involved in the church. We exist to give them a chance to reflect on and inform their ministries with a deepened understanding of God’s Word for us.”

Debbie says: "Some things one cannot prepare for, even after 15 years in the mission field. I wasn’t totally prepared for all the blessings God would pour out on me through my connections and relationships with young adults. Nor was I prepared for all the love and pride that would well up in me when sharing about what these young adults are doing in their communities, churches, and within their Peruvian host families. I was not prepared to witness the growth and transformation of these young adults.”

Prior to their assignment in Lima, the Hornes served from 1994 to 2003 in Guatemala with the Seminario Evangélico Presbiteriano (SEP) and the Central American Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies (CEDEPCA). While at SEP Harry taught a variety of Bible and theology courses and developed curriculum resources for the seminary and outlying centers. Debbie was the director and teacher at La Escuelita at SEP, a preschool and kindergarten program that the Hornes started.

The Hornes’ first appointment as PC(USA) mission workers was from 1983 to 1987, when Harry served as a youth minister and Christian educator in Grand Cayman in the Caribbean. After that term of service, the Hornes returned to the United States, where Harry accepted a call to be the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Darien, Georgia. While there Debbie obtained a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and taught first grade.

Born in Denver, Colorado, Harry graduated from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. He later earned his Master of Divinity degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Texas and his Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.

Harry has been pastor of Parkway Presbyterian Church in Panama City, Florida, and Trinity Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Florida, and associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church, also in Jacksonville.

A native of Jacksonville, Debbie worked for Stockton, Whatley, Davin and Company and the Duval Federal Savings and Loan Association. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from Armstrong State College in Savannah, Georgia.

Harry is a clergy member of Savannah Presbytery, and Debbie is a member of First Presbyterian Church in Darien, Georgia. Harry and Debbie are the parents of four adult children: Amy, Eddie, Stephen, and Sarah.

Visit The Mission Website for Harry and Debbie Horne

Members of First Presbyterian Church have the opportunity each year to serve others through domestic mission trips. We offer trips for adults (one week or weekend), senior high youth, junior high youth, and families.

Adult and Senior High Trips usually focus on construction projects and disaster relief. Recent trips have been to the Gulfcoast and Nashville, Tennessee.

Adult Mini Mission Trips to Camp Grier allow people with stricter work schedules to experience a one night and one day mission trip.

Junior High Youth usually take shorter trips to either an urban (Jacksonville, FL; Washington, DC; Atlanta, GA) or rural (WV) setting.

Weekend Family Trips are planned for on-site work at locations such as Black Mountain Home for Children, Crossnore Home and School, or Camp Grier.

Adults and senior high students of First Presbyterian Church have the opportunity every other year to serve others through international mission trips. These trips usually focus on construction projects, often to areas where natural disasters have caused significant damage. Medical mission trips are planned as the interest and needs arise. To serve on a mission trip, contact Ken Bates.