Local and Global Missions
We are called to be part of God's transformation of the world.
Local Missions
There's plenty of work to be done right in our community. Members of our congregaton joyfully serve in the following local missions, witnessing to God's love and the many blessings they have received through serving God's people. We volunteer to serve the Lord.
Trenton Area Soup Kitchen provides meals, tutoring and social services for folks in the Trenton area. Volunteers from our church serve the evening meal once a month, in addition to delivering donated clothing, books, and food and hygiene items. TASK welcomes us every month as part of the TASK family.
Better Beginnings Day Care Center located in Hightstown welcomes our church members as board members, teacher assistants, suppliers of donations of paper products, food and school supplies. The needs are so great and a wonderful way to help under-served families in Hightstown.
South County Day Care Center located in Helmetta welcomes our church members as board members and active advocates for affordable quality child care. Our church also provides financial support, books and school supplies.
Centurion Centurion’s goal is vindication of the wrongly convicted in prison. It was founded in 1983 by Princeton Seminary graduate, Jim McCloskey, and was, in fact, the first organization of its kind in the world. Since Jim began this work, the organization has freed over 63 men and women who had been in prison for a total of 1200+ years. Centurion’s success and identification of this tragic unmet need has laid the foundation for the growing number of “innocence projects” which later came into existence.
Centurion is unique, though, in that it does not limit itself to any one state, though it is still located in Princeton, New Jersey. Nor is it attached to a law school and therefore cannot rely on the resources of such schools to accomplish its work. Nor does Centurion restrict the cases it accepts to those with DNA proof of innocence. Thus, Centurion is often the last resort for many who are innocent but don’t fit into the requirements of other innocence organizations. Centurion does the arduous work of proving innocence through a crew of volunteer case managers as well as in-the-field investigators and persistent legal advocacy – all of which can take years before freedom is won. And once freedom is achieved, Centurion continues to stand by the exoneree to help with finding a new life in the community. Our Cranbury church has been a strong supporter of Centurion for over 20 years.
NAMI Mercer serves families and individuals in the Mercer County area who suffer from mental illness with counseling and programs. Church members have had the opportunity to serve on its board, and participate in fundraising activities and programs.
Johnsonburg Camp and Conference Center is a part of the PCUSA families of camps located in Warren County. Church volunteers serve as board members, camp staff, retreat leaders, recreation leaders, kitchen and maintenance help. Teams of church adults and youth participate in spring or summer mission trips, painting, clearing underbrush and cabin maintenance.
UrbanPromise Trenton equips Trenton’s children and young adults with the skills necessary for academic achievement, life management, spiritual growth, and Christian leadership by creating a caring and supportive community. Volunteers from our church serve as tutors and bus drivers, and many of our youth and young adults work with UrbanPromise Trenton as summer interns and year around tutors. UrbanPromise Trenton also partners with Skeet’s Pantry to provide food for 30 families each month.
Global Missions
Our church also supports several global missions through financial grants. Being a connectional church through the PCUSA, many of these missions are part of greater Presbyterian USA church.
IMCK/ Good Shepherd Hospital in the Dem. Rep. of the Congo IMCK (The Kasai Christian Medical Institute) was founded in 1954 by Christian missionaries from the U.S., including Presbyterians. Its sponsors continue to include PCUSA and the Medical Benevolence Foundation, as well as the Presbyterian Church of the Congo. IMCK has a multi-faceted healthcare approach, including the Good Shepherd Hospital; schools of nursing, medical technology and midwifery; a growing medical student practice and residency program; community out-patient clinics, nutrition programs and a research center.
The people of the Dem. Republic of the Congo (DRC) are among the poorest in the world and they continue to face the violence of rebel attacks as their nation endures problematic political leadership. Good Shepherd Hospital has meant the difference between life and death for these people, many of whom are dedicated members of the Presbyterian Church of the Congo. Good Shepherd continues to survive and grow despite often impassable mud roads, erratic electric service, generator and plumbing failures and more. At times, the students at the IMCK medical schools have even rolled up their sleeves to dig trenches for new plumbing or other desperately needed repairs at the hospital. But still the life-saving care goes on and spirits remain strong. For several years, our Cranbury congregation has been part of a network of PCUSA churches (largely along the East Coast) which has provided financial support, consultation and encouragement for IMCK/ Good Shepherd Hospital.
Friends for Health in Haiti
Founded and run by Dr. Catherine Wolf, Friends for Health in Haiti supports a medical clinic near Jeremie in the rural mountains of Haiti. The clinic helps meet the health needs of people in one of the most underserved areas of Haiti with Christian love and mission.
Bread for the World
Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decisions makers to end hunger at home and abroad. Moved by God’s grace in Jesus Christ, we advocate for a world without hunger. Bread’s goal is to help end hunger by 2030. It believes that everyone must play a part in ending hunger, especially our federal government. We work to change the policies and conditions that allow hunger to persist. Bread seeks long-term solutions to hunger and advocates on legislation that addresses the root causes of hunger.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance enables congregations and mission partners of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to witness to the healing love of Christ through caring for communities adversely affected by crises and catastrophic events. For example, we supported volunteers from the Presbyterian Church to help the people of North Carolina and Haiti in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
Pioneers
Is a Christian mission organization based in Orlando, Florida that partners with churches to send more than 2,000 missionaries to the neediest areas of the world. Pioneers mobilizes mission teams to glorify God among the unreached people by initiating church-planting. For more than 35 years Pioneers’ passion has been to see God glorified among those who are physically and spiritually isolated from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
Based in Boston, (IJDH) works to strengthen the ability of the legal system in Haiti to deal with cases of human rights abuses and other injustices; and to defend victims of rape and other forms of violence.
United Front Against River Blindness (UFAR)
United Front Against River Blindness (UFAR, based in NJ) serves more than one third of the 70 million people who live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This blinding disease from a black fly bite actually destroys two lives, the life of the infected person and the life of the child who must drop out of school to care for the blind parent. Our yearly donation of $1,000 sponsors care for four entire villages for one year. Although Merck donates the drug, the UFAR needs our support in order to manage the distribution of preventive medicines by 189,000 local volunteers, who deliver the 17 million doses to 37,000 villages each year. Since 2019, they also are delivering medications for four additional neglected tropical diseases. UFAR's prime responsibility is to ensure that the intended beneficiaries of the drugs continue to correctly receive them annually until the goal is reached.