Westminster's Ongoing Mission Work
American Red Cross Blood Drives | Baja, Mexico Mission Trip | Blessing Box
CROP Walk to End Hunger | Disciples Kitchen | Five-Cents-A-Meal Offering
Refugee Sponsorship | RISE Against Hunger | Salvation Army Christmas Stockings
Salvation Army Red Kettle Bell Ringing | Sewing Circle | Summerlee Mission Trip
W.A.R.M. Cold Weather Shelter | Waynesboro Woman’s Club Clothes Closet
Serving God in the Church and the World
At Westminster, there are many meaningful ways to share your gifts and talents in service. Through our Witness Ministry, we support missions that reach beyond our church walls while also extending a spirit of welcome to everyone who walks through our doors. We invite you to explore the opportunities below and discover how you can join us in serving both God and neighbor.
American Red Cross Blood Drives
Twice a year, Westminster opens its social hall to host a Red Cross Blood Drive. Church and community members roll up their sleeves to share life-giving blood. Each drive averages around 30 units donated with each unit saving up to three different lives. Partnering with the American Red Cross provides opportunities for ordinary people to become life-saving heroes. Be alert each May and September to hear about your chance to donate. Our contact is Rick Martin.
Visit https://www.redcrossblood.org/ to learn more about blood donation!
Baja Mexico Mission Trip
In 2000, a small group from Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church in Fort Defiance, Virginia, served in Baja California, Mexico for the first time. By 2003, other churches had joined in, and the mission grew into a presbytery-wide effort. With the exception of 2020, when travel was paused due to COVID, teams from Virginia have faithfully served in Baja every year since. Over time, we have built not only houses but also deep and lasting relationships with the families and communities we serve.
Each July, we travel to San Diego, typically arriving on Friday or Saturday to begin our journey into Mexico early Sunday morning. After a time of prayer and orientation, we cross the border and travel together to Vicente Guerrero. Throughout the week, we stay at the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base, build houses, share meals, worship God, and serve side by side. On Saturday afternoon, we return to California, carrying home stories of God’s faithfulness and the joy of serving together.
Learn more about the summer Baja Mission trip at https://shenpres.org/baja/ or by contacting Rev. April Cranford at acranford@wp.church.com.
Blessing Box
Our Blessing Box outreach project was completed in 2019. The Blessing Box was planned, managed, built, and installed by a Westminster Eagle Scout Ben Miller.
Members and neighborhood friends have shared in this mission by providing canned and shelf stable food (no frozen or refrigerated foods please) and personal hygiene items throughout the year. Please consider this when doing your grocery shopping. The public in need will have access to the items via the Blessing Box, year-round and completely free.
CROP Walk
CROP Hunger Walks are community-wide events sponsored by Church World Service and organized by local congregations or groups to raise funds to end hunger at home and around the world. The CROP Walk, which occurs every September, starts and ends at the North Park Pavilion in Waynesboro. 25% of the proceeds is shared locally between Disciples Kitchen, Blue Ridge Food Bank, and Valley Program-Aging Services Inc. (VPAS). They are each vital programs that offer essential services to our community. Contact Cathy Waldorf if you would like to join us in our fight to end hunger, through making a donation and/or walking with us.
Disciples Kitchen
Disciples Kitchen is a non profit organization that provides lunch on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from
11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. at Second Presbyterian Church in Waynesboro. Churches in the area provides lunch teams to cook and provide hot meals to 50-60 adults, teens and children who attend the meal. A devotion and prayer begin the lunch and seconds (if available) are provided at 12:15 p.m. Westminster has two lunch teams. If you would like to serve please contact Phyllis Gorsuch or Judy Glover. Learn more by visiting the Disciples Kitchen Website.
Five-Cents-A-Meal Offering
This offering is collected on the first Sunday of each month by our children, using a small red wagon. International and National Fund Hunger Mission through the Shenandoah Presbytery receives 75 percent of the funds collected while 25 percent support local missions chosen by our Witness Ministry. Some local recipients have been Love INC, First Presbyterian’s Food Pantry, Disciples’ Kitchen and Crop Walk.
Refugee Sponsorship
Westminster Presbyterian Church (WPC) and Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church (GELC) welcomed the Congolese family to America on April 27, 2022. The family moved into their home on May 2, 2022. Alongside Church World Service, WPC and GELC are excited to help our new friends make Waynesboro their new home.
Contact a welcome team leader for ways to volunteer or more information.
Rise Against Hunger
Rise Against Hunger is growing a global movement to end hunger by empowering communities, nourishing lives and responding to emergencies. RISE provides volunteer-packaged meals, to support nutrition, education and health for children and families facing hunger right now.
Each September, Westminster volunteers are part of up to 300 that package up to 35,000 meal packages for RISE. Come be a volunteer with us! Learn more about RISE Against Hunger.
Salvation Army Christmas Stockings
Each year Westminster fills Christmas stockings for the Salvation Army to distribute. They review applicants, choose families they feel are needy and compile a master list of the ages and genders for whom they need stockings. Each one we fill is earmarked for a specific child. Each person who wants to help with this mission signs up and takes a stocking to be filled and returns the stocking to the church. The Salvation Army includes some suggestions to get us started with shopping. Every year the generous Westminster church family fills 10 to 12 % of the stockings given out. This is a wonderful way we share our many blessings with needy children in our area. Contact the church office for more information about Christmas Stockings. Learn more about the Salvation Army.
Salvation Army Bell Ringing
As Christmas approaches, so does the need in our communities. Westminster first joined in ringing the Salvation Army bell back in 2015, dedicating a full day or two each December. Participants sign up for 30-minute to 1-hour slots between 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Friends, family, and even furry companions often join in the fun. It’s always exciting to see how much our church raises together, as the Salvation Army provides the total collected from our day of service. If you would like to ring the bell this year, please contact Rev. April H. Cranford.
Sewing Circle
The Sewing Circle was started in 2004 by Jan Bottemiller, Norma Lindsay, and Louise Sweet in order to make and distribute lap quilts for those who are homebound or in Nursing Homes. More recently they have also been given to the W.A.R.M. Shelter. We complete an average of 75 quilts a year. The circle routinely sells their quilts to help fund their mission project. Making these gifts requires no special skills and provides an opportunity for good Christian Fellowship. If you can cut, trim, pin, sew by hand or sewing machine contact the church office to learn more!
Summerlee Mission
Each year since 1986, Shenandoah Valley churches in Virginia have been serving together to love God and love others as the body of Christ in Fayette County, West Virginia. Over the years, Westminster has organized the trip from seeking out worksites to collecting money from churches and individuals in support of the mission.
Participants who are 12 years and older can serve on a variety of crews such as; work crews, paint crew, trash crew, kitchen crew and kid crew. Adults and teens provide rehab to homes which may include; plumbing, painting, electrical, dry wall, siding, decks, wheel chair ramps etc.
In 2013, the Kid Crew was added to the Summerlee Mission offering mission opportunities for the whole family to serve in West Virginia. During the week, children, youth and adults serve on the Kid Crew with their hands and hearts by visiting group homes, nursing homes, food banks, etc in the morning, eating at work sites where their parents are serving for lunch and swimming in the afternoon. If you would like to learn more about Summerlee Mission contact John Bosserman at (540) 578-1572 or johnbosserman08@comcast.net.
W.A.R.M. Cold Weather Shelter
Westminster began hosting the thermal (cold) shelter in 2015. For one week each winter our church provides a safe, warm place for men and women to sleep, a sit down dinner meal with church members, breakfast the following morning, and a bagged lunch. Besides the food, volunteers have provided assistance with clothes mending, art projects, television viewing, games and puzzles, and stayed overnight to be sure guests are comfortable. To learn more about WARM's programs, visit the website https://www.warmwaynesboro.org/.
Waynesboro Woman’s Club Clothes Closet
Waynesboro Woman’s Club Clothes Closet is supported in part by Westminster. This is a free source of clothes for anyone in need and is operated on Tuesday mornings from 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. at the Waynesboro Church of the Brethren. Westminster has designated three collection boxes for donated items: the narthex, the colonnade near the elevator and the kitchen counter area in the office. For pick-up of items from your home, contact Andi Shifflett.
For more information about serving God in the Church and in the World, please contact one of the members of the Witness Ministry.