UPCOMING MISSION OPPORTUNITIES

January's Mission Project
Throughout the month of January, we are collecting new or gently used nonfiction and fiction books for children ages preschool through 8th grade.  Books will be shipped to Africa to help children learn how to read English.  This will supplement and enrich the books and academic materials provided by Books for Africa. Please-- no magazines, textbooks, outdated non-fiction, encyclopedia sets or coloring books. These books will be used by children who are educated by the Shenandoah Presbytery's partnership synod in Ethiopia.   Monetary donations to pay for purchase of additional books and shipping costs can be made directly to Books for Africa, Mettu Community Library Project https://www.booksforafrica.org/donate/to-project.html or by check to: Shenandoah Presbytery with Books for Africa Project on the memo line.  Place checks in the offering plates.  Collection boxes are located in the gathering areas.  For questions, please contact Ramona Bosserman.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
In reaching out to our local community through the Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro Habitat for Humanity, “we build homes, lives and communities through faith.”

Tinkling Spring re-established our association with the local Habitat organization in 2008 with three mission work days on the first duplex built in Waynesboro, Va. In 2009, several mission days were spent working on both the Waynesboro and  Staunton sites. Work on these sites included hanging siding, painting, planting shrubbery, cleaning up yards, building porch railings, building retaining walls, landscaping, and required both skilled and unskilled labor.

Care-a-Vanners at the 2010 site in Waynesboro have been providing lunches during the month of May by a variety of folks from TSPC, and we expect to share in “hands-on” labor with homeowners on the Waynesboro site before year’s end. Habitat has also established a “Brush with Kindness Program” locally, doing needed home repairs on existing homes. To volunteer, contact Gerry Hamilton at (540) 885-0585 or SAW Habitat office at (540) 886-1944. You must be eighteen years of age to work on site.

DISCIPLES KITCHEN is a soup kitchen ministry held three days a week at Second Presbyterian Church in Waynesboro, VA.  Tinkling Spring, along with twenty or more churches and organizations, has participated in this ministry since September 2007.  In the past twenty years, this ministry has served over 11,000 meals and helped over 800 people.  Although the focus of the soup kitchen is to provide a hot, nutritious meal to those who are in need, our hope is that it might both fill their bodies and open their hearts to the life-changing messages of salvation through Christ.  Anyone interested in participating in this ministry may contact Nancy Groah at 886-6675. 

Our FAITH IN ACTION DAY CAMP began in 2007 and runs for one week in the summer for children in first through fifth grades.  In the morning, the campers enjoy music, Bible, snacktime, and participation in local mission work.  In the afternoon, the children enjoy group activties, such as games, cooking, and crafts led by high school advisors. 

Find out more about our Faith In Action Day Camp by contacting Harriet Thompson, our DCE, or by visiting our CHILDREN'S MINISTRY PAGE.

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

Tinkling Spring members love to help with drives that support local and international organizations. Each year, church members fill shoe boxes with hygiene products, toys, and personal items through the Samaritan's Purse ministry, a subsidiary of Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse organization. The organization delivers shoe box gifts to needy children in more than 130 countries. This church wide effort has been coordinated by Elder Ramona Bosserman and high school student Kaitlin McKibben.  Our church enjoys wrapping boxes prior to November, collecting boxes during November, and delivering them to a collection site. 

Find out more about OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD. 

Contact Vickie Craft to be a part of this ministry at Tinkling Spring.

MITTEN TREE- Each Advent Season, Tinkling Spring participates in the “Mitten Tree” drive coordinated by the Shenandoah Presbytery. Outdoor clothing items such as gloves, hats, and jackets are collected and are distributed through the ministry of Zacchaeus’ Kitchen in Washington, DC.  

CROP WALK- Dozens of church members join forces with hundreds of other community members and participate in the annual CROP Hunger Walk. Coordinated each year by Elders Randy and Ann Gregory, Christian neighbors walk together to raise awareness and funds for international relief and local hunger-fighting organizations. 

COLLECTIONS- Three very special drives took place at Tinkling Spring in 2009.

First, with the coordinated effort of Betsy Conyers, over 100 children’s books published in Spanish were collected and shipped to a small elementary school in Costa Rica that was visited by the mission team the previous year.

Secondly, the church participated in Soles4Souls, an organization that  facilitates the donation of shoes throughout the world. (www.soles4souls.org) Coordinated by Pastor Cranford, members brought shoes to be donated for this cause to the front of the church during the morning worship services.

Lastly, as part of the Vacation Bible School, the church participated in the Stop Hunger Now project, an international hunger relief organization that coordinates the distribution of food and other life-saving aid around the world. Under the direction of Betsy Conyers and Harriet Thompson, Spring Hall was turned into a packaging center where people of all ages worked together to package dehydrated, high protein, and nutritious meals that are used in crisis situations or feeding programs for schools and orphanages in developing countries around the world. 

ADOPT A COLLEGE STUDENT PROGRAM - We have an active Adopt a College Student Program at Tinkling Spring that encourages our congregation to stay in touch with our college students during the school year. The program matches TSPC members with their students, beginning in September and ending in May.  Members are given packets with monthly devotionals, pre-addressed envelopes, and helpful information about their student.  Many of the students have expressed how important this program has been to them. They have busy lives but enjoy hearing from their TPSC partners. We have fifty plus students and welcome you to join the program.  If you would like to become a ministry partner or would like to sign up as a college student, please call Cathey Hall at 241-2330 or email her at catheycch@ntelos.net.  We are so thankful for all of our college partners and the ministry they provide.

The Youth create Care Boxes once a year for the college students. 

FOUR-CENTS-A-MEAL OFFERING - In addition to the regular tithe, each month the congregation has an opportunity to give through an offering, "Four-Cents-A-Meal offering".  The money is given to Shenandoah Presbytery and then distributed to numerous national and international hunger relief programs. Additionally, under the guidance of the General Assembly, the congregation actively participates in several other special offerings annually: the Christmas Joy Offering, the One Great Hour of Sharing, the Pentecost Offering, and the Peace Making Offering. 

ADOPTED FAMILIES

The youth group heads up a fundraiser each year  to purchase, wrap, and deliver Christmas gifts to “adopted families” determined by the school system or the New Directions program in Staunton.

CONFIRMATION MISSION PROJECTS - Confirmation students are paired with Elder “Covenant Partners” for their year in the class.  The students and their covenant partners are encouraged to participate in mission and social events together throughout the year.  Mission projects have included preparing and serving meals at Valley Mission, clearing a school baseball field of rocks, delivering Easter lillies to homebound members, and sharing time in the nursing home.  Dale Lebo, a covenant partner, brought his dog and his confirmation student Greg Hanger to share time with the residents at a nursing home.

SUMMERLEE, WEST VIRGINIA MISSION TRIP

Summerlee, West Virginia, is a very small town about three hours west of Fishersville near Beckley, just off I-77.

Tinkling Spring became involved in the Summerlee mission project in 1986.  Fayetteville Presbyterian Church put a note in a General Presbytery Newsletter asking "Would any church be interested in sending a group of people out to paint a house?" The youth director of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Waynesboro saw the note and thought it would be a good mission project for his senior high youth.  He began with a group of about eight who went to Summerlee and spent a few days painting a house.

In the years that followed, Summerlee Presbyterian Church became the “host” church for the mission and always invited all the workers over for a big dinner one night during the week.  The West Va. contact person for the mission project was a member of Summerlee Presbyterian Church, so it seemed only natural that the project would soon be called the Summerlee Mission.

Over time, more and more churches became involved in this mission. Tinkling Spring started sending people to West Va. in 1991 and has continued every year since. Summerlee is also a receipient of the annual benevolent giving of this church. About eight area churches now send an average of ninety to one hundred people to serve at Summerlee each year.  Tinkling Spring serves at Summerlee the second week of July, with members of the mission team leaving on Sunday and coming home when they prefer. The mission week ends on either Friday or Saturday.

The work is hard and you will get dirty, but at the end of the day when you reflect on the work that has been done and the fellowship that’s been shared,  you feel a strong sense of satisfaction and peace that you have helped someone.  Please contact Rodney Paxton, Tom Yancey, or the church office if you would like to learn more about the Summerlee Trip.

MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL MISSION TRIPS

High school mission teams in the past years have traveled to Toronto, Canada; McDowell County, WV; Pensacola, FL; Fresno, CA; Chicago, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Taylorsville, NC; Cedar Rapids, IA; Nashville, TN, and Summerlee, WV. These teams assisted with disaster relief efforts and worked with local churches and agencies ministering to those in need.

The middle school youth have worked and ministered to local residents in Headwaters, VA, Washington DC, Black Mountain, NC, Charlotte, NC, and Boone, NC. 

OUR MISSIONARIES - Tinkling Spring provides on going support to missionary teams throughout the country and worldwide. The church supports Dr. Theresa Andrews in Kenya, Africa, The Reverend Mary Ferris in Romania,  Reverend Father Fritz Desire in Haiti, Drs. Leslie and Cynthia Morgan in Bangladesh, and missionaries in the Frontier Fellowship. Two international organizations, including Joseph and Patricia Richter of FARMS International in Knife River, Montana and The Reverend Sharon Stanley of Fresno International Refugee Ministries (FIRM) in Fresno, California also receive support from Tinkling Spring. Several of these missionaries have visited the church in recent years and offered in-depth presentations about their ministry to members of the congregation. 

INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL ADULT MISSION TRIPS

In 1989, three members of the church took part in a Medical Benevolence Foundation mission trip to Mwandi, Zambia.

In 2007, a mission team served in Mexico, and in 2008, a team of volunteers traveled to Costa Rica to work with local churches and citizens. An adult group also spent a weekend in Washington, DC, working with the homeless.

In January of 2009, several members joined Mossy Creek Presbyterian Church and caravanned to Gulfport, Mississippi, to assist with the construction of homes as part of the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Each summer, members of Tinkling Spring join several other area churches and travel to Summerlee, West Virginia.  Read more about Summerlee above.