St. David's

Presbyterian Church, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Outreach

Our aim is to have programmes that embody the Gospel beyond the bounds of St. David’s Church community. These are:

· targeted to the needs of the wider community through research and evaluation

· appropriate to our own available resources with regard to both volunteers and budget constraints

· welcoming and inclusive, providing pastoral care and other opportunities for participants to involve themselves in parish activities.

Mindful of issues of social justice not only locally but also internationally

Our activities include;

Meeting Point; this meets every Tuesday morning from 10am to noon, from late February through until mid November. This programme includes 3 courses of four sessions of free Budget Cooking sessions where healthy, economical meals are demonstrated. Recipe sheets are supplied and participants have the chance to taste the dishes.

Apart from the Cooking, all other Tuesdays provide opportunities to learn basic sewing with machines and materials provided, as well as craft demonstrations and sharing of knitting, embroidery, crochet skills and games.

Little Groovers Little Groovers is a music group for pre-schoolers.

Doodlebugs Doodlebugs is a pre school play group catering for newborn children through to kindy age kids.

The Junction Our youth group meeting on Friday nights

Food Bank; at our St David’s Sunday service there is a collection of food and household items for the Methodist Food Bank and this is delivered weekly.

Meals on Wheels; one of our committee has been a coordinator of the collection and distribution of meals for over 30 years

Hospital Chaplaincy; another important mission that we as a committee and congregation support

World Vision; we support a child in Myanmar, through the auspices of World Vision. We communicate regularly with this boy and his letters are shared.

Christian World Service; at Christmas our congregation makes a concerted effort to support the annual Christmas appeal, a good time to raise awareness of those in need of the very basics of life.

Turakina Maori Girls College; St David's Church has a long history supporting this school and we actively seek to continue to build on these links

There are many other activities by our committee and congregation stretching outwards to interface with the wider community, especially in times of crisis e.g. the knitting of tiny garments for premature babies. We can be confident that we are providing relevant programmes that are valued by the wider community. And as volunteers, we are greatly enriched in our own lives.