As we encourage the entire congregation to respond to Christ’s call to reach out beyond our church walls, the Mission Committee of WPC seeks to approach our task with enthusiasm, vision, and balance.

• With our budgeted spending and special giving opportunities:
• raising awareness of local and global concerns
• giving toward immediate needs and long-term sustainable development
• prioritizing hunger relief, the needs of the homeless, environmental stewardship, social justice and peacemaking
• With our time:
• offering hands-on opportunities for mission service
• educating the congregation to raise awareness and encourage active engagement
• With intergenerational participation: 
• involving children and youth as well as adults in mission outreach 

Examples of specific mission outreach efforts here at WPC:

CROP Walk: Each year WPC participates in the CROP Walk to raise funds and awareness for local, national, and international hunger relief programs. Locally, funds raised help support Northwest Harvest and other local food banks to provide for families in our own communities. For more information, go to www.seattlecrophungerwalk.org.

Souper Bowl of Caring: Each year on Super Bowl Sunday, youth group members stand at the doors following worship, using large soup pots to gather donations of money and canned soup to benefit a local homeless shelter. The Souper Bowl of Caring is a youth-led grassroots movement that is now an international event. Since going nationwide in 1993, more than $24 million has been raised for people in need. For more information, go to www.souperbowl.org.

Goats to Go: During the season of Lent, we challenge the children of the church to raise money together to purchase a share of an animal to donate to a family in need through the Heifer Project. The kids rose to this challenge in a memorable way this past year; when encouraged to raise enough money for a whole goat, they succeeded in raising enough money for five! As these animals are shared with families around the world, they will bring nutritious milk, which in turn will bring better health and a chance to earn an income. These same animals will touch the lives of many more families too, as those who receive our ‘goats to go’ will pass on the gift by sharing their female offspring with other households, who will do the same for still others. For more information on Heifer Project, go to www.heifer.org.

Hygiene Kit Collections: From time to time we encourage members of the congregation to bring in personal hygiene items (shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothbrushes, etc.) to be shared with local organizations ministering to the homeless. Most recently, we have been directing these gifts to The Sharehouse here in Seattle, which helped over 2000 families make the move back out of homelessness this past year, with generous donations of furniture and household goods, along with other items such as these personal hygiene supplies. For more information on The Sharehouse, go to www.thesharehouse.org.

Equal Exchange Coffee Project: Wanting to encourage good stewardship of our environment, and knowing this includes making faithful choices about the coffee we drink, we have begun serving organic, shade-grown, fair trade coffee during Coffee Hour here at church, and also have bags of coffee available for individual purchase. The Equal Exchange coffee we serve and sell is part of the Presbyterian Coffee Project. For more information, go to www.equalexchange.com.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance: When immediate aid is needed in response to disasters here in the U.S. or around the world, we encourage church members to give generously through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. For up to date information on all of their current outreach efforts, go to www.pcusa.org/pda.

Alternative Gift Fair: There comes a time when your mother has enough sweaters, your clients have more holiday food than they can eat, and your kids will just lose another toy in the shuffle. WPC’s response to over-consumption at the holidays is to host an Alternative Gift Fair in early November which provides members, friends, and neighbors with an opportunity to purchase gifts that actually make a difference in the world. A variety of gifts are available for purchase, such as shares of animals through the Heifer Project; fair trade coffee, tea, and chocolate through the Equal Exchange coffee project; gift cards providing shelter and food for homeless women in Seattle through Noel House; CD’s benefiting the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program; and olive wood carvings to help support families in the Holy Lands through Pal-Craft Aid.