We Extend a Welcome To You at
Lexington Presbyterian Church
120 S. Main Street
Lexington, VA 24450
William M. Klein, Pastor
Phone: 540-463-3873 Fax: 540-463-1885
Lexington Presbyterian - Service to our Local Community
Whether the need is in our own community or elsewhere in the state or nation, Lexington Presbyterian participates either in financial contributions or in the active involvement of our congregation members. The following is a partial list of organizations we support in our region. Click on the underlined links for additional information.
Another facet of local mission is our annual youth mission project. For more information, on project plans, visit our Youth page.
Adopt-a-Student Program
The
end of summer brings new students to Lexington, giving us an opportunity
once again to invite these young people into our church community and to
get to know some of them personally. Members of our church family "adopt"
interested VMI and W&L students.
These students often just need a place to get away and have some familial contact. Individual hosts and students set parameters in terms of time and frequency of visits as well as activities. Some provide comfort to a homesick student for a part of the year; others may develop long term relationships that last a lifetime. Imagine, as a parent, how much you would appreciate it if you knew a family was caring for your child away at college. Participation in the Adopt-a-Student program really does make a difference in the life of a student.
We match students with host families in early September, once both VMI and W&L students are in town. Do consider taking part in this campus ministry - either as a host or an "adoptee."
Blue Ridge Area Food Bank
The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, a member of America's Second Harvest, was established in 1981 to help feed hungry people throughout Virginia. It has distributed more than 100 million pounds of food throughout its service area, which includes 25 counties and nine cities in northern and central Virginia.
For more information, visit brafb.org.
Campus Kitchen
The mission of The Campus Kitchens Project is to use service as a tool to:
- Strengthen Bodies by using existing resources to meet hunger and nutritional needs in our community;
- Empower Minds by providing leadership and service learning opportunities to students, and educational benefits to adults, seniors, children, and families in need; and
- Build Communities by fostering a new generation of community-minded adults through resourceful and mutually beneficial partnerships among students, social service agencies, businesses and schools.
Locally, the W&L Campus Kitchen has moved into new facilities at the vacated Kappa Sig house on the corner of Nelson and Estill St.
Campus Kitchen prepares and delivers about 300 meals a week to individuals and targeted organizations like: Project Horizon, Hospice, Natural Bridge Manor, the Office on Youth, Rockbridge Area Occupational Center, and the Magnolia Center. They have also experimented with serving meals at the Lee Apts. just down the street from our church on Main Street.
If you would like to know more about this mission and how to help out, contact Margie Page.
Visit the Campus Kitchens web site for more information.
Meals for Shut-Ins
Volunteers deliver a physician-ordered, nutritious hot meal five days a week to handicapped or ill individuals unable to provide their own.
Project Horizon
Project Horizon is dedicated to reducing domestic, dating, and sexual
violence in Lexington, Buena Vista, and the Rockbridge County area
through crisis intervention services and prevention programs. Lexington
Presbyterian sponsors the "Jesse Tree" project during Advent. We collect
household supplies, children's clothing and toys, plus gift cards and
cash for Lisa's House, which provides up to 30 days of shelter to
clients who are not safe in their own homes.
For more information, visit the Project Horizon web page.
Rescue Mission Roanoke
Every Christmas we collect clothing for this mission. Visit RescueMission.net for details on the services offered by this organization.
Rockbridge Area Free Clinic
The Rockbridge Area Free Clinic serves low-income, uninsured people
throughout the Rockbridge area. Children, adults, disabled and the elderly,
regardless of race, religion or gender can come to the Free Clinic and receive
basic health care that they otherwise could not afford. The Clinic seeks
to deliver quality health care in a caring atmosphere to improve
people's lives. The clinic offers services, provided primarily by volunteers who serve
without financial compensation, on an outpatient basis. These services
include an emphasis on health, education, and prevention of illness.
Additional detail may be found at RockbridgeFreeClinic.org.
Rockbridge Area Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry. HFHI seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. Habitat invites people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need.
For the fall & winter of 2009/2010, Lexington Presbyterian Church is joining with Rockbridge Area Habitat for Humanity and a number of other local churches for a Disciples Build project that started in October. We are building a house in the Collierstown area. You may sign up and schedule your work days using VolunteerUp.
Our church's effort is being coordinated by Mac Baker who is seeking adult volunteers (youths age 16 to 18 are also welcome but may not use power tools). Our work day is Saturday mornings from 8:30 - 12:15 beginning in mid-October and continuing through the end of the year. If you can help on one or more Saturdays, please contact Mac at 463-9563 or <bakerjm [at] vmi.edu>. No experience is necessary! Habitat supplies all tools and building materials, and a construction supervisor is always present to provide instruction.
Additional funds are also needed and checks made payable to Lexington Presbyterian Church would be welcome. Please indicate on the check that it is for the Habitat Disciples Build.
Prayerfully consider volunteering in this Disciples Build to put your faith into action in our community.
You may also visit the web sites for the Rockbridge Area HFH and Habitat for Humanity International.
Rockbridge Area Hospice
Rockbridge Area Hospice treats, comforts and provides supportive care
to terminally ill patients and their families in Lexington, Buena Vista,
and Rockbridge County, Virginia. Services are rooted in the belief that
an individual's worth, dignity and growth have no end. Through
palliative care to control pain, as well as other medical and
non-medical services, Hospice personnel seek to aid patients and their
loved ones in living life fully at the end of the patient's life. They
also serve the bereaved in growing through their grief.
Mary Ann Bowden and Betsy Brittigan are LPC's Rockbridge Area Hospice Liaisons. Feel free to seek them out with any questions about Hospice services and the nature of Hospice care. Mary Ann's phone number is 463-9564; Betsy's phone number is 463-7990. All questions and concerns are confidential, in accordance with Hospice guidelines.
For more information, visit RockbridgeAreaHospice.org.
Rockbridge Area Relief Association
The Rockbridge Area Relief Association (RARA) has been serving
residents of Rockbridge County and the cities of Lexington and Buena
Vista, VA since 1972 by providing emergency assistance with food,
shelter, utilities, heating fuel, medications, transportation and other
basic necessities.
Visit RARALex.com for details.
If you are looking for ways to help locally, you may be interested in a new initiative: "Every House a Garden." The vision for this program is to identify families that need help supplying themselves with adequate food and that have space for a garden as well as the commitment to grow some of their own food. These families will be paired with garden mentors and funding for basic supplies as well as some volunteers to help with initial digging. If you are unable to participate in a "hands-on" way, sponsors are also needed to financially support a garden (about $250). Interested in finding out more? Contact Peggy Dyson-Cobb at cobbking@rockbridge.net or 464-3511.
Rockbridge Area Transportation System (RATS)
RATS transports passengers to medical and therapeutic appointments, to drugstores, workplaces, shopping, and to social activities. Rides are also available to regional medical centers in Roanoke, Charlottesville, and other locations. RATS provides on demand, door-to-door service by trained and certified drivers, using safe, reliable vehicles.
More information is available at RATS.RockbridgeArea.info.
Rockbridge County Library Literacy Center
In the Lexington/Rockbridge area, 29% of the population 18 years and older do NOT have a high school diploma or GED. 33% of the school age population of Lexington/Rockbridge area receive free/reduced price meals which is a major indicator of poverty. In 2004, the commonwealth of Virginia lost $300 million due to lost revenues from people without jobs, welfare, food stamp programs and other programs related to individuals with less than a high school education. If a child is unable to read by third grade, his or her entire academic progress is severely impaired. Some reports indicate the future need for prison cells is determined by the number who cannot read by the 3rd or 4th grade.
Please make time in your schedule for 1 1/2 hours per week to help a local student make progress in their reading, seriously improving the rest of their academic and regular life. These children are our future and YOU can really make a difference. When you are visiting the Rockbridge Regional Library, sign up with the Literacy Center and Susan Bushnell will give you a call about the up-coming classes. You will be glad you did!! Call Jo Anne or Eddie Willis @ 463-5104 if you need more information.
Sunnyside Fellowship Fund
As partners in ministry with the Presbyterian Church, the Sunnyside Fellowship Fund helps us fulfill our responsibility to older adults.
Today, individuals are living longer than they thought possible, as advanced medical services and never-thought-of technology have increased life expectancy significantly. The cost of this progress, coupled with return on investments falling short, the cost of living, and failure of Medicare/Medicaid to keep up, is consuming all of some residents' savings.
Lexington Presbyterian's relationship with Sunnyside spans several decades and many of our members and their families have chosen Sunnyside as their retirement home. While most residents of Sunnyside were able to adequately plan for their retirement, some experience problems for which they could not plan.
They are finding that even with prudent spending, the best plans fall short. The Sunnyside Fellowship Fund provides the resources many residents require to help pay the full cost of their care. Not only does the fund help make ends meet, it also helps with the little extras that preserve dignity and security, such as eyeglasses, dentures and hair care.
The Sunnyside Fellowship Fund is available to residents from all walks of life and does not discriminate against race or religion. One hundred percent of all gifts are used to help older adults in need. We hope that you will prayerfully consider contributing to this very special offering. If you choose to contribute, please mail or drop a check by the church office, indicating "Sunnyside" in the memo.
Scripture reminds us about our responsibility to care for those with little resources or hope, such as in Psalms 71:9 David reminds us "do not cast me aside when old age comes, nor forsake me when my strength fails me."
Yellow Brick Road Early Learning Center
Yellow
Brick Road Early Learning Center, Inc. is a non-profit organization
offering educational programs, including subsidized care, to families
with young children in the Rockbridge community. For more than 25 years,
Yellow Brick Road has provided developmentally appropriate preschool
activities within a program of affordable, quality, nurturing childcare.