Outreach and Missions

From February through November, Trinity Church, under the leadership of the Missions Committee, collects for special projects and deserving programs. These range from local mission work in our county and Harrisburg to Kentucky and beyond. The current list of supported missions are

· Neighborhood Center

· The Salvation Army

· Child Evangelism

· Red Bird Mission

· Ministry to Missionaries

· Youth for Christ

· Teen Challenge

· PA Council on Alcohol Problems

· Bethesda Mission

·  

Donations are collected through special envelopes during each month to meet goals set each year in the general budget. Most collections exceed budgeted amounts.

Trinity has also had a strong relationship with Mission Central of the Central Pennsylvania Conference from nearly its inception. One of our members, Kathy Briner, is one of two Mission Services Coordinators. Another church member, Ginny Jones, has started a burgeoning ministry called “New Digs,” which is also housed at Mission Central.

Additionally, a monthly special collection in cash and foodstuffs is directed to the Food Bank of New Hope Ministries in Mechanicsburg, PA. Distribution is then handled under the supervision of the United Methodist Women's group.

Our Missionaries

Trinity Church places special emphasis mission and outreach work not only at home but, around the world. Below are five missionaries and their families which Trinity Church presently supports.

The Smallwoods

Mark and Rebecca came to Red Bird Mission in August 1988 to serve as teachers at Red Bird Mission School during its first full year as a private Christian School. Mark directs the vocal and instrumental music programs for the elementary, middle school and high school. Rebecca taught 4th grade for 9 1/2 years and now teaches Elementary Christian Education.

Mark was born and raised in Harrisville, Ohio where he attended the Harrisville United Methodist Church. Music has been an outlet for expressing his faith since childhood. When a pastor took him on a visit to Asbury College, he knew that was where he would be going to college, and in 1986 graduated prepared to share his music and put it to use for the Lord. After two years in the public schools in West Virginia, he arrived at Red Bird and began the process of resurrecting a music program what had suffered severely for lack of a teacher. Mark earned a MA degree in Music Education from Eastern Kentucky University in 1991.

Rebecca grew up in Sumner, Illinois in the Southern Illinois Conference where she received Christ as a young child. Rebecca’s pilgrimage gives credence to the saying at Red Bird that "if you get your feet wet in the creek you’ll be back." Her first contact with Red Bird was in 1982 as a member of a work team and even then she felt God’s call to return to Red Bird as a teacher. Rebecca is a 1986 graduate of Oakland City College in Oakland City, Indiana with a BS in Education and in 1992 earned a MA in Elementary Education from Eastern Kentucky University. Following her marriage to Mark in 1986 she was a public school teacher for two years prior to returning to Red Bird.

They have two children, 6-year old Nathaniel (Nate) and 4-year old Leah. Nate enjoys playing the drums, riding his bike, studying science-related subjects, and playing with Matchbox cars. He is in first grade at the Red Bird Mission School. Leah (adopted from Korea when she was eight months old) likes to sing and dance, play make-believe games, and other games like UNO. She also enjoys hands-on creative activities. Leah is in the Early Childhood Development program, a preschool program provided through Red Bird Mission. Her mobility continues to improve as she receives treatment for cerebral palsy through the Lexington, Kentucky Shriner's Hospital and the Red Bird Clinic.

The Enrights

Rev. John and Kendra Enright are Methodist missionaries based in Ndola, Zambia, Africa, who currently oversee the creation of the Kafakumba Training Center and associated Chapel Auditorium. This extensive, multipurpose campus is still under construction, but it is already hosting conferences, retreats, and youth camps. When completed, the Chapel Auditorium alone will hold up to 1,000 worshippers, while the dormitories for the Pastor's School will house up to 350 pastors and family members from all over the continent.

One of the important goals of the overall project is to have local people in the Ndola region contribute to the ministry of the Center. To help fund portions of the project, farmers have helped create a successful 25-acre banana tree plantation, and others are manufacturing doors to sell, both locally and abroad.
The Training Center construction continues as the third dormitory is nearly finished, with minor touches and paint all that is left to complete this newest building. Facelifts on older buildings are underway, multiple landscaping projects are just getting started, and, with the steel frame and roof now in place, the Chapel construction is proceeding. So there is much work yet to be done. The Enrights are only too happy to welcome work teams from around the globe to assist in these efforts.

The Edigers

Merle and Carol Ediger (MEdiger@ufm.org) are planting a Hispanic church in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. This town is known for being the capitol of the Cherokee National, yet a population of approximately 700 Hispanics is in need of hearing the Gospel. Merle works with individuals aside from planting a church, he disciples them, interprets for them in hospitals, when making travel plans and many other daily needs. He holds individual discipleship classes and has a mid week youth activity program. Although one of their biggest ministries had been in providing transportation to the local Hispanic community to hospitals, church and other locations, a new law in 2007 has had a major effect on that undertaking. The law makes it a felony to transport undocumented individuals, and that has made it difficult for church goers to attend services.

The Unseths

Pete & Carole Unseth serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Carole was born in Carlisle while her dad, Rev. Heim, was pastor at Trinity. They went to Ethiopia in 1982, working in a translation project among a language group from the western hills of Ethiopia.  Then Pete's medical problems brought them back to the States in 1996.

Their present assignment under Wycliffe is on the staff of the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (GIAL), a Wycliffe-affiliated school for training Bible translators, located in Dallas, TX.  GIAL serves students who are moving toward, or already serving with, a number of agencies besides Wycliffe, including Lutheran Bible Translators, SIM, Assemblies of God, Pioneers, Pioneer Bible Translators, New Tribes Mission.
Their official job descriptions will tell you that Carole works in the library and that Pete teaches.  As important as these jobs are, they see their broader responsibilities to be molding Bible translators.  Pete and Carol are not there to merely pump facts into their heads, but to prepare their hearts for ministry in difficult places, places where Jesus is not acknowledged as Lord.  As part of this, they host a weekly Bible study in their home, host meals at their place, and look for (even create) opportunities to talk to students about bigger issues.  It's all part of molding them.

They enjoy getting e-mails and pictures back from former students, telling them what they are doing overseas.  It's no good for stamp collecting, but they receive emails from places like Botswana, India, Indonesia, Russia, Ethiopia, Mexico, Tanzania. pete and Carol are grateful to all the members of Trinity for their prayers and financial support, their income from Wycliffe being from such designated gifts.

The Donaldsons

Don and Chique Donaldson are located near Guatemala City, Guatemala. In their latest letter to Trinity, they described what it was like to celebrate the New Year by rejoicing "in the God of our salvation." Their church began the service at 8:30 with singing and testimony. That was followed by a meal provided gratis to all who attended, which was then followed by the Lord's Supper. A time of prayer after that was interrupted by fireworks in the city that went on for over 30 minutes. Then the Donaldsons headed back to their home in Antigua. They also described their VBS run in a little village near Antigua: "Two young boys rode their bikes about 8 miles all uphill just to be in the services. Many of these kids had no Bible training or much contact with the Gospel. Many indicated they had no Bible in their homes, so the church was able to procure some and they have been coming faithfully to the church."

Don and Chiqui Donaldson have been in Guatemala for 46 years holding forth the Word of God.  Don uses chalk art to proclaim the message.  He has used this method all over the world and has found it to be a most excellent way to get the message across many cultural and language barriers.  37 years ago Don brought down an airplane to use in evangelism and to minister to the churches in the rural areas of Guatemala.  During all these years the airplane has proven to be an effective mode to reach out, for years the message was thrown out of the plane over the rural mountain villages where there were not even roads to get there.  When Don discovered many people out there could not read or write, he drew up a tract that would lead a person to Christ with no words, just pictures.  He also would fly out to the many small strips in the jungle just as it would be getting dark, take out his power plant, projector and hang a sheet on the wing, show a short film then do a drawing and preach.  As there is no electricity in those areas, he could not take off until the next morning so he always carried a small tent, sleeping bag and would set it up under the fuselage of the plane and spend the night.  He has described these nights out in the jungle and it is most intriguing to say the least.