Mission/Serving

This local mission project is one that continues throughout the year. With the donations of our congregation, we are able to give support to the Victim Outreach Intervention Center (VOICe) and The Lighthouse.

Our congregation is heavily invested prayerfully, financially, and experientially with Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti which operates 60 adult literacy centers, a community health clinic, a Christian school, and a soon to open technical school. These ministries operate in the communities of Port-au-Prince, Tomassin, Laboule, Boultilliers, and Kenscoff.

Twice a year a team of volunteers from CCUPC spends the weekend in the Northside of Pittsburgh repairing homes for the city’s elderly, poor, shut in and disabled. CCUPC also includes The Pittsburgh Project work camp and school in their “Giving Tree” collection during Christmas. We also donate a dinner in late May for 80-100 summer volunteers during their week of orientation.

CCUPC has partnered with Cityview – an Evangelical Covenant Church on the North Side of Pittsburgh. CCUPC has invited the pastors of Cityview to participate in worship here several times in the past three years, and many members of CCUPC have been involved there. We have assisted their congregation in rehabbing and maintaining their building, and we have helped to sponsor a “Make and Take” Craft night at Christmas time so that members of the community had the opportunity to make home made gifts for their loved ones. CCUPC also partners with Cityview financially, believing strongly in their ministry to people of the North Side of Pittsburgh.

The Butler County Southwest Chapter of Habitat for Humanity started their seventh home in 2005. This is done with volunteers from all over the area. If you are interested in getting involved, you can join the CCUPC volunteers. One Saturday a month they go to the building site to work on the various stages of home building. No experience is needed as on the job training is provided. If you can’t make it this month, maybe you could join us next month. Please look for the sign-up sheet in the church greeting area.

One of the ways they raise funds for their local building projects, is their annual Aquathlon usually in late August, at the Cranberry Township pool. All proceeds from the Aquathlon benefit the local chapter of Habitat. Since 1999, the Aquathlon has raised around $40,000.00. That’s enough money to build one home.

Each year CCUPC sends a group of students to the New Wilmington Mission Conference where they get the opportunity to engage in hands on mission, and to hear from those serving around the world.  There is no better opportunity to see how the kingdom of God is growing, near and far.  While the Conference focuses on young people, it has programming for every age, reflecting the intergenerational nature of the church.  CCUPC loves being a part of what God is doing around the world in this way.

In January of 1990, the “Souper Bowl of Caring” was started at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina. The idea was, the Jr/Sr High Youth would collect cash donations in large soup pots with each church then sending their proceeds to the charity of their choice. Today, our church is teamed up with over 12,761 participating congregations representing all 50 states and other countries. CCUPC has participated in this event since 1992. The money CCUPC collects goes to The Lighthouse Foundation to help feed local families.

This event is one that keeps giving all year long. Through Compassion International, CCUPC participates in Compassion Sunday, where the Mission Committee has a table with pictures and information packets of some of the needy children around the world who would benefit by having a sponsor. When you support a child, you’ll be helping that child connect with a local church-based program where he or she will be loved, valued and protected.

Please consider sponsoring a child. You can do so by contacting the church office or by the internet at: www.compassion.com. 

Every year through the efforts of the congregation, many children, have presents to open Christmas morning.  The Mission Committee sets up a tree and decorates it with tags listing needed items for children at the Mars Home, women at VOICE, and families in the local area. The tags are taken by our congregation, gifts are purchased, they brought to the church and left under the tree. Then the gifts are distributed those in need.

Serrv is a nonprofit organization with a mission to eradicate poverty wherever it resides by providing opportunity and support to artisans and farmers worldwide.

Serrv is recognized as a leader and pioneer in the fair trade movement, with origins in 1949 as one of the first fair trade organizations in the United States. As a founding member of both the World Fair Trade Organization and the Fair Trade Federation, Serrv has touched countless lives with opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

Serrv began with a small group of Church of the Brethren relief workers helping refugees rebuild after World War II. The first product sold was a cuckoo clock from Germany! SERRV originally stood for “Sales Exchange for Refugee Rehabilitation and Vocation”, but since our mission and work has expanded greatly since then, we now use Serrv as a word on its own. In 1999, Serrv incorporated as an independent nonprofit organization.

Over the decades Serrv has steadily increased their impact through the number of partners they work with and the depth of their development work. From what began as a small catalog of a few items and one gift shop located in New Windsor, Maryland, we have grown to offer a large range of products through seasonal catalogs, three Serrv stores, and hundreds of stores and churches throughout the country.

Our organizational values guide how we work and interact with partners, customers, staff, and volunteers. These include prioritizing improved quality of life for low-income artisans and farmers, collaboration, transparency and trust.

Hosting a Serrv sale is an annual event at CCUPC, usually in November.