Covenant Presbyterian Church

🎒 Join us this Sunday, August 11 for worship as we welcome preschool families, commission preschool staff, and offer a blessing of the backpacks for the start of a new school year! 🎒

July 2024 - GAP Newsletter

Hello friends,

With the fourth of July falling on a Thursday this year, we were only open for services 3 weeks in July. As you read on, the numbers may seem lower than last month, but divide them by 3 weeks and you will find we are still very busy each week. As you drive by GAP when you are downtown look up at our steeple. The louvers have been replaced. No more empty windows and our cross atop the steeple now stands firm. The wet weather in July has caused our renovation to be put on hold. We will see a new roof and repaired tower sometime in September.

Our diaper bank volunteers continue to be busy. Those volunteers dispensed 455 packages of a week's worth of diapers in July. Many of these families are employed but do not have the income to cover the high cost of diapers. Families must bring their own diapers to child care facilities as part of their contract. Remember, all 455 of those packages had to be assembled by volunteer hands prior to Thursdays.

Our adult incontinence program volunteers dispensed 137 packages of product to those who cannot afford the high cost of these products which are necessary for their health and for the confidence to lead active lives. Unlike children who outgrow the need for our diaper bank, these adults will need this help through the remainder of their lives. We have been blessed with volunteer groups who come one day each month to assemble these packages by size and gender.

Our period products program dispensed 136 packages of products for women in need. We are able to provide different products based on the person's choice. A family with several teenage daughters face a strained budget for these products each month.

Our birth certificate volunteers are now seeing a new normal of greater than 40 clients each week. In July they saw 139 clients in 3 weeks. They got back 54 birth certificates, gave out 43 and sent off 56 new applications. The time required to apply for a birth certificate is lengthy. The patience shown by the majority of our clients is proof that they are focused on moving forward in their lives to gain independent living by gaining employment. Our photo ID drivers transported 42 people to the DDS in July. Thirty-four of those people now have a photo ID to find employment and safe housing.

In July, our nurses worked with 208 visits from people unable to meet the cost of their prescription medicine or afford over the counter medicines. Many of these visits also require significant time to work with pharmacists and pharmacies the client is able to get to over the phone to prevent our clients from experiencing a gap in taking their medication. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to one of our long serving nurses. She and her husband made the decision to move out of state to be closer to their children and grandchildren. They will both be missed, but we celebrate with them as they move closer to their family. As God always provides, two new nurses have joined us this month! We welcome them and hope they feel our hospitality.

Our food pantry continues to see high numbers and new faces. In the 3 weeks of July our food pantry volunteers served 761 households experiencing food insecurity. This included 307 households receiving a walking bag of sandwiches and snacks because they have nowhere to cook. We have been blessed with good fresh produce, cheese and frozen meat as well as the additional canned and dry goods donated by our partner churches and community groups. Thanks to this extra stock we have enough food to offer our last client each week.

Please pray for the unseen people who are struggling with the life they are leading. We are hearing more stories from people who are just trying to find their way back to their families. People who are caught in the red tape of systems that seem impossible to navigate. Pray for the man who met me outside in the heat. He asked me for directions to the Marion Barnes resource center. He needed help with his housing situation. He lives in a rented house trailer in a trailer park. He can pay his rent, but has nothing left to live on. He showed me the letter that informed him his rent would now be $1,037 a month. So many stories each week from people who are not looking for a hand out as much as a solution to their current situations. We pray that the people we meet and listen to will find some comfort from us. We pray that the city of Augusta might one day provide affordable housing, affordable child care and employment at a living wage so that all might feel able to live within their means. Please pray for GAP.

In His service,
Elaine

https://vimeo.com/991187644?share=copy

August 4, 2024 Worship Service Sunday morning worship service at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Augusta, GA. This video is intended to be accompanied by a bulletin, which is emailed to the congregation.…

We had a great 1st Saturday Men's Breakfast to kickoff the new educational year at Covenant Presbyterian Church! Our special guest speaker was Dr. Tom Mote. Tom is an associate vice president for instruction at UGA and a world renowned atmospheric sciences researcher. He has spent two decades studying global warming impacts on the Greenland ice sheet and climate warming impacts on other locations across the planet. Dr. Mote shared with us some of his Greenland research as well as his thoughts on why Christians should be concerned about the environment. A very informative program!

This Week at Covenant // August 2, 2024 - https://mailchi.mp/4e40cdeee5c9/covenant-presbyterian-weeklyupdate091021-12812611

https://vimeo.com/988007169?share=copy

Covenant Sunday Worship July 28, 2024 Sunday morning worship service at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Augusta, GA. This video is intended to be accompanied by a bulletin, which is emailed to the congregation.…

Covenant kiddos had a big time at our Playground & Popsicles (and donuts!) get-together this morning! 🛝🍩😎

This Week at Covenant // July 26, 2024 - https://mailchi.mp/a0324565306d/covenant-presbyterian-weeklyupdate091021-12812483

Such a fun gathering tonight of Covenant young(ish) adults!

We have a change of venue for our Young Adult Gathering. We'll be at Arsenal Tap Room beginning at 6p. Hope to see you there!

We’re on our way home from Middle School Montreat today and it’s been a great week! Andrew Beachum performed an original song at the Variety Show last night. Water day was a lot of fun! And we’re back in the van now following closing worship this morning.

https://vimeo.com/983882238

Covenant Sunday Worship July 21, 2024 Sunday morning worship service at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Augusta, GA. This video is intended to be accompanied by a bulletin, which is emailed to the congregation.…

This Week at Covenant // July 19, 2024 - https://mailchi.mp/4f3741d2b01e/covenant-presbyterian-weeklyupdate091021-12811848

We’re having a great week at Middle School Montreat on the campus of Maryville College! There are hundreds of other middle schoolers here from around the country. We have a keynote speaker every morning followed by small groups and recreation. Every evening, we have worship followed by more recreation. At the end of the day, we head back to the dorms for back home groups and then call it a day.

☀️ Covenant middle schoolers and their fearless leaders left this morning for Montreat Middle School Conference at Maryville College! Please keep this group in your prayers this week as they explore what it means to be “in the middle of it all”! ☀️

We did it! Last week, we hit our goal of raising $10,000 for through the Matthew 25:36 Challenge! Thanks to our friends at Westminster Presbyterian in Waynesboro and Christ Presbyterian in Augusta for partnering with us. This will eliminate $1,000,000 of medical debt for families in financial need in the CSRA!

https://vimeo.com/980733988?share=copy

Covenant Sunday Worship July 14, 2024 Sunday morning worship service at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Augusta, GA. This video is intended to be accompanied by a bulletin, which is emailed to the congregation.…

Friday night ✨candlelight worship✨ around Lake Susan // 📸:

It’s the last day of 🌱Planting Peace🌱Montreat!

Charlie Terry’s highlight of the day: “One thing I liked about Montreat today was in small groups, where we made bags and put little nice notes in them to take home.”

Rollin Cartee’s highlight of the day: “The best part of today was the candlelight service. It is a special tradition at montreat where we all gather around lake Susan for a service by candlelight. It makes me feel all the feelings as I say goodbye to all the new friends I met throughout the week. Although I’m sad the week is over, I’m especially grateful for all of the memories I made.”

This Week at Covenant // July 12, 2024 - https://mailchi.mp/9805fb8d76ba/covenant-presbyterian-weeklyupdate091021-12810733

🌱 MYC Planting Peace 🌱 Day 4 highlights from Rollin Cartee and Audrey Baldwin: This morning we started off at keynote where we talked about being comfortable with the uncomfortable and creating brave spaces. Then, we broke off into small and connecting groups. In connecting group, we made seed pods out of paper, water, and seeds. Then before lunch, we wrote affirmations for eachother to read at the end of the week. After lunch, we hiked up lookout mountain and came back in time for dinner and worship. During worship we talked about the scripture Mark 4 and the importance of rest. We wrapped up the day with the talent show and back home groups. All in all, today was a great day hanging out with friends and enjoying nature!

Here’s a recap of MYC day 2 of 🌱Planting Peace 🌱 from Naomi Gillies: “Day two of Montreat was a success!! We went to keynote in the morning and heard about how planting things takes time and we have to put our trust in God that it will grow. In small and connecting groups, we played games and talked about not waiting to plant our “seeds” and that many “seeds” have been planted for us to even be standing where we are today. The youth group made trips out onto Lake Susan on paddle boats and to The Huck for some icecream and coffee. We wrapped today up with worship where Charlie Terry sang in the choir!”

Hello from Montreat Youth Conference! This year’s theme is 🌱Planting Peace🌱 and here are Shirley Gilleland’s thoughts on the first day: “Today we did a scavenger hunt to get to know Montreat better, and it was fun. After worship tonight, there was a recreation event with glow paint and a bubble machine. Everyone had a great time!”

https://vimeo.com/979967972?share=copy

(We apologize for the technical audio issue on the eulogy portion of the service.)

Service of Witness to the Resurrection in Gratitude for the Life of James Patrick Crimmons This video is intended to be accompanied by a bulletin, which is emailed to the congregation. More information can be found at www.covenantaugusta.org. Services…

https://vimeo.com/972265603

Covenant Sunday Worship July 07, 2024 Sunday morning worship service at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Augusta, GA. This video is intended to be accompanied by a bulletin, which is emailed to the congregation.…

This Week at Covenant // July 5, 2024 - https://mailchi.mp/991c4f139e06/covenant-presbyterian-weeklyupdate091021-12810338

GAP Ministries - June Newsletter

Hello friends,

June in Augusta is always hot, but for some reason, this year it seemed hotter than normal. We are challenged with cooling down an older building. Many fans are running each Thursday, adding to the noise but necessary for our clients and volunteers alike. We also began a major steeple, roof and tower restoration, which has led to us changing our path to unload our inventory for the food pantry. This causes us to have to interrupt our flow of food pantry clients while we unload vehicles full of canned goods and fresh produce. We are blessed by the understanding and patience of our clients during this restoration project.

In June, our food pantry served 961 visits from people experiencing food insecurity including 350 walking bags distributed to people with nowhere to cook. Each walking bag contains 2 sandwiches. One peanut butter and jelly and one meat and cheese. That's 700 sandwiches made in the month of June, which is a lot of sandwiches! Volunteers served the other 611 visits by shopping with each household to get the groceries those families can use. We try our best to stock different varieties of food and ensure that we have some fresh produce and frozen meat to offer each week. It is only by the grace of God that we still have enough stock to help the last households that come before noon. We give thanks for the many donations of food we receive throughout the month.

Our health product programs continue to grow. Our diaper bank supplied 720 packages of a week's worth of diapers to families who cannot afford the cost of diapers but want to keep their children healthy. They also supplied an additional 228 packages the last week of June since we will be closed on Thursday, July 4. Volunteers break the large boxes of diapers into the allotted amounts for a week based on the size of diapers. This takes many trips to Costco, both loading and unloading. It also takes many hands to package the diapers. God has blessed us with volunteer hands from many groups to complete this task. The same kind of volunteer support is needed to package our adult incontinence products. This program supplied 211 packages of product to adults who cannot stretch their budgets for this expensive need. Our period product program supplied 211 clients with supplies they and their families need each month. We are continually looking for grants to help cover the high cost of these 3 programs.

Our birth certificate volunteers broke a record in June seeing over 60 clients two weeks in a row. In June, they saw 209 clients, got back 76 birth certificates, gave out 71 and sent off 91 new applications. We see quite a crowd of people each week waiting patiently for their name to be called. The process to request a birth certificate takes a lot of time for each individual. Our photo ID drivers transported 30 people to the DDS in June. Each person has a unique story and does not always have adequate documentation to get an ID.
22 people received their photo ID. We have 3 volunteer drivers. Many weeks in June we were down to one volunteer available. Again, people were patient waiting for their ride.

For various reasons our volunteer nurses were short staffed each week in June as well. This did not cause us to turn anyone away. Those nurses able to volunteer worked with 195 visits from people unable to afford their prescription medication in June. These nurses show each person they work with compassion and kindness that can only come from their own personal faith in God. They work with pharmacies to keep our costs down while working with clients to make sure they have a way to get to that pharmacy. Please pray for the woman we met who is on dialysis and a diabetic. She came to us in need of several prescriptions amounting to a significant cost. Our nurse volunteer reached out to a local program that helps to fund the high cost to dialysis patients and arranged for this woman to meet her the next day. We have learned that this woman is now receiving help managing her costs. Please pray for the woman who is immobile and behind on her medications because she can't get to a doctor for a prescription. Her friend came to us looking for a smaller wheel chair so she could get into the bathroom easier. Our nurse volunteer advised her friend on how to get assistance with transportation and other needs. We have learned that this woman is now receiving the benefits she is qualified for including transportation to her doctor.

All of the people we meet each week need our prayers. Each story shared has its own unique challenges. We give our time and our hearts to those who come for help. but when we leave for the day, we can return to our air conditioned cars and homes to get out of the heat. Imagine facing each day without having a place to cool off. We pray that those who come will feel more hopeful because of the services they receive at GAP and that they will come to understand that God is walking alongside them as they move through their days. They are not alone. They are loved. Please pray for GAP.

In His service,
Elaine

https://vimeo.com/965936943?share=copy

Covenant Sunday Worship June 30, 2024 Sunday morning worship service at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Augusta, GA. This video is intended to be accompanied by a bulletin, which is emailed to the congregation.…

This Week at Covenant // June 28, 2024 - https://mailchi.mp/370a33d85c73/covenant-presbyterian-weeklyupdate091021-12809910