How We Serve Others

One of the ways we engage our community is through meaningful mission work. This work occurs locally, regionally, nationally and globally. Here’s a look at some of our mission work:

CARITAS: This effort was organized in the early 1980s to respond to the huge unmet need for emergency shelter for homeless adults in the cold winter months. With its name derived from the Latin word for charity, today CARITAS is the largest emergency shelter program in our community. Once a year our congregation hosts CARITAS in the Christian Family Life Center. Volunteers help with meals, visit with our guests, do laundry, and provide overnight supervision. CARITAS stands for Congregations Around Richmond Involved to Assure Shelter. CARITAS helps our most vulnerable neighbors break the cycles of addiction and homelessness to reclaim their dignity. For more information, visit caritasva.org.

CCHASM: For over 21 years, CCHASM has served as a non-profit organization seeking to serve those individuals and families in Chesterfield-Colonial Heights who have found themselves in an economic crisis.  Their mission is to provide food, financial assistance, and career clothing to area residents who have experienced or are experiencing an emergency situation which threatens their survival needs.  Those assisted by CCHASM are area residents, individuals, and families who, for various reasons (loss of jobs, medical emergencies, loss of the primary income member, recent disability), are experiencing an acute economic crisis, which threatens their basic survival needs. For more information, visit cchasm.org.

STOP HUNGER NOW: Need text here

BELMONT FOOD PANTRY: Need text here

FRIENDS OF THE HOMELESS: Lunch is served with God’s love every first Monday of the month (except if it falls on a holiday).  Members prepare, transport, and serve the meal at Bromfield CME Church in Richmond. For more information, visit our Friends of the Homeless page.

DAY OF SERVICE: Need text here

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY: Mt. Pisgah partners with other congregations to help build a modest home for a low-income family.  Members provide labor, funding, meals for the workers, and prayer. Mt. Pisgah has most recently assisted in the completion of a house with Habitat for Humanity in Fluvanna for the Brent Hawkins Memorial Build.

SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS: Mt. Pisgah has partnerships with two Chesterfield County schools – Hopkins Elementary and J.B. Watkins. At Hopkins, a Title I school where most students come from working poor families and receive free or reduced-price lunches, some of our members tutor students and volunteer in the classroom.  Some of our small groups, Sunday School classes and others have  adopted students to provide backpacks, Christmas gifts, and weekend food. For those who wish to help with the weekend food, the estimated food cost for one student during the school year is approximately $325.  The Hopkins mission is a wonderful opportunity to make a meaningful difference in a child’s life. For more information on adopting a student, please call Elizabeth Farrell (897-0091) or Kathy Epperson (794-6612).

We also work with teachers at J.B. Watkins to help them set up their classrooms in late August before the start of school in September, and we visit several times a year with an “appreciation breakfast” or afternoon snacks. Watkins is located within the Mt. Pisgah service area.

Additionally, working with the Midlothian YMCA, we provide filled backpacks to the Bright Beginnings programs offered to area children through YMCA Richmond.

VETERANS RECOGNITION: We host patients from McGuire’s spinal cord injury unit to a church-wide covered dish luncheon during National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans every February.

OTHER MISSIONS: Need text here – Spring Arbor, Midlothian YMCA, local firestation, etc.