MISION TU PUEDES / YOU CAN MISSION
SAN CRISTOBAL, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
FOUNDED IN 1998 DURING
WESTMINSTER’S
100th ANNIVERSARY
MISION TU PUEDES CENTRO EDUCATIVO
YOU CAN MISSION SCHOOL
FOUNDED IN 2003
During Westminster’s 100th Anniversary, we commissioned Elders Debora and Ruben Damiani to establish in their native land Misión Tú Puedes / You Can Mission, in Najayo, Dominican Republic. In 2003, they founded the Misión Tú Puedes School, In 2004, they began the construction of a new building. In 2008, Pastor Karen and eight delegates from Westminster and New Brunswick Presbytery attended their 10th anniversary celebration. In 2010, prior to COVID-19, a beautiful four story school building provided classrooms for the education of 500 students attending preschool to 12th grade. In addition, more than 100 adults attended the adult school. Three hundred students have graduated from 12th grade! Over Fifty graduates have been sponsored to go on to universities and colleges to further their education. We celebrate the fact that Mision Tu Puedes graduates have become doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, and counselors!
Missionaries Ruben and Debora Damiani, founders of Tu Puedes/You Can School in Najayo, in the providence of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic.
Missionary Ruben Damiani went to be with our Lord and Saviour in October 2021.
Westminster helped to construct this beautiful four-story Tu Puedes/You Can School and administration building which began in 2004.
In 2023, Pastor Karen and Elder Angie Belmont are planning to return to Mision Tu Puedes School/You Can School to celebrate their 20th Anniversary!
SINCE 2018 WESTMINSTER HAS BEEN
SUPPORTING THE PRESBYTERIANS OF MONROVIA, LIBERIA BY SHIPPING FOOD, CLOTHING, TOYS AND BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
Deacon Jehu Styker and Elder/Deacon Lorna Abdullah oversee the filling of the barrels for Liberia. They are filled with food, clothing, books and toys for children.
Children of the Village of Monrovia, Liberia were grateful and happy to receive books and toys!
This year Westminster sent 8 barrels! One of them was sent to Nowah who joined the church after our Grateful for the Shot event.
Liberia Sunday at Westminster, December 4, 2022
VILLAGES IN PARTNERSHIP, MALAWI
A MISSION OF THE ALLENTOWN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Westminster and Friends raised over $7,000!
Aaron Shaver, Westminster member and multimedia tech person is on the staff of Villages and Partnership. When he asked his boss and Pastora Karen’s friend and colleague, Liz Hienzel-Nelson, if she knew about an intercultural worshipping congregation with a person of color as their pastor, she highly recommended Westminster Church. Years ago,, Allentown and Westminster shared in a joint youth ministry program.
in 2019, Deacon Linda Konrad-Byers, Liz Heinzel-Nelzon, and Aaron Shaver enjoyed walking together for the Water Walk fundraiser for Malawi!
Villages in Partnership is a development organization that works in the rural villages of Sakata, Malawi, partnering with 26 villages and impacting over 21,000 lives. VIP has been in existence for over a decade and has supporters throughout the 50 states and the United Kingdom. But as with everything, VIP started as an idea. Or more accurately…
It started with a feeling. In the summer of 2007 Liz Heinzel-Nelson had a quiet but unshakeable feeling that she was being called by God to do more to serve the poor. A devout Christian, Liz couldn’t ignore this call, so she sat down with her husband Stephen, the pastor at Allentown Presbyterian Church in New Jersey, and told him of her stirring. She suggested they take their family and live in an impoverished nation doing mission work for the next 5 years. After months spent talking and praying, planning and fundraising, Liz, Stephen and their two young daughters, Terra and Jordan, landed in Malawi on January 1st 2008 to spend a year in the southern African nation.
The seeds Liz and Stephen planted in 2008 have grown into what is now a vibrant, wide-ranging development organization, involving dozens of people working in partnership with other churches, schools, businesses and community organizations to nurture enduring, life-changing relationships with villages in Malawi. In 2012, VIP incorporated itself and is now a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. We invite you to explore this website to learn more about our mission, our partners (both here and in Malawi), and the work we are doing. If you feel called, we encourage you to get involved, and join us in making a difference in this world.
VIP has completed dozens of projects, large and small, throughout the region of Sakata since 2008, but our very first was rebuilding that clinic in Kalupe Village. And though he has grown older still, you can still find Mr. Kusimba if you walk down the dusty paths of Kalupe, just as feisty as ever. And if you are curious enough to ask him, he will tell you all about that fateful day in 2008 and the twin acts of faith that made possible everything that has followed. Click here to learn more about VIP’s work.
Water Walk 2023
