The Mission Team has designated longtime mission partner Amor Ministries to receive 50% of the OGHS offering. It is one of BPC’s most cherished traditions: traveling together down to Tijuana, to build homes for some of Mexico’s poorest families.

Indeed, last fall, some two dozen BPCers, both youth and adults, spent three days across the border doing just that. Hopefully, we can do the same this year.

Of course, it costs money to build these homes, which is why our long-time sponsor, Amor Ministries, has been chosen as our One Great Hour of Sharing recipient. Since 1980 Amor has been dedicated to improving the basic living standards and quality of life for the area’s most impoverished.

On these trips we do more than just put a roof over someone’s head. We also help provide safety and security for a family, enabling them to stay and grow up together. Overall health is improved, children can study and prepare for the future, and parents can pass on their values.

Matthew 25:37-40

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

BPC is a Matthew 25 Church! Matthew 25:31–46 calls all of us to actively engage in the world around us, so our faith comes alive and we wake up to new possibilities. Convicted by this passage, Brentwood Presbyterian Church joins our denomination, the PC(USA), to act boldly and compassionately to serve people who are hungry, oppressed, imprisoned or poor.

The themes of the Matthew 25 invitation are grounded in the gospel. Jesus calls us to serve with and for “the least of these” — not as a group to be pitied, but as people who are deeply loved by Jesus. This loving commitment to radical and fearless discipleship has three focuses:

• Building congregational vitality by challenging congregations and their members to deepen and energize their faith and grow as joyful leaders and disciples actively engaged with their community, seeing new disciples engaged in ministry and longstanding believers develop in faith as the gospel of Jesus Christ is shared in word and deed.

• Dismantling structural racism by fearlessly applying our faith to advocate and break down the systems, practices and thinking that underlie discrimination, bias, prejudice and oppression of people of color.

• Eradicating systemic poverty by acting on our beliefs and working to change laws, policies, plans and structures in our society that perpetuate economic exploitation of people who are poor.

· Link to BPC’s INTERNATIONAL MISSION PARTNERS

· Link to BPC’s SEASONAL OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE