Mission & Community Support

Mission is woven throughout the activities of the church; however, here are some of particular note:

 

Alcoholics Anonymous

Four different AA groups meet at West Side.  Note that some meetings are available online as well. 

Easy Does It meets Wednesday evening @ 7:00 p.m.  Contact John at 785-331-6067.

Eye Openers meets Monday through Friday from 7 to 8 am.  The contact for this group is Russ at 785-554-6715.

Freedom meets Monday through Friday from noon to 1 pm.  The contact for this group is Adrienne at 785-727-0874.

Nuts and Bolts meets Tuesday & Thursday evenings.  The contact for this group is Karma at 785-424-0057.

 

Al-Anon 

This group meets each Friday, from 6:00pm-7:00pm. The contact for this group is Betty at 785-917-0663.

 

 

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts

West Side has sponsored Troop 55 since 1927.  Today, this active troop is housed in the Scout Cabin in the church yard.  For more information and schedule see their website at  Troop 55 | Boy Scouting in Lawrence for 90 Years! (wordpress.com)

West Side hosts Girl Scout’s Junior Troop and Girl Scout Troop 7535 on Sunday afternoons.  Contact Lysette DeBoard for more information at lysettedeboard@gmail.com

 

 

Scout Sunday 2022: 

Troop 55 and the Girl Scouts, along with their leaders, led a very meaningful service of worship

 

 

Scout Sunday 2023:

On February 26th, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts led an inspiration service on the theme of Caring for God’s Creation. Thank you to the Scouts and their leaders for a great day! 

 

 

DARE Center

The DARE Center offers a daily refuge with basic services to provide physical and emotional comfort for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.  The congregation gathers items needed by the Center such as blankets, hygiene items, and gloves. For the winter, we are collecting men’s socks; adult-sized jackets, coats, and hoodies; backpacks, sleeping bags and pup tents; socks, gloves, and underwear; deodorant; tarps (to be used as ground cover); instant coffee; Band-Aids and antibiotic ointment. Collection basket in narthex.

 

 

Knitting Group

 

 

 

 

 

Since the 1980s, knitters have made warm winter caps each year for every child in Lawrence’s Head Start Program.

 

This poster was made by the children of Head Start and presented in worship on November 27, 2022 to thank West Side and the three women who knitted winter caps for them. A total of 70 hats were given to Head Start and 30 to the Methodist program in Lecompton.

 

Heartland Center

West Side supports the Heartland Center, the nearby Presbyterian camp and conference center.

 

Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen (LINK)

            

West Side Presbyterian Church serves a noon meal at LINK on the second Thursday of each month, providing food and fellowship for people who are homeless and in need in our community. West Side was one of the first churches involved with LINK. In fact, we’re known as “the meatloaf church” and the Lawrence Journal World wrote an article about us: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/dec/24/longtime-link-churchs-meal-organization-meatloaves/.

For over a year during the pandemic, we provided sack lunches in lieu of the hot meal.  As of September 2021, we are back to preparing and serving the hot meal. 

In addition to our monthly meal at LINK, we also participate in LINK Fundraisers and the LINK Thanksgiving meal.

 

Partnership with First Baptist Food Pantry

 

 West Side supports the First Baptist Food Pantry with periodic food drives and garden produce when possible. 

                                                                                                                                              

  

 

 

 

We are a Hunger Action church

 

 

 

Additional Outreach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Every year, we “Adopt-A-Family” at Christmas time through the Ballard Center.
• We provide an annual gift to Centro Hispano.
• We periodically provide “Gift of the Heart” kits, such as cleanup buckets and hygiene kits for domestic and international disasters. These kits are distributed by Church World Service to places where disasters have occurred, people are on the move, and where basic resources have grown scarce.

 

 

 

We regularly support the emergency relief and long-term recovery work of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) in  response to global and national disasters.  Our pastor serves as a member of the PDA National Response Team.

 

 

Special Offerings

The Mission Committee usually promotes four Presbyterian-sponsored special offerings:

• One Great Hour of Sharing, which enables the church to share God’s love with our neighbors-in-need around the world by providing relief to those affected by natural disasters, provide food to the hungry, and helps to empower the poor and oppressed.
• Peace and Global Witness Offering*, which enables the church to promote the Peace of Christ by addressing systems of injustice across the world.
• Pentecost Offering*, which helps the church encourage, develop, and support its young people, and also address the needs of at-risk children.
• Christmas Joy Offering, which helps provide financial assistance to current and former church workers and their families and also enables deserving students to attend Presbyterian-related racial ethnic colleges and schools.

*Portions of these offerings are used to support local non-profits consistent with their goals. 

 

Traveling Day Camp

In 2019 West Side joined forces with Heartland Camp to sponsor a free, week-long day camp in the summer for youth who were entering kindergarten in the fall or had completed grades up to six.  Lunch, Bible lessons, games and other activities were provided and each camper received a Bible to take home.  We hope to sponsor another camp soon.

A variety of community organizations, such as the Ecumenical Campus Ministries, Centro Hispano, Lawrence Community Shelter, and Lawrence Memorial Hospital, are supported through special offerings and projects.