Making a Difference
At Central, we believe God calls us to make a difference in our Community and our World. Our missions are a critical part of our identity as a community of believers, sharing God’s love through service. Members of Central are involved in many causes throughout our Community and our World. Our Missions & Outreach Committee strives to find new and innovative ways to support these efforts.
Our core belief is that it is best to build relationships and walk in partnership with people who are making a difference. In keeping with this, we have adopted Rachel’s Children’s Home and the Cambridge Self Help Food Bank as our primary missions.
Rachel’s Home
Central supports Rachel’s Home, an orphanage and Christian school for the child victims of Lesotho’s AIDS crisis.
For more than 10 years, Central has walked along-side Godwill & Hilda, the couple that runs Rachel’s Home, as they show God’s love to orphaned and vulnerable children. At Rachel’s Home, these children find a safe and loving Christian environment where they can begin to recover from the trauma they’ve faced. They also have a chance to attend school, maybe for the first time in their lives. Rachel’s Home is a place of hope.
Our support began with the Penny Project, a children’s ministry project to raise funds. To date we have raised a half million pennies.
In March 2009, a group of 27 volunteers from Central traveled to Lesotho to build a school. We returned in 2012. This time with 30 volunteers. We built a shower building, repaired and renovated the main orphanage, worked with the teachers and shared God’s love with our friends at Rachel’s Home.
And, we continue to support Rachel’s Home in other ways.
We continue to fund the tuitions of students attend secondary and post-secondary education.
The Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank
Central supports the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank.
The Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank first opened its doors in 1985 in response to a severe economic recession. At the time, the only available help for Cambridge residents was church based programs and soup kitchens.
The organization was founded by members of social services, community, religious organizations, a lawyer and several community members. This group of people wanted to change the way people living below the poverty line were viewed, and allow them to access food when needed.
The Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank serves the City of Cambridge and Township of North Dumfries, which together have a population of approximately 145,000. The Food Bank helps more than 2,000 individuals and families each month, and distributes food to 26 community organizations.
The Cambridge Self Help Food Bank is more than just a Food Bank. It believes that a person’s dignity and self-respect are paramount and, that everyone has something valuable to contribute. It works to overcome the stigma of utilizing a food bank and through its programs, it strives to restore individual dignity through building skills and self-confidence. Its goal is to have everyone walk out feeling better than when they arrived.
Every Sunday, Central collects food for the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank. Please, even if it’s just one can, bring something for the food-bank. Every little bit counts.
In addition, Central hosts fundraisers. Central provides volunteers for Mike’s Lunch Baskett on the fourth Saturday of every month. If you can help, please send us an email at missions@cpcmail.ca
