Trinity Together | April 2016

UpDATE: YEZIDI RELIEF OFFERING

BY KEVIN SAWYER, DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL MISSIONS

This past fall Trinity generously responded to a serious global need. Under severe threat, the minority Yezidi people had been driven from their homes and were forced to seek refuge elsewhere. Many were driven into a camp near the top of a mountain and held hostage by a group of militants surrounding the mountain. One of the places some of these refugees landed was in nearby Turkey. This obvious need caught the attention of David and Betsy Hunter, whose work has long been supported by Trinity. Betsy immediately sought out ways to welcome in and care for these refugees and sought to bring medical aid to those trapped on the nearby mountain. However, the medical resources needed were scarce. Betsy reached out to Trinity, where she worshiped as a student at UVA, to see if the church could help. Trinity held a special offering and was able to give $60,000 to the effort to bring care of all kinds to these people. Thank you to all who generously contributed to this.

Here is a brief update on the work Betsy is doing:

In the city of Adana, some of Trinity's offering was used to provide 1,100 blankets to Syrian refugees now facing the winter cold in tents and unheated open areas. Volunteers from three local Turkish churches worked together to organize, purchase, and distribute the blankets.

In the city of Diyarbakir, our dear brother Saban is now able, with the help of funds from Trinity, to take Yezidi refugees in urgent need of medical care to the hospital. Several of them have received care thanks to Trinity's offering. One woman had emergency surgery without which she could have become paralyzed. Yesterday Saban and another brother went to northern Iraq to meet with some believers who have started a medical work among Yezidi refugees and other internally displaced people in great need there. The work includes a mobile clinic that travels to remote areas to provide care. Once Saban returns and we confirm the situation, we will put funds from your offering to use there.

MARCH MEETING NOTES

The Session met twice during March. Both meetings were held in executive Session and covered aspects of pastoral changes which have been announced to the congregation. While the Session began discussion about a policy on unordained deacons, they have been focusing on personnel matters as a priority, both in extended prayer as well as deliberation. The deaconate matter will be revisited later this spring. Other action items will be worked on, whenever possible and necessary. Please continue to pray for our elders, that they might together seek the Lord's will.

Next Meeting: Thursday, April 28 at 7:00pm

Questions? Email: session@trinitycville.org

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Session FAQ

Do you still have a question about our Session or CGC? Let us know by emailing session@trinitycville.org and we will address it in future issues of the Session update.

Nine men nominated as officers last fall are completing their time of training and prayerful consideration for this undertaking. The congregation will be asked to elect them at a meeting on May 15. Click here to see their names and faces so you can get to know them and pray for them.

MEET ELDER GREG BREEDING

Greg and Lyndee Breeding are creative individuals. The two met in college through the ministry of Campus Crusade. After graduation they married and served on staff with that organization for several years. While raising their three children and now as empty-nesters Lyndee has worked part-time as a hair stylist and as a clothing designer and seamstress, with wedding gowns a specialty. Greg is a graphic designer who co-founded Journey Group in 1992. Three years later he moved the company and his family to Charlottesville from Florida. The couple had done a lot of research to find the place they wished to live and serve and raise their family, which included two pre-schoolers at the time of that move. The presence of Trinity played a part in their selection of this area.

The couple quickly found active roles here with each teaching children, youth, or adults at various times. For a number of years they led a teaching fellowship called Young Marrieds and More, which served young adult couples and singles. They also have led a small group that has continued to serve and enrich its members for 20 years. In 1999 Greg was ordained as a Ruling Elder, and he has played an active part with the Session during the subsequent periods of growth and transition our church has experienced. He was a member of the search committee that called Greg Thompson as our senior pastor. Over this period their children were growing through participation in the Trinity children and youth ministries. Their son, Jordan, is now married and serves with the worship ministry of another local church, while his two younger sisters, Anna and Grace, attend schools in Harrisonburg.

Greg and Lyndee find travel an enjoyable adventure. In his free time Greg also likes working in the yard at their home in North Garden and reading fiction and art history.

Greg has recently been on an extended sabbatical from the Session. However, he anticipates returning to active status on the Session in the coming months and looks forward to helping our leadership create and extend continuity for our church during this new season of transition that God has ordained for us.

MEET DEACON WILL SCHNORR

After graduating from James Madison University in 2007, Will moved to Charlottesville for a job with an engineering firm and started attending Trinity at the recommendation of friends from a sister PCA church in Harrisonburg. Will quickly found a home in Trinity and has developed many great friendships during his time here. One of the people he met early on was his wife, Rachel, who had also moved to Charlottesville after graduating from JMU. Although Will and Rachel had lived across the street from one another in Harrisonburg, it was not until attending Trinity that they were introduced through mutual friends. They were married in 2010.

Rachel works in digital marketing with Merkle Inc., and for the last several years Will has worked in Facilities Management at UVA. In their free time Rachel enjoys running, reading about history, and traveling, while Will likes playing golf as well as working on home maintenance projects (and traveling with Rachel, of course). Together they have led a Trinity small group for several years and with their small group they have served in the PACEM ministry and with Friends for Life.

Will was ordained as a Deacon in 2013, beginning his service on the Facilities Committee, which he later chaired for two years. More recently he has moved to the Mercy Committee, which he now chairs. Will has played a role in organizing various Trinity service projects, including most recently a house demolition in the Southwood community. He says he looks forward to seeing more people from the congregation stepping forward to serve alongside the Mercy Ministry and in other ways joining with the work of the Deacons. Anyone who is interested in this or who just wants to find out more is welcome to email Will at willschnorr@gmail.com. Will also desires to see a continued increase in the number of our members who are involved in small groups and especially those who are willing to lead small groups. He and Rachel are happy to share their experiences in this role with anyone who asks.

 

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