New to Omaha and searching for a church that would offer a place to worship for a Presbyterian/Southern Baptist couple, we stumbled onto PCM, a lonely building on a grass covered hilltop. We both jumped into its life where we found meaningful worship and intentional mission work. Pasta for the local pantry, weekly coverage of the Presbyterian church’s global mission work, clothes and canned goods in barrels–we did what we could with what we had.

As times changed, our mission changed through work with the border ministry, Katrina rebuilding, tornado cleanup, refugee support, and the Siena-Francis House. Now, we’ve focused on food insecurity and how and where we can help feed those in need.

I never connected our building with our mission work until years ago when I served on a task force trying to find a permanent solution to our roof leaks (still working on that – lol). A thread-bare, ceiling stained, congested building with weedy gardens and an out-of-date nursery turns people away, which in turn, stresses the membership base, which in turn, stresses the budget, and of course, the first line item to be cut is usually mission. We didn’t need over-the-top church decorations, but we did need a usable, welcoming space, equipped for the twenty-first century. Our last building remodel gave us that.

Now we’ve got the building we need, let’s get it paid off and get on to the expanded mission and outreach we can do through this place.