Mission


Learning and Serving

The Bible Church has developed several programs and collaborations to provide opportunities for serving others and learning from others' perspectives on God's world.

Tutoring Latino students

Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group in the Chapel Hill and Durham areas. Many have low incomes and numerous cross-cultural challenges. Some are also Christians. We want to learn from them and to demonstrate God's love to them. We do this mainly by helping their children succeed in school, working in two locations.

Eagles Nest
An intergenerational tutoring program for Latino students at Creekside Elementary school (located in Durham six miles from UNC campus). Eagles Nest exists to witness God's light in the public school system by serving Latino students with the greatest literacy needs. The students served in Eagles Nest all live in Wellington Place apartments, a low-income apartment community in Durham. For more information, contact Laura Yost-Grande.

Arriba! Tutoring and Moreene Road Ministry
Several CHBC members have been blessed with the opportunity to live in a largely Hispanic apartment complex and neighborhood. They have been called to support this community in many tangible ways while spreading the love of God. For more information please contact Laurie Newell.

Learn:

Give:

  • Regular giving to the church partially supports these programs
  • Contact the people listed under “participate” to learn about current need
  • Local agencies supporting Latinos are El Centro Latino (Carrboro) and El Centro Hispano (Durham)
Participate:
  • Tutoring @ Creekside Elementary School: Laura Yost-Grande
  • Tutoring @ Maureen Manor: Laurie Newell

Prisoners and ex-offenders

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration of any country in the world. Low income African-American communities are the most affected. Our partnership with Antioch Baptist Church in Durham is focused primarily on helping families affected by incarceration. We work the nonprofit that we started together called Antioch Builds Community.

Walk-a-Thon
Each October, Antioch Builds Community raises funds through a walk-a-thon. this a good opportunity for a small group or a family to serve together.

Antioch Summer Camp
Each summer, Antioch Builds Community offers an educational summer day camp for children in inner city Durham. Many of the children are in a family affected by incarceration. the camp relies heavily on volunteer help. Contact:

One Day with God
Once a year we collaborate with other churches to host an event in which prisoners spend a day outside of prison (usually at one of the churches) with their children. Contact: Charles Herbst?

Faith Teams
Leaving prison and returning in civilian life is on immensely hard task. And ex-offenders are given no resources to make the transition. To assist them, and hopefully to keep them from returning to prison, a group of individuals (a "faith team") meets with a selected prisoner regularly to get them back on their feet and re-integrated into the community. Contact: Samantha Vermillion.

Yolk Fellows Bible Study
Each Tuesday evening, churches in the area collaborate to provide a Bible Study at the Orange County Correctional facility in Hillsborough. Contact: Denise Halfors at Orange United Methodist Church.

Learn: Give:
  • Regular giving to the church partially supports these programs
  • Contact the people listed under each activity to learn about current needs
  • To contribute to Antioch Builds Community, mail a check for Antioch Builds Community
Participate:
  • Find out how to participate in any of these opportunities by contacting the person listed with each activity

Serving Local Homeless People

Homelessness is perplexing to all of us. How can we have homeless people in a country with such wealth? The best way to find answers to this question is to get to know some homeless people. You can do this by serving then with others in Chapel Hill and Durham.

Bible Church groups serve meals at the Community Kitchen of the Orange County homeless shelter in downtown Chapel Hill. Contact: Don Tyndall.

Jim Eaker of the Bible Church provides free dental care to residents of Durham Rescue Mission. Contact: Jim Eaker.

Learn:

Give:

  • Regular giving to the church partially supports these programs
  • Contact the people listed under "participate" to learn about current needs
  • You can give directly to the Interfaith Council or Durham Rescue Mission

Participate:

  • Interfaith Council Community Kitchen: Don Tyndall
  • Durham Rescue Mission: Jim Eaker

Teaching English to Local Chinese

Each Friday evening, at the time of the Chinese Christian Fellowship meeting, we offer classes on conversational English for speakers of Mandarin or Cantonese Chinese. Teachers need not speak any Mandarin or Cantonese. And teaching English provides a good opportunity to develop relationships.

Learn: Give:
  • Regular giving to the church partially supports these programs
  • David Stickel's work is financed partially through donations from the Bible Church and individuals. To learn how to support him directly, please contact him.
Participate:
  • Contact David Stickel

Hospitality to International Students

One of the advantages of living in a university town is the influx of people from all over the world. This gives us a great opportunity to learn from others about their cultures and to provide them with hospitality. Too often, students visiting from another country never see the inside of an American home. Through our ministry among internationals students you can develop a relationship that will dramatically shape a person's perspective of America and give you a better understanding of life outside of America. " UNC

Learn: Give:
  • Contact Hugh Jones or the Wismers to learn of current needs
Participate:
  • Contact Hugh Jones or the Wismers to learn of current needs
  • Attend the Thanksgiving dinner for people of all nations

Child Support

To care for a child is to care for the vulnerable and invest in the future. Instead of child sponsorship programs of organizations like Compassion International or World Vision, we support children through organizations we have a close relationship with.

Through our partner, Beacon of Hope, we support the education of the children of the Beacon ministry. By enabling these children from one of Nairobi's slums to attend a private school, we ensure that they receive a good education and a chance to escape permanent poverty.

The children at Amani Children's Home are taken off the streets of Arusha and Moshi Tanzania. At the Home they receive shelter, food, education, counseling, and love. The goal of the home, though, is not to institutionalize the children. Instead, they aim to restore them to their families or help them find a new family.

Learn: Give:
  • You can make a donation to Beacon of Hope by writing a check to the Bible Church and writing "Beacon of Hope" in the memo line.
  • You can make a credit card donation to Carolina Hope, the local nonprofit that supports both Beacon of Hope and Amani Children's Home.
  • You can make a credit card donation to Amani on their website.
Participate:
  • Beacon of Hope child education sponsorship: Vickie Carpenter
  • If you would like to be an intern at Beacon of Hope, contact Jana Piepenbring
  • The Bible Church liaisons with Amani Children's Home are Libby Acuff and Annie Hoyle.
  • If you would like to be an intern at Amani Children's Home, contact Valerie Todd at the Home in Tanzania.

Caring for Creation

Respect is an act of worship - respecting not only God's commandments but God's creation. When we care for God's creation we love what God loves. Loving creation can be as simple as learning to appreciate gardening and a far reaching as cutting back on your energy consumption. A group in the church, lead by Samantha Vermillion and Daryl Riggins, is helping the Bible Church learn how to better care for God's creation by having discussions and starting a community garden.

Learn: Give:
  • To learn the needs in this ministry contact Samantha Vermillion.
Participate:
  • To join one of the discussion groups or help with the community garden, contact Samantha Vermillion.

Disaster Relief

Tsunamis. Hurricanes. Floods. Earthquakes. Fires. How can we respond? We have chosen to work with the Christian Relief Agency, World Relief, because of the importance they place on working with and through churches in the areas affected. When we wish to respond as a congregation, we collect a donation for World Relief. Those who wish to do more can also contact them for opportunities to be more directly involved in their work.

An important lesson in disasters is remembering a population years after they experienced disaster, and not forgetting about them as soon as they are no longer in the news. For this reason, we have committed ourselves to the rebuilding of New Orleans through the Christian ministry called Urban Impact. We send teams of people to New Orleans several times a year.

Learn: Give:
  • The websites of Urban Impact and World Relief provide information on how to make a donation directly to those organizations.
  • Individuals traveling to work with Urban Impact often need financial help getting there. To find out how you can help them or to join one of the teams working with Urban Impact in New Orleans, contact Erin Lunsford or Bob Wiegers.
Participate:
  • Individuals traveling to work with Urban Impact often need financial help getting there. To find out how you can help them or to join one of the teams working with Urban Impact in New Orleans, contact Erin Lunsford or Bob Wiegers.

Short-term Experiences

Opportunities to immerse yourself in another culture for a short but intentional period of time is an important way of learning about the world outside of your culture, about your cultural blind spots, and to gain insights into the Kingdom of God. In the Bible Church we stress these cross-cultural experiences more as a means of spiritual formation then as a benefit to the people visited (often the visit is too brief to be of much benefit to the hosts).

We form teams of people from our youth program and for adults and families. we usually visit a Christian ministry with which we have had a long-term relationship. some are in the US, such as Harambee Ministries and Urban Impact. Others are outside the country, such as Beacon of Hope. These group experiences are often life-changing and always bring a new perspective on the world.

 
   
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