Missions
Explore the ministries and missions we support by clicking the links below or scrolling down the page.
Bright Alternatives
Bright Alternatives is a pregnancy resource center at 3 Mechanic St., Bradford, that serves women, children, and men in our community. We have two physical offices in Bradford and Wellsville, and travel to serve several surrounding communities in both Pennsylvania and New York.
The mission is to serve those around us, by educating, equipping and empowering them. The organization supplies items to support babies in the form of diapers, wipes, clothes, bottles, cribs, etc.
Clients earn these items through our “Earn While You Learn” program, in which they take educational courses to accumulate credits that will allow them the opportunity to earn the items. Through this program, clients learn, receive healing, and gain information that will be useful and relevant to them in their unique parenthood journey.
“We strive to be the hands and feet of Jesus and have been blessed as a ministry,” said Executive Director Kayla Hayden. “We are a non-profit, so we do not receive state or federal fundings.”
All of our services to clients are completely free of charge. Because of this, the organization can only continue to grow through donors.
“We have an incredible community of people who support us, and we are so thankful that we are seen as a valuable ministry,” Hayden said. “There are many ways to support Bright Alternatives - through physical resources (diapers, wipes, clothing), spiritual support and prayer, financial support, or volunteering. We feel blessed and excited to see what God has in store for our ministry.”
Camp Penuel
Camp Penuel East is an organization located at Camp Road in Eldred. It desires to advance the Kingdom through the love of Jesus Christ by providing free summer camps. The free, one-week summer camps are for children ages 7-11. Campers will enjoy overnight stays in cabins, swimming, boating, sports, water games, crafts, outdoor activities, plenty of food, bonfires, chapels, singing, preaching, and more.
Send: Send children, church children, neighborhood kids, and community children to camp
Serve: Serve as a counselor, volunteer, or staff member
Give: Give time, resources, and finances.
Pray: Pray for the children who will be coming to camp, our directors, staff, and counselors
Church Development Network
CDN is a church-planting movement that is starting churches in creative spaces and places in your community and around the world.
CDN establishes local training centers that plant churches through calendar-based multiplication.
Destinations
Destinations, a community organization at 1 Main St., Bradford, provides a food and supply pantry, homeless assistance, fuel assistance for medical appointments, and an emergency pharmaceutical assistance program. To learn more, interested individuals can call (814) 362-4551 for more information.
Leons
Dennis and Kyle Leon moved to Esterillos, Costa Rica, with a vision to see everyone in every community have access to a living church by multiplying disciples, workers and churches. God has used them to lead to Christ and disciple many new believers, resulting in a multiplying network of churches and home groups. They also help communities improve their physical wellbeing through counseling, job training, microfinance, tutoring, scholarships, medical assistance, emergency aid, work opportunities and children’s centers.
Network of the Spirit
Network of the Spirit Ministries develops and oversees Surr’enity House, a sober-living facility that specializes in combating heroin/opioid and substance abuse addiction
Okindas
Bishop John Okinda has been married to Pastor Pamela Okinda for more than 25 years, and together they have eight children. They serve in Migori, Kenya, pastoring and overseeing many orphans under their care.
Pam also operates Hope for Girls Foundations, founded in 2016. Her mission is to prevent the educational disruption, financial hardship and emotional distress by meeting the basic feminine needs of girls.
John served as senior pastor of the Dandora Nairobi Church, growing it to around 1,200 people.
John felt God call his family to leave the city and reach the community of their birth in Migori, Africa. They followed that call to a village with no electricity, running water, or the many commodities taken for granted in the city.
They planted the church in 2000, and it has grown to over 800 people, requiring them to build a new church building for 1,800 people that was opened in 2017. They open their building for the community and government leaders to use for special meetings as they feel called to be the hands and feet of Jesus serving their community and nation.
They have launched more than 10 churches in the region.
They have built two high schools for the community that had none for more than 200 years. They are now seeing graduates coming back from university and serving in the high school they graduated from as teachers. This achievement was recognized on a national level and awarded Bishop Okinda with a national award.
Operation Christmas Child
Operation Christmas Child is an annual project organized by the Christian relief and evangelism organization, Samaritan's Purse. The project involves filling shoeboxes with toys, school supplies, hygiene items, and other gifts for children in need around the world.
The shoeboxes are then distributed to children in over 100 countries, along with a message of hope and the opportunity to learn about the Christian faith. The project aims to bring joy and happiness to children who may not otherwise receive any gifts during the holiday season.
Sheriffs
Rich and Laurie serve in San Pedro de la Paz, on the edge of Concepción, the second largest city in Chile and its largest seaport area. The name of their ministry is Celebration of Hope, or Celebración de la Esperanza in Spanish.
Rich is an elder in the Keystone Conference. After years of pastoring in the U.S. and leading short-term mission teams to various parts of the world, the Chilean Conference of the Free Methodist Church invited the Sheriffs to come full time and plant bilingual churches. Along with church planting, they work in leadership development and encouraging local Free Methodist pastors, families and churches.
The ministry, like all the Free Methodist ministries in the Latin American area, participates with God in the Biblical restoration of Latin America through developing healthy leaders, multiplying committed disciples and empowering transformational churches. Specifically, here at Celebration of Hope, they meet weekly for weekday evening Bible study and Sunday worship services. As well, they host monthly Ladies Nights, Ladies Craft Nights and Men's Fellowship Nights, where they provide opportunities for more casual gathering as the body and joining in fellowship and a devotional.
They also host two English language learning gatherings, each week, in their home. Roughly one third of our church body is made up of Venezuelan and Brazilian immigrants, and the Sheriffs focus on providing a place to seek God through worship, fellowship and discipleship, where all are welcome and comfortable.
Outside the "walls" of their home church, they partner with a local, non-profit, Movimiento Agape, to provide goods and services to the families of children with birth defects and developmental disorders. So far, they have joined this group in a Christmas campaign and a back-to-school project. In both cases, they helped provide basic needs to some of the families with the largest needs and least resources.