mission Partnerships

---

Build-A-Bed showcases Community at its best!  The mission of BAB is to provide beds for children who do not have beds of their own.  A good night's sleep has a direct impact on students' academic achievement along with a secure sense of safety and well-being.

The JCPS Office of Community Support Services coordinates this project which started here in Louisville in 2012. We work with local groups like CHPC who sponsor not only the supplies, but the volunteers who help build 20-25 beds each year. 

CHPC also helps out with the large community-wide Build-A-Bed event at Broadbent Arena where we build over 100 beds with the help of 300+ volunteers each Spring.   

Each child who receives one of our beds also receives a mattress, set of sheets, blanket, pillow, teddy bear, bedtime book, and toothbrush and toothpaste. 

 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:12

Founded in 1997, the John Leake Memorial Garden at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church (CHPC) has been the site for week-long gardening day camps during the summer since 2002.

Children ages 7-14 can attend the week-long day camps that run Monday through Friday. Campers enjoy story-telling, gardening work of all kinds, food processing (grinding corn), outdoor games, harvesting, cooking, canning (hot salsa), baking (rhubarb pie, corn bread), cleaning, team work, hiking, and swimming.

The garden camps are sponsored by Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church and Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville. For more information, please contact Stephen Bartlett (estebanbartlett@gmail.com)

CHPC and its partner of 13 years – the Q’eqchi’ Estoreño Izabal Presbytery of eastern Guatemala – engaged in several ways through the wonders of modern technology. During Sunday worship CHPCers pray for a different Estoreño Presbytery congregation or ministry. Estoreño folks also  pray for CHPC. Two leaders of the Estoreño committee charged with helping sustain the partnership – Pastor Benjamin Sacul of the Familia de Noe church and Pastor Raul– regularly send videos, photos, and texts in Facebook Messenger to keep CHPC folks up to date.

In 2022, our partners live-streamed two days of a de facto revival organized by the youth and young adults of the Presbytery. They celebrated the anniversary of church youth and young adults first mobilizing there several years back (partly inspired by CHPC visits that included our youth in leadership roles). Doug Yeager and Perry Chang coordinated the collection of video greetings from CHPC folks and Doug assembled, edited, and sent them to our partners. It was a great way to support their efforts even from afar.

View a video reflection about our partnership and one of a greeting we sent on the anniversary to the youth organization of Estoreno presbyter by clicking on these links:

https://youtu.be/IeVY-9oNjB4. 

https://youtu.be/eDMkx_8r428 

Since its origins in a youth Sunday school class at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church in 2018, Guns to Gardens Louisville (formerly the Gun Violence Prevention Team) has grown to include people from various faith and community groups. The team seeks ways to address the growing problem of gun violence in our community and nation. Among the projects of Guns to Gardens Louisville is organizing gun safe-surrender events in Louisville. This effort is part of a national Guns to Gardens movement, launched in cooperation with Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and RAWtools.

For more information contact:

Eva Stimson, eva.stimson@gmail.com; (502)727-6778

Soni Castleberry, soni.castleberry@gmail.com; (502)417-6481

CHPC is a partnering congregation with Spirit of Sophia, a women's spirituality center, based in Louisville and a PCUSA 1001 New Worshipping Community. Founded by CHPC member, Dana Walker, the non-profit organization has been described as a “movable feast”. Their “sacred space” may be at a beautiful retreat center, a  welcoming lounge of a local faith community, or in a Zoom meeting room. They gather as women seekers longing to look deep within their souls – to find their voices – to speak their voices. 

 Learn more at www.spiritofsophia.org.

 In August 2024, Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church entered into a fruitful partnership with Jefferson County Master Gardener Association (JCMGA). In exchange for use of church property for training and meetings, these skilled gardeners have been busy planting, weeding, and sprucing up green areas around the church buildings. They bring energy and ideas that fit with CHPC’s mission, including a facelift for the church’s meditation garden, a commitment to caring for God’s creation, and garden-centered activities for children and families.

For more information, contact Barbara Hedspeth (barbarahedspeth@gmail.com), Claudia Foulkes (cfoulkes3@gmail.com), or Mary Wheatley (mary@cookwithmary.com).

 Learn more at www.spiritofsophia.org.