Local Partners

• Young Life’s mission: Introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith.

Young Life is an international, non-denominational Christian organization that operates at the local level, hence, Young Life Montgomery County. Young Life was launched in the early 1940s with the premise that leaders must “go where kids are at,” and hang out with them on their turf to earn the right to be heard with the Gospel. Leaders interact with young people at school activities, athletic events, or just about anywhere teenagers can be found so that they can initiate relationships and teach kids about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus is the center of all Young Life does in multiple ways.

Young Life holds something called Club, a regular gathering of young people typically held in kids’ homes. They sing relevant songs, put on fun skits, and share the Gospel week by week in a way that is inviting and relates to kids’ daily lives and struggles. Young Life also offers Campaigners, for those who want to examine the Christian life more closely through Bible study. In these small groups, young people can question, pray, and have deeper discussions of personal concerns and decisions.

Young Life has a network of camps where kids can spend a week in the summer or a long weekend in the fall. Campers are promised to have the best week or weekend of their lives as they engage in high-action adventure, tons of outrageous fun, and concentrated interaction between leaders and kids. Each night, teens hear nore of the Gospel message and are then given time to process it with their leaders.

Young Life connects with middle school students through Wyldlife. This monthly Friday night event is run like Club but with activities and messages geared to 6th – 8th graders. Like Club, it is typically held in homes. Kids are also taken to Wyldlife camps in the summer or on fall weekends.

Young Life sees itself as a specialized arm of the church. When teens come into relationship with Jesus, Young Life leaders encourage and even help them find a church home where they will worship regularly (if they do not already have this connection with their family). Young Life is made possible through adults and churches. Each local Young Life area, typically described by the boundaries of a school districe, has its own committee of caring adults from area churches who believe in Young Life’s mission and want to reach out to area teens.

All kids are welcome at Young Life. Young Life Montco is led by Area Director Jeff Pearson who is based in Fort Washington and can be reached at 845-239-3528.

Christ’s Home is one of the few organizations in the country to offer an array of life-enhancing services to both older adults and children.

The heart of Christ’s Home is to serve the Lord by providing services to senior adults and disadvantaged children in an atmosphere graced with love, dignity, compassion and respect.

Core Values

• We accept the authority of the Bible translated into action to meet the spiritual, physical, emotional and social needs of those we serve.
• We strive to fulfill the command of Jesus, “love your neighbor as yourself,” as an integral part of our daily ministry
• We are committed to quality programming and services that exceed community standards while providing exceptional value.
• We acknowledge that the assets of Christ’s Home belong to God. We also acknowledge that God has blessed us individually with talents and abilities. Placed together, we acknowledge our responsibility to use them wisely for His Glory.
• We will utilize our resources to provide for those who otherwise may not be served.

We have a presence in Kensington through Sarnelli House where we serve meals on a weekly basis, donate to and help maintain the clothing room where guests can obtain needed clothing and toiletries for free, tend the gardens seasonally, and hold special events that include pizza dinners with live music and treats from Mr. Softee truck visits. We also make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches to give to the homeless in the neighborhood.

We support the efforts of Freedom Steps, a local 501(c)3 organization that supports our men and women serving in the United States military. Launched over a decade ago by an Upper Moreland graduate who wanted to encourage our troops, Freedom Steps aims to send quarterly care packages to men and women who are predominantly serving overseas and have a connection to local friends and families. Approximately 20 care packages are sent each quarter for roughly $75 shipping per box. (Freedom Steps receives NO US postage discounts for their shipments.) Boxes sent to individuals include toiletries, socks, magazines, snacks and other such items in sufficient quantities to be shared with 10 fellow service persons. Donations and an annual 5K Run are the main sources of funding. Freedom Steps is deeply grateful for Holy Trinity’s ongoing support. A collection box remains in the narthex for contributions of supplies. Anyone may contribute at any time by writing a check to Holy Trinity and designating the gift for Freedom Steps.

Holy Trinity holds three blood drives annually for the Red Cross. These drives are purposely scheduled around three “holidays” — Valentine’s Day, July 4th and Thanksgiving — which the Red Cross has requested of us as these are typically low blood donation times. We serve dinner to our Red Cross workers, which they find extra special. More volunteers are always needed to help make calls for donations.

Alcoholics Anonymous® is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.

Meetings: ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS® meets at Holy Trinity twice each week. On Friday evenings at 7:30 pm ; and, Saturday evening beginning at 7:00 p.m..

At the end of 2014, Holy Trinity received a most generous and unexpected bequest from Dan and Emma Hettler.

The first thing Holy Trinity’s Council decided to do with this gift was to give 25% of it beyond the needs of our congregation. Council decided we did not want to put that money into our own Outreach Fund where the interest is distributed to benevolent projects in perpetuity; that seemed too much like keeping it ourselves. Instead, the Council created the Mission Commitment Fund and set up a special task force to oversee the disbursements from the fund. This way the entire 25% would be completely given away. Council designated Linda Cassady, our President of the Congregation, to Chair the task force; then Council selected several Council members to serve on it; finally, Council allowed members of the congregation to self-select to serve on this task force — allowing on the task force any member who had special interest in how this money would be disbursed. Council then began the publicity that would invite all members of Holy Trinity (and ONLY members of Holy Trinity) to apply to this fund for grants to be given to their favorite charity beyond Holy Trinity.

Council spent most of the spring and summer of 2015 publicizing this opportunity within the congregation through the bulletin, newsletter, and special church-wide meetings. Council designed a form that every applicant (including the pastors) needed to use to apply for grants to their favorite beyond-Holy-Trinity charities. Each applicant (including the pastors) could apply for grants to no more than three non-profits.

By December 31, 2019, all of the Mission Commitment Fund grant money had been disbursed.

All grants had to meet three criteria which were listed in bold print at the top of every application:

The Three Criteria that must be met for a fund request to be considered by Council & the Mission Commitment Task Force:

A) The fund request must be for a Christian organization (church or parachurch)
B) The Christian organization must be a 501 (c) 3 – ( tax-exempt)
C) The Christian organization must either be listed on Charity Navigator or be a Christian organization that Holy Trinity has supported in the past.

The non-profit charitable organizations that received grants in 2019 were:

• Asia Harvest
• Bread of Heaven Food Pantry
• Carson Simpson Farm
• Coalition for Christian Outreach
• Compassion International
• Cradle of Hope
• Emmanuel Lutheran Church, State College
• First Lutheran, Kirkland Illinois
• Harvest USA
• Holy Trinity Parish Relief Fund
• Kensington Ministries of Holy Trinity
• Logan Hope School
• Lutheran World Relief
• NALC Disaster Response Fund
• NALS (North American Lutheran Seminary)
• Samaritan’s Purse
• Silver Springs/Martin Luther School
• St. Joan of Arc/Holy Innocents Parish
• St. Mark’s Reformed Episcopal Church
• The Cole Family/Guatemala Mission
• Wayne Hall
• Valley Christian School
• Voice of the Martyrs
• Water Mission International
• World Mission Prayer League
• Wycliffe Bible Translators
• Young Life of Montgomery County

The non-profit charitable organizations that received grants in 2018 were:

• AIDS Dinner
• Asia Harvest
• Bread of Heaven Food Pantry
• Carson Simpson Farm
• Coalition for Christian Outreach
• Compassion International
• Cradle of Hope
• Emmanuel Lutheran Church, State College PA
• First Lutheran Church, Kirkland Illinois
• Harvest USA
• Holy Trinity – Parish Relief Fund
• Kensington Ministries of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
• Logan Hope
• Lutheran World Relief
• NALC — Disaster Response Fund
• NALS (North American Lutheran Seminary)
• Samaritan’s Purse
• Silver Springs / Martin Luther School
• St. Joan of Arc — Holy Innocent’s Parish
• St. Mark’s Reformed Episcopal Church
• Sunday Breakfast Mission
• The Cole Family Foundation / Guatemala Mission
• Valley Christian School
• Voice of the Martyrs
• Water Mission International
• World Mission Prayer League
• Wycliffe Bible Translators
• Young Life of Montgomery County

The non-profit charitable organizations that received grants in 2017 were:

• Asia Harvest
• Carson Simpson Farm
• Compassion International
• Cradle of Hope
• First Lutheran, Kirkland, Illinois
• Harvest USA
• Holy Trinity Lutheran Church – AIDS Dinner
• Holy Trinity Lutheran Church – Parish Relief Fund
• Immanuel Lutheran Church State College
• Interfaith Food Cupboard
• Logan Hope
• LC-MS (for missionaries Bill & Nicole Lohmeyer)
• Lutheran World Relief
• NALC (toward operating costs)
• North American Lutheran Seminary
• Samaritan’s Purse (Operation Christmas Child)
• Silver Springs – Martin Luther School
• St. Mark’s Reformed Episcopal Church
• Sunday Breakfast Mission
• Trinity Seminary (for Seminarians Caleb and Lynnae Douglas)
• Valley Christian School
• Voice of the Martyrs
• Water Mission International
• World Mission Prayer League
• Wycliffe Bible Translators
• Young Life of Montgomery County

The non-profit charitable organizations that received grants in 2016 were:

• AIDS Dinner
• Asia Harvest
• Carson Simpson Farm
• Compassion International
• Cradle of Hope
• Emmanuel Lutheran Church – State College
• First Lutheran, Kirkland Illinois
• Harvest USA
• Holy Trinity Parish Relief Fund
• Interfaith Food Cupboard
• LC-MS (Missionaries Bill & Nicole Lohmeyer)
• Logan Hope
• Lutheran World Relief
• NALC
• North American Lutheran Seminary
• Samaritan’s Purse
• Silver Springs – Martin Luther School
• St. Mark’s Reformed Episcopal Church
• Sunday Breakfast Mission
• Trinity Seminary, Ambridge (Seminarians Caleb and Lynnea Douglas)
• Valley Christian School
• Voice of the Martyrs
• Water Mission International
• World Mission Prayer League
• Wycliffe Bible Translators
• Young Life of Montgomery County

The non-profit charitable organizations that received grants in 2015 were: (name of the member requesting the grant)

• AIDS Dinner (Maryann Leventhal)
• Asia Harvest (Rosemary Hinkle)
• Carson Simpson Farm (Danielle Rowley)
• Compassion International (Deb Mumford)
• Cradle of Hope (Rosemary Hinkle & Katie Beyers)
• First Lutheran Church, Kirkland Illinois (Heide Caputo)
• Harvest USA (Rosemary Hinkle)
• Holy Trinity Parish Relief Fund (Danielle Rowley)
• Interfaith Food Cupboard (Judi Reeder)
• Lutheran Church Mo. Syn. — Missionaries Bill and Nicole Lohmeyer (Pastor L. Guenzel)
• Lutheran World Relief (Pastor Mandy)
• Logan Hope School (Judi Reeder)
• NALC North American Lutheran Seminary (Pastor Mandy)
• Silver Springs/Martin Luther School (Heide Caputo)
• Samaritan’s Purse — Christmas Child (Rosemary Hinkle)
• Society of the Holy Trinity (Pastor Mike)
• Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission (Alan Hinkle)
• Trinity Seminary — Seminarians Caleb and Lynnae Douglas (Linda Cassady)
• Valley Christian School (Terry Rowley)
• Voice of the Martyrs (Deb Mumford)
• Water Mission International (Pastor Mandy)
• World Mission Prayer League — Missionary Didi Panzo (Pastor Mike)
• Wycliffe Bible Translators (Kathy Ingerson)
• Young Life of Montgomery County (Alan Hinkle)