All Grace Families are invited to the College Hill Park Playground for pizza at 6 pm on Sunday, June 5, for dinner, fellowship, and playtime. Feel free to come early and swim at the pool! Questions? Contact catherine@mygpc.org

All Grace Families are invited to the College Hill Park Playground for pizza at 6 pm on Sunday, June 5, for dinner, fellowship, and playtime. Feel free to come early and swim at the pool! Questions? Contact catherine@mygpc.org
Wichita is home to Alternative Gifts International (AGI). AGI was a pioneer in the world of alternative gift markets and continues to distinguish itself. AGI started in a Presbyterian Church in California in 1980. When AGI moved to Wichita it found a partner in Grace Presbyterian.
The concept of an alternative gift market is to provide individuals the chance to shop, not for products but for gifts that have a far-reaching impact. Instead of buying a tangible gift for someone, you donate in their honor to an organization. In the process you and the gift recipient learn about the work of that organization.
Many churches and organizations encourage this kind of giving. What distinguishes AGI is their commitment to finding ministries and organizations all over the world that might otherwise be overlooked. The research AGI does is incredible as they seek to support a wide range of mission.
Each year AGI sets up markets in communities where people can shop and learn. For many years Grace hosted the Wichita market. Since we gave up hosting, we’ve continued to participate by hosting a booth at each market.
There is no question that AGI is an incredible organization. The question is whether Grace is still committed to participating in the market. We are looking for someone or a group of people to take this on. If you are interested in leading this effort, talk to Catherine Neelly Burton, catherine@mygpc.org.
Leading involves a few hours of work each month August – October, and then a bigger time commitment at Market time in November, more like 10-12 hours. Grace members may continue to support and shop at the market whether or not we find a new leader.
We are grateful for the financial gifts made to the mission budget. The Mission Distribution team meets 10 times a year to make decisions about how to share these resources. Some costs are fixed. For instance, we support our missionaries each month and buy bus tickets each month.
Then each year the team picks two areas on which to focus gifts, giving between $10,000 – $14,000 to those areas. This year the focus areas are housing and healthcare. In the area of housing, we made gifts of $2500 to:
The team is currently studying and discerning ways to support healthcare needs.
Many of you continue to use your Dillon’s Reward Cards with Grace as the beneficiary. The money Grace gets from Dillons goes to the team and is shared equally between Partners for Wichita and Giving the Basics. In 2021 the total we received from Dillons was over $1500.
If you have questions about any of this, contact Pastor Catherine Neelly Burton or committee chair Shelley Duncan.