You can also keep up with CAMT on at CAMT.Blogspot.Com .
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As of now, more than 1 out of 10 members of Covenant have gone on at least one mission trip, and a “guesstimate” would suggest that a third of them have gone on at least 4 or 5 trips!
One final note: during one of the Sheila Dennis women’s shelter visits when the team planned a birthday party for all the residents (complete with cakes, candles and gifts for everyone), one of the women was heard to say:
“It makes me feel like going to church again!”
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In 2008, Richard Smith joined Covenant and introduced CAMT to serving meals to those living in shelters in the Philadelphia area: Outley House (for men) and the Sheila Dennis House (for women). Many Covenant members and friends liked the idea of a one day trip, and signed up to help. More recently, Carl and Pat Lotz have joined Richard and serve dinner the 1st Tuesday of each month at a shelter in Coatesville. |
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Finally – Mexico! CAMT has made nine mission trips to Mexico. According to their interests and abilities, team members work in the medical clinics, paint rooms—or murals—or lead crafts for women and children using huge quantities of craft and sewing supplies (including sewing machines) donated by Covenant members. Last summer 5 people traveled independently with a mission team from Michigan and helped build a house. |
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CAMT’s first mission trips were to Jean Webster’s Kitchen in Atlantic City to help serve lunch to the homeless and working poor. It was a moving experience for those who had never interacted with people in those circumstances. Teams continued to go about twice a year for three years until the Kitchen increasingly became staffed by local people.
PA Christian Endeavor (PACE) called to ask if Covenant member, Dori Gillstrom, could gather a team and come to West Virginia to prepare meals for youth mission teams. (Apparently we were not moving fast enough, so God took matters into His own hands!) Dori jumped at the opportunity, and CAMT continues to make summer mission trips to WV or KY. When Dori became ill and died, Carl and Pat Lotz assumed leadership. They go for two weeks each summer along with eight to ten others who volunteer for one of the two weeks.
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May – The program for the 2001 Spring Gathering of Covenant’s Presbyterian Women was a slide show about a mission team from a Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem, PA who had made several trips to Faith Ministry in Mexico—a ministry which has established three churches and two medical clinics in a very poor section of Mexico. Mission teams help in a variety of ways including building houses for poor Mexican families (2000 to date) and, through donations, provide scholarships for children whose parents cannot afford uniforms and supplies children need to go to school.
Several women were ready to board the next flight to Mexico! However, following true Presbyterian tradition, a meeting was called inviting anyone interested in exploring mission trips. Five women and three men attended and called themselves the Covenant Adult Mission Team or CAMT (kam-TEE).
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For more information about:
Outley House and Sheila Dennis shelter trips, contact Richard Smith (610-827-0688.)
Coatesville shelter trips and the WV or KY summer trips, call Carl Lotz (610-647-3038).
Mexico, call Barbara Rhinehart (610-286-5289.)
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Mission 
