"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." - Jesus

We believe that every individual and body of Christ is called to be a missionary to this world, to all nations and the ends of the earth. For Friendship, that means reaching out both near and far, to friends, neighbors, and strangers, as local as Oakland and as distant as Malawi.

Pittsburgh

Several members of the church are involved with local ministries that reach out to students, the poor, the sick, the children, and the 'meek and lowly' in Pittsburgh. Click below to read more.

• Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
• Coalition for Christian Outreach
• The Pittsburgh Project
• East Liberty Family Health Center

The Ends of the Earth

We have special relationships with the following nations:

• Haiti
• Malawi

Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is an intentionally Multi-Ethnic and Inter -Denominational campus ministry. Our vision is to develop fellowships of students and faculty who want to be a witness on their campus for Jesus Christ.

Through small group bible studies, worship, discipleship conferences, acts of social justice, and mission trips (both urban and foreign) we help students and faculty to grow in love for God, God's Word, and God's people of every ethnicity and culture.

For more information on IVCF ministries in the Pittsburgh area, please contact Chloe Papke at 412-363-2658 or chloe.papke@gmail.com

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Coalition for Christian Outreach
The CCO is a campus ministry organization that partners with churches, colleges and other organizations to develop men and women who live out their Christian faith in every area of life. The CCO focuses its ministry with college students in the mid-Atlantic region of the country — including Pittsburgh.

Friendship Community Presbyterian Church and the CCO have a long history of partnering together. Because of Friendship’s proximity to local campuses (including the University of Pittsburgh, Carlow University and Carnegie Mellon University), the church has supported a number of CCO campus ministers throughout the years to reach out to area students. In fact, CCO staff member Dana Shaw served as pastor of Friendship Church during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Several current members of Friendship have either worked for the CCO in the past, or are student alumni of the ministry. Friendship members Marsha Dugan Kolbe and Amy Maczuzak continue to work for the CCO in support staff positions, in the development and communications departments, and Sam Portnoff and Andrew Heffner, who grew up going to Friendship, are serving as CCO campus workers at Elmira College and Washington & Jefferson College.

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The Pittsburgh Project
The Pittsburgh Project is a Christian community development organization with a 22-year track record of developing leaders and serving the city’s most vulnerable residents. The Pittsburgh Project develops servant leaders and uphold the dignity of vulnerable homeowners. Its vision is that Pittsburgh will be called a City of Truth, where once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets each with cane in hand because of age, and where the city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there (adapted from Zechariah 8:4-5).

The year-round staff operates a progressive series of afterschool and summer leadership development programs for 300 urban young people, deploys over 2500 people annually to perform free home repairs for 150 isolated, in-need elderly across the city, and spearheads economic development and anti-violence efforts in our North Side neighborhood.

Some of Friendship's own college students, Katie Blandino, Justin Tatman, and Peter Brewton, have worked on staff here. InterVarsity student groups (with Chloe Papke) have also held events in our space.

Friendship member Bryan Perry has been on the Project staff since 1993; he helps measure program outcomes, streamline everyday processes, tackle IT needs, and handle public relations. Friendship is glad to parter with and support the Project.

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East Liberty Family Health Center
For 25 years, The East Liberty Family Health Care Center has been dedicated to “witnessing to God’s love, known in Jesus Christ by providing quality, whole-person health care for all, especially the poor.” The Center’s two East End offices are home to 14 physicians, who along with its dentist and a pharmacist,, provided more than 35,000 encounters of whole-person care without regard to ability to pay this past year. The Center’s staff also go beyond the office walls to provide specialized care for the homebound elderly, the homeless, the addicted, and young mothers and mothers-to-be.

The Center’s practitioners provide the highest quality care, including innovative programs in diabetes care, adult and pediatric immunizations, doula-assisted births, and home visits for the very young and the very old.

Through prayer, compassionate care, pastoral counseling, and the support of local churches, the love of God is expressed in the Center’s ‘whole-person’ care. We never discriminate nor proselytize. But through the closeness of human touch and the shared language of prayer, every visit becomes a safe place to invite God’s presence into the healing process, and to encourage each patient to move toward greater health: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

For more information, contact Dave Brewton at 412-361-8265 or dbrewton@elfhcc.com.

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Haiti
Content to follow

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Malawi
In 1991, the Pittsburgh Presbytery, of which Friendship Community Church is s part, formed a lasting friendship with the Presbyterian Churches in Malawi in Southern Africa. Since then over 350 Pittsburgh have visited Malawi and over 200 Malawians have visited Pittsburgh. Over the years three young people from Friendship Church have been among those traveling to Malawi and the church has hosted two visiting groups from Malawi.

The scripture verse “…that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” (Romans 1:12) captures the spirit of this partnership. Friendship Church member, Ruth Portnoff, who was a part of the Youth Mission group that went in summer 2005, remembers her experience this way: “In Malawi I met countless women named Ruth whose Malawi name was pronounced “Rootee”. I love this name because whenever I met another Ruth, I was immediately adopted as her daughter or younger sister. Also my nationality has become that of half American and half Malawian. After spending a few days with a group of Malawians with whom we traveled and worked, I was told that I was no longer an American but a Malawian because of my grasp of the language as well as my love for dancing and singing. The love and complete acceptance that the Malawians showed me while I visit with them is something that I can never forget.”

When Malawi Youth Delegates, Martha Kapimba and Chisomo Mputeni, came to Friendship Church in fall 2006, much of their time was spent encouraging the church and being encouraged by the youth of the community and their active faith. Each woman brought greetings and gifts from their home churches in Malawi and each returned with gifts and blessings to share with their pastors and congregation.

To more fully experience that God is God over all the earth and that all peoples in all lands will praise Him one day, Friendship Church learned to praise God in Chichewa, one of the main languages spoken in Malawi. (Try your hand at speaking Chichewa – it is entirely phonetic and sounds just like it is written.)

Mulungu ndiwabwino
God is good!

Nthawi zonse
All the time!

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