PCHAS (Presbyterian Children’s Homes & Services): This is a wonderful organization that the Mission Committee at Grace has graciously supported for many years. PCHAS provides Christ-centered care and support to children and families in need through foster care, adoption, and transitional care for young adults, as well as services to families in crisis who are suffering due to poverty, abuse, neglect, or homelessness helping them stay together. PCHAS began in 1903 when the women of First Presbyterian Church of Dallas rented a home and created an orphanage to care for the four children of Leontine Hector Blaney, a young mother dying of tuberculosis. In 1905, the ministry bought property and moved to Itasca, Texas where it still operates today as PCHAS’ Itasca Foster Care Village. Throughout the years, PCHAS has expanded to other parts of Texas, as well as states of Missouri and Louisiana, serving about 4,500 children a year.

 

Over the past few years, Grace members have attended the PCHAS Fall Luncheon, donated back-to-school clothing for 31 kids, provided Easter lunch for 13 single-parents and their 19 children, delivered Christmas dinners to Itasca Foster Care Village in Waxahachie for nine transitional students in college, and donated annual monetary gifts. Our most-recent project for PCHAS was a book drive collecting 200 age/grade appropriate books so the kids could keep their minds sharp with summer reading.

 

I am your PCHAS Ambassador serving on the Grace Mission Committee, and I would love to hear your ideas for future projects to support the kids and families of PCHAS. Follow PCHAS on Facebook PCHAS Facebook to see how they are changing lives, and for more information about PCHAS programs, please visit PCHAS.org. If you would like to get involved with PCHAS or have ideas of how we at Grace can help these lovely kids and families, email me at Grace PCHAS.

 

 

Portia Stephens