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News & Mission Stories

News / Mission Story
Mission Story Peter Bickel Mission Story Peter Bickel

ABHMS community outreach partner helps seniors nourish their bodies and souls

VALLEY FORGE, PA (11/03/2026)—Rankin Christian Center (RCC), a faith-based community outreach organization and American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ longstanding partner, has served the community of Rankin, Penn., and the surrounding Mon Valley area for 120 years. Its ministry is dedicated to serving those who are underserved and at-risk from birth to old age. It provides early childhood care, after-school youth programming, family support, and senior activities, as well as a community food pantry, support for people with intellectual disabilities and autism. Darlene McGregor, executive director of RCC, said, “We are IN community but more importantly OF community.”

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Mission Story Peter Bickel Mission Story Peter Bickel

ABHMS’ Puerto Rican community partner helps people transform their lives

VALLEY FORGE, PA (10/23/2026)—ABHMS’ longtime community outreach partner in Puerto Rico, Corporación Milagros del Amor (CorMA), changes lives in profound ways. One of the people served by CorMA is Edwin, a man who lived a life full of hardships. He was born deaf but did not know sign language. He survived by running an informal car wash where he also lived. He entered CorMA’s programs in June 2021 and little by little, his life became easier.

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Mission Story Peter Bickel Mission Story Peter Bickel

ABHMS and ABF help students at Academia Bautista de Puerto Nuevo expand their environmental work and advocacy

VALLEY FORGE, PA (10/01/2026)—Students from Academia Bautista de Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico, learn about the health of their local ecosystem in a hands-on fashion. Their teacher, Professor Blanca Guemárez, who has taught science and math at Academia Bautista for 34 years, helps them measure the flow of the Puerto Nuevo River at several locations between two points along its course.

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Mission Story Peter Bickel Mission Story Peter Bickel

Our Stories, Our Faith: Different Burmese Christians hear one another’s stories at Indianapolis conference

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (09/01/2026)—The Our Stories, Our Faith (OSOF) gathering on Aug. 7–8 at the Falam Baptist Church of Indiana followed Amplifying the Stories of Burmese American Christians, a project supported by American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) that began preserving stories of Christian Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, and related communities in the United States. A total of 106 in-person and 84 online conferees gathered for two days of worship and storytelling despite historic and ethnic distinctions.

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