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TESTIMONIALS 

"Just what does Salisbury church mean to me?  It really didn't take long to answer that question. It is home to me.  It is where I belong. It is a place where I feel welcome: a place where I enjoy many people of many different persuasions.  People I laugh with: people I cry with: people I play with.     Someone once said to me that Salisbury is so far away and I said so far away from what?  Here we  have what keeps us going: good neighbors; great Sunday School teachers; Super Ministers; Excellent facilities.  This is really a place where the light is always on!

"Here we look toward what needs to be done: not what we want to do.  We have stretch goals. We look forward, anticipating growth in our outreach programs; we become excited as we expand our Music Ministry.  We welcome with open arms all those who grace our doors. You are Welcome at Salisbury Church. And last and most important, as both our returning Ministers so graciously reminded us on our 35th Anniversary, this is where we worship our God and that is why it really is home to me!"

Tom Porterfield 

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"Give your hands to labor and your hearts to God" the Shaker admonition always teaches me. This brief phrase robustly expresses a healthy Christian order between the temporal and spiritual realms. Plausibly, my witness note could report that my participation in the Friends of the Homeless lunch program is my opportunity to practice that good Shaker advice. The Friends is an interdenominational organization that serves lunch to typically eighty homeless people every weekday. Presently, SPC serves once a month.

"But I can not call my efforts for this program "labor"; the correct word might be "blessing".  My afternoon invested in offering food, that basic right, in the company of others from SPC, must surely be my blessing and not my labor. All the same, this pragmatic Shaker thought does explain that, for the homeless lunch program, I mean to give the best of my hands and to hope for Grace for my heart."

Sally McGinty

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   "Since joining the church with my family in 1987, I have been involved in just about everything our church has had to offer. As a young child, I participated in Sunday School, Bible School, Choir and special programs. As I grew older, I joined Bells, Youth Choir, Sacred Dancers, and Youth Groups. In recent years my opportunities to give something back to our church and community have grown, and I have participated in youth conferences, worked in the nursery, Saturday cleanups, CARITAS, Youth Choir Mission trips and a Cape Fear Mission trip.

   "My most memorable moment this past summer took place on our San Francisco Mission Trip. I signed up to work in the tenderloin area of the city, packing envelopes, helping out with Bible School, cleaning the thrift store, and going door to door handing out groceries to families without food. At first I thought that this work would be a little boring, but I was wrong. The group I was assigned to was given the job of visiting apartments to hand out food and spread God's word. One of the apartments had two men living in it. One of the men had AIDS. Surgio (my leader) led us all in prayer with the man and held his hand as we prayed. The man with AIDS cried when we finished. He said that the really felt the presence of God. He also said that no one wanted to touch him anymore, and it meant a great deal to him that we were willing to hold his hand. He told us that God had made a good choice of putting us on this earth. 
    The experiences I had this summer have strengthened my belief in God's Will and opened my eyes to see how much need there is for all of us to help others less fortunate.

Carami Anne Montoro

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"What does Salisbury presbyterian Church mean to me? It's my church family and has been for over twenty years. Many significant personal events from marriage and baptisms to confirmations have occurred here. The church has provided invaluable love and support to my family on a number os occasions when it was sorely needed. Clergy and individual members were there during a daughter's illness and the death of my father-in-law. While these events stand out it's the day to day relationship with this family that I cherish. A Sunday School class, a choir practive, or a Wednesday night dinner all give me a chance to come closer to God and better understand my personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

"At Salisbury Presbyterian Church everyone can find an opportunity to "Walk With HIM."

Dean Horger

"Fifteen years ago I joined Salisbury Church to have a place to worship on Sunday morning and I wanted my children to grow up, as I had, with a church family. At the time, I never envisioned that SPC would fulfill my life and enhance my spiritual growth in so many additional ways.

"For the past ten years I've been involved with the Outreach program of our church. In that time I have worked with hundreds of youth and adult members who give of their time and talent to reach out with a loving spirit to help those in need. I must admit there have been times when I've felt uncomfortable or apprehensive about a particularl outreach even because it was not certain how we would be received or what unforeseen event might occur. Whether we were delivering Angel Tree gifts to the children of prisoners, making christmas cards or playing games with the boys at Beaumont Learning Center, sitting down to eat with the homeless in the CARITAS program, feeding handicapped people at the Daily Planet, watching the smiling faces of the children at the emergency shelter when our youth arrived for a Christmas party, or painting and cleaning a small trailer in West Virginia for a single father with four children, there has never been a time when I have not come away feeling totally blessed and knowing that God was working thrugh us. Salisbury Church has become a home for me where I can with others who walk with HIM and the rewards have been abundant.

Sue Casey

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Last update: 04 September 2004