About Our Missions

 
 

 

 
 
Trinity has participated in many mission trips over the years. Click a location to learn more.
 

Our Missions Belief

          We strongly believe in the importance of “community serving community, for the transformation of the world.” With God’s help, we work together to build a healthy faith-life community that is ready and willing to serve others locally and globally. Whether it is through our partnerships, with nearby schools, or missions to far off countries; at Trinity there is a opportunity to serve that will fit for everyone.
 
          Please read on to learn more about our programs, services and ministries, missions and more. In addition to the more structured programs and missions, groups of Trinity volunteers are known to quickly respond to less formal local emergency needs, whether from our congregation or from others in the community. Our volunteers have built ramps for home access, found places to live for those in need, provided food for hungry families and otherwise been caring neighbors. A long standing tradition at Trinity is the chancel offering on the first Sunday Communion. These funds are collected and used by the United Christian Ministries to provide immediate relief to those in great need.
 

Serving our Community

          It is our mission to serve as a beacon of caring, hope, and inclusion for the entire community. In so many ways, Trinity serves as a center for our Smithfield community. We have long sponsored programs for various community groups and provided a place for gatherings. Since the addition of our ambitious Family Activity Center in 2004, we have been able to expand even more our community outreach. The FAC not only provides more space for church functions and fellowship opportunities but it reflects our increasing emphasis on reaching into the community and providing a center from which to serve its needs. We host Souper Saturday, the Mission of Hope, blood drives, community church services, weddings, meetings of all kinds, support group meetings, civic club activities , wedding receptions, music programs, special lectures and other events. We sponsor Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops and we serve as a meeting place for several Girl Scout troops, and other church congregations meet in the FAC. We want Trinity to be a place that all people feel at home.
 

Nurturing our Flock

          As Trinity has grown in numbers, programs, services and ministries, the diversity of needs of our congregation has also grown. Taking care of each other and our neighbors is a primary focus of this congregation. Trinity individuals, Sunday School classes, and other groups also respond to individual needs and situations with caring and compassion.
 

Missions

          Building on our long tradition of reaching out to help our neighbors, Trinity members have since the 1980s unselfishly responded to great human need both in our community and around the world by serving on mission teams.
 

Our Missions Story

          Building on our long tradition of reaching out to help our neighbors, Trinity members have since the 1980s unselfishly responded to great human need both in our community and around the world by serving on mission teams.
 

          Our teams have rebuilt and  repaired homes and buildings in multiple trips to Kentucky and other Appalachian communities, built a Sunday School building in Mexico, classrooms in Bolivia, a Training Center in Honduras, and performed other mission work in Brazil and Costa Rico.  Altogether, eight trips were made to Russia in the 1990s to work in orphanages repairing buildings, conduct Bible classes and provide needed medical supplies.

          Teams have responded to devastating floods close to home in Franklin, Virginia and Greenville, North Carolina as well as in Nashville and to hurricane damage in Homestead, Florida and Mississippi. More recently, Trinity teams have made several  trips to Haiti rebuilding from the massive earthquake suffered  in 2010.  We have responded to flooding and storm damage in New York and New Jersey from Tropical Storm Sandy and responded to many local needs. Simns Jacquette has been the inspiration and energy behind so many of our mission trips.  He personally made eight trips to Russia as well as numerous trips to other countries and within the United States.

          People asked why we went to other countries when there is so much need at home. I have always thought we can’t live just in our own world, we need to go the other places too.  Ginny and I have so many memories of our mission trips and we believe they have made a difference in many lives including our own.  Mission trips teach you a great deal about life.  You learn people are different with different ways and customs.  People in other parts of the world don’t live the way we do and are not necessarily going to be how we would like them to be. We don’t try to change them.  Let them see how we do and how we react. We hope we have made a difference, one person at a time. –Simns Jacquette

          Over the past 30 years, there have been many mission  needs and Trinity members have responded to those in need at home and around  the world in Haiti, Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, Brazil, Costa Rica, Russia, Jamaica, St. Johns, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Kentucky, Florida and Louisiana. The following recollections are representative of Trinity’s mission trips.

          These missions have brought great benefits to the locations served, but they have also had great and long lasting impact on the lives of those who served. For more information on how you can get involved with a mission team, please contact our church office.