Maitland Presbyterian Church headed to Thornwell for mission trip

Members of the Maitland Presbyterian Church are on a mission.

A journey to Thornwell — a nonprofit, faith-based organization in Clinton, S.C. that provides help to neglected children and their families through housing and programs — is the latest mission trip for the church. A group of five members will head to Thornwell from Aug. 13 to 18. 

Thornwell’s Florida Mission Advancement Officer Jean Homrighausen said previous mission trip groups have helped with landscaping, birthday-card projects for donors, an ice-cream social, building raised vegetable gardens and cleaning the buildings.

Homrighausen, who attends Maitland Presbyterian and lives in the area, said Thornwell has had an ongoing partnership with local churches throughout South Carolina, Georgia and Florida — where it also provides services. For years, churches have offered both financial support and donations to Thornwell, which has been helping children in need since William Plumer Jacobs founded the campus in 1875 as a place for orphans of the American Civil War.

Years later, Thornwell expanded its services and currently houses 60 to 65 children, although it will have as many as 130 to 150 children coming and going over the span of a year.

Thornwell is now more than just a place for children to go, Homrighausen said, adding that it’s an organization that actively assists families through counseling and programs designed to prevent child abuse and neglect.

“If we work with families who are struggling, we can prevent situations where a child needs to be removed from them or strengthen families instead of just waiting and dealing with children once they have been removed from the home — which is what we do in South Carolina with the residential program,” Homrighausen said.

Maitland Presbyterian Church members will have a chance to see the work Thornwell does firsthand at its main campus.

Church Chairman of the Community Outreach Ministry Joe McKinney said the team members going on the mission trip looks forward to helping however they can.

“Every time I’ve gone on one of these mission trips, you don’t know what the outcome is,” McKinney said. “It’s a chance to get closer to God, get closer to the people you go with, and it’s always pretty amazing. All you do is focus on somebody else other than yourself for four or five days. It’s a good thing.”

Thornwell has been extending its reach even further this year to help children in South Carolina by recruiting and training foster care families throughout the Clinton area and beyond.

Homrighausen said she hopes Maitland Presbyterian catching a glimpse of what Thornwell does will result in a larger group from the church coming back for another trip and that future mission trips to Thornwell will happen consistently.

“We’re trying to provide a continuum of care for children and families and meet them where they are, not just wait until they get removed from the home,” Homrighausen said. “Ideally, these children wouldn’t have to go through the suffering they’ve been through. We’re trying to prevent it.”