Our Guiding Mission
As a church community seeking to love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ together in Western New York and beyond, we at Pathways are committed to leading lives that increasingly:
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Reflect our love for God, Scripture, and all peoples.
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Transform our local community, our nation, and beyond into loving, caring, and peaceful communities.
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Invite others into our community of relationships that reflect our love and nurture all who wish to learn to live in God’s grace.
Therefore, our mission is to worship God, faithfully study God’s word, prayerfully care for God’s people, and lead lives that witness to God’s love and mercy.
We worship to honor God and celebrate what God does in our Fellowship.
Local Missions
Sarah's Pantry
Filling the Gaps with Compassion
Sarah’s Pantry is a non-food item pantry offering essential personal care and hygiene products, paper goods, cleaning supplies, and other daily necessities that aen’t covered by SNAP or similar assistance programs. Originally founded by Pathways Church in 2011 in memory of Sarah Oubre, the pantry was created to serve neighbors in need and honor Sarah’s legacy of kindness and community care.
Now housed at the Rural Outreach Center (ROC) at 730 Olean Rd, Sarah’s Pantry continues to support engaged ROC Participants and community members facing hardship. Pathways Church members regularly restock the pantry, ensuring it stays filled with the essentials many take for granted.
Community support keeps Sarah’s Pantry going. Donations of non-food items are always welcome and help meet critical needs where traditional benefits fall short. Together, we can make a lasting impact—one item, one family, one act of care at a time.
Clothing Shed
Pathways Christian Fellowship maintains a clothing shed at the South Wales Community Center, with oversight by Chuck Kopf. Community members are invited to drop off gently used clothing, shoes, belts, purses, linens, blankets, and other fabric items. These donations are then collected by St. Pauly Textile, a family-owned company that specializes in reusing and recycling textiles.
St. Pauly sorts and distributes the clothing for use in communities across the U.S. and developing countries, ensuring that items find new life instead of ending up in landfills. Through this partnership, the clothing shed not only provides a convenient way for people to give back but also supports environmental sustainability and humanitarian aid.
National & Global Missions
Back in 2016, when Pastor Frank Cerny first connected with Pastor Gariston Saydee, neither could have imagined how God would weave their lives—and their congregations—together. What began as a friendship has grown into a brotherhood, and through that bond, Pathways has had the privilege of walking alongside the Upper Caldwell community in Liberia.
The needs there are real and urgent. Children eager to learn lacked even the basics—teachers struggled to serve without reliable pay, classrooms needed resources, and hunger often stood in the way of education. Pathways stepped in, one need at a time: providing computers for the school, helping cover teachers’ salaries, supporting local businesses like charcoal-making and logging, and most recently, launching a school feeding program.
That last effort has been transformational. Imagine a child showing up to school, stomach empty, trying to focus on lessons. Now imagine that same child receiving a warm meal—their only meal that day. Because of your generosity, those children no longer learn on empty stomachs. They laugh, they focus, they grow.
Every meal served, every lesson taught, every brick laid is a testimony to what happens when hearts thousands of miles apart beat for the same mission. Together, we’re not just building a school—we’re building hope, dignity, and a brighter future for children who deserve it
Liberia school mission
This year, our congregation found a creative way to help make that dream of a school buildingreal. Every week of the NFL season, while the games played on, Shawn Merkle and Darla Wheaton collected jars of spare change from our Pathways family. What felt like little drops in a bucket grew into something extraordinary—about $1,500 toward school construction in Liberia. Add that to the $15,000 annually that supports the feeding program, and you can see how God multiplies small acts of love into life-changing impact.
As enrollment has increased, so has the school’s vision: the dream of building a permanent home for education is no longer just a hope, but a plan taking shape
Upper Caldwell, Liberia
Operation Christmas Child
Every November, Pathways joins the global mission of Operation Christmas Child—and the results are nothing short of amazing! With school supplies, toys, and essentials pouring in, our volunteers pack hundreds of shoeboxes filled with love and hope. Each box becomes more than just a gift—it carries the life-changing message of Jesus, shared in the child’s own language.
Preparation begins in August, when school supply sales make it easy to stock up. Since 2006, Barb Lowe has faithfully led this mission, helping Pathways fill 150–200 boxes every year. At about $30 per box, every prayer, donation, and gift purchased makes a real difference.
The grand finale is our Shoebox Packing Party—a joyful evening of packing, pizza, and fellowship. When the work is done, the boxes are stacked high at the front of the church, and the whole congregation gathers to pray over them before they are sent off on their journey across the world.
Thanks to everyone who shops, donates, packs, prays, and supports this ministry—together, we’re bringing joy and the love of Jesus to children who may receive their very first gift.
For more about the program
2025 Collection
A Note from Barb,
"Our Operation Christmas Child Shoebox packing team did an outstanding job yesterday after worship - packing 114 shoeboxes! These are added to the pre-packed ones and will be delivered to the Orchard Park Wesleyan Church collection site. Thank you to all who helped with this child evangelistic project."
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Annual February Trip
The Pathways community makes an annual week long commitment to those in need in another area of the United States. From 2006-2012 a team traveled to the Gulf Coast to help rebuild after several hurricane disasters and since 2013 to assist with an orphanage in Georgia. This trip is scheduled during the February school break so local high school students are able to participate. These students and adults work and grow together in God's purposes.
Pathways has a long tradition of serving others through our annual mission trip. Since 2013 (with one pause during Covid), we have partnered with the Morningstar campus in Brunswick, Georgia. Morningstar provides care and counseling for youth with developmental disabilities and intensive mental health needs. Today, the campus also operates a community counseling center that supports families across twelve counties. Every year, Pathways volunteers travel to Brunswick to help improve the Morningstar campus. Over the years, our teams have: repaired roofs, painted, and completed drywall work, built and stocked a small school store with positive reinforcement items for students and assisted in campus renovations that create a safe, homelike environment for children in need.
Georgia Mission Trip 2025
