“We have a right good size children’s program, and two youth groups,” said Kelley, a former schoolteacher who teaches Sunday school and serves on the Pulpit Committee, in the cemetery caretaker group, and in women’s ministry leadership at Draper’s Valley. She has many childhood memories of growing up in this church.

“My grandfather was a real gentleman and a man of great faith,” she said. “We’d sit under the trees in the church yard learning the catechism with him. And I also remember getting fussed at for kicking the benches during worship!”

The church stays active serving the community—providing Christmas baskets for shut-ins, Valentine’s boxes for college students and those in the armed services, and stockings for the VA hospital.

“I think we’re a welcoming, friendly church,” says Kelley. “We try our best to welcome new people, and integrate them into our work.”
That work is strongly oriented toward missions. About one third of the church budget is devoted to missions, 20 individual missionaries are supported, and a group of members recently traveled to Bay St. Louis, Miss., to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief.

But the church is focused on its family as well. When a 96-year-old lifetime member recently died, it had a powerful effect on the congregation. “When Katherine died, we all felt like the church fell in that day,” said Kelley.

Through the years, Draper’s Valley PCA, which has known 24 pastors during its 175 years—including several father/son teams—has continued to focus on what it does best.

“We work with young people, stick to the Bible in teaching, and have always had pastors that preach God’s Word,” said Kelley.