Paterson Eastside Launches Good Samaritan Department

Story by Stephen Lee

Jeffrey Prado, a church member from the Paterson Eastside church, felt the need to do more for the surrounding community. As a result of several conversations, Paterson Eastside created a new department—the Good Samaritan Department—which will specialize in community service. The church board nominated Prado to lead this brand-new department.

Prado states, “It was as though God was saying, ‘You’ve been talking about this, so I’m giving you this department to do something about it.’”

The department’s mission—comprised of caring church members—is to demonstrate the love of God to those in the community. Recently, they collaborated with the city of Paterson to hold a drive and collect items and monetary donations for those affected by the earthquake in the Türkiye/ Syria regions.

“The next plan for the Good Samaritan Department is to have a clothing and household item drive to help the less fortunate in the Paterson community,” says Prado. “We will also have an outdoor Sabbath. Since [there are some who] don’t come to the church, we will bring the church to them.”