General Assembly Mission Council

Engagement in Central Asia and Vietnam

The Office of International Evangelism  continues to be engaged in many parts of the world.  The two chief “frontier areas” that are currently our top priorities are Central Asia and Vietnam. 

The May 2010 issue of Presbyterians Today, which is dedicated to Presbyterian World Mission, includes an article on Vietnam.  Part of the article is presented below as it involves our ongoing work.

Michael Parker, Coordinator of the Office of International Evangelism

Opening doors in Vietnam

A Presbyterian house-church movement is committed to spreading the gospel

For an entire generation of Americans, images of Vietnam are frozen in time from the 1960s and 70s: jungle warfare, soldiers coming home in body bags, Americans fleeing from the U.S. embassy in helicopters at the war’s end. But since then much has happened.

Vietnam’s government has largely abandoned communism, and embraced the market economy. It has made peace with its neighbors, ending a military occupation of Cambodia, and now enjoys normalized relations with the United States. And though the government has generally been hostile to Protestant churches, in the last few years it has given official recognition to eight of them.

A Roma village in Carpath-Ukraine. Photo by Michael Parker

The Roma People of Carpath-Ukraine

A Trip Report by Michael Parker

I traveled for a week earlier this year in Hungary and Carpath-Ukraine. My primary interest was to learn about the Roma people in this area and perhaps to find ways in which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) might bring a holistic gospel to a people sometimes ignored by the Christian churches in Europe. I was fortunate to be able to travel with people knowledgeable about both the Roma and the region. These were Donald Marsden of Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship, PC(USA) Regional Liaison for Eastern Europe Burkhard Paetzold, and PC(USA) mission co-worker in Hungary Joe Angi.  Before I tell you about the trip, I first want to introduce you to the Roma.

Tim and Iris Loomans. Photo by Michael Parker

Trip Report to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia

By Michael Parker

I visited Krasnoyarsk, Russia, during the first week of February this year, traveling with PC(USA) Area Coordinator Jon Chapman, Regional Liaison Gary Payton, and PFF representative Donald Marsden.  Being interested in the evangelization of Siberia, we picked this city as a likely place from which to build upon our existing work with native people in the region. Before I tell you what we discovered, let’s first take a wide-angle look at the city.