General Assembly Mission Council

A letter from Annette George in Thailand

August 2010

Dear Friends,

Congratulating and saying farewell to a student who had studied flute, English, and music therapy with me.

I flew to the United States at the end of March for a short term of speaking to the churches and renewing relationships with friends and relatives. A trip to Indiana allowed me to join family members in burying the ashes of my parents, and I was able to visit a couple of my supporting churches there. The rest of the time centered in Ocala, Fla., where I felt happy to establish a new “home-base” with the congregation at Fort King Presbyterian Church. All of the churches and church groups that I visited were so welcoming and gracious to me; I was truly blessed by my short visit to the States.

According to my friends in Thailand, I missed an unusually broiling “Thai summer” season (April and May). Tempers were hot, too, as the news programs informed you. The political problems had been simmering for some years, so I wondered if there would still be protests or violence in Chiang Mai when I returned.

A letter from Mark And Ashley Wright in Honduras

August 30, 2010

Strong, daily rains have caused flooding and destruction in many parts of Honduras.

We have been having an interesting time here in Honduras lately. Last year we had a terrific drought and had to learn how to live with very little water. We couldn’t flush toilets, had to take “bucket baths” and had to be very judicious about which clothes to wash — i.e., we washed the white school uniform shirts but not the dark blue uniform pants. We had to embrace the “pig pen” look for a while. More important, the drought was also causing famine in the southern part of the country, especially in the area of Moropocay, where a couple of the churches are located. Things were beginning to look quite desperate, and the U.S. Embassy even calculated that Tegucigalpa, the capital city where we live, only had 60 days of water left. Then, during Holy Week, the skies opened up! The rainy season had begun a month early.

A letter from Tim and Gloria Wheeler in Honduras

August 2010

Don Mino Caceres, 82 years old, shows his joy. He hadn’t owned a cow since being a boy.

The text in 2 Thessalonians 3:13, “But you, brothers, don’t be weary in doing well,” and again in Galatians 6:9, “ Let us not be weary in doing good” spoke to me in a special way recently when I read it. It made me think and reflect on the idea of doing good, and I realized that there is never enough and we are never done. Given as instructional for the people they were written to by Paul, I found it interesting to think about the very idea of not getting tired of doing good in our context today when the norm may be self-interest or self-survival. In relation to our activities in the mission field, the command represents a huge challenge. Just when we think we have done what we are supposed to have done and can slide along and sort of slack it for a while, we are told no, we need to get up the next day and every day and do everything we can do to do good.

A letter from Debbie Blane in Sudan

August 22, 2010

An Egyptian ricksaw.

Greetings! The second semester has begun now in the academic year of 2010 here at the Nile Theological College (NTC) in Khartoum. In December the seniors will graduate with their bachelor’s degrees in theology. Normally for this college sometime in January a new batch of juniors would arrive and the current juniors would become seniors. The college does intake for new students every two years so the juniors are juniors for two years and the seniors are seniors for two years.

This coming year things may be different. The Referendum, in which Southern Sudanese will vote to remain unified with the North or to create a new country and separate from the North, is due to take place January 9. There is a great deal of uncertainty in the air here in Khartoum and at the college in general. The vote has the potential to change the lives of the Sudanese people for a long time to come.

A letter from Jim McGill in Malawi

August 2010

Boys traveling to school.

“Greetings from a chilly Mzuzu.” That is how I began a newsletter in June and the same weather continues now, although I should add that we are also having rain, which, although this is our dry season, is not unusual for Mzuzu. Our winter, though, is ebbing — we did have two lovely, dry, spring-like days this week, a hint of the approaching summer. 

Many of you are aware that the Synod of Livingstonia has actively expressed its displeasure regarding the Malawi government’s decisions that appear to disenfranchise the people of the Northern Region. This was brought to international attention when our General Secretary, the Rev. Levi Nyondo, was arrested after giving remarks that the government considered to be seditious at the funeral of a former government minister. Nyondo was held in jail for the weekend, then was released on bail for a trial at a later date.  Very large numbers of supporters remained at the jail during his incarceration and were outside the courthouse for the bail hearing. Your prayers for resolution to this situation are needed.

A letter from Doug Orbaker in Nicaragua

August 2010

Health Care: Nicaraguan and U.S.

Doug Orbaker recovering from hip surgery.

I’ve had three encounters recently with health care:  two of them in Nicaragua and one in the United States.

The first was a young woman with one of the delegations who returned to Managua from the rural area where we were working with a seriously infected foot. I took her to the emergency room of the Baptist Hospital, one of the best private hospitals in Managua. She received excellent care both in the emergency room and after she was admitted, received IV antibiotics and antibiotic pills as she returned to Canada with her delegation. The Canadian doctors examined her foot, continued the same treatment and assured her that the quick action of the Nicaraguan doctors had saved her foot. The total cost (emergency room, overnight in hospital, lab tests, medicines, etc.) was just slightly over $400.

A letter from Dennis Smith in Guatemala (moving to Argentina)

August 30, 2010

Dear friends:

The boys and I have just returned from 10 days in India. Mari was to have joined us, but she came down with dengue fever two days before departure! Thankfully, she is now fully recovered — but we missed her sorely.

Dennis Smith being recognized for his service in Guatemala.

Why India? On August 6 in Chennai, India, I was one of six people granted a Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, by the Academy of Ecumenical Indian Theology and Church Administration. World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) General Secretary Randy Naylor and I (I'm currently president of WACC) were honored for our contribution to the ecumenical movement.

Randy and I also led a seminar on Communication, Theology and Ecumenism at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College & Research Institute in Chennai. As we spent a scintillating day with faculty and graduate students from three different seminaries, we were reminded why South India is a global leader in the conversation between communication and theology.

A letter from Nancy Dimmock in Lesotho

August 2010

It has been an amazingly busy last four months or so, and we wanted to share both our joys and our challenges.

Our new foster children.

April– A terrible measles epidemic swept through the schools and orphanages of South Africa and Lesotho. A vaccination campaign was successfully launched in both countries. Our kids were vaccinated at their schools and Ministry of Insured Salvation (MIS) orphanage had some clinic staff come by to bring everyone up-to-date there. But not before two high school girls and four babies contracted the disease. Three of the babies were immune compromised and could not fight it off. They passed away and were buried in the pauper’s grave here in the city. We helped with getting picks and shovels and little coffins but did not participate in the actual burials. Just couldn’t handle it. Instead, we were asked to take the surviving baby and her brother, to help her recover and prevent a relapse. SO, we have had two additional “foster” children in our household, ages 2 and 5, since mid-April. They have been both a JOY and a CHALLENGE! They have been placed for adoption with a Canadian family, who will come for them sometime in late August. It will be hard to say goodbye.

A letter from Kay Day in Malawi

August 2010

The Zomba Ministry Class of 2010

Preparing persons for pastoral ministry is a process, as anyone in ministry knows. That is even more the case in Malawi. But what wonderful celebration when everything is completed and ministry begins. That has been the blessing of this August. I invite you to praise God with me.

The process for this group of new ministers began in 2005 when the Blantyre Synod began to address the desperate shortage of pastors within the synod. The plan was a “boost” of 20 additional trainees in a program parallel to the one at Zomba Theological College (ZTC), which could train only six pastors a year from Blantyre. I was invited to teach in the Parallel Program, as it was called, and came in 2007 to do that. But before I arrived, the program was merged with the ZTC program because of financial problems at ZTC. I taught several classes, but especially the second-year students who were part of the Parallel Program. Those students were fully integrated into ZTC’s program. Some finished in three years with a diploma and were assigned to churches in 2008, but many of them qualified for the degree program and finished their fourth year of studies in 2009. They were then placed in congregations as “ordinands” under the supervision of an ordained pastor within the presbytery to which they were assigned.

A letter from Thelma Goodrum in Brazil

August 10, 2010

The Rev. Enoc Wenceslau and Thelma with Richard Twiss of the Lakota Sioux Nation

I am writing to let you know about the recent opportunity I had to represent the United Presbyterian Church of Brazil, with which we are now affiliated, at two conferences in the States — the “Brazil Mission Network,” which met at First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, from June 15 to 17, and the conference of the newly formed “World Communion of Reformed Churches,” which met in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from June 17 to June 26. This second conference was the result of the joining of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council. I went to these conferences, as one of several representatives, to share information about the United Presbyterian Church of Brazil, to learn about these organizations with which we have a partnership and to translate for those representatives who did not speak English fluently.

A letter from Yen Hee and Choon Lim in Taiwan

July 27, 2010

Dear friends in mission,

Taiwanese Traditional Dancing

The theme of 2010 is “Growing together.” Through this sending-missionary and going-missionary relationship we hope we can grow together. Our common interest to be Jesus’ witness formed a strong bond between us. Ten years ago Yen Hee and I thought we couldn’t plant the Hualien Aboriginal Campus Ministry (HACM) in Hualien, Taiwan. We didn’t know how to start it because we both of us were trained to be medical personnel and worked at a medical ship, “Salvation,” for six years in South Korea before we came to Taiwan as missionaries. It was like giving us a new life and a new challenge, but your prayers and our strength from God made a new chapter in our ministry. The HACM became one of the college ministries in Taiwan, though with a short history, that is growing the most.

A letter from Carolyn Weber in Ethiopia

July 2010

Carolyn Weber with some of her students.

July has always been a special month for me because it is my birthday month! I have wonderful memories of gatherings with family, friends and colleagues to celebrate birthdays — theirs and mine.  Because of my very hectic Monday–Friday schedule of morning Amharic language learning and then afternoons teaching four one-hour back-to-back classes of listening and speaking English with my 70+ English-crash-course students, I was only vaguely aware of my approaching birthday until the day it occurred this past Monday.

I told my students Monday that they are my family while I’m here in Ethiopia and that I was honored to celebrate my birthday with them. For Monday’s Scripture reading I selected the first part of one of my favorites: Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, Rejoice.” Of course my students were interested in learning my age. When I told them, they had very shocked expressions. I think they believed I was the age of their mothers — and in fact I am closer to the age of their grandmothers — 64 years old!! Lift up your prayers and blessings for these students pictured here. If they successfully pass the final exam August 9 and the other entrance exams, they will be admitted to the Theology Department and the Music School here.

A letter from Debbie and Harry Horne in Peru

July 14, 2010

Hoping, Serving, Changing …

A year of service for a lifetime of change — That’s the motto of the Young Adult Volunteer Program of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Six Peru YAVs in Huanta.

Within the first hour of September 1, 2009, six tired, happy-to-be-here, and expectant young adult volunteers arrived at the Jorge Chavez International airport in Lima, Peru. Several of us had already been waiting for these six young folks to appear through the double glass doors exiting from Customs for a couple of hours. We were tired, but they were even more tired after a full day of travel. In spite of their exhaustion, they were happy to be here and were excited about the beginning of their year of service in Peru as a PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer, finally, after all of the waiting and preparations since the YAV Placement Event about five months earlier. I imagine that there were a number of other things going around in their minds at that time, too, including wondering just exactly what lay ahead for them this year in Peru.

A letter from Marta Carriker in Brazil

July 2010

Dear friends,

One of the 200 people given career counseling.

Not too long ago I told you that our church would have an outreach program for our community. It happened one Saturday.

The day was cold and rainy, not a good day to attract our neighbors. But we had 82 volunteers ready to help people with haircuts, taking their blood pressure, testing for diabetes, teaching them to keep their teeth clean and how to have better posture, giving out seeds, helping with judicial problems, helping them get their documents in order, counseling in accounting, helping them write their CVs and applying for a job. Does that seem like a lot? It was, and we could not have done it without the help of institutions like the Order of Lawyers of Brazil (OAB) and people from City Hall who were there to help us reach out.

A letter from Becky and Eric Hinderliter in Lithuania

August 2010

Becky talks with Beth Engel, pastor of Pequea Presbyterian Church at the Presbytery of Donegal meeting. Pequea supports all five mission workers with ties to the Donegal Presbytery. Beth is a longtime friend from our days in Lancaster.

Our time of “mission interpretation” has drawn to a close. We’ve been in the United States for just over seven months now, since January 2010. Here are some numbers. By the time we finished we had visited 30 Presbyterian churches in six states — some only one time, others many times as Bible class teachers or Lenten program presenters. We were guests at four presbyteries (Carlisle, Donegal, Huntington and National Capital). This included six sermons, quite a challenge for us. We renewed our connection with short-term mission trip participants who have visited us in Lithuania; we also met with leaders of the Lithuanian Reformed Church who were visiting the United States. We served as Mission Advisory Delegates to the 219^th General Assembly in Minneapolis. We participated in the “Sharing Conference” in Louisville, Kentucky, with staff from PC(USA) World Mission and 20 of our mission colleagues from around the world.

A letter from Mamie Broadhurst in Colombia

 August 16, 2010

Sheets like fiberglass, hearts like gold

Children after worship in the Community of El Tres

For parts of June and July Richard and I were traveling in the Presbytery of Urabá, getting to know the churches here better and listening to the stories of Presbyterians who have been affected by displacement and violence. Urabá is the most rural and least economically well off presbytery in the IPC, but it has a gracious spirit to it that seems like its own miracle, given the atrocities people there have lived through.

A letter from Bob and Kristi Rice in Congo

 August 17, 2010

 Five Smooth Stones

Two boys demonstrate their agility in climbing to the top of a palm tree.

In the spring of this year Kristi and I spent one month at Lake Munkamba, where we did intensive language study. One afternoon Kristi and I sat in front of the house and watched a group of young boys play soccer. We casually paid attention to them as we flipped flashcards, trying to remember Tshiluba words and phrases while also enjoying the warm sunshine and the lake view. After a while we noticed that the boys had suspended their play. All of them had gathered around a tall palm tree. We realized that their ball had become lodged in the very top of the tree. The boys, who love soccer, made every conceivable attempt to retrieve their prized possession. Finally I thought maybe I could help them in some way. I took a chair over, and suggested that I stand on it with a boy on my shoulders who attempted to dislodge the ball with his long stick. My strategy seemed like a good one, but after several valiant attempts, we also failed.

A letter from Paul and Darlene Heller in Malawi

August 2010

SECOND WAVE

In the midst of the global financial crisis, in early 2009 we received an e-mail from Ministry of Hope (MoH) in the United States addressing some financial challenges that lie ahead.  “The MoH finance committee met tonight to go over the end-of-year figures and the financial crisis in the U.S. is having its impact on MoH. Giving is way down and we are having to reduce our monthly allotment. … Thus, at this point, we will need to fund the Mzuzu Nursery from the reduced undesignated pot of money that Ministry of Hope receives every month and is shared (among two crisis nurseries and six orphan care centers).

Nevertheless, in spite of this drastic reduction in the “pot of money” to be shared, the Mzuzu Crisis Nursery was spared. The feeding centers and main office took the brunt of the financial blow.

A letter from Ellen and Al Smith in Russia

July 21, 2010

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ! It has been a long time since we have written to you. Summer is our busiest time. This summer is more complicated as we are trying to close down our apartment for our return to the States for 10 months of itineration. In the midst of trips out to camps and packing, I am seizing a moment to sit quietly and catch you up on the ministry in Russia.

A letter from Thomas Goetz in Japan

July 30, 2010

Greetings good readers. Recently I delivered a message at the Hokusei Gakuen University Chapel on the theme of compassion. What I try to do all the time is to relate the gospel message into daily life. Many Japanese who gather to attend expect the speakers to speak at length about stuff — whatever that stuff may be. In this talk I made a conscious attempt to structure it almost like a home movie. A few days later I received an email from someone who was present. The email appears after this message.

A letter from Kay Day in Malawi

July 2010

Praise God with me. Life has returned to Chigodi Women’s Center! Yes, we have water. That was the beginning of the process, but even more has been happening within the last months to give evidence of new life at the Center.

A letter from Susie Frerichs in Frijolillo, San Martin Chalchicuahutla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

June 2010

Huapango Trio serenade.

Yancuic Camanali from the Presbytery of the Huastecas

Greetings from El Frijolillo! I trust this newsletter finds you enjoying God’s mercies, even in the midst of the challenges of daily life.

May and June have flown by in a flurry of ministry and celebrations. I won’t bore you with the details of my daily and monthly visits, but want to highlight some of special activities we have had to date. These have truely been months of great joy.