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Janet Guyer
Gauteng, Republic of South Africa
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In May 2002 Janet Guyer began her position as regional AIDS consultant for Southern Africa. She works with partner churches in several countries, including Malawi, Zambia and South Africa to broaden and deepen their response to the AIDS/HIV crisis.
Perhaps no one was as surprised as Janet herself when, in mid-2001, she began to feel called to work in southern Africa, having spent most of her life in Thailand. She was born and raised there, the daughter of PC(USA) missionaries John and Betsy Guyer. She was even ordained there, in 1994, to the ministry of Word and Sacrament on behalf of Pittsburgh Presbytery, where she is a minister member.
Janet describes her work as being threefold:
- To represent the solidarity of the PC(USA) to our African partner churches as they struggle with responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis in their communities.
- To give technical support to our partner churches in their HIV/AIDS ministries and projects.
- To interpret for Presbyterian churches in the United States how the AIDS pandemic affects people and churches in Africa and how Americans can join with our African brothers and sisters in responding to this crisis.
Janet was a missionary-in-residence at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) national offices in Louisville, Kentucky, from January 2001 to January 2002. There she assisted the International Health Ministries Office in developing its AIDS Task Force.
The PC(USA) has three consultants on AIDS/HIV in Africa. The kind of consulting work Janet does in southern Africa is done in central and west Africa in east Africa by mission co-worker Dorothy Hanson.
Prior to her year in Louisville, Janet’s most recent appointment was as mission co-worker to the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT), where she did development training and worked on the issues surrounding the AIDS/HIV epidemic. As a staff member of the Social Development and Service Department (SDSD), Janet worked to increase AIDS awareness, helped develop the church’s response to the AIDS crisis, assisted in creating a development training section and trained key personnel to lead AIDS projects and development training activities.
Her first appointment to serve in Thailand was in 1990, when she served as a staff member of Payap University’s Research and Social Development Department as part-time chaplain. She worked in community development in the villages of northern Thailand and counseled students at Payap University. There she got involved in a joint project between the SDSD and the Development and Service Division (DSD)of the Payap Research and Development Institute (PRDI). The two departments consolidated information obtained by rural development officers for use in training events. In addition, Janet helped provide food and clothing to nearly 20 prisoners from several continents in the Chiang Mai Central Prison.
Janet earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in education from the University of Oregon. She later graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with an M.Div. degree and from the University of Pittsburgh with a master’s in social work. She was a student minister at East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. She also taught at the International School of Bangkok in Thailand and in the South Umpqua School District of Myrtle Creek, Oregon.
Birthday: March 10