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World Mission
The ministry of presence is important in God’s mission. Yet even when a global pandemic causes cancellation of short-term mission trips, congregations and presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are showing care and compassion in creative and urgently needed ways from afar.
Just this week, North Korea announced it had suspended but not canceled military action against South Korea. That action would have sent armed North Korean soldiers back to the demilitarized zone (DMZ). At the Pyongyang Summit in 2018 South Korea and North Korea agreed to remove armed guards along the border to decrease hostilities.
Tracey King-Ortega was recently asked to preach virtually on Matthew 25 at her home church, St. Peter’s by the Sea Presbyterian Church in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
Each year, site coordinators of the Young Adult Volunteer Program expect challenges. There are new participants, new personalities, new issues each year. But Maureen Anderson, site coordinator for New York City, faced some truly unique challenges this year serving at the U.S. epicenter of a global pandemic.
The border is not just a physical place. When you open your heart to it, it’s a place of encounter.
About three years ago, Brian Odhiambo lived a life of “survival of the fittest” on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya. He was rescued from his street boy existence and taken to Eastleigh Community Center (ECC), a vocational skills training primary and secondary school of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) that promotes peacebuilding at every grade level.
Despite the challenges created by COVID-19, the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program is committed to responding to the call to serve in creative ways.
Presbyterians do mission in partnership and the mutual support has been strong as the U.S. fights pandemics on two fronts, COVID-19 and systemic racism.
Below are excerpts of letters, messages, sermons and poems that have been sent to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) They contain messages of love, solidarity and prayer from partners around the world.
The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground…” (Genesis 4: 10 NIV)
This was the opening passage of a heartfelt and prophetic pastoral message that the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) sent to its congregations condemning systemic and structural injustice and lamenting security force excesses in both South Africa and the United States.
“Racism … is an essential part of economic injustice and hierarchical visions that deny that all human beings were created in the image and likeness of God.”
