I sat next to Rachel Obal outside of her home in rural South Sudan, listening to the story of her uncle who, as a boy, was taken from his home by Arabs to be sold as a slave near Khartoum, Sudan. Obal’s words painted a vivid picture as she spoke of how her father followed his brother to rescue him and had to witness the small boy, with hands tied behind his back, paraded in front of crowds to be sold. I could see the boy with his hands tied, his knees pressed into the dusty market ground. I could even picture his thin, brown body, still bound at the wrists, placed on a boat. In my mind’s vision, no one else was on the boat; he was a child all alone, floating toward slavery. My heart ached as I listened.
The flat, sandy coasts of Colombia don’t lend themselves to guerilla activity. That turned out to be a blessing for Barranquilla, a northern coastal city that is the center of the Presbiterio de la Costa Norte of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (IPC).
Over 160 years ago, Presbyterians established their first churches in Colombia. All these years later, the Presbyterian Church of Colombia is still doing important and impactful work.
The Rev. Fred Milligan is the ex-pat pastor of the Santiago Community Church in Santiago, Chile. On Tuesday, October 29, two weeks into the ongoing unrest in Chile sparked by a five-cent increase in the cost of a metro ticket, the pastor arrived at the church and was startled by what he saw.
We fear so many things, the Rev. Dr. Cáudio Carvalhaes told worshipers last week during a celebration of 35 years of ministry by Presbyterian Border Region Outreach.
Investigative journalist and author Todd Miller has been studying the border issues for almost 20 years. Over that time, he told the people attending last week’s 35th anniversary of Presbyterian Border Region Outreach, Miller has learned to follow the money.
A “narrative of hate and rejection” is spreading across Mexico in response to the caravans of migrants from Central America and elsewhere, a Mexican lawyer and human rights defender told the 150 or so people attending the “Responding to an Exodus: Gospel Hospitality and Empire” celebration of 35 years of Presbyterian border ministry last week.
