Presbyterians who want to help Haitians dealing with the almost simultaneous effects of natural disaster, government corruption, fuel shortages and crop challenges have at least two choices, according to Fabienne Jean, coordinator of FONDAMA, or Hands Together Foundation of Haiti, a network if 11 farmer organizations across the Caribbean nation currently choked with deadly protests that have paralyzed the economy and closed businesses and schools.
I still visualize the words etched into a granite slab on a wall of Elmina, a stately castle on the coast of Ghana, constructed in 1482 by the Portuguese:
Lucia Santos, a young Filipino marriage migrant, lost her Korean husband in their fifth year of marriage. Their two little children awoke one morning without their father at their side. She discovered that her husband had died by suicide.
Mary Jane Veloso has 26 days to provide testimony against her traffickers who are currently on trial in the Philippines. She is the last witness for the prosecution. If she successfully testifies, she may be released from prison in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. If she doesn’t, she will remain on death row, awaiting execution for a crime she did not commit.
The Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations has expanded its Study & Devotional Guide on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to snapshots into each of the goals through the lens of Matthew 25, the second edition of the guide also includes biblical reflections from mission co-workers and global partners serving around the world.
A Catholic priest, a charismatic layperson and a Presbyterian pastor met with the patrol officer in charge of the Douglas border patrol station to discuss possible responses to the increased number of people dying while migrating in Sulphur Springs Valley, the valley in which Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, sit. The “prevention through deterrence” border policy instituted by the Clinton administration, the economic boom of the 1990s and the devastation of the Mexican economy had turned our sleepy and isolated valley into the primary crossing point for unauthorized migration into the U.S. As a nation, we chose deserts and mountains as deadly deterrents to migration. Our policy is intentionally lethal.
