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Mission Yearbook
It’s considered the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet today.
In 2018, the United Nations estimated that 14 million people in Yemen were on the brink of starvation. UNICEF estimates that 1.8 million Yemeni children suffer from acute malnutrition. Thirty thousand die each year.
Recent controversies over migration at the United States’ southern border have been mirrored by similar fights in Europe, including England, where a surge of asylum seekers from the Syrian conflict brought the issue to a boil in 2015.
Today, several congregations close to Stony Point Center, many from the Hudson River Presbytery, will host the
2019–20 YAV class for Commissioning Sunday. This day acts as a reminder to both the Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) and our Church that we do not go alone in God’s mission.
The Rev. Laura Bentley, pastor of Sanctuary Faith Community, felt called to be a pastor — but she had the best pastoral conversations sitting at bars with people over food and beer.
While listening to people, the 1001 new worshiping community leader noticed how isolated they felt, so she started a weekly gathering around meals in her home — for rest, for space to wrestle with spirituality and to learn about Jesus.
San Gabriel Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, Texas, has long supported the work of mission co-workers Jeff and Christi Boyd in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But when the Boyds visited their church and they heard about Congolese children like Serge, they knew they could do more, even with limited resources.
While serving as a Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteer (YAV), Cherokee Adams learned about the heavy toll that human trafficking exacts from women caught in its clutches.
According to Karen Linnell, elder of First Presbyterian Church of Farmington in Farmington Hills, Michigan, “It’s not often that you get to see a dream come true, especially when it turns out to be more meaningful than you imagined.”
Linnell was referring to a $350,000 gift from an anonymous donor, which is inspiring congregations and community partners to work together to put their faith into action through new and existing mission initiatives in communities across the Presbytery of Detroit.
Starting this reflection about youth in the church while an Old Testament king is on my mind might seem like a strange place to begin. My “today” mind is full of the images I am enjoying on social media of young people participating in summer mission immersions, camps, service projects and other summer activities. But my “writing” mind is thinking about what King David, has to offer us about youth in the church and the world. David, who is buried in the city he helped establish, once stood as a young man, among his sheep, in the shadow of a giant enemy, with his best friend, Jonathan, with his music and poetry and indeed, with his God. That part of his life, along with his leadership, his goodness and his … not so goodness, is all part of his legacy.
People used to tell Monique Misenga Mukuna’s father that he did not have children because he had more girls than boys — 11 girls and three boys, to be precise.
In many African cultures, including Mukuna’s native Democratic Republic of Congo, women and girls have second-class status, not enjoying many of the advantages of men and boys. Mukuna’s father wasn’t having that.
Nearly two years after the devastation of Hurricane Maria, the 36 members of the Iglesia Presbiteriana Rosa Gonzalez southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, have concluded that a good way to serve their Guaynabo community is through a church-provided health-care facility.
