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Mission Yearbook
Iowa is still reeling from a dozen tornadoes that slashed through the state one night in July, leaving behind extensive property damage.
Marshalltown, a community of about 25,000 residents, suffered catastrophic damage to its downtown area. While not unscathed from a EF-3 tornado that tore through town, First Presbyterian Church was more fortunate than most. In the storm’s aftermath, it has been focused on rebuilding and healing through worship and community service to those affected by the disaster.
The Presbyterian Mission Agency has created a scholarship fund to honor the name and legacy of the late Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, a pioneer and legend in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Dr. Cannon succumbed to leukemia Aug. 8.
For members of Pleasantville Presbyterian Church in New York state, helping people in need is what they do. It has become a part of their DNA. Certified as a Hunger Action Congregation by the Presbyterian Hunger Program in 2017, the church has taken numerous steps over the years to reach out to a community that struggles to find enough food.
The Presbyterian Church of Colombia is working for a just and lasting peace in a nation plagued by generations of politically and ideologically motivated violence. Since the Colombian government signed historic peace accords with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a guerrilla group, in 2016, steps toward reconciliation and transformation have been taking place, although more must be done if peace is to be firmly rooted and allowed to flourish for all Colombians.
Only 33 percent of members and 22 percent of ministers strongly agree that their church is spiritually vital and alive, according to a recently released research report by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). But what does it mean for a congregation to be vital and alive?
“All of Rwandan identity and history is divided into pre-genocide and post-genocide,” mission co-worker Kay Day said at the 2018 New Wilmington Mission Conference at Westminster College.
“Division has been part of our history,” Day said. “You see, before the Germans and Belgians came, there were two people groups. There were the Tutsi who owned cattle, and there were the Hutu who had land.”
Three new mission co-workers will head to Central America in early November to begin service.
The Rev. Eliane Menezes will be serving in Guatemala, and Jhanderys Dotel-Vellenga and Ian Vellenga have been called to serve in Nicaragua.
Charitable giving is not a one-time act but a work in progress for Steve and Sarah Mato, members of Providence Presbyterian Church in Parker, Colorado, southeast of Denver.
The horror of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is still fresh for Jerome Bizimana Nkumbuyinka. That’s when more than 800,000 people were slaughtered during the 100-day period following the assassination of the country’s president. The attackers came from the ranks of the Rwandan army, government-backed militias and national police and grew from a conflict between two groups: the Hutus and Tutsis.
When it comes to Christian education, Maria Harris stands out as one of the most influential teachers and writers of the past 30 years. In her 1989 book Fashion Me a People: Curriculum in the Church, Harris helped shape a theology of educational ministry in the church that understands “The Word continually becoming flesh, in us.” If the Word is perpetually at work in us, then by our ordinary, everyday, walking-around lives, all of us are de facto Christian educators. Curriculum may include printed materials and classroom instruction, but an incarnational “curriculum” resides in our life together where we embrace every member as a teacher to every other member — regardless of our age or ability.
