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Mission Yearbook
Presbyterian Pan American School president Doug Dalglish remembers a trip he took in 2016 to Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary—when he experienced again how the school he serves is preparing young Christian leaders (grades 9-12) for the whole world.
The air is thick and humid on a typical day in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Driving along the streets of this seaside community, you’ll mostly find young people peddling their wares to the motorists as the temperatures hover in the mid-90s. They’re selling everything from fruit drinks and bananas to bicycle tires and shoes. Women balance trays of neatly stacked fruits, nuts and eggs as they make their way along the sidewalks dotted with small businesses. Everyone is seeking to make a living, side-by-side every day.
Rachel Kahindo’s calm demeanor concealed the distress in which she had left behind her family. Just 24 hours earlier, some 50 children, women and men had been hacked to death a mile up the road from where she lives in Beni, a rural town in the volatile East of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was the deadliest attack since the militia had stepped up its activity two years before. Despite the traumatic events, Rachel had traveled to the provincial capital of Goma to be trained as a facilitator for trauma-healing in children. The nine-day event, which included a camp for 50 youngsters age 8 to 18, was organized by the Protestant Council of Churches in Congo (ECC) in collaboration with the DRC Bible Alliance. Rachel, the coordinator of women’s ministries of the Baptist church in the Beni district, met up with 28 ECC women leaders and schoolteachers from five provincial synods, who together represented 12 ECC member denominations.
Vandalism in two Jewish cemeteries in February has caused concern not only in the Jewish community, but also among interfaith partners working to confront religious-based violence. Members of the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy in St. Louis and the Presbytery of Philadelphia have come alongside Jewish partners to offer support.
April 17, 2017 Small-scale farmers—women and men—feed us all. Their labor keeps us alive. They care for the soil, the seeds, the land and the waters. They make up nearly… Read more »
The men were taken first, then the women and children were brutalized. Witnesses saw the Euphrates run red with blood, and women plunged into the river to escape the terrors of the desert march. Armenian villages throughout the Ottoman territories of 1915 were emptied in a systematic campaign to demean and destroy innocent victims. Although modern-day Turkey actively denies this genocide, historians have gathered undisputable evidence of at least a million Armenians killed and a million more dispersed from their ancient homeland.
As Presbyterian World Mission celebrates its 180th anniversary this year, it’s worth noting that well over 200 years ago Presbyterian Women were organizing around mission, both domestically and internationally. In fact, these “hidden figures” first put a missionary in the domestic field in 1824.
At Chasefu Theological College in Zambia, future pastors learn to tend the soil as well as nurture Christian faith.
“Chasefu’s introducing sustainable agriculture courses that will help seminary students better care for their families when they become pastors,” says Charles Johnson, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-worker who teaches the agriculture classes. He added that they will also be able to teach communities techniques to boost crop yields and reduce hunger.
As the plates were being cleared after dinner, we remained seated in the living room of the senator who was hosting us for the night. We were at his home in eastern Equatorial Guinea after having visited several congregations of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Equatorial Guinea and the first of three community health centers built by the church’s Women’s Association with gracious assistance from a Presbyterian Women Thank Offering.
From Alex Absalom’s opening assertion that discipleship and mission are completely intertwined, to the Rev. Dr. M. Craig Barnes’s closing assurance that Jesus has given his disciples—then and now—the power to be his witnesses, the speakers on the opening day of The Fellowship Community National Gathering charged over 200 church leaders to more intentionally “live on mission” to make missional disciples.
