While sitting in a committee meeting in 2004, Tom Neal asked, “How do we help all our churches get involved in mission?” Since no formal system was in place within the Presbytery of Detroit at that time, he and others worked to create the Hands-On Mission Work Group (HOMWG).
As I write this, the earth is busy producing its harvest, the weather is comfortable, and the next family holiday on the horizon is Thanksgiving.
Yet I’m keenly aware that as some of us have plenty of fresh and healthy food, many do not (and many do not have it year-round even if they do now, at harvest time). Even as the early fall weather is enjoyable where I live, other people are facing terrible impacts from natural disasters. And while being grateful for a warm family home that will hold holiday festivities, I realize that not everyone has four walls to call home or even safe shelter.
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.
Madagascar, which sits off the southeast coast of Africa, is the fourth largest island in the world. More than 90 percent of its flora and fauna are found nowhere else on Earth, including more than 8,000 plant species. Yet for all its natural resource richness Madagascar is among the world’s least developed countries according to the UN.
Hunger is at the heart of being human. People hunger for food, for love, for belonging and for Christ himself. Feeding the hunger of humanity is why the church exists. Presbyterian churches around the country are working to creatively nourish and sustain those who struggle with food insecurity, malnourishment and poverty.
The clouds opened up, dropping heavy rain and forcing members of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) to huddle under a thatch roof to meet with members of the Trio Farmers’ Cooperative in Belize. SDOP recently spent a week visiting villages in remote sections of the country to see how work has progressed in enterprises that have received SDOP financial support.
God of solidarity, thank you for your arms that stretch across this broken world. We are grateful for this work and witness. Encourage them. Bless them so that your word may be spread far and wide. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
After the 2017 “Living, Dying, Rising” conference took place in August in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, a sociologist from the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Research Services department conducted informal interviews of participants, most of whom were leaders of new worshiping communities (NWCs).
Mangos taste so good that many consider them the world’s best fruit. But they have more qualities than flavor alone. The mango is one of the few tropical fruits that grows well on low-fertility soils and where there is a long dry season. Mangos are sold in local markets throughout the tropical world but can also be processed into dried fruit, drinks, pickles and chutney. Mango wood burns well and makes good charcoal.
The questions come in the darkness, usually around 3 a.m.
“What will my children’s lives be like without me?” wonders Farm Church co-founder Ben Johnston-Krase.
