A Tribute to Presbyterian Women: To Presbyterian Women, From Africa with Love

A letter from Christi and Jeff Boyd, mission co-workers serving in the Congo

Winter 2024

Dear siblings in Christ,

To this day, Presbyterian Women (PW) and its various predecessors have been the backbone of our denomination in its support of domestic and global mission. They were the first to build a Presbyterian church-wide movement in support of global mission workers, the Presbyterian Women’s General Missionary Society, which was approved by the General Assembly in 1875. The Society started to organize the regular collection of Thank Offerings in 1888, and the Birthday Offering first began in 1922. This year, I had the unique opportunity as a mission co-worker to address Presbyterian women who had come together from across the denomination for their triennial Church-wide Gathering in St. Louis and thank them for their historic support for PC(USA) partners in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Since 1988, PW grants awarded to projects in Sub-Saharan Africa alone have accumulated to nearly five and a half million dollars. This does not even include the two million dollars in Birthday Offering grants that had been awarded before, nor any earlier Thank Offering grants as those statistics are currently not available. To celebrate this global outreach by Presbyterian Women in the US and their close collaboration with our Africa Area team, I worked with colleagues and partners to collect the latest information and pieced together a presentation to share how PW offerings have enabled our global partners to improve living conditions in their communities. To stay within the time allotted to address the plenary gathering, it became a whirlwind tour across Sub-Saharan Africa of grant recipients from the past 10 years:

Christi Boyd gives a presentation about partner grant recipients in Sub-Saharan Africa during a plenary session at the PW Gathering. Photo credit Jeff Boyd.

• • In Rwanda, a once thriving fruit processing unit that had fallen in disrepair in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide was revived by the Presbyterian Women’s Desk.
  • Presbyterian women in Equatorial Guinea built three rural clinics in underserved areas to lease the facilities to doctors and support residents of a leprosy center with the monthly rent.
  • Regional women leaders of the Evangelical Church in Niger were trained in organizational processes and leadership roles to guide local women groups with a newly drafted operations manual and three-year action plan.
  • A community-based savings and loans program was launched by Presbyterian Women in Congo for women to cooperatively build capital from which members can take low-interest loans to increase their household finances.
  • Without the new women’s dormitory, female students at Nile Theological College with no relatives in Khartoum, Sudan, could not have attended the institution.
  • Three presbyteries in Harare Synod, Zimbabwe, successfully drilled boreholes that provide clean drinking water and allow congregations to grow kitchen gardens in support of the church and community.
  • Women from 12 Presbyterian congregations in rural Pochalla, South Sudan, started a large agricultural project to fight off malnutrition in their conflict-prone and aid-dependent area.

Introducing the presentation “To Presbyterian Women, From Africa with Love, in which PC(USA) Africa Area Office Coordinator, Rev. Cheryl Barnes pays tribute to PC(USA) Presbyterian Women. Photo credit Jeff Boyd.

• • The maternity ward with a two-bed delivery room at the Dzemeni Medical Clinic of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana was replaced with an adequately equipped 20-bed facility.
  • A blood bank was started at the Presbyterian Health Complex in Douala, Cameroon, by raising awareness about the importance of blood donation, building a reliable network of blood donors and establishing a blood supply.
  • PAX Clinic in Kananga, Congo, drilled a borehole on its grounds that helps improve hygienic conditions in the wards, operation theater and laboratory while the sale of potable water pays for the generator’s fuel to power the pump.

Christi Boyd leads a workshop on three community-based ministries in Congo that nurture resilience, promote self-reliance and build sustainability. Photo credit Jeff Boyd.

• • Ministry partners in Madagascar launched a campaign to break taboos on domestic violence and harmful cultural practices that are at the basis of internal migration patterns leading to sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
  • With the construction of a six-room women’s dormitory, Gidada Theological College in Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia, is able to accommodate the surge in enrollment of female Theology students following the opening of a four-year degree program.
  • Presbyterian women in Kinshasa, Congo, finished and equipped a center they had built from years’ worth of offerings, and purchased materials to teach women skills in fabric dyeing, cooking & baking and beadwork for income generation.

Workshop participants intently follow the presentation and engage in the conversations. Photo credit Jeff Boyd.

• At Chasefu Theological College in Zambia, a new 17-room female hostel has allowed the school to start a two-year Certificate of Women’s Ministry program to increase the representation of women leaders in the Church.
• Berhane Elementary School of the Presbyterian Church in Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia, built two blocks of four rooms each to provide its kindergartners a conducive learning environment with proper infrastructure and a safe school compound.
• Presbyterian partners in Zambia built three staff houses at a new health center in the rural community of Pharaza for the clinic to be able to start operations, providing health services for a catchment area of over 13,000 people.
• To build social safety nets with local congregations as a focal point for the care of unhoused children, the Presbyterian Church in Congo has trained foster families and congregational child protection committees in 575 congregations.

May this glimpse at partner projects accomplished with the generous gifts from Presbyterian women across the US convey the profound sense of gratitude of PC(USA)’s global partners and our Africa Area team for PW’s faithful support. In staying with the Gathering’s theme, “These are the ones we should serve. These are the ones we should love. Neighbors are near us AND far away.”

Together in Christ’s service,

Christi and Jeff Boyd