Connect and Celebrate

A Letter from Leslie Vogel, regional liaison for Mexico and Guatemala

Fall 2021

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Dear friends, colleagues, supporters and partners in mission,

Like many of you during these past 18-plus months of the COVID pandemic, I have done some things well and others not so much, if at all. One of the things I have not done well is to keep up with producing Mission Connections letters.

Nevertheless, many of you have stayed in touch and have continued to pray for my work with our mission personnel and our global partners in Guatemala and Mexico. I have had a couple of opportunities to meet with mission committees via Zoom, but for the most part, I have remained rather silent. Please accept my sincere apology. I dream of doing better in 2022.

From my rental home in Guatemala, I have continued to work “virtually” – managing to connect in new and creative ways with even more of our partners, since traveling to in-person meetings and gatherings hasn’t been permitted.

The devotional is now available and downloadable. Spanish version (en español): https://cedepca.org/adviento-2021/

English version, click here: https://cedepca.org/en/advent-2021/

“It has been 29 years now that CEDEPCA’s Advent publications have insisted on the hope and consolation of our God. This edition of Advent 2021 is no exception. It invites us to celebrate the tender intervention of God who always brings consolation while announcing a new time. Sisters and brothers, let us celebrate. Let’s celebrate, adults and infants; let’s celebrate in the small villages and in the cities; let’s celebrate in intimacy and in community; let’s celebrate the deep mercy of our God, with which the dawn will visit us from on high.”

I encourage you to share this widely for use at home, with families and with congregations.

As we enter into a new Advent season, welcoming the birth of our savior into a world so desperately in need of love, compassion and hope, may your own lives and those around you be illuminated by the One who came to bring peace, justice and mercy to a hurting world.

Leslie Vogel

PC(USA) mission co-worker

Regional Liaison for Guatemala and México

Please read the following letter from Sara P. Lisherness, the interim director of World Mission:

Dear partners in God’s mission,

I don’t know about you, but daily my heart grows heavier. News about the pandemic, wars, wildfires, gun violence, racism, earthquakes and hurricanes cloud my vision. It’s hard to see hope; our world is in a fog. Yet we trust that God’s light and love transcend the brokenness of this time.

God is at work transforming the world, and you, through your prayers, partnership and encouragement, are helping us share this good news. Thank you for your faithful and gracious support of our mission personnel.

How can we see through the fog? What will the church be after the pandemic? Could it be that God is doing “a new thing” and is inviting us to perceive it? Through all the uncertainty we know that God’s steadfast love and care for all creation will prevail and that God’s Spirit is at work in each of us.

We all have an integral part to play in fulfilling God’s mission. As we seek to grow together in faithfulness there are three important steps I invite you to take in supporting our shared commitments to God’s mission:
Give – Consider making a year-end financial contribution for the sending and support of our mission personnel. Your support helps mission personnel accompany global partners as together they share the light of God’s love and justice around the world. Invite your session to include support for mission personnel in its annual budget planning.
Act – Visit The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study to delve deeper into the work God is doing through the PC(USA) and its partners in ministry around the globe: pcusa.org/missionyearbook.
Pray – Include our mission personnel, our global partners, and our common commitments to share God’s grace, love, mercy and justice in your daily prayers.

Thank you for your faithfulness to God’s mission through the Presbyterian Church. It is my prayer that you will continue to support this work with your prayers, partnership, and financial gifts in the coming year. We hope you will join us and our partners in shining a beacon of hope throughout the world.

In the light of hope,

Sara P. Lisherness, Interim Director
World Mission
Presbyterian Mission Agency
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

To give please visit https://bit.ly/PCUSAmission

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16