Beyond the white sand beaches, palm trees and luxury oceanfront properties lies another Miami—in the lives of marginalized people who have arrived in this city full of promise and culture. Three Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are focusing their energies on residents of this other Miami, spending a year of service and learning in the community. Read more »
October 25, 2016
Young Adult Volunteers in Miami encounter a city with promise and challenge
Beyond the white sand beaches, palm trees and luxury oceanfront properties lies another Miami—in the lives of marginalized people who have arrived in this city full of promise and culture. Three Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are focusing their energies on residents of this other Miami, spending a year of service and learning in the community. Read more »
The Rev. Donald J. Dawson retired October 31, 2016, as director of the World Mission Initiative (WMI) at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the New Wilmington Mission Conference (NWMC). Regarded as the oldest annual mission conference in the United States, NWMC has been inspiring, calling, equipping and sending people to live out the great commission locally and globally since 1906. Dawson has directed WMI and the conference since July 2000. 
If this summer’s Presbyterian Youth Triennium is any indication, more young people are showing an overwhelming interest in critical topics that intersect faith and social justice, such as environmental racism. The summer gathering at Purdue University drew nearly 5,000 young people for a week of worship, fellowship and a chance to learn and engage on issues of great importance to the church as a whole. For many of the presenters on key advocacy issues, the turnout and interaction were more than they expected. 
In late June, mere days after winning Peru’s presidential election by a thin margin, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski turned his eyes on the troubled community of La Oroya, where for more than 15 years Presbyterian World Mission and the Presbyterian Hunger Program have joined with partners Joining Hands Peru (“Red Uniendo Manos Peru”) in seeking justice for city’s residents. 
That horrifying moment when you’re looking for an adult and then you realize you’re an adult. So you look for an older adult, someone successfully adulating. An adultier adult.
Have you ever seen this internet meme? If anyone were to ask me to mark the day I started adulting, I would have told them the day I left for college. But that’s only partially true. 
“When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.” Luke 23:33
Even in today’s era of constitutional monarchies, royalty look to project power. They seek to rise above political skirmishes and to stay above the fray. Their thrones and crowns remind us commoners that we do not live in their rarified world. Kings and queens strive to project a non-anxious, detached calm from whatever troubles might be assailing their subjects. 
One of our planet’s worst earthquakes leveled Managua, Nicaragua, in December 1972. A medical doctor and missionary, Gustavo Parajón, raced to action. Within hours he had mobilized others to feed those left homeless. This ecumenical, Jesus-loving, outward-looking group called itself the Council of Protestant Churches of Nicaragua (CEPAD). Today and for most of its more than 40-year history, CEPAD has helped people feed themselves and avoid the need to emigrate. 
This article is from the Fall 2016 issue of Mission Crossroads magazine, which is available online and also printed and mailed free to subscribers’ homes three times a year by Presbyterian World Mission. The issue was printed before Haiti was devastated by Hurricane Matthew. 
Although the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina are now quiet following protests in response to the September 20 shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott by police, area Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors say the historic and deep-seated sentiment that fostered unrest after this killing remains. 
From the Pope to the Southern Baptist Convention, faith leaders across the globe have issued urgent calls to care for God’s creation, our global neighbors and future generations by conserving energy. Hoosier congregations are answering these calls. Last year First Presbyterian Church joined five other faith communities from Gary to Jeffersonville in applying for state grant funds to install solar panels on their church roofs. These five congregations—a community church, a Baptist church, a Friends Community, a Disciples of Christ church and First Presbyterian—installed more than 58 kW of solar panels, enough to supply one-third to one-half of each church’s electrical power.