The lives of 79 young adults were transformed over the past week as the 2016-2017 Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) class gathered at Stony Point Conference Center in New York to begin their YAV experience; each signed up for “a year of service for a lifetime of change.” Read more »
August 29, 2016
Young Adult Volunteers challenged and changed during orientation
The lives of 79 young adults were transformed over the past week as the 2016-2017 Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) class gathered at Stony Point Conference Center in New York to begin their YAV experience; each signed up for “a year of service for a lifetime of change.” Read more »
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in conjunction with the Rev. Irvin Porter, associate in the Office of Native American Intercultural Congregational Support, issued a statement today in support of the Standing Rock Sioux protest of a crude oil pipeline set to skirt the northern border of the tribe’s reservation lands. A breach, they say, is a threat to the Missouri River, the source of the tribe’s drinking water. 
The executive committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted August 25 to direct designatable funds from its fall board meeting’s Peace & Global Witness offering to the “On Taking Specific Action to Address the Worsening Plight of the African American Male” initiative. 
In September of 2015, thousands of Syrian refugees found themselves stranded at a Budapest train station, making their way across Hungary toward the Austrian border. For most, the travel had been difficult, as they were turned away from other countries or settled in communities that were not very welcoming. 
Chris Lim, a ruling elder at Indonesian Presbyterian Church in Seattle, wanted nothing less than what God wants—that God’s kingdom come. In fact, he wanted to use his expertise in technology to hasten its coming. 
The flooding the weekend of August 13–14 dumped nearly 22 inches of rain in parts of Louisiana and other Gulf states, according to the National Weather Service. The American Red Cross and other agencies said it was the worst natural disaster to strike the United States since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and some said the damage was more widespread than in Hurricane Katrina. 
In conjunction with the Women’s Department of the Church of Christ in Congo, Presbyterian World Mission co-worker Christi Boyd recently helped facilitate the first Healing Hearts training event in the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 
By intentionally combining its Sunday school and children’s choir programming into a new Sunday Club—an expanded, holistic 90-minute session on Sunday mornings for elementary-age children—First Presbyterian Church of Dallas hopes to involve many more children and families in its ministries of faith formation. 
In the northeast corner of the country, the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse made a dramatic decision. It reduced presbytery staff to just one person and got rid of its office space. Today, Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery has no building. The office is a laptop, and its number rings to a cell phone in Steve Plank’s pocket. As the lone presbytery employee, Plank has the dual job title of stated clerk/communicator. He works with a volunteer leadership team of 15 elected positions and four ex-officio members. 
Evangelism is all about relationships . . . .
In meetings with church leaders, I continue to grow in my faith and in what it means to follow Christ. Through these encounters I am going deeper into what I already know in my heart: that evangelism is good news, relational, messy, and takes time.