Make A Donation
Click Here >
World Mission
I am very grateful for all of the prayers and concerns for my family, myself, and for our partner church and people of Niger that have been received from family, friends, and congregations from all over the country. I also want to share the tremendous need to continue praying for Niger.
A recent visit by family and supporters to an Indonesian prison sparked renewed optimism that Mary Jane Veloso, a domestic worker and trafficking victim who at one time faced a death sentence may eventually secure her release.
A recent coup orchestrated by Niger’s military has prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a Level 4 (Do Not Travel) advisory to the West African country and order the departure of non-emergency government personnel and eligible family members. The department is willing to assist other U.S. citizens who desire to depart the country. Expected to be included in the evacuation is PC(USA) mission co-worker Jim McGill, who has served in Niger for the past several years. McGill boarded a State Department charter flight earlier today and will be flown to a yet to be determined location.
Ellen Smith, World Mission’s regional liaison for Central and Eastern Europe, led a packed and thought-provoking mini-course last week during Synod School on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s mission in Ukraine.
The 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice is Thursday. Our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, will hold a peace prayer for the reunification at Gwang-hwa-mun Square in Seoul on that day. But can our prayers change the state of cease-fire on the Korean Peninsula?
“Screams and hubbubs! The children were excited and happy to leave the huts and go play outside. The air was thick and full of dust and flakes falling from the sky. They thought it was snowing, something which never happened on their tropical island. They were surprised and curious. They run after the flakes, catching them with their hands, rubbing them in their hair and on their bodies,” an eyewitness recalled.
That day was March 1, 1954. The U.S. just tested a nuclear bomb in the atoll of Bikini, in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The visible fallout from the explosion continued to drop for several days.
Presbyterian Mission Agency mission co-workers the Revs. Shelvis and Nancy Smith-Mather are in the United States this week to meet with several entities at the United Nations to create awareness around the critical needs of those living in South Sudan under the barrage of continued violence and near-civil war. Hosted by the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations, the Smith-Mathers led the Thursday morning chapel service for a group of in-person and online worshippers via Zoom.
Reading and seeing the testimonies of thousands of migrants who have survived crossing the Darién Gap jungle on foot, their exposure to hunger, bug bites and infections of all kinds, getting lost without being found, being victims of extortion, robbery and sexual abuse by mafias on both sides of the jungle under the complicit indifference of the authorities is a social scandal and degrading to human dignity.
Our denominational response to the Matthew 25 call to aid those less fortunate is lived out through the foci of strengthening worship communities, eradicating systemic poverty and combating racism. An old proverb states that a long journey is made step by step. And so it is that our partners in the Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa (CPK) in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are taking steps to improve formal education systems and provide life options that will lead to a more productive and healthy society.
When I first came to the border communities of Douglas/Agua Prieta, I specifically remember mission co-worker the Rev. Mark Adams asking our group how old we thought the border wall was.
