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Mission Yearbook
On a sunny July morning, I drove into the Waldheim Jewish Cemetery in Forest Park, a suburb west of Chicago, to attend the burial service for a former hospice patient. Waldheim was founded during the second wave of Jewish immigration to the city in the late 19th century, and it has been the final resting place for women like Sara, a Holocaust survivor from Russia who lived into her 90s.
In a culture where women often go unheard, the fisherfolk women of Sri Lanka made certain their voices were loud and clear.
Their story began in 2010 when the Sri Lankan government, as part of its plan to attract more tourism and conference business, decided to build a seaplane project in the Negombo Lagoon.
They began marching just after dawn from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, 50 years to the day after the civil rights leader was assassinated.
Next to the entrance of Lucy Janijigian’s apartment is a drawing that her granddaughter made. It depicts Janjigian, her granddaughter and the words “My grandmother helps orphans in Armenia. She inspires me to hep other people.” Her granddaughter has pigtails. Janjigian has a superhero cape.
A joint commission of Turkey’s major Christian denominations has published a historic book of Christian doctrine, receiving the unprecedented endorsement of all the nation’s Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, Syriac and Protestant churches.
The Rev. Leslie Vogel, a longtime mission co-worker, has answered the call to serve as Presbyterian World Mission’s new regional liaison for Guatemala and Mexico. She begins her new duties June 1.
Writing a will is “an act of love and responsibility,” says Sherry Kenney, a ministry relations officer with the Presbyterian Foundation. A will enables you to designate guardians for any surviving dependents and to determine how your assets will be distributed. Without a will, the probate court will make those decisions.
May Friendship Day, a Church Women United initiative, is most often celebrated on the first Friday of the month of May. May Fellowship Day began in 1933 after two Christian women’s groups planned gatherings based on similar concerns: child health and children of migrant families. These groups united and over the years, eventually became what we now know as Church Women United. The May celebration has been continually observed since 1933 and each year the theme identifies a shared concern of Christian women and their communities. In 1999, Church Women United changed the name from May Fellowship Day to May Friendship Day.
Poet T.S. Eliot once wrote, “The Church must be forever building, and always decaying, and always being restored.” Through these words, our worldview of the church changes. It is an understanding that the church will continue to have life and vitality. From age to age, the church will continue to grow. This contrasts with the natural cycle of all living organisms, a life cycle that involves decay. Since the beginning of “church,” we have seen an endless cycle of decay. Be hopeful, though — the church is always restored! It is restored not through our human hands and effort, but by God.
God of solidarity, thank you for your arms that stretch across this broken world. We are grateful for this work and witness. Encourage them. Bless them so that your word may be spread far and wide. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
