Mission Yearbook

The Rev. Buddy Monahan dies at age 52

The Rev. Buddy Monahan, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Odessa, Texas, and corresponding member of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board as chair of the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns (ACREC), died March 27 in Odessa from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. He was 52.

Fair trade begins to flourish in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka faces enormous economic and social challenges, but when a group representing several ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency visited in January, they saw a couple of fair trade and innovative workplaces beginning to flourish.

Minute for Mission: Mission Worker Sunday; Mother’s Day

Upon first feeling the chill of the air, upon leaving the swaddling security of the womb, the newborn wails. Having been forced from her snug home of nine months, she is adrift in what must seem like limitless nothingness.

Minute for Mission: Intercultural Church Sunday

Leaders from across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) representing intercultural congregations, and the Presbyterian Intercultural Network, gathered at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, last fall to talk about their call, passion and best practices for intercultural ministries. Ideas for possible initiatives were shared on how the Presbyterian Church may become an intercultural church that is truly welcoming and inclusive, and that genuinely appreciates each other’s distinctiveness and values differences.

Minute for Mission: Day of Pentecost/Pentecost Offering

Kristen Young will never forget the face of Diana. The expectant teen was scared and refused to smile when she came to the shelter in Peru where Young worked last year as a Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteer (YAV). As the days passed, Diana felt the warm embrace of the center staff and her somber countenance began to brighten. Young was especially moved when she saw the delight Diana took in her newborn son.

Minute for Mission: Fair Trade Day

Haiti Education and Production Initiatives (HEPI) is a nonprofit organization begun in 2010 by members of the Charleston Atlantic Presbytery in South Carolina. Haiti had been a focus of the presbytery for a few years prior to 2010. HEPI’s foci are education for children and adults, and production. Creations of Hope is the production arm of HEPI.

Special-needs child takes comfort in Communion

He looks me right in the eye, holding his cup in front of him all aquiver. Westley has been waiting — and waiting — for the moment when we all drink the grape juice, the blood of Jesus Christ, together.

Valley United Presbyterian Church asks, ‘What’s in a name?’

If you overlook the name of a church, sometimes you miss a vital story in the life of their congregation. Such is the case for Valley United Presbyterian Church. The church is in the Penn-York Valley, which is 4 miles in length, sandwiched between the Susquehanna and Chemung rivers. In 2014, after going through New Beginnings, three Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations in three towns — Sayre, Athens and Waverly — decided to merge.

Tribal group in India battles extreme poverty

Off the grid, nonexistent, outcasts. Those are some of the words used to describe a tribal group in southern India struggling to survive with little food, no homes and little opportunity for improvement.