Mission Yearbook

The Rev. Dr. Hunter Farrell, the former director of Presbyterian World Mission, shares how congregations can decolonize mission efforts

Together with the Rev. S. Balajiedlang Khyllep, a colleague at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s World Mission Initiative, the Rev. Dr. Hunter Farrell has written a book to help congregations decolonize their mission outreach. Farrell, the former director of Presbyterian World Mission, was the recent guest of the Presbyterian Foundation’s the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty on the broadcast “Leading Theologically.” Listen to their half-hour conversation here or here.

A former PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer and current medical student talks to the ‘A Matter of Faith’ podcast hosts about providing health care from a faith perspective

Fourth-year medical student Akilah Hyrams isn’t a doctor quite yet. Once she does start practicing, she’ll no doubt have a long line of willing patients following her recent appearance on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” Listen here. Hyrams, a former Young Adult Volunteer and the daughter of a Presbyterian pastor, enters the conversation with hosts Simon Doong and the Rev. Lee Catoe at 27:25.

‘More like church than church’ is the approach that helps a PC(USA) congregation in North Carolina address hunger

For decades, Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in the southern end of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains has been addressing need in its community. “It’s a place where you expect to be in service in some way or another,” says Margo Smith, a member of the church, which is one of the Presbyterian Hunger Program‘s Hunger Action Congregations.

Minute for Mission: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins

The story of the wise men in Matthew 2 offers us some important lessons. One lesson I glean is that God will step outside of tradition and will use anyone to accomplish God’s purposes. These men according to historical sources were of Persian descent and were highly respected people who studied the stars. They could have been either astronomers or astrologers. What is important is that they were not Jewish. They may have had some knowledge of Judaism, but they were not observers of the Jewish faith.

Minute for Mission: Human Trafficking Awareness

The Damayan Migrant Workers Association Baklas project is an organized effort to rescue Filipina women from labor trafficking and involuntary servitude. The Damayan group consists of about 800 Filipina women. They experienced labor trafficking upon immigrating to the U.S. and they wanted to help themselves and other women like them. The organization was founded in 2002 and has grown since then. The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People awarded Damayan $85,000 for three years in 2002. In 2003, Damayan (a Filipino word that means “helping each other”) became a grassroots nonprofit organization.

‘Thanks be to God!’

“Who are humans that you are mindful of them,” the psalmist asks of the Almighty. “Mortals that you care for them?” It’s something to think about this New Year’s Day. I too wonder why God continues to cast God’s lot with us, and with me personally. Of late, with wars and climate change and gun violence, we haven’t given God much to be excited about.

A PC(USA) new worshiping community in Texas is blessed to be served by ‘the community’s pastor’

A 1001 new worshiping community is bringing new life into Woodhaven Presbyterian Church in Irving, Texas. The leader of the Ghanaian immigrant community worshiping at Woodhaven is Martin Osae, a bi-vocational pastor who works full time as an educator in Dallas. Osae is heavily involved in the community, ministering to people outside the walls of the church — so much so that he is known as the community’s pastor.