Pastor answers God’s call to serve with people of East Central Africa

The Rev. Paula Cooper to serve four countries with booming church growth

February 12, 2019

Rev. Paula Cooper joins PMA’s World Mission team.

The Rev. Paula Cooper describes her leadership style as one that “deliberately works toward developing a culture that values a collaboration of God’s people and their gifts for ministry.” And now she has answered God’s call to help the people of East Central Africa do just that.

Presbyterian World Mission has named Cooper as the new regional liaison for East Central Africa, serving Malawi, Kenya, Rwanda and Zambia. She succeeds Nancy Collins, who is retiring this year.

As regional liaison, Cooper will facilitate relationships with partner churches and institutions in the four countries where the church is growing rapidly and pastoral training and leadership are needed. The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian in Malawi and Zambia has a membership of more than 3 million, and the Presbyterian Church in East Africa has over 4 million members. The Presbyterian Church of Rwanda is growing rapidly, and currently has 400,000 congregants across the country.

“I am excited to have Paula coming on board as the East and Central Africa regional liaison and for the passion she has for connecting U.S. Presbyterians with the wonderful work of Church in Africa, and her strong faith in Christ,” said Debbie Braaksma, coordinator for PMA’s Africa area office. “She is going to be a great addition to the Africa regional staff team.”

Although her faith journey was shaped and deepened as a member of Holy Trinity-Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Cooper is currently an ordained teaching elder of the Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery of St. Louis. She is a 2010 and 2013 graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PTS).

On her journey to PTS, she served in a variety of ministries at Trinity-Bethlehem, including ruling elder, youth director, Christian education chairperson and worship committee chair. She spent time in the “urban mission field” as the executive director of The Youth Project and as a community organizer for Logan Olney Family Support Services, walking alongside the residents of the neighborhood as they worked toward a better quality of life through education, advocacy and truancy prevention. Her academic concentration at PTS was urban ministry, and she earned a graduate certificate in urban ministry through PTS’s Metro-Urban Institute.

One summer, she visited Zambia to attend a conference on the Church’s responsibility in addressing HIV/AIDS in the region. Seven years later, she returned when Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City named her a Phillips Talbot Global Ministry Fellow to serve with the Theological Education by Extension in Zambia. Although she will live in a different region of the country, she is looking forward to her return to Zambia.

Prior to receiving her master of divinity and master of sacred theology at PTS, she earned a bachelor of arts at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. In addition to her mission work, she was a VITAS hospice chaplain, and from 2014–17, she served as a designated pastor of Curby Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis.

 Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus:  Rev. Paula Cooper, new regional liaison for East Central Africa

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Regina Kimbrough, FDN
Oweeda Kinnaird, FDN

Let us pray:

O Lord, you have called us to be witnesses to your love, grace and mercy to the ends of the earth. Thank you for your Holy Spirit, who gives us the courage and the means to do so. Amen.

Daily Readings

• Morning Psalms 42; 146
• First Reading Isaiah 58:1-12
• Second Reading 2 Timothy 1:1-14
• Gospel Reading Mark 9:42-50
• Evening Psalms 102; 133