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.
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.
After the 2017 “Living, Dying, Rising” conference took place in August in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, a sociologist from the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Research Services department conducted informal interviews of participants, most of whom were leaders of new worshiping communities (NWCs).
My husband and I had been married for three years when we had our first child. We learned quickly that even though we loved our daughter deeply, kids are disruptive and expensive. The change to our family meant learning to live on less sleep and smaller income. It meant figuring out who would do midnight feedings and make sure there were clean diapers. Once our daughter started crawling, it meant rearranging everything so that it wouldn’t be destroyed by a curious, free-range toddler.
The men were taken first, then the women and children were brutalized. Witnesses saw the Euphrates run with blood, and women plunged into the river to escape the terrors of the desert march. Armenian villages throughout the Ottoman territories of 1915 were emptied out in a systematic campaign to demean and destroy innocent victims. Although modern-day Turkey denies this genocide, historians have gathered undisputable evidence of at least a million Armenians killed and a million more dispersed from their ancient homeland.
My husband and I had been married for three years when we had our first child. We learned quickly that even though we loved our daughter deeply, kids are disruptive and expensive. The change to our family meant learning to live on less sleep and a smaller income. It meant figuring out who would do midnight feedings and make sure there were clean diapers. Once our daughter started crawling, it meant rearranging everything so that it wouldn’t be destroyed by a curious, free-range toddler.
Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC) is excited to announce the launch of Flyaway Books, a new children’s book imprint dedicated to creating titles to inspire the next generation to fly.
Westminster John Knox Press is pleased to announce the release of Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible. This new story Bible for children ages 4-8 was created to welcome readers from all kinds of families. Readers will discover 150 Bible stories from the Old and New Testaments that are divided into 13 themes including Strong Women and Men; Listening for God; Parables; and Healings and Miracles
The children coming to “Camp in a Van” were one of Misión Presbiteriana Hispana’s greatest success stories of 2017.
Forty children showed up when the new worshiping community in Fayetteville, North Carolina, took its Vacation Bible School to a nearby park. Eighty percent of the children were not members of Misión Presbiteriana. Some of the children told leaders they had not seen their parents, who had been deported to their home countries, “for a long time.” Then they asked for hugs.
Government leaders from several countries around the world are receiving mail from Presbyterian churches containing prints or paper cut-outs of red hands. It’s part of the Red Hand Campaign — an initiative to encourage countries to stop the practice of turning children into armed soldiers.
