For the second time in two years, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has played a role in research by Abbott Labs that may lead to a vaccine for HIV/AIDS.
When the numbers on a graph showed recently that children are thriving nutritionally in the province of North Ubangi in Northwest Congo, mission co-worker Inge Sthreshley said it made her heart sing.
About 450,000 people have been evacuated from the area around the city of Goma in the North Kivu province of Democratic Republic of Congo, where faith groups are working together to provide humanitarian aid for those impacted.
More than 894 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in 155 countries, about 5.9% of the global population, including 209 million doses in the U.S., according to Bloomberg News. But the availability of vaccine varies greatly around the world, with smaller countries finding themselves a distant priority.
For the second time in two years, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has played a role in research by Abbott Labs that may lead to a vaccine for HIV/AIDS.
The Rev. Dr. Lamar Williamson Jr., beloved Presbyterian pastor and educator and a former mission co-worker in the then-Belgian Congo, died peacefully on July 11 in Black Mountain, North Carolina. He was 94.
Presbyterian mission co-workers who serve 40 countries around the world are either back in the United States or are sheltering in place in their country of service.
But their work has not stopped — far from it.
Larry Sthreshley, a mission co-worker for more than 30 years in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), once more finds himself on the front lines combating a global pandemic. For years it was Ebola. Now it’s COVID-19.
News outlets around the world recently reported the discovery of the first new subtype of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 20 years. But what you may not have noticed is the Presbyterian Mission Agency was credited in the study published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (Jaids).
San Gabriel Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, Texas, has long supported the work of mission co-workers Jeff and Christi Boyd in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But when the Boyds visited their church and they heard about Congolese children like Serge, they knew they could do more, even with limited resources.