What does peace sound like to the prisoner who writes about it? For the prisoner whose time stretches from months into years, one wonders if there are words of peace in thoughts, prayers and words exchanged between fellow prisoners and few visitors.
In 1993, during a study abroad program to Central America, I visited El Salvador, a small Central American nation that had recently signed peace accords after more than a decade of civil war. In a unique exchange with Salvadoran youth, during a Bible study on the beach, we privileged, and somewhat sheltered North American college students were interrogated about our countries’ policies and forced to reflect on our own complicity.
How would you celebrate your 50th anniversary?
One of the ways the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s partner church, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year was by promoting free HIV testing at all of its commemorative events.
The Rev. Gordon Gartrell, a Presbyterian World Mission co-worker, recently received a prestigious award from the town council of Governador Mangabeira, Bahi, in northwestern Brazil, where he serves with his wife, Dorothy. Gartrell was nominated for the honor by Cronor da Costa Silva, president of the city council and a noted Roman Catholic lay leader.
The biblical account of a Jew living in exile whom God placed in a Persian palace, her cousin Mordecai and the murderous Haman, who sought to exterminate Jews, has echoes today, author and scholar Dr. Sherron K. George told a gathering at the Presbyterian Center Wednesday.
The Rev. Gordon Gartrell, a Presbyterian World Mission co-worker, recently received a prestigious award from the town council of Governador Mangaberia, Bahi, in northwestern Brazil where he serves with his wife, Dorothy. Gartrell was nominated for the honor by Cronor da Costa Silva, president of the city council and a noted Roman Catholic lay leader.
To celebrate his 95th birthday on July 31, Bob Abrams went on a glider flight.
That’s nothing new. Abrams began taking regular glider flights when he celebrated his 80th birthday and has only missed one birthday flight since. “At the time, I figured I’d better get started or I’d never get around to it,” Abrams said with his characteristic wide grin. “As a kid I was always making paper gliders or playing with balsa ones, so I just kind of settled on the real thing.”
The Rev. Elizabeth (Libby) Dunlap McAliley of Austell, Georgia, passed away July 25. Born May 15, 1928, in York, South Carolina, to Robert Floyd and Edna Henry Dunlap, she married the Rev. William Samuel McAliley Sr. on Aug. 11, 1979.
“All of Rwandan identity and history is divided into pre-genocide and post-genocide,” mission co-worker Kay Day said at the 2018 New Wilmington Mission Conference at Westminster College.
“Division has been part of our history,” Day said. “You see, before the Germans and Belgians came, there were two people groups. There were the Tutsi who owned cattle, and there were the Hutu who had land.”
