Cathy Chang and her husband, Juan Lopez, are mission co-workers in Manila, Philippines. They help global partners such as churches and non-governmental organizations address issues of migration and human trafficking. During her visit to Grace Presbytery, Cathy spent time with members of several churches to help spread awareness of her mission work.
Rwanda is best known for the genocide that swept the country more than 23 years ago leaving the nation with an impoverished and traumatized population. But Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-worker Kay Day, is focused on the future, not the past. And she believes thoughtful theological leaders she and others are working to train will build the future.
One day, while taking a break from studying in the Duke Divinity School library, I got into a conversation that would change the course of my family’s life. As I talked with a stranger, I learned he was the only person in the world with a PhD in New Testament (my field also) who could speak the language of the country where he was training Christians for ministry. This really struck me.
Noor arrived in Europe with two young children and without her husband. She left her home in Aleppo, Syria, two years earlier. Conditions made it impossible to live. Her family felt they had no other choice.
In some ways, my marriage is a reverse Cinderella story, one in which I realize that no matter how hard I might try, the shoes of my husband’s family might never really fit me—and that’s OK.
I’ve learned that when it comes to marriage—and mission work—it’s not about making the shoe fit, but the relationship that develops after we try it on.
If there is a revered profession in my family, it is a life given to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. In 1884, my great-grandfather J. Vernon Bell began his ministry as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Dubois, Pennsylvania, almost 100 years to the day that I entered Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
In some ways, my marriage is a reverse Cinderella story, one in which I realize that no matter how hard I might try, the shoes of my husband’s family might never really fit me—and that’s OK.
I’ve learned that when it comes to marriage—and mission work—it’s not about making the shoe fit, but the relationship that develops after we try it on.
Today, African-American mission co-workers continue the transforming work of God’s mission, answering the call to service through Presbyterian World Mission. Leisa Wagstaff, currently serving in South Sudan, shares her personal reflection on this irresistible call. Like the mission workers who served a century before her, Leisa has found herself personally transformed. That is the essence of God’s mission.
Donna has packed her luggage, figuratively, more than once to answer God’s call to mission—a call she has felt since she was 9 years old, growing up in Campbell, Ohio. Donna recalls that when a teacher at Campbell Christian Center asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said, “I want to be a missionary nurse.”
ZAMBIA – It was dark, really dark. And it is not always the wisest choice to drive through the rough bush roads when the sky is black and evening has turned to night. But the radiator was leaking and the starter motor was broken. So every 40 minutes we had to stop and find water at the nearest borehole and ask some people from the villages to help push the truck. We were hours from our destination and not sure where to stop. I stood by the side of a quiet street where the truck was stopped yet again, wondering if I could sleep in the bed of the truck, wondering where my colleagues would rest if we did not make it to a guesthouse of some sort.
