The 114th New Wilmington Mission Conference (NWMC), regarded as the oldest annual mission conference in the U.S., will be held July 19–26 on the campus of Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.
Drawn to the ruggedness, remoteness and greenness of rural Guatemala, Richard and Debbie Welch have, for the past six years, worked with that country’s indigenous population to build literacy and educational attainment in a country increasingly in the news because of the Trump administration’s concerns over the number of immigrants entering the United States from Central America’s Northern Triangle, which also includes Honduras and El Salvador.
Listen. That was the first and best advice I received about being with the people of Haiti.
Now, as a mission co-worker hosting groups visiting Haiti, some for the first time, I try to explain the importance of listening. And when I do, I often remember the lessons I learned when I listened on my very first trip.
Fruit trees and agriculture are frequent subjects of metaphors and parables in the Bible. People in Madagascar can relate because, just as in Biblical times, most are subsistence farmers, growing most of their own food. People in Madagascar commonly prepare fields using only spades and hard labor.
All of us face temptations in the course of our lives. It is an inevitable part of the human condition. We pray “lead us not into temptation,” but temptations are going to come in any event. Jesus was, as a fully authentic human being, also subject to temptation, in this case, at the hands of Satan himself. Unlike us, however, Jesus withstood temptation.
In our Reformed tradition, Presbyterians recognize we are a part of a larger body of Christ. But that body doesn’t end at the walls of our church building, our city limits, state lines or national borders. That body encompasses each and every child of God around the world. Because we all have limitations and are all united in Christ, we believe we are called to mission in partnership because, after all, we are better together.
When mission co-workers speak at churches around the country, they seek to educate. But sometimes they motivate, and that’s what happened to Nina Geist, a fourth-grader at Rogers Park Elementary, who attends First Presbyterian Church in Anchorage, Alaska.
“The dishwashing detergent is lost.” In Cuba, one would say, “El detergente de lavar platos está perdido.” That means that you will not find dishwashing detergent in the store these days. As we enter our fourth year as mission co-workers in Cuba, we realize how easy it is sometimes to forget that we are strangers living in a foreign land. We still remember many embarrassing instances when we called household items a different name from what residents called them. Yes, we have spoken Spanish since childhood, and day-to-day conversations are easy. But regional nuances in the way people in Cuba talk to each other provide learning experiences for people like us.
I began reforming my understanding of mission work when I participated in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Young Adult Volunteer program after I graduated from college in 2002. I served in England, where the PC(USA)’s church partner was running an after-school program for at-risk youth. I received the most profound impression that year from the YAV orientation and all that I learned from global partners in the community in which I was immersed — namely, that I had so much more to learn about the world around me.
When mission co-workers speak at churches around the country, they seek to educate. But sometimes they motivate, and that’s what happened to Nina Geist, a fourth-grader at Rogers Park Elementary, who attends First Presbyterian Church in Anchorage, Alaska.
