“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.
When I was a little boy, my family took me on a trip to visit my uncle and aunt in Africa. They were both doctors, medical missionaries in Rwanda. We visited a game preserve where we watched lions, elephants and other wild animals from the precarious safety of our jeep. One night, my parents told me that the house we were sleeping in was right on the equator. I asked, “What is the equator?” My dad said it was an imaginary line running around the world. But what I heard him say was that it was “a lion running around the world!” That night, I couldn’t sleep. My eyes remained wide open as I imagined the lion running around our house all night. I didn’t think it was Aslan, but more likely the devil, waiting to devour me.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Very rarely, though, do we stop and think of who these men and women are, let alone the challenges that they face, as they work to bring peace to the most turbulent places around the world. Presbyterians Today takes a look at today’s peacemakers.
Each year, Emory University and many other organizations around the country name a class of leaders who have made a significant impact in business, research, leadership, and public service or philanthropic endeavors. This year, PC(USA) mission co-workers the Revs. Shelvis and Nancy Smith-Mather were named to Emory’s 2018 class of “Forty Under Forty.”
As a child growing up in Luverne, Minnesota, Doris Schoon learned the words to “Jesus Loves Me” in Chinese. Doris was touched by this simple exercise led by her pastor, the Rev. Otto Braskamp, who had once been a Presbyterian missionary in China. Though she no longer remembers the Chinese lyrics, the music of mission continues to play in her heart.
Three new mission co-workers will head to Central America in early November to begin service.
The Rev. Eliane Menezes will be serving in Guatemala, and Jhanderys Dotel-Vellenga and Ian Vellenga have been called to serve in Nicaragua.
Three new mission co-workers will head to Central America in early November to begin service. The Rev. Eliane Menezes will be serving in Guatemala, and Jhanderys Dotel-Vellenga and Ian Vellenga have been called to serve in Nicaragua.
The Rev. Dr. Niles Reimer is an unassuming presence in any setting, and that’s the way he likes it. For 90-year-old Reimer, a return visit in January to a town in Ethiopia was the chance to see dear friends and make new memories with generations of young Christians. His many contributions include translating the Anywaa Bible, which made it possible for the Anywaa people to read the Scriptures in their own language.
As mission co-workers, we want to give you some idea of what it is like to live in Lima, the capital of Peru, home to some 12 million people. These events from recent months demonstrate some of the diverse ways we engage in life with Peruvians:
On Oct. 31 we were invited to a dedication of the new bust of Martin Luther in one of the city’s largest parks, near downtown Lima. Since the community of Reformed Christians is small in Peru, perhaps just 1 percent of the population in this largely Catholic country, I expected only a handful of attendees. Imagine my surprise when I arrived to find a whole section of the park recently painted for the occasion, a marching band playing traditional Peruvian music and reporters. The crowd included hundreds of pastors in suits, three school choirs, various church representatives, leaders from the Bible Society and the executive secretary of the Latin American Association of Reformed Churches, Dario Barolín of Argentina. Lutherans, Scottish, Peruvian and Korean Presbyterians — together we represented the whole gamut of Reformed Protestantism in Lima.
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 that 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.
