World Day of Prayer is a global ecumenical movement led by Christian women who welcome all to join in prayer and action for peace and justice. This year, World Day of Prayer is celebrated Friday, March 2. The annual worship service is created by an invited writer country. The 2018 service was created by the World Day of Prayer Committee of Suriname. With Genesis 1:1–31 as their guiding Scripture, the women of Suriname remind us that we are all caretakers of God’s good creation. They write, “What God creates is always good! In the first five days, all that is needed is made ready until humankind is created. We are created in God’s image. We are worthy just because God loves us, but the creator holds us accountable for how we care for the environment and all the beings on earth. We can’t be careless or wasteful. It is time to seriously think about what we have done to God’s creation.”
Three women were named recipients of the 2018 Women of Faith Awards by the Presbyterian Mission Agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) during its recent board meeting. They will be honored at the Women of Faith Awards Breakfast on June 17 during the 223rd General Assembly (2018) in St. Louis.
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.
Education and training of church leaders is key to the transformation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), General Assembly Stated Clerk J. Herbert Nelson, II, told the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) at its winter meeting.
Around 850 people from Guatemala’s Maya Quiché Presbytery and visitors from Heartland Presbytery gathered in January at the Maya Quiché Bible Institute in the Guatemalan highlands near Quetzaltenango to celebrate more than 20 years of partnership.
About 10 years ago, even weeds wouldn’t grow on the land that was given to DouglaPrieta Trabaja, a grassroots community group that promotes food security. But the group’s members dreamed big. They dreamed of converting the barren land in the Mexican border town of Agua Prieta into a food jungle. And with lots of hard work, tons of different types of manure, and loads of compost, laughter, tears and prayer, they are producing more vegetables than their families can eat. And they are blessing their community not only with fresh vegetables, but also with an example of faith and perseverance.
When I arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, for the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators Annual Event in January, my mind was focused on the details. As co-chair of the conference, I had a stack of lists on Post-It notes, and my concerns were more focused on the schedule than they were on whether God’s presence would be felt. But without a doubt, God was there.
When Don Stribling looks at the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program, he sees an experience that challenges the
individualism that pervades much of today’s religious practice.
Presbyterians should reach out to those in need, in a world “where a few have a lot, and a lot have less,” says the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) engage in a faith-based year of service in over 20 sites around the world and in the U.S. YAVs, ages 19–30, accompany local agencies working to address root causes of poverty and reconciliation while exploring the meaning and motivation of their faith in intentional Christian community with peers and mentors for one academic year, August through July.
