The ministry of presence is important in God’s mission. Yet even when a global pandemic causes cancellation of short-term mission trips, congregations and presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are showing care and compassion in creative and urgently needed ways from afar.
When Pittsburgh Presbytery’s International Partnership Ministry Team began thinking about a way to create space for young Malawians and young Pittsburghers to meet together for mutual enrichment, encouragement and growth, the idea for a youth pilgrimage to Malawi was born.
“We are learning what we’re capable of,” said Selenia Ordóñez. She and I share an anniversary: Ordóñez and her Presbyterian Women’s team began running a retreat center ministry the same week I was installed as a mission co-worker with the Presbyterian Church of Honduras. For the past year, we have both been learning what we’re capable of.
In December 2018, I participated in a World Mission global partner consultation in Nairobi, Kenya. The gathering was attended by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-workers serving in Africa and leaders and members of the various African churches and organizations with whom we partner in God’s mission. The purpose of the consultation was to hear about the work and witness of ministry on the African continent, and to gain insight for the development of the future strategy of World Mission.
I took Elias and Gilbert, Kenyan doctors, to the medical library of Yonsei University Health System in Seoul, South Korea. They came to Korea to be trained in the hospital’s urology department. They walked around in the library and stopped at the urology section, picking up a few books and flipping through the pages. They took out Campbell-Walsh Urology, a textbook regarded as the bible in the field. I could see their sparkling eyes, which seemed like the eyes of children who wanted a toy so much but could not possess it. I told them that they could borrow books from the library, but they politely declined. I felt sorry to see them turn back from the bookshelves.
The Rev. Sando Townsend, the outgoing moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Liberia, has invited the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to walk alongside the Presbyterian Church of Liberia, and U.S. church leaders are taking him up on his offer.
A representative from a Kenya-based church organization visited the Presbyterian Mission Agency this past fall to discuss the plight facing South Sudanese refugees. The Rev. Nicta M. Lubaale, general secretary of the Organization of African Instituted Churches (OAIC), was hosted by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.
Nearly 8,000 miles separate congregations in Santa Barbara, California, and Chiang Mai, Thailand. Yet nothing can separate the growing bond they have shared as sister churches in mission since 2013.
The country of Niger in West Africa is only 1 percent Christian, but “the faithful witness and long-term vision of these believers is great,” said Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-workers Michael and Rachel Ludwig, who have worked in mission and ministry alongside the Evangelical Church in the Republic of Niger (EERN) for more than four years. The EERN is the largest Protestant denomination in Niger, with about 12,000 members.
