Sitting in our comfortable homes in the U.S., it’s difficult to comprehend the importance of a ministry of accompaniment in countries where violence is commonplace.
Conversion stories are usually told about the moment people accepted their faith. But Alba Rostan’s story is about the experience that deepened her faith in God.
Nearly 40 Presbyterians are gathered here May 10-12 to provide input into Presbyterian World Mission’s strategic planning process. “Together we want to take a new look at the future, what it is and what we need to do in this new world,” said World Mission Director Jose Luis Casal. “The biblical word that there ‘is a new heaven and a new Earth’ is always God’s work.”
The most direct way to find out the church’s calling in World Mission is to ask Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) partners and constituents, the top World Mission strategist told a Presbyterian Mission Agency committee last week.
During the first of three U.S. partner consultations, more than 30 supporters of Presbyterian World Mission came together last week by invitation to discuss and discern God’s mission in a rapidly-changing world.
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.
Shivering together in 18-degree weather Friday morning, a dozen or so staff working at the Presbyterian Center helped draw the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity to a close on the Center’s steps by — no surprise — praying for their community, nation and world.
