As coordinator of the office of Financial Aid for Service at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which awards more than $1 million annually to students pursuing degrees, Laura Bryan takes joy in what she does.
The 2017 International Peacemakers, who spent four weeks speaking across the U.S., have returned to their homes. But the impact of their visit is still being felt by presbyteries, churches and communities where they spoke.
As an urban minister for more than 40 years, Bob Forsberg dedicated his willing hands, generous heart and sharp mind to serving people society had cast aside.
Recently, however, at age 91, the mental capacity that had served this Presbyterian minister so well began to fade. His memory loss became so debilitating that Forsberg, who had spent years focused on helping others, found himself in need of help.
Folks living at Westminster Oaks Retirement Community in Tallahassee, Florida, have lived through some of the chapters of history that students study in class today. Chaplain Taylor Phillips reaches out to area high school and college classes, inviting teachers and students to come to the Westminster Oaks campus to hear the residents share their eyewitness accounts of historical moments.
For many years, the youth programs within the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest have taken a group of middle and high school students on a weekend retreat to Camp Spalding, north of Spokane, Washington.
The middle school retreat usually takes place in October while the high school retreat is the week before or after Thanksgiving. The middle school retreat has been consistent with its numbers, but over the past two years, the high school retreat has pushed the limits at Camp Spalding. Each ministry continues to grow within the churches that attend, and each year more and more high school students are eager to gather for a weekend of worship, community-building and faith-seeking.
In a video by Presbyterian Mission, Financial Aid for Service is drawing attention to its Transformational Leadership Debt Assistance (TLDA) program. TLDA offers $5,000 loans — with forgiveness for service — to qualifying pastors of churches with 150 or fewer members and to qualifying pastors of new worshiping communities.
Presbyterian Pan American School president Doug Dalglish remembers a trip he took in 2016 to Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary—when he experienced again how the school he serves is preparing young Christian leaders (grades 9-12) for the whole world.
Menaul School in Albuquerque much to celebrate in 2017. The day/boarding school, founded in 1896, recently received a $1.5 million gift from the Collie and Hill families, longtime supporters of the school.
The following is a reflection written by Beatrix Weil, who attended the 2017 College Conference at Montreat Conference Center, Jan. 2–5. Over 1,000 students attended the 2017 conference, titled “Beyond Babel.” Weil, a third-year student at Princeton Theological Seminary under care of the Presbytery of Long Island, participated in the conference’s special Seminarian Track, hosted by the PMA’s office of Christian Formation.
Darius and Vera Swann used their skills as educators to spread the gospel in Asia and become an important part of the Presbyterian mission legacy. Growing up in the segregated South, the Swanns’ mission service was shaped by inequities they knew firsthand. That perspective would lead them to show respect and tolerance for their interfaith students and eventually would call them back to the U.S. to seek change in the midst of our own racial division.
