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world mission
Validating loss and understanding our feelings is a concept not difficult to grasp during a global pandemic. But for mission co-workers the Revs. Nancy and Shelvis Smith-Mather, their seven-year-old son Jordan reminded them that sometimes you have to find the courage to lean into the pain to get through it.
As in the U.S., COVID-19 has caused a huge disruption in the lives of families in Guatemala, resulting in lives lost, jobs vanished and plans put on hold. The Western Highlands, where the Association of Mam Christian Women for Development is headquartered, has been hit especially hard because of widespread poverty and nearly nonexistent health systems. As a result, high levels of chronic malnutrition and food insecurity in rural Guatemala persist.
When the State Department recommended that U.S. citizens return home in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Rev. Everdith Landrau, working with the World Mission crisis management team, followed the directive of the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, to close the five international YAV sites for the remainder of the year. Most of the YAVs were able to obtain flights quickly because they were near major airports. YAV Juliana Bernier, who was serving in Moyobamba, Peru, was able to leave April 2 with a group of American tourists who were staying in the area.
Relief efforts are under way in Beirut to help the more than 300,000 people displaced by the Aug. 4 port explosion that is now being called among the five strongest blasts in human history.
When a mission co-worker is invited to speak at a Sunday service, the road that takes them there and the service itself can look very different than what we are used to.
Like many Presbyterian mission co-workers, Dustin and Sherri Ellington have a foot in two worlds.
In Israel-Palestine, temperatures are rising and so are tensions.
A massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday has left at least 100 dead and more than 4,000 people wounded. The cause is still under investigation.
As COVID-19 circles the globe, mission co-workers the Rev. Ryan and Alethia White in Berlin, Germany believe that working together, in our respective corners of the world, can improve protection for human rights everywhere.
Although mission co-workers Rachel and Michael Ludwig were pained to leave Niger when the State Department ordered citizens to return to the U.S., they believe they are still having a lasting impact through partnership bridges they have built since they answered the call to serve there in 2014.
