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 Blog about April Mission Trip to Haiti
Haiti
Outreach Ministries Newsletter
Presbytery
Launches "Prayer Sundays" for Global Mission: National
Capital Presbytery's Global Mission Network was established
in November 2005 to bring together churches in the Presbytery
that are doing global mission outreach. It seeks to provide
a network of support and learning among churches that are already
involved in mission partnerships, and is a source of information
for other churches wishing to explore global mission opportunities.
More than 30 NCP churches are doing hands-on mission in nearly
40 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Central America.
It "takes a village" to care for and nurture our global
mission bonds in Christ.
The Global Mission
Network is therefore asking all churches in National Capital
Presbytery to pray for the countries and churches with which
we have partnerships using the Sundays closest to the dates
identified for each country in PC(USA)'s Mission Yearbook for
Prayer and Study. Look for information flyers posted on the
church bulletin board, this month featuring Cameroon, Uganda,
Kenya, and Malawi. The Global Mission Network invites anyone
interested in global mission to join us for the next meeting
Saturday, December 2 at 10:00 AM at Saint Mark.
If you would like
to learn more about the Global Mission Ministry, or if you have
any questions, please speak with Elder Lyn Hill or any of the
members of the GMM committee--Betty Lowrie, Heather Banks, Ellen
Kiel, Dan Blum, Erika Wilson, and Pam Gunn. Many other Saint
Markers, among them June Colilla, Koffi Edoh and Carol and Zac
Bao, are involved with the GMM on a project by project basis.
This is an excellent way to participate if you don't feel you
can attend all the meetings. The meetings are held once a month
on the 3rd Sunday after the 11:00 service. Our next meeting
is November 19. Please join us!
Missionary
Update: News from the Hinderleiter's in Lithuania. Click
the check below to read the letter from the Hinderliters about
PCUSA mission work in Lithuania. It contains a link to other
information about the students with whom they work. Saint Mark
Global Mission Ministry began supporting the Hinderliters and
providing student scholarship funds at the Lithuanian Christian
College in 2005. Eric is the cousin of Saint Mark member, Ellen
Kiel. The Hinderliters gave a presentation at Saint Mark in
2005 about their mission work in Lithuania.
Letter from the Hinterleiter's in Lithuania
Living Waters
Update!
Global Mission
Giving
The following is a list of those individuals/organizations we
have given monetary support to thus far in 2006:
Ngoro Parish (Cameroon)
$800
Tchekos Dispensary (Cameroon) $800
Haiti Outreach Ministries $1,500
Wycliffe Bible Translators (David and Leah Preston, Mozambique)
$1,000
Church World Services--Indonesian earthquake relief effort $1,000
Thank
you to all who have given their time, talents and monetary support
during the past year. The GMM would welcome new committee members,
as well as those who would like to serve on a project by project
basis. Please join us! If you would like more information, contact
Lyn Hill at 301.951.8852 or lynhewitt@earthlink.net.
Did
you know...that the PC(USA) website www.pcusa.org has a
link on it's homepage to "U.S. & World Mission"?
Topics included are: International Health Ministries, Presbyterian
Hunger Program, Interfaith Relations, Letters from Mission Workers,
as well as many others. What a great resource for personal and
congregational mission outreach ideas!
Global
Mission supports Saint Mark's long-standing commitment to benevolence
giving. It supports and directs the church's giving to mission
projects in nine countries,including the United States. We attempt
to maintain a personal contact with each mission project by
correspondence and visits to deepen our understanding of the
needs present in the other parts of Christ's world. To enrich
our commitment to these missions, work-study groups from Saint
Mark have traveled to Bangladesh, Kenya, Mexico, Ethiopia, and
several Habitat for Humanity sites. 1999 brought needs in Yugoslavia
and a mission team of 18 traveled to Tijuana, Mexico for construction
work and teaching vacation bible school to local Indian children.
In
the summer of 2001 Global Mission will be sponsoring a mission
trip to see and work on the Ngoro Parish in Cameroon which Saint
Mark has been funding for several years. Our workers will be
painting and doing final detail work on the nearly completed
church there.
Links
to Mission Sites
the
hunger site
Bread
for the World
Amnesty
International
Presbyterian
Medical Missionaries
Beverly Booth
has been listed on our prayer list several times this past year.
Many of you will remember her because she has spoken from the
pulpit a number of times. Saint Mark has supported Beverley
for many years, first when she was practicing as a specialist
in renal medicine at Ludhiana Hospital in India. Because she
saw so many problems due to dysentery, dehydration etc. she
got her masters degree in public health so she could focus on
public health in India & teach the medical staff about rehydration.
Currently Beverley
is serving in Nepal as an administrator of 5 rural hospitals.
She was given this daunting assignment when many of the Christian
medical missionaries were sent home due to the danger caused
by the Maoist insurgents. Through email she communicates with
us quarterly. On April 12, 2002 she writes how "insurgency
affects a small hospital- Okhaldhunga Mission Hospital. It is
the only hospital in 5 districts (30 beds serving 500,000 people).
It is a 5 hours walk from an airport (she walked there in January).
The insurgents have attacked the water systems, government buildings,
& hydropower plant which supplies power to the hospital.
This runs havoc for the hospital which has a generator but the
diesel will last for only a few weeks even though it is used
only for autoclaving and night-time surgery. The only way to
get kerosene is to have it carried in.
Those that suffer
the most are the village folk. Young men have been conscripted
into the army so that leaves old folks and women to tend the
fields. Village schools are not running, no power to maintain
vaccines so polio & measles etc. will come back."
Please pray for
Okhaldhunga Hospital, for Nepal, and for the medical staff all
of whom are expatriates. For complete copies of her emails contact
Betty Davis.
Similar to Dr.
Booth, Drs. Leslie and Cynthia Morgan serve the Presbyterian
Church as medical missionaries. They live at the Rajshahi hospital
in Bangladesh. A recent letter described the impact that September
11 had on their lives.
They left Bangladesh
in October 2001 after violent protests in both Dhaka and Rajshahi
raised serious concerns about their safety and ability to carry
on their work. Christians and their property were targeted by
mobs in Rajshahi as anger over the bombing of Afghani-stan increased.
Cindy writes, "Les and I made an overnight trip to Rajshahi
to gather up a few essentials, as the indignant chants rose
to ‘Catch a Christian and cut him, one in the morning and
one in the evening.' Indeed, the anger at Americans quickly
broadened to include all Christians, symbols of the West in
the midst of a Muslim land. As the country was already in turmoil
following the national elections on October 1, this additional
insult of attacks on fellow Muslims in Afghanistan threw the
country into a state of utter rage and chaos. In rural villages
all over the country, Islamic extremists burned the huts of
Christians and Hindus, raped women, and mutilated bodies."
Leslie returned
to Bangladesh for seven weeks in January to visit the hospital
and community projects under their supervision and to set the
stage for their to return in June. "Although working in
a Muslim country will perhaps never again be as safe for us
as it once was, we feel that the situation is no longer the
threat that it was in October. As our time here in America draws
to a close, I see more clearly what an unexpected gift it has
been. Time not only with our extended families and friends,
but time with our own children that we would not have had (Everett,
12th grade and Stewart, 8th grade, go to boarding school in
N. India, Laura will remain in the USA in college). Contrary
to what many think, the cost of mission work isn't in the sacrificing
of the comforts of the American lifestyle, it's in the loss
of those one holds most dear, to places far away."
Cindy closes with
words that reverberate for all of us in our own lives, wherever
we are. "Remember us in our time of transition. Remember,
too, how important each of you is to us. Your presence in our
lives makes all the difference."
Cameroon
Presbyterian Church
by
Battokok Bityeki
Cameroon
is an 183,568 sq. mile country situated on the western coast
of Africa just north of the Equator. Cameroon is slightly larger
than California. It is a wonderful country with an unquestionable
tourist potential, such as cultural diversity, multiplicity
of scenery and rich wildlife. Cameroon is Africa in miniature.
Every African climate and feature can be found in Cameroon.
A visitor may want to discover the traditional chiefdoms, the
magical traditional dance or people of the forest or mountain
areas, which up to this day have guarded their age old traditions.
Cameroon has a population of 15 million and includes more than
200 ethnic groups living in peace. English and French are the
two official languages, whereas the main religions are Christianity,
Islam, and Animism.
During
the 19th century, Wesleyans, Anglicans, Presbyterians and Lutherans
from America and Europe went to Africa willing to die for Christ.
The first American Presbyterian missionary to settle in Cameroon
in 1882 was Adolf Clement
Good. He founded the first Presbyterian station in Efoulan in
1893.Even though he died a year later many more Americans came
and founded more missionary stations. The competition between
denominations was fierce but peaceful.
The growth of missionary work was spectacular, by 1953, there
were 20 stations, a biblical seminary, an industrial school,
a school for missionary children, a press, etc. the Sunday attendance
was huge. It is worth mentioning that, while colonial masters
of Cameroon were forcing people to learn French and to destroy
their native culture, missionaries instead were learning native
languages and training local people to take over for them. They
were rightly accused of being understanding of Cameroon nationalism,
and it was no wonder that most Cameroonian national leaders
were trained by American Presbyterian missionary schools.
The
Cameroon Presbyterian Church is still growing and its American
heritage of bringing back education and health care opportunities
to the people of rural areas is its trademark. No church
building in the capital city of Yaounde is large enough for
Sunday morning service attendance, and we praise the Lord for
His Faithfulness.
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