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October 2007
Katherine Poole with Gai Ajak Riak Sudan immigrant helps raise funds for mission position in homeland
GREENSBORO, N.C. — When Gai Ajak Riak narrowly escaped the horrors of war in his native Sudan and emigrated to the United States, all he could think of was helping his people.
“If I can get out,” he recalled thinking, “I know that there’s a way that I should help them.”
Born in Bor into a farming family, Riak remembered vividly when war broke out in 1983. Even as he was encouraged by his father to seek refuge — escaping the first time into Ethiopia in 1987 — he always returned to his family in Sudan. [Read more] |
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October 2007
Two kindred spirits discover a common bond and a shared calling to tell the stories – past and present – of the Lebanese people
Carol Dolezal-Ng Berkeley, Calif. — A steadfast believer in the ancient rabbinic wisdom that “memory and hope belong together,” Carol Dolezal-Ng has always been drawn to the art of scrapbooking.
“My greatest gift is being open to people, wherever they are in their journey, and in making albums with them, so they may have their stories preserved,” Dolezal-Ng said. “It is with innate gifts of grace, patience, and reverence that I walk with people through both great joy and great sorrow while they document their lives and lessons, and reclaim the hope that emerges in remembering.” [Read more] |
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October 2007
Synod of Mid-America executive, who is to leave his post on February 29, 2008, will continue to serve on the steering committee for Joining Hearts & Hands
Dr. John L. Williams OVERLAND PARK, Kans. – Leap years have always been significant for John Williams. Not only is leap day Williams’ birthday, it is also the birthday of his wife, Linda.
And the next leap day, in the year 2008, will mark another passage for Williams, his retirement as synod executive from the Synod of Mid-America. Williams disclosed his decision to the synod at its meeting held here at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church on August 10. [Read more] |
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October 2007
Presbytery to vote November 15 on bringing its current fundraising activities to a close by December 31, 2007
NORTHPORT, Fla. — At the recommendation of the Peace River Presbytery’s Board of Trustees, the Presbytery Council voted today to bring a motion to the presbytery to conclude the Peace River Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) campaign effective December 31, 2007. [Read more] |
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September 2007
Kevin Garvey (left), MIJHH staff team member, with Tom Gillespie. Photo by Emily Odom. LOUISVILLE – In this city perhaps best known for Thoroughbred horseracing, the Rev. Dr. Tom Gillespie did not hesitate to invoke the famous Kentucky Derby to deliver an important message about the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) during his report to the General Assembly Council here on September 19. [Read more] |
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September 2007
Bob Thompson Successful completion of Joining Hearts & Hands campaign is top priority of seasoned fundraiser
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Robert L. Thompson, Certified Fund Raising Executive, has joined the General Assembly Council (GAC) communications and funds development staff as interim director of funds development. The announcement was made by Karen Schmidt, deputy executive director for communications and funds development. Thompson assumed his new duties on July 16, 2007. [Read more] |
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September 2007
Youngil Cho, left, receives the Laymen’s Great Award from Elder Yersik Yoon, president of the National Laymen’s Association of the Presbyterian Church of Korea. Photo courtesy of Youngil Cho.
Former GAC chair is first U.S. citizen to receive ‘Great Award’
DURHAM, N.C. – In recognition of his faithful service at every level of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the National Laymen’s Association of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) presented elder Youngil Cho with its Laymen’s Great Award on Aug. 15.
In the Korean church’s more than 100-year history, only three people have been so honored. [Read more] |
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September 2007
The Rev. Kathy Reeves Younger sibling champions cause of sister’s ecumenical calling
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When the Rev. Kathy Reeves answered the call 14 years ago to serve here as associate for ecumenical and mission partnerships for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), little did she imagine that one of the lives which would be transformed through her ministry would be that of her own sister, Lynn Sydney. [Read more] |
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August 2007
New PC(USA) mission workers appointed
by Catherine Cottingham
World Mission Communications Volunteer
and Pat Cole
World Mission Communications Associate
Brett and Shelly Faucett and daughters Acacia Joy and Annapurna Nai Brett and Shelly Faucett will serve as regional consultants for health and HIV/AIDS in South Asia, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Most recently Brett, a registered nurse, was on the staff of Hoag Presbyterian Hospital in Newport Beach, Calif. He is a graduate of Maric College. Brett and Shelly served for two years with the Peace Corps in Moldova. Shelly, a graduate of the University of California at San Diego, has had special training in teaching English as a Second Language and has worked as a literacy specialist as well as an ESL teacher with the Peace Corps.
The Faucetts are members of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, Calif., and will be accompanied by two daughters, Acacia Joy, 6, and Annapurna Nai, soon to be 4. Their position has been funded through the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands.
 Ingrid Reneau
Ingrid Reneau will serve as an education officer in Sudan in partnership with the Presbyterian Church of Sudan, the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church and the Association of Christian Resource Organizations. Serving Sudan, She will help implement plans to expand the church-sponsored school system, improve its administrative capabilities and strengthen its teaching methodologies. Reneau has taught at several colleges, including the City College of San Francisco and the University of South Carolina, has written articles for academic journals and has a book in progress. She is a member of Shiloh Christian Fellowship, an interdenominational church in Oakland, Calif. Her position has been funded through the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands.
Carmen Goetschius
In addition to the new PC(USA) appointees, Carmen Goetschius, who is being sent to Zambia by Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, participated in the orientation. She is the congregation’s first Global Ministry Fellow, a program funded by a congregational gift given through the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands.
Goetschius is to be ordained August 15 at her home church, University Presbyterian Church in Seattle. She will spend one year in Zambia. |
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August 2007
 JoAnn Eichert (left), Buechel Presbyterian Church clerk of session, and Buechel Elder Denise Anderson (right), present a check to Mid-Kentucky Presbytery Joining Hearts and Hands campaign co-chair the Rev. Phil Lloyd-Sidle. Photo courtesy of Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky Congregation moves to retirement home, invests proceeds in mission
Just call it the little church that could. And did.
Faced with declining membership, dwindling revenues, and an aging, non-handicapped accessible building, the Buechel Presbyterian Church here joyfully embraced what it saw as its only viable option for survival.
Rather than close its doors to future generations, the congregation voted in August 2006 to sell its building and make its new home across the street at Westminster Terrace, a neighboring independent living home. [Read more] |
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July 2007
 Tom Kaufman, a member of Shenango Presbytery’s Sudan Committee, and Ingrid Reneau, who will go to Sudan as a new PC(USA) mission worker through support from Shenango and Trinity presbyteries.
Photo by Denise Sciuto
Presbyteries complete funding to send a new missionary to Sudan
PULASKI, Pa., and LEXINGTON, S.C. — Two Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presbyteries with a long-standing commitment to the church and the people of Sudan have united to bring new help and hope to that war-torn nation by completing the funding needed for a new mission position there.
Trinity Presbytery, comprised of 68 congregations in central South Carolina, and Shenango Presbytery, encompassing 69 churches in western Pennsylvania, have together pledged over $118,000 to the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands to send a new education officer to rebuild and strengthen the country’s educational infrastructure, particularly in southern Sudan. [Read more] |
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July 2007
Seminary student has big dreams of supporting Joining Hearts & Hands
Sean Chow The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s oppositional stance on gambling notwithstanding, Sean Chow has already decided what to do with his lottery winnings.
That is, if he should ever win.
Chow, a third-year student at San Francisco Theological Seminary’s (SFTS) Southern California campus, dedicated the June 12th entry on his blog to naming the five charitable organizations that he would support if he were to come into a lottery jackpot. The Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands, the $40 million fundraising campaign to renew the PC(USA) for mission, tops his list. [Read more] |
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June 2007
Sent in pairs
Albuquerque church taps perfect team to run mission fundraising campaign
ALBUQUERQUE — Jesus’ wisdom in sending his disciples out two by two was a model not lost on Bryan Beck.
When Beck, a member of Shepherd of the Valley Presbyterian Church here, was tapped to lead an ambitious $150,000 fundraising campaign on behalf of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH), he knew that he couldn’t do it alone. [Read more] |
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June 2007
Presbyterian preaches about freedom on ‘Day 1’
Joining Hearts & Hands co-chair, Joanna Adams, featured on July 1 radio broadcast
The Rev. Joanna Adams, pastor of Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, returns July 1 as featured speaker on “Day 1,” a nationally broadcast radio program also accessible by podcast. [Read more] |
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May 2007
Jacob Goad Empty hands, open hearts
A glimpse of modern mission in Peru
When Jacob Goad was majoring in Spanish literature and social and economic justice at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, justice, peace and the Peruvian people were already near and dear to his heart. [Read more] |
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May 2007
Home by another way
By changing course, Mid-Kentucky Presbytery campaign moves with greater confidence toward its $1 million goal
When the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky unanimously approved a $1 million capital campaign in partnership with the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) in September 2005, presbytery leaders decided on just the right timeline and action plan to guarantee the campaign’s success. [Read more] |
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May 2007
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) corrects year-end financial statement for Joining Hearts & Hands
Accounting error results in restatement of campaign’s total gifts and pledges to $26.2 million from $27.5 million as of December 31, 2006
The General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) announced today that two accounting errors, discovered in the process of preparing the first quarter 2007 financial report for a meeting of the Joining Hearts & Hands steering committee, has led to the release of a new fundraising total for the $40 million denominational campaign. Two financial reports for the campaign were affected: year-end 2006 and the oral report given to the General Assembly Council in March.
According to Joey Bailey, Deputy Executive Director for Shared Services, the corrected total for pledges and gifts, as of the end of 2006,  is $26,157,892, a figure approximately $1.4 million lower than previously reported. Bailey also released a new report, as of 3/31/2007, which shows $26,331,807 in total pledges and gifts for Joining Hearts and Hands. [Read more] |
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April 2007
Out of the depths
California church brings life and hope to a community on the edge
When Ronnie Urzua answered the call to become organizing pastor for the Word of Life Presbyterian Church here, he knew well what the challenges would be.
The new church, which was chartered by the Presbytery of Santa Barbara in February 2006, first began holding services at First Presbyterian Church, Oxnard, Calif., in November 2000. In 2005, the congregation relocated to Port Hueneme, where it shares space with Westminster Presbyterian Church. [Read more] |
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April 2007
Area pastors catch vision of Joining Hearts & Hands:
Regional gathering precedes campaign’s national steering committee meeting
Steering committee leadership, from left to right, Tom Gillespie, Joanna Adams, and Dave Peterson. Photo by Becky Montgomery, Princeton Theological Seminary PRINCETON – Compelling personal testimonies by members of the Joining Hearts & Hands national steering committee witnessed here to the transforming power of the PC(USA)’s fundraising campaign to renew not only the church — but also their own hearts — for mission. [Read more] |
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April 2007
Endowment will send recent seminary graduates to ‘global South’
PRINCETON, NJ — Long recognized for its historic commitment to international mission, the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City has pledged $1 million to the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). [Read more] |
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March 2007
‘Preacher’s kid’ Rebecca Young embraces her missional heritage
Although a rich tradition of missionary and pastoral service runs deep in her blood, Rebecca Young will not hesitate to say that ministry was the last thing in the world that she ever thought of doing.
Rebecca Young “The first call to which I really responded grew out of my desire to do my part to relieve world hunger,” Young said. “I knew from the time that I started my master’s degree in public health nutrition that I would use it to go overseas to work in a developing country to help hungry people.”
Because the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was in the process of relocating to Louisville in the year Young completed her degree and was ready to explore a mission position as a nutritionist, she went instead through Church World Service on assignment to Indonesia. [Read more] |
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March 2007
Coming full circle
Lead gift by Santa Fe church prompts others to help fund Sudan position
First Presbyterian Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo by Katie Johnson. SANTA FE, NM — An anonymous couple with profound concerns about children, poverty, Africa and AIDS have started a mission giving trend across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to positively impact lives in Sudan.
The anonymous pair, members of First Presbyterian Church here, gave a total of $150,000 last year to the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH), $50,000 of it designated to funding a new educational mission worker position in southern Sudan. [Read more] |
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March 2007
David York, MIJHH Director, congratulates Tom Gillespie, Honorary Campaign Chair, following his report to the GAC. Photo by Emily Odom. Gillespie: ‘Church needs a success story’
LOUISVILLE — The Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (MIJHH) campaign announced today (March 15) they have raised a total of $27.7 million toward the goal of $40 million.
Of that, $2.1 million has been raised since September, 2006. Half the total funds from the five-year campaign is earmarked for new church development and congregational transformation, particularly racial ethnic and immigrant congregations. The other half will be used to fund new overseas mission personnel. [Read full story] |
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March 2007
From Redlands to Lahore, committed Presbyterians help a young student realize his dreams
LOUISVILLE - Pedaling his bicycle daily across the Pakistani countryside, Asad Iqbal keeps one watchful eye on the road, and the other on his now promising future. [Read more]
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February 2007
Bill Saul (left) and Lucimarian Roberts
Bill Saul’s donation to UC-Riverside archive also honors his MIJHH co-chair, Lucimarian Roberts
by Emily Enders Odom
MIJHH communications officer
RIVERSIDE, CA - Bill Saul, an elder at Grace First Presbyterian Church, Long Beach, CA, and a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s General Assembly Council (GAC) was recognized by the Libraries at the University of California-Riverside, on Feb. 10, for making the first gift to the Western Region Tuskegee Airmen Archive there. [Read more]
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February 2007
With great gifts comes great responsibility
First Presbyterian Church of East Brady, Pa. Photo by Debbie McCanna. A familiar text from Luke’s gospel — “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” — has evolved into the watchword of the First Presbyterian Church of East Brady, Pa.
The 102-member congregation, which has been the recipient of several significant bequests in its 132-year history, understands well that with great gifts comes great responsibility. [Read more] |
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February 2007
Final phase of Mission Initiative campaign gets off to promising start
New leadership, focus on large congregations opens new doors
In order to ensure the success of the five-year, $40 million Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) fundraising campaign, members of the national steering committee and MIJHH director David York are taking their lead from Jesus’ own instruction, “Knock, and the door will be opened for you.” [Read more]
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February 2007
Helping Mississippians to help others
Steven Wirth and Bill Saul. Photo by George Eldridge.
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study asks the question, “How does it work for a presbytery that had been very active in mission to be on the receiving end?”
That was the very question taken up by the members and churches of the Presbytery of Mississippi on August 30, 2005, the day after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. [Read more] |
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January 2007
New Year’s revolutions
Six new PC(USA) mission co-workers begin orientation
As families all across the U.S. dedicate themselves to the customary, sometimes perfunctory task of making New Year’s resolutions, six Presbyterian families have resolved to utterly change their lives this year for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Each has answered a call to mission service and will soon deploy to places such as Peru, Mexico, Jamaica and South Asia.
Their first stop is Louisville, where they will participate in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s biannual mission personnel orientation, sponsored and hosted by the World Mission program area. [Read more] |
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Pastor Graham Baird with a "Christmas Angel" on his shoulders. Photo by Jill Alexander.
January 2007
California NCD fills local inn to capacity on Christmas Eve
This past Christmas, there was room at the inn. But just barely.
The grand ballroom of the historic Paso Robles Inn, the first building ever constructed in this coastal California town, spilled over with Christmas Eve worshipers from the Highlands Church, a new church development of Santa Barbara Presbytery. The combined attendance at the two services topped 725. [Read more] |
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December 2006
Read David York's December 21st Letter to the Editor on the website of the Presbyterian Outlook |
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December 2006
Thomas W. Gillespie
His unconditional willingness to help is but one hallmark of Tom Gillespie’s distinguished service to the church.
Most recently, Gillespie has given his unqualified “yes” in support of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands by accepting the role of honorary chair of the national fundraising campaign as it moves into its final phase. [Read more] |
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December 2006
New mobile ministry reaches out to Immokalee migrant workers
The Spirit is moving — quite literally — in Immokalee.
Immokalee workers are served coffee before heading for the fields. Photo by Dave Moore.
Spirit, or Espíritu, is a 31‑foot motor home which functions as a mobile church for the Beth‑El Farmworker Ministry at Immokalee, a mission project of Peace River Presbytery’s Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) campaign.
The national MIJHH campaign was launched by the 2002 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to raise $40 million over five years for new overseas mission personnel and for church development in this country, particularly racial ethnic and immigrant congregations. [Read more] |
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December 2006
GAC Executive Committee votes to fund JHH operating expenses through June 2008
Tom Taylor
The General Assembly Council’s (GAC) Executive Committee has unanimously confirmed GAC Executive Director Linda Valentine’s appointment of the Rev. Tom Taylor as the GAC’s deputy executive director for mission.
Valentine praised Taylor as “intelligent, creative and deeply committed to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).” She said that during the search process in which 50 candidates were considered, “Tom Taylor really stood out as someone who would articulate a theology of mission service that matches the realities in the church and world today.” [Read more] |
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December 2006
Dr. Melva Costen prepares the steering committee and staff members for worship by teaching the hymn, "Total Praise." Kathryn Sparks, director of music for Memorial Drive Church, accompanies on piano. Photo by Emily Odom.
Former Princeton president Tom Gillespie named honorary campaign chair
Houston – Powerful themes of newness infused both the worship and work of the Joining Hearts & Hands steering committee as they focused here on reaching the campaign’s $40 million goal as it enters its final phase. $14.5 million remains to be raised prior to the 218th General Assembly (2008).
In a sermon based on the eighth and ninth chapters of 2 Corinthians, the Rev. Dave Peterson, steering committee co-chair, charged his campaign colleagues “to remember the original zeal, and return and finish what was started.” [Read more] |
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December 2006
From left to right, Eunice Sato, Grace First campaign committee member; Steven Wirth, pastor; Bill Saul, campaign co-chair; and Tim Jackert, campaign co-chair. Photo by George Eldridge.
The final $65,000 was pledged between worship services on Sunday, October 29
When the Rev. Dr. Steve Wirth entered the pulpit of Grace First Presbyterian Church in Long Beach, Ca., to preach a stewardship sermon on October 29, he had no inkling that a couple in the church would take up his charge to be faithful stewards quite so immediately. [Read more] |
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Vicki Smith. Photo by Helen De Leon.
December 2006
Jesus’ own prescription from the Sermon on the Mount — Ask, and it will be given you — gave Vicki Smith, a candidate awaiting funding in order to serve as a PC(USA) mission co-worker, the impetus and the courage she needed to approach her home synod, the Synod of the Sun, for financial assistance toward her deployment. [Read more] |
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November 2006
Covenant Presbyterian Church celebrates its 50th anniversary by making a $100,000 commitment to Joining Hearts & Hands. Photo by Michelle Roth.
Diane Ogawa spends the better part of her waking hours making decisions that impact significantly on future generations.
She has been called to this vocation both professionally—as executive director of the PNM Resources Foundation, which improves New Mexico’s quality of life through grants to the state’s non-profit organizations and educators—and, more recently, as co-chair, with her husband, Greg, of Covenant Presbyterian Church’s Joining Hearts & Hands campaign. [Read more] |
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October 2006
Faces of Joining Hearts & Hands: “So Great a Cloud of Witnesses”
The Second in a Series
A Hunger for Mission
Above the strains of church music, the Rev. Phyllis Zoon heard God’s call to feed both bodies and souls.
The Rev. Phyllis Zoon. Photo by Barry Kenstler.
The Reverend Phyllis Zoon came to believe in mission late in life.
“In the church I grew up in, mission wasn’t a big emphasis,” Zoon said. “Although I did want to be a missionary when I was as a child.”
Eventually following that missionary call, Zoon, while still employed as a systems analyst and project manager for AT&T, decided to study church music – a vocational path that would eventually lead her far from her own roots in rural New Jersey to increasingly diverse, urban settings in her home state. And would also open her eyes, in the process, to the mission at her doorstep. [Read more] |
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October 2006
Read exciting news about CityFest Houston, an historic Christian festival co-chaired by MIJHH co-chair, Dave Peterson, and his wife, Terri.
Presbyterians Texas-size planners of major faith festival
Thousands attend Houston revival to celebrate God, Jesus, and skateboarding
Presbyterians in Houston, Texas, this month were instrumental in staging one of the largest faith celebrations ever in the Lone Star state, where the gospel of Jesus Christ came in the form of BMX bikers, skateboarders and concerts.
Luis Palau’s CityFest Houston mixed evangelism with elements of a music festival, extreme sports and celebrity appearances to draw in a total of some 225,000 people to the modern-day open-air Christian revival, which was held Oct. 7-8. [Read more] |
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October 2006
Atlanta Elder and Associate Campaign Director, David York, to lead campaign
during final phase
David York Linda Valentine, Executive Director of the General Assembly
Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has asked David York, Associate
Director of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands, to assume leadership
of the campaign as it moves into its final phase. York, an elder at First Presbyterian
Church, Atlanta, will assume his new role on October 28.
Jan Opdyke Jan Opdyke, director since January 2004, tendered her resignation on Monday,
October 2. Citing the need to limit her travel in order to care for her aging
mother, Opdyke has accepted a position with a local university. She will leave
the campaign on October 27, 2006.
Valentine cited York's dedication, fundraising acumen and
knowledge of the PC(USA) as central to this appointment. "David York is
a leader who serves the church with enthusiasm and dedication. He will help the
denomination create new avenues of funding for new congregations and new mission
personnel," Valentine
said. York has been an associate director of the campaign since October 2004.
[Keep reading about staff changes at the Joining Hearts
& Hands] |
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October 2006
The Rev. Dave Peterson, co-chair of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts &
Hands Steering Committee, speaks at the September 2006 GAC meeting. Photo by
Bill Lancaster. In 2002, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) received a call
from God through the voice of the 214th General Assembly to renew the church
for mission. That renewal was to be accomplished through the Mission Initiative:
Joining Hearts & Hands.
For those whom God has called to this ministry, the commitment
to the General Assembly mandate has not wavered. The Apostle Paul, in his letter
to the church at Corinth, writes, "Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast,
immovable, always excelling the work of the Lord, because you know that in the
Lord your labor is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:58) [Read more about
Mission Initiative action at the September GAC meeting] |
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“We’re all on the same team”
Members of New Creation Community Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, N.C. Photo by Sarah D. Freeman.
45-member congregation commits support to Joining Hearts & Hands
September 2006
At New Creation Community Presbyterian Church, “hands-on” ministry can assume a wide range of meanings. Especially with Greensboro, North Carolina’s own resident “Goat Lady” as an active church member.
Unique service projects — such as helping to make vests for the “kids” at the nearby “Goat Lady Dairy” farm during kidding season — are both the hallmark and the fruit of the church’s unique missional relationships. [Read more] |
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Joining Hearts & Hands Catches Vision of Presbyterian Global Fellowship
September 2006
Mary and Sam Hitchings, elders at the Strasburg (Va.) Presbyterian Church, visit the MIJHH display booth. Photo by Emily Odom.
Over a thousand Presbyterians – their hearts burning within them – gathered at the Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta from August 17-19 to reclaim their identity in Christ Jesus as a missional people.
At the invitation of the Presbyterian Global Fellowship (PGF) and the Rev. David Peterson – one of PGF’s founding members and a co-chair of the Joining Hearts & Hands Steering Committee – members of the national staff of Joining Hearts & Hands shared resources and new mission funding paradigms with brothers and sisters across the Presbyterian and global church. Peterson was also joined at the event by new MIJHH Steering Committee members, Linda Bryant Valentine, executive director of the General Assembly Council (GAC), and Carol Adcock, chair of the Worldwide Ministries Division Committee of the GAC. [Read more] |
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August 2006
Joanna Adams.
The Rev. Joanna M. Adams, Joining Hearts & Hands Steering Committee co-chair, was selected as the 2006 Georgia Woman of the Year - the eleventh outstanding Georgia woman to be so honored, and the first religious leader.
MIJHH associate director, David York, was among those friends, family, and distinguished community members who were present in Atlanta at the July 27 banquet honoring Adams.
Visit the photo gallery and program of the July 27 event.
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Eunice Sato. Photo by George Eldridge.
The First of a Series
“Why Me, God?”
August 2006
Grace First Presbyterian Church member, Eunice Sato, asks the eternal question and gets some new answers
Eunice Sato always felt that God was leading her on a path, even if she didn’t always know where or why.
The native Californian, of Japanese heritage, faced her first major change of course with the Ethnic Japanese Evacuation of 1942. After she and her family were evacuated from California in March 1942, Sato continued her education in Greeley, Colorado, where she earned her degree and teaching certificate. From there, Sato moved progressively east, first to take her first teaching post in Alpha, Michigan, and then to New York City’s Columbia University to earn her Master’s degree. [Read more] |
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Mission Initiative Changes Leaders |
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Pastor Graham helps dig a hole for the Easter Cross. Photo by James Baird.
Field of Dreams
Highlands NCD employs new paradigm for church development
July 2006
Even if you don’t build it, they will come.
Such was the unexpected Easter morning surprise experienced by the Rev. Graham Baird, organizing pastor of the Highlands Presbyterian Church in Paso Robles, Calif., a new church development on the central California coast in the Presbytery of Santa Barbara. [Read more] |
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Joining Hearts & Hands: Peace River Presbytery supports new migrant ministry at Immokalee
July 2006
A message painted on the wall outside of the CIW offices. Photo by Emily Odom.
All eyes were on the modest young man at the front of the bus.
Clad in a simple T-shirt bearing the logo of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Romeo Ramirez gave the simultaneous appearance of exhaustion and empowerment as he began to share his own story through the voice of a translator. [Read more] |
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We invite you to meet members of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands staff by visiting our display at the Exposition Center/Exhibits area at the Gathering. |
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Presbytery of West Jersey partners with Joining Hearts & Hands on $1.5 million campaign
June 2006
The Presbytery of West Jersey, in seeking to extend the Good News of God’s love to God’s people both locally and globally, has voted to launch a $1.5 million campaign in partnership with the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands. [Read more] |
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June 2006
Anderson
General Assembly Council Executive Director John Detterick today reaffirmed his conviction that Denver businessman and lifelong Presbyterian Stanley W. Anderson will make good on a $150 million pledge he made last week to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Detterick’s statement  to the assembly came after The Denver Post reported today that Anderson is in debt and that there are no assets in the Trinity Foundation, which Anderson set up in January with a business partner in the Bahamas and which was to channel the contribution to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation later this year.
Detterick acknowledged that the news reports “cast serious doubt in some minds.
But I know Stan Anderson as a man of integrity". [Read more]
“The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has endured many cloudy days in recent years, and now this astonishing gift appears like a rainbow in the clouds. For a long time, I have felt that the best way out of our denominational malaise was to grow our way out. That's the goal of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands. This gift further stimulates my conviction of this, and I pray it will awaken a long-dormant evangelistic and missional zeal in us. Now I also pray that the assembly does everything within its power this week to further the forward momentum this gift makes possible. We need to listen very carefully for what the Spirit is saying to the PC(USA) through this gift." [Read more] |
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Visit Joining Hearts & Hands at the 217th General Assembly, June 15-22, in Birmingham!
We invite you to make a personal connection with the doers of Christ's mission through the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands by visiting us at Booth #100 in the Assembly's Exhibit Hall, where you will have an opportunity throughout the week to meet dynamic redevelopment pastors, international mission co-workers, members of the national Steering Committee, and MIJHH staff. |
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Joining Hearts & Hands: Peace River Presbytery helps Peace Presbyterian Church discover its missional identity and become a vibrant community of faith.
June 2006
The Rev. Elizabeth Deibert was called to break down barriers.
Even if she didn’t always think so, and even if those barriers weren’t always obvious to her at first. [Read more] |
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Pastor Elizabeth Deibert enjoys playing guitar or keyboard occasionally in Peace's worship services. Photo by Grover Wrenn. |
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Steering Committee Co-Chairs Release Statement in Response to Reorganization of GA Mission Program Work
May 2006 |
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Joanna Adams, Pastor, Morningside Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, and Co-Chair, Joining Hearts & Hands Steering Committee. |
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| David Peterson, Pastor, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Houston, and Co-Chair, Joining Hearts & Hands Steering Committee. |
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While it's been a turbulent and painful week for so many in the PC(USA), as co-chairs of the Steering Committee of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands, we remain both resolute and hopeful that our current efforts to plant new churches and send out new mission co-workers will go forward. With the needs in both areas more urgent than ever before, Joining Hearts & Hands offers congregations, presbyteries, and individual Presbyterians an unprecedented and unique way to respond. [Read more] |
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Curtis Kearns has called Joining Hearts & Hands a "beacon of hope." Photo
by David Young. |
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Steering Committee and Staff Leadership Team Members Respond to Restructure of GA Offices:
Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands Remains a “Beacon of Hope”
May 2006 |
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On May 1, the Presbyterian News Service reported that the General Assembly Council had approved the most radical restructuring of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s mission program since 1993. According to Jerry Van Marter, 75 national staff positions in Louisville were eliminated — most effective May 1 — as well as 55 overseas mission co-worker positions. Staff cuts in Louisville account for $4 million of the budget reduction, while the price tag for the overseas mission positions is $1.2 million. [Read more] |
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Seed Reports on Joining Hearts & Hands to General Assembly Council
May 2006
As members of the General Assembly Council (GAC) continued the difficult work of considering proposed budget cuts in excess of $9 million, the report they heard on Friday afternoon, April 28, from the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) lifted many a heart as it afforded a welcome window on the many ways in which God is renewing our church for mission. [Read more] |
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The Rev. Allison Seed at the April meeting of General Assembly Council in Louisville, Ky. Photo by Emily Odom. |
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GAC Executive Director John Detterick, left, congratulated the Rev. David Peterson on becoming a co-chair of the Joining Hearts & Hands campaign. Photo by Emily Enders Odom. |
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Big-city pastors chosen to head up final phase of $40 million campaign
April 2006
Having raised $25.5 million of its $40 million goal, the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (MIJHH) steering commitee has realigned its work and leadership for a final campaign push.
During an April 19-20 meeting here, the committee reluctantly accepted the resignations of Elders Bill Saul of Long Beach, CA, and Lucimarian Roberts of Biloxi, MS, who have headed the campaign since its inception in 2002. [Read more] |
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C. Andre and Laura Kearns at their 50th Anniversary. Photo courtesy of the Kearns Family Archives. |
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Remembering the Ministry of The Reverend C. Andre Kearns, Sr.
Pastor’s lifelong commitment to a more inclusive church inspires family’s $20,000 memorial to Joining Hearts & Hands
April 2006
When it comes to supporting the ministries of the Presbyterian Church (USA), it’s all in the family.
The Kearns family, that is. [Read more] |
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Naples Church Embodies True Spirit of Joining Hearts & Hands
Congregation’s $1 million pledge to national campaign “puts teeth” in church’s mission to serve Christ in the community and in the world.
March 2006 |
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Bob Bauerle, chair of the mission committee, Rev. Kirt Anderson, pastor, and Elder Bill Saul, co-chair of Joining Hearts & Hands. Photo by David York. |
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When the Rev. Dr. Kirt Anderson arrived at First Presbyterian Church of Naples, Florida, five years ago, he found the property completely leveled.
“First they bulldozed the place,” Anderson explained, “and then I arrived.”
What followed was a challenging period in the church’s history – having first decided to completely raze a building, to then go about raising the funds needed to construct an entirely new facility for this growing 1,200-member congregation. [Read more] |
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From the Heart
March 2006
Our award-winning video production, From the Heart, serves to familiarize viewers with the background, the goals, the people, the ongoing work, and the need to support the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands. This production is available at no charge in VHS or DVD format. [Read more] |
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DeVries Named to Joining Hearts & Hands Steering Committee
Synod executive brings a wealth of experience to the denomination’s fundraising campaign
March 2006
The Rev. Dr. Janet M. DeVries has been appointed to the national Steering Committee of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands, the five-year campaign of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to raise $40 million for mission and evangelism. She will officially begin her term of service at the Steering Committee’s next scheduled meeting, April 19-20, in Naples, FL. [Read more] |
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Seventh Annual National Multicultural Conference to Receive Special Offering for Joining Hearts & Hands |
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One of two planned conference offerings will be directed to the campaign’s $1.35 million Multicultural Internship project
March 2006
When some 500 plus Presbyterians of all traditions, ethnicities, and cultures gather for the 2006 Multicultural Conference in Orlando, Florida, from May 25-28, they will both model and celebrate – here and now – the diversity that is God’s eternal kingdom. [Read more] |
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Architect's rendering of the new plaza construction at First Presbyterian Church, Portland, funded through the church's recent capital campaign. Photo courtesy of Hennebery Eddy Architects. |
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First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Oregon, Makes $50,000 Gift to Joining Hearts & Hands
Church’s distribution of “Jubilee Ten Percent for Mission Funds” witnesses to its longstanding commitment to community, national, and world mission.
March 2006
It all began with a simple question, “Do you know anything about Joining Hearts & Hands?” |
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Rev. Dudley Weaver, pastor and head of staff at First Presbyterian Church, Portland, OR, since 1999, initially didn’t, but church member and mission advocate, Genevieve Schroeder, did. [Read more] |
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