August 14, 2003

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

Wow! Wow! Wow! Neither words nor sounds can describe my deep gratitude to God for allowing me to be a part of the body of Christ. I am more excited now than I have ever b been about being part of the body called the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

In a time when the membership of our denomination continues to decline, when we are seemingly spending more energy on internal conflicts than on sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, you might ask me how? I would love to tell you:

I had the great privilege and responsibility to preach and lead biblical reflections at the PC(USA) Mission Sharing Conference last week. Staff in the national offices in Louisville had heard of the process that my colleague Chuy Gallegos and I had developed for facilitating engagement with the Scriptures, and they asked me to come facilitate and share that process with a group of about 34 missionaries who are beginning their period of mission interpretation (what we used to call “furlough” or “home assignment”).

These 34 PC(USA) mission co-workers are serving in 16 countries throughout the world. Being able to share a week with such a committed cross-section of the more than 350 long-term PC(USA) mission personnel throughout the world has heightened my love and appreciation for the life and mission of the PC(USA).

I want to share with you a couple of the testimonies of how God is working through the PC(USA) mission co-workers:

• Karla Koll is a pastor with a Ph.D. and serves in Guatemala as a professor of church history and mission with the Latin American Theological Seminary of Costa Rica.
• Cobbie Palm serves as “spiritual formator,” as he calls it, at Silliman University in the Philippines, where he encourages and equips university students to live out their faiths in their daily and vocational lives. In his living out of faith, he has received death threats for being an advocate for young women raped by international businessmen.
• Mark Hare is an agronomist who is working with Christian farmers in Nicaragua in developing diversified and integrated agricultural techniques that provide communities with tools to get more of life’s necessities out of the land while at the same time being responsible stewards of God’s creation.
• Sook Hee Bae fled North Korea and later immigrated to the United States. A minister member of the Presbytery of the Palisades, she now serves in South Korea with the National Presbyterian Church of Korea. Her ministry is in women’s leadership development and in helping the church recognize and respond to domestic violence.

I am grateful for all the donations that have been received to support our ministry through Directed Mission Support. This allows me to be part of such a committed team of missionaries serving in over 80 countries.

Up to 80 percent of the costs of supporting mission co-workers come from Directed Mission Support. The other 20 percent comes from the unified (or shared) mission budget of the PC(USA). Therefore, while you support my ministry and life directly, you also support Karla, Cobbie, Mark, and Sook Hee through your church’s and presbyteries giving to the unified/shared mission budget.

I pray that you will join with me in giving thanks to God for the good news that is being shared in word and deed throughout the world by the PC(USA)’s mission personnel.

Mark Adams

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.253