March 12, 2007

Dear Friends,

Greetings in the name of Christ! From late June through December Christi and I will be in the United States for interpretation assignment. We’re informing you now with the hopes that we can set up a program of visits that effectively use our time to interpret the mission work of the church in Central Africa. We welcome invitations to churches, presbyteries, church camps, mission conferences or other venues where we can suitably share about PC(USA) mission, the ministries of our partners in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Equatorial Guinea, and our involvement in each. In early 2008 we will return to our home in Cameroon and take up our work in the region again.

We are grateful for the support we’ve received from churches and individuals in different ways over the years. We’ve gotten to know many of you during previous visits to the States, and we look forward to spending time with you again. Some of you we’ve met during your visits to Cameroon or Congo. Others we’ve only corresponded with and still haven’t had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face. For all, the message is the same: We’d be delighted to accept an invitation to visit.

If you are interested in inviting us to share with you, please let us know as soon as possible. While we’d like to schedule the visits to everyone’s convenience, we know that it may not be possible for everyone to have their first choice of dates and times. Whenever possible, we’d like to coordinate visits regionally. This will help us be good stewards of our time and the church’s money. The sooner we receive invitations the better we should be able to coordinate the visits. Your flexibility with suggesting dates will be greatly appreciated.

We can best be reached by email at Jeff Boyd or Christi Boyd. We can also be reached by phone at (237) 220 2998. You can also send us mail at P.O. Box 5239, Yaounde, Cameroon, Africa, but that is considerably slower.

Whenever feasible we’d like to make our visits as a whole family. We realize that when driving is not a suitable option the cost of flights may require that only one of us come. In the event only one of us will visit, please indicate if you have a preference for Christi or Jeff. Christi will be able to share about the Joining Hands work in Cameroon and the efforts by RELUFA (Cameroonian network for the fight against hunger) and two PC(USA) presbyteries to confront issues of justice and poverty in Cameroon. Jeff can share about a variety of ministries of our ecclesiastic partners in any of the three countries mentioned above.

When you write please indicate any preference you have concerning how we share: full presentation, Sunday-school hour, preaching, moment for mission, weekend retreat, workshop, children’s sermon, presbytery meeting, mission committee meeting, etc. Hopefully, more than one of the above will be possible. We can work in a variety of settings and with almost any age group. See the list below for some of the different ways we can share about the mission of the church.

A note on expenses. To avoid awkward situations later, we’d prefer to bring up the question of expenses now. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pays our salary while we are on interpretation assignment, so we should not receive any kind of honorarium. But our travel-related expenses, including food and lodging when necessary, are not covered by the PC(USA). Unless prior arrangements are made we assume that the inviting church, group, or presbytery will cover those costs. If we drive our personal car we will ask to be reimbursed at the PC(USA) standard mileage rate. If the distance is over 200 miles, it will probably be cheaper to rent a car with unlimited mileage and be reimbursed for the rental cost and fuel. When visiting more than one church or group we’ll divide the cost among the parties we’re visiting in the area. If you’d like us to visit, but can not afford to pay for our travel, we may still be able to work it out. Some churches give more than our travel expenses and we save that for such occasions. Please note that we cannot accept cash. If you have any questions, please let us know.

We will be available for interpretation during the following periods.

June 28 - July 6: visiting churches in California.

July 7 - 16: Driving between California and home base in Louisville, Kentucky. We’d like to visit churches along the way.

July 30 to August 8: Available for church visits (perhaps in North Carolina or Virginia).

August 23 to September 30: no particular region proposed.

October 2 and 3 - We’ll be attending World Mission Celebration.

October 3 and 4 - We’ll participate in the orientation for Mission Challenge '07.

October 5 to November 3 - We’ll be participating in Mission Challenge ’07 and be spending a week in four different presbyteries. Please consider having your presbytery be one of them.

November 20 to December 20: no particular region proposed.

If the date you prefer does not appear available or we’re proposing to be in another region during that time, please still let us know. Our initial ideas can change as we hear back from churches.

Our home base in the United States will be the furlough homes on the campus of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. While our housing is arranged, we’re still looking for affordable car rentals or leasing. If you have any leads, please let us know.

It has been our privilege to serve our partners in Africa and the membership of the PC(USA) over the past 16 years.

We hope to hear from you soon so that we can make plans to visit with you.

With greetings from the whole family,

Jeff and Christi Boyd

Program formats for interpretation

A full one- to two-hour family program—Whether this is after worship on Sunday or at a mid-week gathering, this provides a focused time for us to share with people in an organized way. This time gives us an opportunity to use a greater variety of ways to interpret the life and work of our partners. The additional time also provides for greater depth or breadth in the discussion. This may be combined with a potluck meal, but it can stand alone.

Sunday School—We will be glad to meet with children, youth, or adults. The program can be adapted to fit the interests and levels of the group, but we need you to describe the group to us. Possibilities include, but are not limited to: a board game, multi-media presentation, questions and answers, and thematic discussions.

Preaching—While neither of us is an ordained minister we welcome this opportunity to share with the whole congregation. While our inspiration does not always lead us to a traditional style of delivery for the message, we are committed to the holiness of worship. We hope an opportunity for preaching will be combined with some opportunity to share in a more interactive way, such as meeting with a Sunday School class or having a full hour program.

Moment for mission—While we welcome this opportunity to share with the whole congregation, we would like to see this combined with some other opportunity to share more fully. This moment could be used to entice people to come to a later program.

Mission committee or session—Depending upon the amount of time allotted and the specific interests of the group, a multimedia presentation or a written document can be prepared as a catalyst for discussions.

Presbytery presentation or workshop—While we're flexible in how we share, ideally we'd like to have adequate time to share about our work. Time for our 20-minute multimedia presentation would be wonderful.

Mission conferences—We welcome such an opportunity to work with others in lifting up the diversity of the mission of our church. From formal presentations and questions and answers to a board game that sparks further discussion we see many opportunities possible in such a setting.

Youth and family camps, weekend retreats—We've had several opportunities to share in this way. While much sharing takes place informally, time can also be set aside for organized sharing to a larger group. The above options give a good indication of what is possible. This is a wonderful opportunity to reach some children who we'd otherwise perhaps not meet.

Other—Presbyterian Women's meetings, new members or confirmation classes, session meetings, children's messages are yet other opportunities we'd welcome for sharing the mission of the church. If you have other ideas, please share them with us.

Specific interpretation tools

Multimedia presentation—Computer-based multimedia presentation involving slides and movie clips while one or both of us comment on the images and answer questions. A version of this can also operate on a video player and television.

Board game—This game depicts the lives of African students as they struggle to get an education. This provides fun and learning for any age, but most importantly it piques the interest of players from which come wonderful opportunities to discuss the work of the church.

Bulletin inserts—We could develop color or black-and-white bulletin inserts based on a particular aspect of the mission of the church in which we're engaged.

Various maps, photos, artifacts, brochures, and handouts—This could be combined with a digital slide show running in the background.