1 September 2007
Louisville

Dear All,

Last month we reached a milestone in our family life. Matthias flew off to the Netherlands to study rural development in the university town of Wageningen. To our surprise, the confusing mix of sadness and excitement at the airport wasn’t as intense as we had feared. We’ll miss his good-natured presence in the home.

The Boyd family just before Matthias left to study at a university in the Netherlands. Clockwise from top left: Naomi, Salome, Matthias, Christi, and Jeff.

Our family left Yaounde in June for our regular six-month interpretation assignment. We did so only after yet another chaotic but much-desired move back to our first home on “the hill.” Five years ago, we had to leave that house because a conflict divided our partner church, the Eglise Presbytérienne Camerounaise (EPC). Once the partnership between our two denominations was reestablished, it was time to return to the church house. We are thankful to the EPC leadership for making staff available to solve the problems we encountered during the move. On the day we moved in, our girls went for a walk in the neighborhood and immediately met Cameroonian friends they had known years before.

It is now one month until the kick-off of the largest nationwide mission drive in the recent history of our church. Called Mission Challenge ’07 (MC’07), the campaign rallies all Presbyterians from the pews to the pulpits in support of PC(USA) missionaries like us. During the month of October, 47 Presbyterian missionaries will go out to a total of 143 Presbyteries, staying one week at the time to share the stories of Presbyterian ministries and partners around the world. This means that churches in more than 80 percent of our presbyteries will have the opportunity to hear the witness of our denomination’s international mission programs!

MC’07 is preceded by the conference, “World Mission ’07, A Celebration of Grace.” Open to all members in our denomination, this event brings together Presbyterians who are passionate about missions. Please read more on the Mission Celebration Web site and consider attending this special event.

Both of us are participating in the conference and in MC’07. We will probably not visit your church on our MC’07 trail, but you can accompany us in prayer as we go. If your church would still like to arrange for a missionary speaker, please check with your presbytery to see about availability. Regardless, you will have the opportunity to be part of the campaign by responding to the MC’07 direct mail appeal to raise support for PC(USA) missionaries. Like all 10,884 churches in our denomination, your congregation is asked to set aside one Sunday during October to amplify this call for action by distributing bulletin inserts, viewing a promotional DVD, and inviting members to personally respond for the sake of our denomination’s mission force. Engaging this way in God’s mission, Presbyterians in the pews will eventually make the difference needed for our church to continue its programs that, in Christ’s name, share God’s love with people around the world, give hope for people in need, and provide dignified livelihoods to the poor. Please, look out for these materials to make sure your congregation will be part of MC’07.

Most of you know us as missionaries who would much rather share about our partners’ ministries than appeal for financial assistance. So this letter may seem out of our line. It’s easy to make the exception here because this is a churchwide effort in support of all Presbyterian missionaries. At the same time, we want to express our gratitude to those churches that already make particular efforts to keep mission personnel in the field. Our church’s World Mission program unit is alive and well, thanks to passionate staff in the PC(USA) headquarters and dedicated laborers in the mission field. But the continuous need of faithful support to sustain our denominational mission effort is buried under an overload of funding requests our constituency receives from other groups. The PC(USA) needs all its members to give Presbyterian World Mission priority.

Since our daughters are attending school in Louisville, you may wonder how we’re going to be part of Mission Challenge. Thank God, our children are blessed with loving grandparents, both in the States and the Netherlands. Jeff’s parents will be flying out to be with Salome and Naomi, taking them to viola lessons, soccer games, and school events while we are itinerating. Both the girls and their grandparents are looking forward to this chance to spend more time with each other, and we are grateful to be on the “campaign trail” for Presbyterian mission.

After finishing interpretation assignment later this year, we will start our fifth term as PC(USA) missionaries in Africa and will return to Cameroon. Though we hope that living within the EPC community will facilitate processes to further the relationship between our two denominations, this move does not change our respective responsibilities. Serving under the umbrella of PC(USA)’s other partner denomination, the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC), Jeff continues his work as regional liaison with partners, mission personnel, and PC(USA) congregations involved in mission programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon. Christi will carry on facilitating programs and relationships within the context of the Joining Hands Initiative of the Presbyterian Hunger Program in partnership with the Cameroonian Network for the Fight Against Hunger (RELUFA).

Peace be with you,

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 318