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May 1, 2000
Dear Friends,
We traveled to the States in December 1999 for a three month
"home assignment" to visit family, the Worldwide Ministries
Division offices and some of the congregations that have expressed
interest in our work. Ndaya (11), Billy (11), Andrew (8), Ruth
and I enjoyed seeing our family and some of our good "old"
friends in Texas, Indiana, and Kentucky, and our time with Crescent
Hill Presbyterian Church in Louisville was life-giving, as always!
Hunter’s turn
Returning to the States after living in a poorer nation is always
somewhat of a shock—especially if one returns around the
mega-consumeristic Christmas holidays as we did! But the jolt
helped me to remember why I do what I do in Peru: why I think
it’s important for the church to live out its commitment
to sharing God’s love with all people, especially the poor
and oppressed. The growing gap between the material poverty we
see daily in Peru and the wealth of so many communities in the
States made me want to be part of the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s
"Joining Hands Against Hunger" initiative, which is
described in this article I wrote for the September 2000 edition
of Horizons. Helping to organize the "Joining Hands"
networks in Peru and Bolivia will be my assignment for this term.
The Queen Esther Challenge: Is Mission More Than
Money?
International mission, for most of us, is money. It’s the
check we send to support a missionary’s salary, the pocket
change our family collects to support the "Pennies for Hunger"
program, the special offering we give each year for the "One
Great Hour of Sharing" For some Presbyterians, mission is
also an occasional short-term trip—giving a week to build
a clinic in Mexico or clean up after a natural disaster.
Perhaps the gift of money or a few days of our time is sufficient.
Maybe it is the most efficient way to share with others what God
has given so generously to us. But I am certain it is also the
least threatening and the least likely to change me. Because when
I send in a check or even when I travel to a "community of
need" and share my professional skills or even my common
labor, it is likely that I am still able to remain above it all,
insulating myself from the disquieting, raw pain of the poor,
the unemployable, the victims of haunting injustice. I simply
write a check. Or brace myself for a week without hot showers
or familiar food.
Many of the PC(USA)’s international church and ecumenical
partners deeply appreciate our financial support and short-term
mission trips. But a number of them have challenged our church
to support them in a new, life-changing way: to understand, from
their perspective, the causes of poverty that have significantly
increased hunger in their communities in the last decade. In Peru,
for example, despite the government’s implementation of the
International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) strict "structural
adjustment program" over the last 10 years, there are today
more poor people and greater unemployment here than in 1990. Despite
the promises of free trade and structural adjustment packages,
hunger is increasing among the poorer nations of the world.
In this context, some of our church’s partners have given
us a kind of "Queen Esther challenge." Esther, as you
recall, was the young Jewish girl who was chosen by King Ahasuerus
of Persia to be his queen. When an evil court official tricked
the king into delivering the people of Israel into his hand to
be exterminated, queen Esther’s uncle Mordecai convinced
her to use her God-given influence to save her people: "Who
knows? Perhaps you have come to royal position for just such a
time as this…" (Esther 4:14). Esther knew that faithfulness,
for her, meant using the power God had given her to save her sisters
and brothers from death.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), as the wealthiest (per capita)
church in the wealthiest nation in the world, possesses remarkable
influence and power among leaders of congress and U.S. State Department
officials, multinational corporation board members and journalists,
and IMF and World Bank officials. Some of our church’s international
partners are challenging us to be as good stewards of our power
and influence as we are of our financial resources. To dare to
see the relationship between our increasing national wealth and
most of the world’s increasing poverty. To dare to use the
power God has given us to save many women, children, and men from
death by hunger.
Joining Hands Against Hunger
The Presbyterian Hunger Program is responding to this "Queen
Esther challenge" by supporting a small number of national
churches and grassroots organizations in India, Bangladesh, Peru,
Bolivia, Egypt, Palestine, Nigeria, Cameroon, Lesotho, and South
Africa as they organize "Joining Hands Against Hunger"
networks to provide a common and coordinated response to the causes
of the increased hunger and unemployment that have accompanied
the globalization of their national economies. Participating presbyteries
of the PC(USA) are paired with a national grassroots network (which
might include, for example, the Presbyterian church of that nation
and several small, community-based organizations dedicated to
fighting poverty) for a four-year pilot period. Presbyteries are
invited to send people to accompany the churches and organizations
and learn about the causes of poverty from their perspective.
Already, Eastern Oklahoma, Greater Atlanta, Abingdon, San Francisco,
and Sacramento Presbyteries have joined the effort. The results
can be life-changing.
I once met a woman from North Carolina whose life had been transformed
through encounters with economically poor, but spiritually rich,
persons in Ghana and the Congo. She had found the courage to allow
the poor to transform her into an informed, untiring advocate
for justice in a way that humbled me, and inspires me to this
day. I dream of a day very soon when many Presbyterian women will
accept the "Queen Esther challenge" and allow themselves
to be transformed by the poor to work for justice from "inside
the palace." The potential blessing for all of us—rich
and poor—is truly beyond our wildest dreams. Won’t you
join us?
With you in Christ,
Hunter and Ruth Farrell
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