February 11, 2008

Dear Partners in Christ’s service,

Have you ever experienced a long-term mission “partnership” or, even better, a deep ongoing mission “friendship?” In November, 2007, I represented the PC(USA) at the First Ecumenical Missionary Congress of the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC) during which we celebrated the 25th anniversary of  CONIC. The meeting was exciting enough because, in Brazil, to have Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Orthodox, and Presbyterians join in dialogue about mission is an extraordinary feat. I was especially proud of the strong presence and leadership of our partner, the United Presbyterian Church of Brazil. But my joy was made complete when I encountered my dear Cuban friend, Carlos Emilio Ham, who was representing the World Council of Churches. The meal we shared was truly a sacred moment of breaking bread and fellowship in the global body of Christ.

I first met Carlos Emilio in 1998 at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary where I was teaching. He was completing his Doctor of Ministry degree. He was the stated clerk of our partner church, the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba. Our friendship was born, which led to team-teaching a course called “Solidarity and Mutuality: A New Paradigm for Mission” in Cuba in 1999. One of the results was that my heart was passionately opened to that church and country. My interaction with the Cuban church was energizing, inspiring, and challenging. It was a joy to celebrate Carlos’ graduation in Austin with his wonderful family.

When Carlos received an invitation from the World Council of Churches to be its secretary of mission and evangelism, which meant his moving to Geneva, I encouraged him to serve the global church with his gifts and Latin American enthusiasm. It was not easy for Carlos and Tania, with their children Frida, Emil, and Patricia, to leave their families and the tropical paradise of Cuba to move to Geneva, but they heard God’s call and obeyed.

In 2006, when the World Council of Churches held its Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Carlos invited me to give a workshop on evangelism and social justice with a Catholic priest from Tanzania who teaches in Switzerland. During that Assembly, the translation of my book Called as Partners in Christ’s Service in Spanish was released with a forward written by Carlos.

During the WCC Assembly, Maria Arroyo and I had breakfast one day with Carlos. He told us about a Global Christian Forum that the WCC was holding in Santiago in 2007 and invited us to it.

When we arrived at the forum in Santiago on a frigid June day, there was Carlos in a beautiful Andean poncho in the middle of a circle of over 60 Latin American participants from WCC member churches and their Roman Catholic and Pentecostal dialogue partners. He asked everyone to clap their hands together once. Cacophony. Then he periodically gave us a signal to clap again. With his leadership and patience, our claps finally became one. Carlos then invited each participant to share his or her testimony of coming to be one with Christ and with the whole Body of Christ. I sat there thinking how thankful I am to God to have a friend like Carlos Emilio, and what a blessing he is to the global Christian community.

Sherron George sharing a meal with her friends and mission partners, Carlos Ham and Valdice Naves.

Once I had a serendipitous encounter with Carlos at a meeting of the American Society of Missiology in Techny, Illinois, and he gave me a bar of amazingly delicious Swiss chocolate. I had no problem with the missional practice of receiving, and told him that I have a practice of praying for others when I partake of the gifts they share with me. I told him I would savor the chocolate one little piece a day with a prayer for him and his family. Since then, we have had an ongoing joke when he asks me to keep praying even when there is no Swiss chocolate, and I do. So when he sent me this photo after the meeting of CONIC, he said that even though he had no chocolate this time, he was sending me a gift of the photo which would last longer than chocolate. What lasts longer than anything is a mission friendship that unites members of the Body of Christ and churches from different countries and empowers us to join in God’s mission.

Maybe our mission friendships can inspire our countries and our conflicted world.

May God bless Carlos and his family and all members of the global church.

Your friend in Christ,

Sherron

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 255