August 30, 2007
Englewood, Florida

Dear Friends in Christ,

Greetings to you all, this time from hot and sunny Florida!

August has been a very busy month for the Fratea and Griffin Family. Early in the month, I had exams and thesis defenses at the University Institute, ISEDET, while my husband, Daniel, was busy making sure everything was in order in the congregation he pastors, as well as finishing up some projects at home to make sure our house would be secure while we are away these six months here in the States. Please keep my colleagues and students at ISEDET and the congregation my husband serves in your prayers while we are traveling so far away from them.

We flew out of Buenos Aires on August 8, arriving in Sarasota the next day. Then we flew to Louisville, Kentucky, for the missionary sharing conference from the 13th to the 20th. Back in Florida now, we have been trying to get our bearings, looking for a car, getting to know Peace River Presbytery, looking for a preschool program for Noelia, and financing to fund it.

I think we can now start settling into a more or less normal rhythm now. I would like to share with you some of the excitement that was in the air during sharing conference in Louisville. We were some 30 mission co-workers and our families back in the States from where were are serving around the world. I was deeply impressed with the quality of people that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is sending into the world to minister the good news of Jesus Christ. We are doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, actors, writers, pastors, theologians, and more. We have the privilege of sharing in ministry with partner churches and organizations who strive to minister with excellence in the midst of sometimes trying situations. The Reverend Donald and Laurie Marsden and family are working with unreached people groups in northern Siberia. They have to travel by snowmobile or by reindeer sleds to get to the villages they visit to distribute literature that Russian Christians from a variety of denominations translate into the various dialects. Dr. Sue Makin is an obstetrician and gynecologist who works hard to reduce maternal mortality rates in southern Malawi. I wish I could share a bit of each of the stories I heard with all of you.

If ever you, or your children, are looking for interesting things to look at on the Internet, check us all out on the Mission Connections Web site. If this does not get you excited about Presbyterian World Mission, let the folks at Mission Connections know, and they will give you more ideas about how to pray with passion with our Christian brothers and sisters around the world and learn how to get involved.

October 2007 will be a month of opportunities to learn more about Presbyterian World Mission. In a denomination-wide effort called Mission Challenge ’07, 47 PC(USA) missionaries will spend a week sharing the stories of our ministries in 143 presbyteries. That is more than 80 percent of our presbyteries.

We hope to put speakers in 700 churches that month to share the news that every day, in your name, lives are being saved, wells are being dug, hope is being shared, and the gospel is being taught in creative ways with people in need all around the world.

I will be itinerating in the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery from October 6 – 11 for Mission Challenge ’07. For the rest of my interpretation assignment, I will be in the Peace River Presbytery, and if time allows, I could also visit churches in neighboring presbyteries here in Florida.

Another part of Mission Challenge ’07 is an appeal to every individual congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to support missionaries like me.

In mid-September a letter will be sent to the pastors and clerks of session in all 10,884 churches in our denomination. This will alert them of the appeal for support that is coming in early October.

During the first week of October, a box will arrive in every church with bulletin inserts equal to the church’s average Sunday attendance. The inserts include a call to action, inviting all to participate in mission by praying faithfully and giving generously. A DVD featuring our new director, Hunter Farell, accompanies these inserts. It contains two brief but compelling videos that bring to life a representative sample of our missionaries.

We cannot send a missionary to every church this October. Find out if your Presbytery is hosting a missionary for a week in October, and sign up for a chance to meet her or him and hear about Presbyterian World Mission. If the missionary’s schedule is already filled, perhaps a group from your congregation can travel together to a nearby church at a time when the missionary will be speaking.

If no one from your congregation will be able to hear a mission speaker firsthand, and even if they will, urge your congregation’s leaders to participate in Mission Challenge ’07 by choosing a Sunday to view the DVD during the minute for mission in worship service and distribute the bulletin inserts.

Will you support and encourage your church’s participation in Mission Challenge ’07?

God be with and bless you.

Yours in Christ’s service,

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 39