September 2006

We’re On the Ground in Ghana!

Glen and Jacob pose with "Presby McPhil" at the First Presbyterian Church of Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, while visiting nearby Big Run Presbyterian Church. It's the February 2nd ground hog thing.

What a warm and wonderful welcome to Accra! British Airways did an exemplary job of getting us where we needed to be in a fine manner, except for every single piece of luggage that we had checked, which came four days later. But after having lived out of them for about ten weeks we weren’t terribly disappointed, until we found out we had two major meetings to attend in the first three days—The Presbyterian Church of Ghana’s 5th Annual General Assembly Meeting and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church’s 65th General Synod meeting.

All in all however, it really wasn’t that difficult to manage after the kind of encouragement and support we had received over the course of our almost ten weeks of Interpretation Assignment this summer. We had an absolutely wonderful time meeting with pastors, congregational members, and friends that had been a part of our lives for 20 or more years, as well as those whom the Lord has only more recently brought into our lives. We had a great time at the PC(USA) Mission Sharing Conference visiting with long lost mission co-worker friends, and ended our time in the States with one week of uninterrupted family time in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula at the family lake house — no television, limited email access, and ample fishing (17 largemouth bass, 15”-19”), canoeing, and walking in the forest.

Two things stood out for us above everything else, however. One was the support and encouragement that we received from those with whom we were able to visit. We need to publicly acknowledge the incredible welcome we received from South Carolina to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Folks welcomed us into their homes, fed us, prayed with and for us, listened to our stories, asked great questions, fed us some more (we are Presbyterian), prayed with us some more and were more than happy to help us try to come to terms with some of the strangeness that we experienced. I’m still not sure I understand the point of “reality TV”.

The other thing that stood out was the hungering in so many congregations for some sort of personal connection with missionaries. It was humbling to consider the task before us. So many were eager to hear a good word. And everyone we talked to felt that what they heard was indeed good news. We attempted to explain how the mission funding system was working and not working in the denomination, but the bottom line was that very few were concerned with the ins and outs. Folks just wanted to know how they could better interact with us as their missionaries. And so I’m including some ideas here that you can apply to most any PC(USA) mission co-worker with whom you might connect.

Pray for them/us—find out what the prayer concerns are and by all means share your prayer concerns. Actively pray and let us know that you are praying. We have prayer partners for whom we pray each day of the month. Want to know more? Write prayer@hallead.org or contact your chosen missionary.

Put up a bulletin board on your favorite missionary and have someone assigned to keep it up-to-date. Bug the missionary for updated pictures and information. We love to receive these requests.

Write to your missionary. Have folks take turns. One of our favorite congregations (you know who you are) hasn’t missed one of our birthdays or anniversaries in about five years. We count on those cards as a great sign of support.

Financially support your missionary. “Where your treasure lies …” Mission funding within the PC(USA) is increasingly limited. No one but Presbyterians support Presbyterian Mission.

You can use ECO # 132192 and simply follow that with the name of your chosen missionary (i.e. Glen and Carol Hallead) to ensure that your gift is credited appropriately. Mail the check (with that number and name on the memo line) to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Church Remittance Processing, PO Box 643678, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3678. (Individual contributors should substitute: Individual Remittance Processing, PO Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.)

Many of us, including the Halleads, are raising funds for a vehicle. Ours has already been purchased and we need to pay that money back so that others may get an advance to purchase their vehicles. Our ECO number for the vehicle is ECO #053501 - West Africa Liaison Vehicle Project. Mail the check to the same Pittsburgh drop box address. Gifts sent in this fashion are most often credited within one week. Pretty slick.

ECO #051606 – West Africa Regional Liaison is a new account established to help provide funding for the travel that needs to be done here in West Africa. Travel in West Africa is expensive. It costs more to fly from Accra, Ghana to Nairobi Kenya, than from Chicago, Illinois to Bangkok, Thailand. These funds will help provide us with the ability to do the work to which we are called.

More information is available on the Mission Funding Web site.

If all of this sounds like a shameless attempt to raise support, it should. It is. We want to raise support for mission, for ourselves and others like us. People asked us this summer “How do we support you?” This is, in part, our answer. Our term is up in 2008. Our ability to remain in the field is in your hands. Over the next two years we need to turn the funding situation around. And we believe we will, because of the hope, the encouragement, the interest, and the commitments we received this summer from you and people a lot like you. We’re excited about the future of Presbyterian Missions. Won’t you join us?

Glen

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 122