February 5, 2004

E-newsletter #3

Friends,

No, the creature in the picture is not native to South Africa. This snow bear was constructed on a mountain near Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, where we completed the second half of our orientation program on January 31. We are now officially appointed as mission co-workers of the PC(USA), assigned to the Joining Hands Against Hunger (JHAH) connection with partners in South Africa.

Future avenues of financial support include:

• Directed Mission Support (as a designated portion of GA mission giving allocated by sessions each year): Gifts to account # D506580 will help the denomination support us in the field. For a free copy of the Directed Mission Support Book 2003 call Presbyterian Distribution Service toll free at (800) 524-2612 and request # 68-700-04-050.
• Contributions to our ministry may be sent to: Central Receiving Service, Section 300, Louisville, KY 40289. Write the title (Joining Hands Against Hunger - South Africa) and the Designated Account number on the subject line (#H000109) of the check and put it on your cover letter, too. Send a copy of the cover letter to the Presbyterian Hunger Program at 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396. Or click here.
• Funds to support the educational and advocacy work of the JHAH Mission Group in the Presbytery of the Western Reserve may be sent to Presbytery of Western Reserve, 2800 Euclid, Cleveland, OH 44115.

We are leaving Ohio on February 10 and hope to be settled into a new home in South Africa by the end of March. Exactly where we will live and what our specific responsibilities will be are unresolved matters still to be negotiated with the JHAH partners in South Africa. Lionel Derenoncourt, from the Presbyterian Hunger Program Office in Louisville, is planning to join us in South Africa later this month to begin to sort out these and other issues with the JHAH SA partner network.

This prayer from Holden Village in Chelan, Washington, is in our hearts as we depart:

O Lord God, who has called us, your servants,
to ventures of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths as yet untrodden, and through perils unknown;
Give us faith to go out with good courage,
not knowing where we go,
but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us. Amen.

Susanne and Ken