December 2004

Hurricane and hope

We left Kingston mid-morning. After several hours, a couple of missed turns and numerous conversations in Jamaican patois with folks along the road, we reached the church site. It was Saturday, and the congregation was out in force to continue cleaning up the debris that had been their church building.

The women picked through the remains, removing wood, piece by small piece. Men tied larger pieces to a rope and pulled them away from the site with a car. A man handed me a piece of an organ pipe. “Here, take this so you will remember the New Broughton Church. We had a big organ.”

Nothing, not even a hurricane, gets in the way of Jamaican hospitality. We accepted the offer of curried chicken with rice and peas and heard a few more Ivan stories. The lay pastor had refused to let people from the community take shelter in the church building. Angry folks who believed they would be safer in a church than elsewhere had become verbally abusive. “Imagine if she had let them in,” congregation members said, “how many would have died!”

A few more kilometers and we arrived at a desolate building with windowpanes missing, doors off their hinges, and big chunks of roof missing. Inside, the floors were buckling and the paint was peeling. It was hard to believe that just weeks ago it was home to 15 men in a unique ministry that prepares men to “return to the world” at the end of serving long prison terms.

The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is facing the enormous task of repairing or rebuilding some 80 properties damaged or destroyed by Ivan, including sanctuaries, manses, church halls, schools, and ministry centers. And this is so even though Jamaica was spared the brunt of the hurricane.

Grenada, on the other hand, received a direct hit from Hurricane Ivan. The devastation was overwhelming on this tiny island with a Presbyterian Church of three congregations and one pastor. The landmark St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in historic St. Georges was destroyed. The other two churches and the pastor’s home also suffered damage.

The Rev. Osbert James writes from Grenada: “Almost all of our membership has been affected by the hurricane. Some in more ways than one: business owners who suffered damage at home and had their work place looted. Many members lost their roofs, and one elder lost his home entirely.”

Giving opportunities

For on-line giving go to http://www.pcusa.org/give/online/default.jsp. Checks, payable to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), may be given through your local congregation, or mailed directly to:

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Individual Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700

Please write the account number and description on all checks.

Caribbean Disaster Response - #9-2000166
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance joins with other church agencies to make humanitarian assistance available where it is most needed. To give on-line, click the button below.

Grenada rebuilding; Jamaica rebuilding - #E864600
Support for repair and reconstruction of church buildings. To give on-line, click the button below.

Mission Worker Salary Support - #D051686
Due to budget constraints at the General Assembly, mission workers are now asked to raise at least a portion of their salary through "Directed Mission Support." This kind of giving is not meant for individuals. It's a way for congregations of the PC(USA) to designate support for projects (or people) that they feel especially drawn to. For more information, get a copy of the "Directed Mission Support Resource Guide 2005," PDS#68700-05-050, by calling the Presbyterian Distribution Service at (800) 524-2612. Or order a free copy at http://pcusa.org/marketplace. If you need help, call the Mission Funding and Development Office at (888) 728-7228 x5659.

PC(USA) Caribbean Mission Network

With Haiti as the significant exception, the PC(USA) works in mission with Caribbean church partners largely through the Caribbean and North American Council for Mission (CANACOM). CANACOM has Presbyterian and Reformed member churches from Guyana, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Curacao, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the United States and Canada.

There are many PC(USA) congregations and individuals with ties to one or more churches in the Caribbean. Numerous others would welcome opportunities to know Caribbean Christian colleagues and join with them in mission endeavors.

I am inviting those with interest in Caribbean churches to allow me to add their names to a contact list to receive occasional updates about mission partnerships, activities, and opportunities in the Caribbean region. Interested? If so, please send me your email and postal mail address.

New resources

Special Offer
I have twenty copies of Vol. 1, No. 1 of a journal, Development: Journal for Ministry and Mission to give away. It is a special issue on “Christian Mission Studies in the Caribbean: Prospects and Challenges for the 21st Century.” Development is published bi-annually by the Institute for Theological and Leadership Development, an educational initiative of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. I’ll send a copy free of charge to the first 20 persons who ask for it!

Cuba: A Resource for Presbyterians
One of my projects this year is a resource on Cuba produced by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and the Worldwide Ministries Division. This colorful 12-page introduction to Cuban history, current issues, and the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba is now available for $.50 each or 3 for $1.00.

Specify PDS#70-270-04-009 when ordering at (800) 524-2612 (9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., EST). It should soon be available on-line at http://www.pcusa.org/marketplace/index.jsp.

Cuba Symposium: Biblical-Theological Foundations of Partnership
Twenty years after the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) signed the “Mutual Mission Agreement,” 24 persons from the two churches gathered to reflect together on the Biblical-theological bases for mission partnership. This book contains the papers and responses delivered at the symposium in Spanish and English.

Specify PDS#74-280-04-005 when ordering at 800-524-2612 (9 am – 7 pm, ET) or on-line at http://www.pcusa.org/marketplace/index.jsp.

Finally, I want to let you know that my first term as a mission co-worker ends with a three-month “interpretation assignment.” I am available to come to your church or presbytery to speak during March, April, or May of 2005. Let me know if you are interested!

Warm greetings for a blessed Advent and Christmastide,

Tricia

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 5