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November 18, 2007
Friends,
Hello from Louisville, where each day the trees drop their leaves, saying goodbye to the work of summer and opening new vistas as they relax into rest. We are surprised to be speared by sunlight glinting off the little stream at the foot of our hill; we hadn’t seen it since spring! The nights are cool, and we hear the last, persistent crickets through the open windows while we fall asleep under the quilt Bruce’s mother made.
Over our last few letters, we have focused on family rather than on work. We were in the middle of preparing for Mission Challenge ’07, and working toward October without much to talk about except for phone calls and emails and airplane reservations. So we took advantage of that time to re-introduce our family.
But now it’s time to report on MC’07. Whew! Since Lora was the team leader for the 18 months of planning, she bore the brunt of the stress and sleepless nights as we finally came down to the actual event, and she was the one who carried her cell phone non-stop throughout October. But emergency calls were few, and the speakers were blessed with good health (mostly) and safe travel (always). From orientation (held in conjunction with Mission Celebration ’07, a conference which hosted 600 people here in Louisville), through four weeks of travel to different hosts around the country, to the final debriefing conference before the speakers returned home, the entire month was uplifting and inspiring and filled with grace.
The statistics are impressive: 48 speakers, 144 host presbyteries, 1,000 local venues, 1400 separate presentations, and 50,000 listeners to stories of PC(USA) mission around the world. We are grateful for those measures of success. But more important for us have been the comments that have flooded into our office. Not all of them have been positive. “We didn’t have enough advance communication!” “Our DVD didn’t work!” “Why didn’t you include….?” “You forgot to…!” We accept those comments as constructive criticism. After all, we were making this up as we went, along with the entire MC ’07 team, and we make no claim that it was perfect.
But the responses were overwhelmingly positive. We wish that you could sit in our office and read them all! The hosts say:
- “No one knew that the Presbyterian Church has been in missions for 170 years—what a wonderful heritage!”
- “This was a way to encourage the small churches to continue to look for ways they can work missions into their budgets and into their corporate lives.”
- “Thank you for the vision and work to put together Mission Challenge ’07. In my 31 years of parish ministry I have never seen this much excitement and engagement with our PC(USA) missionaries.”
- “Even those who were ‘down’ on the denomination were able to say, ‘If this is the type of missionary we have in the field, I want to support that!’”
- “Our missionary was an articulate and winsome speaker/preacher. He shared in a compelling way the ministry he has been called to. He provided a positive, engaging image of Presbyterian mission and missionaries.”
- “She is a tremendous person, dedicated servant of the Lord—it was an honor and blessing to us all!”
- “His presentation was theologically positive, carried a strong biblical theme. He also shared openly the challenges for his family living in the mission field as well as the joys for him and his family.”
And the speakers, even through their fatigue, said:
- “It was a privilege to be a part of it and has increased my passion for World Mission and my appreciation for the local congregation. Phenomenal opportunity and I hope that it is done again.”
- “I am so thankful for the experience of being and doing in and among our congregations. Of course my gratitude to God somehow ‘holds’ my gratitude to each of you. God is good, indeed.”
- “Linda said it right: bold. I would add risky, difficult, and daring, but still a kick in the pants.”
- “What a wonderful success story for Mission Challenge! I am humbled that God used me in such a powerful way. Wow!”
We agree. “Thankful.” “Difficult and daring.” “Wow!” On behalf of the Presbyterian World Mission team, thank you for your support of Mission Challenge ’07, and thank you also for your support of the two of us through these very busy months.
We have now received about $25,000 in yearly pledges for our new call to Ethiopia starting next August. We appreciate each individual and congregation that has pledged that support, and we are grateful (and a little amazed!) that people will just promise us money to go to Africa and teach! Thanks so much to those of you who have joined in our support! On the other hand, we admit that we are very aware that we are only one-fourth of the way to the fundraising goal, and some days we are anxious about whether it will all actually be pledged. Please hold this as a prayer concern, both that the needed funds will be pledged and that the two of us will be at peace with the long process of waiting.
We wish you clear vistas, homemade quilts on cool nights, and the rest that comes after good work.
Love and peace,
Lora and Bruce
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer &
Study, p. 261 |
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