07506
August 15, 2007

New PC(USA) mission workers appointed

Missionaries will serve in China, Indonesia, Sudan and Thailand

by Catherine Cottingham
World Mission Communications Volunteer
and Pat Cole
World Mission Communications Associate

LOUISVILLE — Five new Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission personnel have recently begun international service or will leave the U.S. in coming weeks.

In July four completed an orientation program in Louisville and in Chicago, where they joined mission workers from other denominations for training at McCormick Theological Seminary/Lutheran  School of Theology. A fifth appointee, the Rev. Debbie Blane, is preparing for her assignment in the English as a Second Language Diploma program at St. Michael’s College in Burlington, VT.

Blane, an ordained PC(USA) minister, will serve as an English teacher with the Amity

Foundation, teaching at the China Pharmaceutical College in Nanjing. She previously worked at Trinity Lutheran College in Issaquah, WA, as assistant to the Biblical Studies Department, where she did pastoral care, mentoring, and vocational counseling for pre-seminary students. In the summer of 2005 she was an ecumenical accompanier with the World Council of Churches in Israel/Palestine.

Blane earned an M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary’s Seattle campus and a bachelor’s in Biblical studies from Trinity Lutheran College. She was ordained to the ministry in September 2002 and is the mother of two adult children, Andrew and Elizabeth.

Brett and Shelly Faucett and daughters Acacia Joy and Annapurna Nai

Brett and Shelly Faucett will serve as regional consultants for health and HIV/AIDS in South Asia, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Most recently Brett, a registered nurse, was on the staff of Hoag Presbyterian Hospital in Newport Beach, CA. He is a graduate of Maric College. Brett and Shelly served for two years with the Peace Corps in Moldova. Shelly, a graduate of the University of California at San Diego, has had special training in teaching English as a Second Language and has worked as a literacy specialist as well as an ESL teacher with the Peace Corps.

The Faucetts are members of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, CA, and will be accompanied by two daughters, Acacia Joy, 6, and Annapurna Nai, soon to be 4. Their position has been funded through the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands.

Ingrid Reneau will serve as an education officer in Sudan in partnership with the Presbyterian Church of Sudan, the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, and the Association of Christian Resource Organizations Serving Sudan, She will help implement plans to expand the church-sponsored school system, improve its administrative capabilities, and strengthen its teaching methodologies. Reneau has taught at several colleges, including the City College of San Francisco and the University of South Carolina, has written articles for academic journals, and has a book in progress. She is a member of Shiloh Christian Fellowship, an interdenominational church in Oakland, CA.

A graduate of Hunter College in New York City, Reneau earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Her position in Sudan also has been funded through the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands.

The Rev. Rebecca Young

The Rev. Rebecca (Becca) Young, an ordained PC(USA) minister, will teach systematic theology at Jakarta Theological Seminary, Jakarta, Indonesia.  Most recently she has been a liaison for tsunami recovery on the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance staff.  Earlier she served as the interim pastor of Nacoochee Presbyterian Church, Sautee-Nacoochee, GA, and taught at Piedmont College. She also has been a nutrition consultant for Church World Service in Indonesia. 

A graduate of the College of William and Mary, Young has an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary and a doctorate from Fordham University in contemporary systematic theology. She also holds two other master's degrees, one in philosophy and another in public health and nutrition. 

In addition to the new PC(USA) appointees, Carmen Goetschius, who is being sent to Zambia by Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, participated in the orientation. She is the congregation’s first Global Ministry Fellow, a program funded by a congregational gift given through the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands.

Goetschius is to be ordained August 15 at her home church, University Presbyterian Church in Seattle. She will spend one year in Zambia.