Foothills Presbytery
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| So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19). In 2004, members of Foothills Presbytery in upstate South Carolina were graced by the awareness of “strangers” in their midst. Hispanic persons prepared fast food, landscaped lawns and golf courses, and, as members learned, worked in the chicken processing plants tucked away in the region. These persons were present, yet separated by an invisible wall, a language barrier. The presbytery’s demographic study showed the facts: Hispanics were the fastest growing segment of the population in the six counties of the presbytery.
Who were they? Where did they come from? What were their needs? How could the presbytery welcome these strangers, be in ministry with them, reach out to them? The presbytery had many questions, but not many answers. A restructuring formed the new Cultural Context Team, charged with learning and sharing information. Led by the Spirit, this team took bold steps and requested funds to call a staff person fluent in Spanish to lead a one-year probe into the Hispanic community. That person, Mark Curtis, had graduated from Furman University in Greenville and spent six months at Frontera de Cristo on the Mexico-Arizona border. Upon coming to Foothills, he quickly began to make contacts in the growing Hispanic community and among churches and agencies already reaching out to Hispanics. John Calvin Presbyterian Church at Berea, into whose neighborhood many Hispanics had moved, opened its doors to the Hispanic ministry probe. Soon after the probe began, the presbytery began to consider a Hispanic new church development and began laying the foundation by learning all it could from the experiences of other presbyteries. Foothills was captured by the vision and opportunity for new mission at its doorstep and the possibility of welcoming the stranger, as Jesus had urged his followers to do. Foothills Presbytery has 67 congregations and 23,047 members. |
 Presbytery Staff George G. Wilkes III, executive presbyter and stated clerk William P. Lancaster, Jr., associate, mission Mary Morrison, associate, education Jonathan Sherrod, outdoors ministries director Sandy Sharpe, administrative secretary Sandra Gipson, financial secretary Sabra Smith, office secretary PC(USA) General Assembly Staff Diane Dulaney, MSS Catherine F. Duncan, CMD Amelia Dye, BOP |
 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Cor. 13:3). |
 Ps. 22, 105, 130, 148 Exod. 2:1–22 1 Cor. 12:27—13:3; Mark 9:2–13 |
