“¡Presente!”

“¡Presente!” Here I am in my first hours in Douglas, Arizona, standing on the Pan-American Highway, which leads directly to the port of entry at Douglas and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico.

“Jesús González,” the person next to me shouts from the sidewalk to everybody and nobody at the same time. “¡Presente!” we respond in unison.

It’s my turn. I grab a splintery white cross from the shopping cart and carry it to the next spot on the sidewalk. I read out what is written on the cross in faded black marker: Agustina Lopez, born 08-09-75, died 12-7-02.

In response, all cry, “¡Presente!” And then, a moment of silence, as I consider the life of this young woman, only four years older than me at the time of her death, crossing the desert in Cochise County, Arizona. Her story is far from my personal reality, yet is in line with the stories of so many others. An economic crisis and the need for jobs; the separation of families; the construction of a physical border, a fence, a wall between “them” and “us.” Hope found and hope lost as the number of deaths in the desert continues to rise.

So we gather on the Pan-American Highway to pray. All human beings deserve a face. All deserve a name. With this belief, my year as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) began.

I now work as the U.S.-side coordinator at the Migrant Resource Center in Agua Prieta. A quick tour of this binational life: crossing items over the border both ways (all legal, I promise); feeling like an aunt, a big sister, or a parent at times; being interrogated by customs and immigrations officers; learning to cook; finding joy in little things like riding a bike on a chilly, sunny afternoon; discovering the depths of sadness; confronting injustice; being denied hospitality; extending my own hospitality; failure and success.

My YAV experience isn’t about placing Band-Aids on weighty and complex issues. It is about creating relationships binationally. If you ask me about my experience, I can almost promise you I’ll talk about relationships. What gives me life? Relationships give me life.

Leisha Jo Reynolds is serving as a Young Adult Volunteer with Frontera de Cristo, a Presbyterian Border Ministry.

Listen to the Radio

La Oroya, Peru, an Andean mountain town, is one of the ten most polluted cities in the world according to the Blacksmith Institute, an international environmental group.

A Saint Louis University study found that 97 percent of children under the age of six in La Oroya have lead poisoning, some with levels so high they cannot be measured. Lead exposure can cause brain damage, hyperactivity, kidney and liver problems, seizures, and severe pain in children.

Funds from the Pentecost Offering have helped to recruit and train forty young “community journalists” (aged 16–25) in La Oroya to write and broadcast stories about care of the environment, health, peace education, and human rights. These are the areas identified by youth focus groups as needing community-based discussion.

Radio broadcasts by these young periodistas comunitarios are helping the local population and authorities get access to accurate, impartial scientific data so they can make the best choices for their families and community.

Allen Park Presbyterian Church in Allen Park, Michigan, has committed to forming a lasting relationship with the people of La Oroya in their continuing fight against environmental contamination by a U.S.-owned smelter company.

In April 2007, Kirk Miller, then the youth pastor at Allen Park, traveled to La Oroya with 35 teenagers from his youth group. The purpose of the trip was to engage the young people of La Oroya in dialogue, to experience their culture, and to better understand their environmental suffering.

Partnered with Peruvian youth, the Allen Park youth painted a mural, gave interviews on the radio, met with the mayor in the town hall, composed a song, and presented a play and photography exposition in the coliseum.

To learn more about the children of La Oroya and the ongoing ecumenical effort to alleviate their suffering, search online using the key words “La Oroya” and “environmental contamination.”

A Dream of Living Water

The YANG’AT Girl-Child Sensitization Group is a grassroots organization in northwestern Kenya and eastern Uganda devoted to the empowerment and education of girls and women. It was founded by a group of young, educated Pokot women who were concerned about the plight of the girl-children in their tribe. YANG’AT conducts educational seminars on the dangers of female genital mutilation, advocates for the education of girls, and sets up water access points for Pokot tribal communities.

When the dry season comes, Pokot families leave their homes with their cattle in search of water. This constant cycle of moving keeps children, especially girls, from going to school. A Pokot girl may walk up to 20km per day to fetch water for her family, getting up before sunrise and returning in mid-afternoon with a heavy can filled with water balanced on her head.

With the help of the tribal community, YANG’AT builds subsurface dams to create sustainable water access points. The equation is simple: if girls don't have to walk as far to gather water, they will have time for school, and educated girls are far less likely to be subjected to early marriage and circumcision. Easier access to water also benefits adult women. With more time, they can start small businesses and generate income for their families in other ways.

A woman named Grace sets out to fetch water every day at 5 a.m. and doesn’t return until 2 p.m. “We only have enough water for cooking to eat once a day and bathe once every two weeks,” says Grace. “I wish the water was near so I could wash and do other activities. I want all my children to be healthy and go to school.”

Once the dam is built, Grace and the rest of the community will begin to realize their dreams with the help of living water.

Micah McCoy is working as a Young Adult Volunteer in Nairobi, Kenya, through the World Mission unit of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). His placement is with Church World Service. The Pentecost Offering makes the YAV program possible.

A Circle of Generosity

“When you send forth your spirit ... you renew the face of the ground.” Psalm 104:30

Generosity begets generosity, the result of which can turn out to be more than we had ever imagined.

At the 2007 Presbyterian Youth Triennium, which is supported by the Pentecost Offering, young people and their adult youth leaders were invited to leave donations as they left worship. These donations would go toward disaster assistance efforts of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Triennium leadership thought the offering could raise from $10,000 to as much as $15,000. When the final count was made, the gathered faithful had donated over $22,000!

The portion of the offering that came to the PC(USA) helped establish a partnership between the Office of Ministries with Youth and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to create youth work villages in the Gulf region. This summer congregations can send young people and adults to work side by side in the still-devastated areas of Louisiana and Mississippi.

This is the circle of generosity: your Pentecost Offering helped provide a national event for young people. The young people came and gave of their time and money. Their gifts of money are allowing others to serve the Lord in mission. This mission will “renew the face of the ground” in the Gulf region.

Kids 4 Kids

Based on our own daily reality, we may take many things regarding children for granted. In the comfortable world that most of us inhabit, children are fed nourishing food, are dressed warmly in winter, are loved and protected. If asked, we would say without hesitation that every child has the right to live with basic human dignity in a safe and nurturing environment.

So where do we stand when confronted with the reality of children who are the daily victims of scarcity, abuse, neglect, environmental disaster, and human greed? It is difficult to imagine, much less confront, such issues.

The new Kids 4 Kids Web site, launched this year by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), offers us a place to start. It puts valuable information and tools right into the hands of those who have the intellect and energy to make a difference—our kids. Who can better grasp them than the amazing and brilliant people currently sporting those pint-sized bodies?

Kids 4 Kids is filled with meaningful stories, interactive games, and practical tools to address the complex issues that kids face today.

Kids 4 Kids is based on these principles of survival, development, protection, and participation:
Kids have the right to grow up healthy.
Kids have the right to clean water.
Kids have the right to good food.
Kids have the right to have a safe and comfortable home.
Kids have the right to be able to get health care.
Kids have the right to be kids.
Kids have the right to have time.
Kids have the right to play.
Kids have the right to go to school.
Kids have the right to be safe.
Kids have the right to love and care.
Kids have the right to be safe from being hurt.
Kids have the right to be safe from work that might hurt them.
Kids have the right not to be held back by a disabling condition.
Kids have the right to be safe from war and fighting.
Kids have the right to be heard.
Kids have the right to have a name and a nationality.
Kids have the right to be able to express themselves.
Kids have the right to live a good life.

“The right to live a good life.” Now that’s an idea we can all get behind. Go to Kids 4 Kids Web site and see how you and your kids can make a difference.

“Hope Is in Our Midst”

On the Friday evening of the 2007 Presbyterian Youth Triennium, 4,500 Presbyterian youth and youth leaders met to participate in a worship service designed to be a time of prayer ... a vigil of hope. Led by worship leader MarkYaconelli, the young people came together at the large hillside amphitheater on the Purdue University campus.

The band began with songs chosen to calm and center the youth in a posture of prayer. One by one young people from around the globe began to speak to God about their hopes for peace and healing. Youth from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), freshmen, seniors, young women and men took their turns at the microphone. The congregation, seated on the grass in bright green Triennium T-shirts, began slowly, ever so slowly, to settle down. Invited by Yaconelli to think of the faces of love in their lives, the young people began to still themselves. Encouraged to think of their church as the place of light in the dark world and of their call to be the church just as much as the adults in their lives, the young people began to offer their prayers from wherever they sat or lay. Small circles of praying teenagers filled the space. Mark Yaconelli and worship leaders looked on with wonder.

And then a single flame of light made its way up the hillside, that one light igniting the candles in the hands of the large crowd of young people. They, a part of this church, loved by this church, supported even on this hillside by this church, lifted their candles in small circles of prayerful hope. The light shone in the darkness. And hope followed it.

By giving to the Pentecost Offering, you too were a part of that hillside vigil of hope. Your generous donation helped bring over 4,000 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) young people together. Your action also served to remind them of how much they are loved by this church and by our God. Thank you!