Today in the Mission Yearbook - Taiwan has become a role model in fighting COVID-19

Mission co-worker says life is returning to near normal

January 31, 2021

Jonathan and Eli Seitz on the high-speed train to Tainan. (Photo by Emily Seitz)

Living relatively close to China with their three young children, Eva, Eli and Samuel, mission co-workers Jonathan and Emily Seitz feel comfortably safe in Taipei, Taiwan.

With only seven deaths in the entire country, Taiwan lifted many of its stringent restrictions on June 7, after the country had gone two straight months without a local transmission. The Seitzes are, however, worried about friends and family in the U.S.

“We see cases spiking in places we hold dear,” said Jonathan Seitz. “We’d mostly recently lived in New Jersey and saw at least three retired theological educators there die from COVID-19.”

Like most people, the Seitz family began hearing about the virus taking hold of Wuhan, China, in late January 2020. They were just returning to Taipei from a mission co-worker gathering in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

“When we came back to Taiwan, the airports were already on higher alert — using heat cameras to check temperatures, checking baggage, and doing surveys about travel with contact info. At this point we hadn’t yet learned the words ‘contact tracing,’ but Taiwan was working on it,” he said. “We later learned that when the Taiwanese CDC heard about the new flu in Wuhan, they had sent a team to do initial research at the end of December.”

While the U.S. has struggled significantly with stopping the spread of the virus, Taiwan has become a model for dealing with COVID-19.

“It was an education for us, because in many ways it showcased the best of Taiwan,” he said. “Taiwan is sometimes described as ‘technocratic,’ meaning it gives more credence to professionals and formal expertise. The president, Tsai Ing-Wen, is an economist, and her vice president was an epidemiologist.”

Taiwan was one step ahead because of its experience dealing with the SARS virus in 2003. Officials also were able to learn from preparing responses to subsequent threats like MERS and swine flu. As an island, Taiwan has limited points of entry, which is another advantage, as it has a population that is familiar with the need to increase mask production quickly, check temperatures, spray hands and enact contact tracing. Taiwan has a national health-care system that simplifies and nationalizes treatment for all its citizens.

“For us, all of this unfolded over several weeks,” said Seitz. “By the time our kids returned to school in early March they had been out of session for five weeks. At the time, we felt frustrated by the long break and the challenges of travel, grading, and class prep while the kids were with us. But in retrospect it was a window where Taiwan was able to ramp up its response.”

Churches in Taiwan also implemented specific interventions. Medium and large churches went online. Worshipers in small churches were allowed to continue meeting with masks and social distancing. Sunday schools and meals were generally canceled.

When the PC(USA) asked mission co-workers to return to the U.S., the Seitz family asked to shelter-in-place with the support of the PC(USA)’s global partner, the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan, with whom they have served since 2009. They were very concerned about traveling through multiple airports to reach the U.S. and staying with either of their elderly parents was not an option. They did, however, submit an updated emergency plan in case evacuating became necessary.

Jonathan, who teaches at the Taiwan Theological Seminary, did some online teaching briefly for his seminary classes and used Microsoft’s Teams at one school and Google’s Meet at another.

Jonathan teaches classes related to mission, religion and world Christianity. Most of his students are preparing for pastoral ministry. Taiwan Seminary traces its history to 1872. About a quarter of the students are first-generation Christians, while others trace their faith back five or six generations. Students are mostly ethnically Taiwanese, but there is also a mix of indigenous and international students.

Emily Seitz works in team ministry and has done a mix of things in Taiwan, including language study, a stint as a visiting scholar at Alethia University, and a mix of volunteering in libraries and Sunday schools.

Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Lee Catoe, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Devan Caton, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Dear God, open our ears, eyes and hearts to sense the possibilities all around us for mission and evangelism. Make us communities that sense needs and do everything in our power to meet them. In the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘What shall we tell them?’

Online Synod School is a virtual hoot. And, as always, it’s inspiring and thought-provoking

January 30, 2021

The Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka of Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas, spoke Monday to more than 300 Presbyterians meeting online for the first-ever virtual Synod School. (Photo courtesy of Village Presbyterian Church)

Having as much fun as they could via Zoom, more than 330 Presbyterians gathered from across the country and across borders for the opening night of Synod School recently. They were treated to a childhood faith story from the Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka and laughed with — not at — a Synod School mainstay, the Rev. Burns Stanfield and his online band of tie dye-clad musicians.

Stanfield, senior pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Boston, has, along with other members of his talented family, used the annual Synod of Lakes and Prairies weeklong event as a family reunion every summer.

Nishioka, senior associate and director of Educational Ministries at Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas, gave a talk built on the “What shall we tell them?” theme found in Psalm 78:4: “We will not hide them their children; we will tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and God’s might, and the wonders that God has done.”

In his book “Faith Shaping: Youth and the Experience of Faith,” Stephen Jones talks about two ways youth gain their faith, Nishioka said: through nearness and through directness.

The first way involves proximity to faithful people doing faithful things, from being present for Synod School and worship to watching people serve in missions around the world.

Directness, Nishioka said, are direct moments, the times we’re invited to talk directly about what it means to be faithful. Jones, a Southern Baptist, said Christians of his ilk “need to lighten up. We do directness over and over and over again,” Nishioka said. “How’s your walk with the Lord? Sometimes, just give it a rest.”

But for Presbyterians and others who mainly rely on faith development through nearness — practically through osmosis, Nishioka said — Jones urges the direct experience as well.

“It really is a combination of both,” Nishioka said. “What will we tell them? We will show it to them by being faithful people. There are moments when we need to be direct about our faith in Jesus Christ.”

Then Nishioka shared a crucial faith-building moment he experienced as the 16-year-old preacher’s kid living in Seattle, where his father had been called to serve a Japanese Presbyterian congregation.

“I had done the whole church thing all my life. There was never a time in my life I didn’t know that God loved me,” Nishioka said. “But at 16 I was tired of church. We were the first ones there and the last to leave.” Besides, by the time the family returned home on Sunday afternoons during the fall, most of the televised National Football League games were over.

One Sunday, the teenager told his father, “I’m not going to go to our church today.” His father told him, “OK, Rodger.” Oh man, the boy thought. I should have tried this years ago!

Just before the rest of the family left for church, the father sat down next to the boy. “What will you do?” he asked his son. “I’m going to watch football all day,” Rodger replied. “I misunderstood,” his father told him. “I thought when you said you weren’t going to our church, that meant you were going to some other church today.”

“This is Seattle,” he told his son. “We have lots of churches with lots of space. Go anywhere you want to.”

“I said, ‘But all our friends are at our church,’” Nishioka recalled. “He said, ‘OK. Better get dressed.’”

Later, his father told him, “Rodger, you know I love you. I love your mother and your brothers. As much as I love them, I am doing my best to love God even more. You know that the way I think we show our love for God is by going to church. Then he used the ‘d’ word,” Nishioka said. “I would be so disappointed if any of my sons didn’t try to show their love for God in the same way.”

“I was 16, and that was the first time I recall hearing my father say that this whole being a pastor thing wasn’t a job. It was about loving God,” Nishioka said.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Molly Casteel, Office of the General Assembly
Sharon Castillo, Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

Gracious God, you have blessed us to be a blessing to others. In seeking to care for others, we care for ourselves. In seeking to feed the hungry, we feed ourselves. In seeking to share our blessings, we are reconciled to become the church you created us to be. Open our hearts that we may respond always in the love of Christ. Amen.

What's the future hold for medical missions?

The Future of Mission Worldwide 7:00 PM Central  |  Tuesday, February 2

Ted Esler. Ph.D. President, Missio Nexus Dear Ministry Partner,  Missions within the church in North America has been changing rapidly and 2020 only served to increase the rate of change. But what mission will look like and what mission will be forced to look like are topics of passionate discussion.    On Medical Missions Live over the past 10 months we have been privileged to speak with very well-known authors including Bob Lupton who wrote Toxic Charity and Charity Detox and Peter Greer whose best-selling books include Mission Drift and Rooting for Rivals about their perspectives on how missions are changing as we move into the 21st century.   On Tuesday February 2nd we have the opportunity to talk with another international leader about how church ministries, denominations and mission agencies are changing and what is going to be the future for anyone interested in sharing the Gospel. We are very honored to have Ted Esler, Ph.D., President of Missio Nexus join us. Missio Nexus is the largest association of Great Commission churches and organizations in North America. This is an organization representing over 30,000 evangelical missionaries deployed around the world and including more than 200 agencies and churches.    Ted was a church planter in Sarajevo Bosnia during the 90’s, and in 2000, became the Canadian director of Pioneers and then was asked to join the leadership team of Pioneers USA. In 2015 he was appointed the President of Missio Nexus. Not only does he have extensive personal experience and expertise, he is in daily contact with the directors of most of the major mission agencies, church mission leaders and individuals serving on the ground around the world.  This is a discussion you do not want to miss. Join us on Tuesday night, February 2, 2021, at 8 pm eastern / 7 pm central. Please have your questions ready for us. We look forward to you connecting with us live via Zoom or on Facebook Live on Tuesday 2/2/21 at 5 pm PDT/7 pm CDT/8 pm EDT. If you choose to view with Zoom you will need to pay attention to both the login and the passcode included for you below.   Blessings   E. Andrew Mayo  President and CEO  When: February 2, 2021, 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada) Topic: The Challenges of Outreach in the Middle East Please click the link below to join the webinar and include the passcode when asked: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84975449192?pwd=MjMzanhvY2h6cndnb1FQV3cwNDZYQT09 Passcode: 106936 Or by Telephone: Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 346 248 7799  or +1 669 900 6833  or +1 253 215 8782  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 929 205 6099  or +1 301 715 8592  Webinar ID: 849 7544 9192 International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcm38K65zB   Together we can heal lives and secure futures. INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 9555 W. Sam Houston Pkwy South, Suite 170 Houston, TX 77099 1.800.547.7627 | 1.281.201.2043 | www.medicalmission.org

Copyright © 2021 Medical Benevolence Foundation, All rights reserved.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Praying for one another

How a Mission Yearbook prayer and other unexpected prayers helped turn me around

January 29, 2021

The Rev. Donna Frischknecht Jackson

Just how powerful is prayer? On Sunday morning I was greeted by an email from a colleague at the Presbyterian Mission Agency with these words: “May you feel the love and receive strength from all the prayers coming your way this day.”

It turns out my name was listed on Friday’s Mission Yearbook devotional — which features short stories on the work Presbyterians are doing and asks for prayers for the ministries being done. I was surprised, touched and then thankful, for I didn’t realize how much I needed this. In an instant, I felt the stress leaving me and my energy returning. As the day progressed, several other emails came from all around the country from people I did not know, all reaching out and telling me that I was in their prayers.

The last email I received was from a new worshiper of my virtual worshiping community, Old Stone Well Farm, telling me how she woke up with me on her mind and that she has been thinking about me and praying for me all day. Her prayers carried me through the rest of my day.

I will always remember the first time I experienced how strong and powerful the connection is between brothers and sisters in Christ when we pray for one another. I was going through a rough patch in life, facing many decisions as to what my next steps would be. Specifically, where was God was calling me to serve next? Was it time to leave a congregation? What did God really want from me? What if I made a mistake? What if I was listening more to my wants and desires? I was making myself sick with all the questions swirling in my head.

One night, after tossing and turning for what seemed for hours, I shot up in my bed to grab my iPhone to see what time it was. Ugh. It was only 9:30 p.m. I kept staring at the illuminated numbers in front of me. They were starting to blur a bit as tears of frustration began to form. But as the time went from 9:30 to 9:31, the tears retreated. I felt this strange warmth wash over me. It was nothing I had ever felt before and, for a second, it unnerved me. It was so unreal.

I soon surrendered and allowed my soul to sink into a sea of calm. A certainty of God’s guidance settled my mind. For some reason, I just knew I wasn’t alone. That was the first night in a long time where I actually slept soundly.

The next day, I went to the gym to get a quick workout in before starting yet another over-scheduled day. As I jogged on the treadmill, I kept thinking about the strange peace that fell upon me and how mysterious it was — dare I say, it was heavenly, divine? This wasn’t just a stressed-out body finally caving in to long-overdue sleep. This was different.

My thoughts were interrupted when one of the gym owners appeared in front of the treadmill, smiling at me. I slowed my pace down a bit and turned down the music playing on my iPhone. What he said next made me come to a complete stop: “We prayed for you last night.”

I stared at him in disbelief. My legs grew weak as I stammered, “What?”

“We prayed for you last night,” he repeated, explaining that for some reason he had a strong nudge to lift me in prayer during Bible study at his church. I couldn’t help but ask what time this was. It was about 9:30 p.m.

Yes, it was that time. I remember well — and always will remember — how in that moment when 9:30 became 9:31, a peace passing all understanding came to me, tucking me in tightly, holding me closely and whispering to me a soothing bedtime story of how God is with me. There is nothing to fear. Nothing to fret.

“We prayed for you last night.”

Yes, I know, I told him. I felt those prayers. I really felt them.

Donna Frischknecht Jackson, Editor, Presbyterians Today

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Jennifer Cash, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Teach us to be faithful, O Lord, in hearing your call day by day and in responding with heartfelt obedience, that we may help establish your kingdom in every heart, within each community and all around the world. Amen

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘Who listens to radio anymore, anyway?’

Palm Springs residents tune in to KGAY for spirituality, justice conversations with new worshiping community pastor

January 28, 2021

Pastor Nathan Sobers

When Stonewall Ministries decided to use money received from the Presbytery of Riverside to purchase radio ads on KGAY, the Pride of the Valley, Nathan Sobers had no idea that soon he’d have a weekly show exploring spirituality and social justice.

The organizing pastor of Stonewall Ministries in Cathedral City, California, one of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s

1001 New Worshiping Communities, was simply trying to get the word out about Stonewall Ministries’ presence to the large gay community in the Palm Springs area. As the leadership team debated the value of buying radio ad time, younger members of Stonewall Ministries’ leadership team asked, “Who listens to radio anymore, anyway?”

Laughing, Sobers told them that while their point was valid, the majority of gay people in the area were in their 40s and 50s and even older — and that they did in fact still listen to the radio.

“And about half of the residents here over 55 identify as LGBTQ+,” Sobers said.

With that, Stonewall decided to buy radio ads on a trial basis in 2019.  At first, when Stonewall’s messages began running in May, not much happened. A few new people came to worship at Stonewall, saying they’d heard the ads, and Sobers was getting anecdotal feedback that the ads might be working.

People in the community were telling him they’d heard Stonewall Ministries’ ads. As importantly, Sobers was getting to know KGAY’s general sales manager, Stephanie Bergantino, and morning host Ben Patrick Johnson.

On Dec. 1, 2019, Johnson, a professing Christian and KGAY’s morning host, decided to worship at Stonewall. Coincidentally it was World AIDS Day. The service meant so much to him that he started talking about it the next morning on his radio show.

He also reached out to Sobers and scheduled an interview for the second week of December to talk about it.

“It was new for me,” Sobers said. “I didn’t make that big of an impression.”

But Johnson, who considers Sobers his pastor now, kept reaching out to him for spiritual support. In January, he asked Sobers to do another interview to promote Stonewall Ministries’ upcoming Blessings Bags project. As Sobers invited listeners to join them in blessing people experiencing homelessness with bags of water, snacks, hygiene products and socks, radio station personnel were impressed.

KGAY decided to have monthly conversations with Sobers about spirituality and faith. And when the coronavirus hit, followed by George Floyd’s death, it quickly evolved into bi-monthly — and now weekly — conversations.

“We started out specifically talking about spirituality,” Sobers said. “But now we have conversations about social justice and the gospel.”

More and more people in the community are interested in what the pastor on the radio has to say. Since the conversations on the radio started, Stonewall has seen a 48% increase in worship attendance.

And Sobers is having quality conversations with people about faith and their spiritual lives on the back patio of the local gay bar.

“One of the most interesting and satisfying results is that I’ve become the unofficial chaplain to not only the staff at the radio station, but the local drag community,” Sobers said. “Our mission at Stonewall is healing wounds. So many of us in the LGBTQ+ community were either kicked out of or left the church over our sexual orientation or gender expression.”

Stonewall Ministries has received support from Presbyterian Mission Agency with Mission Program Grants.

 Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Katie Carter, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Laura Caruthers, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Eternal and loving God, in the midst of a world of relentless change, grant us a deep and abiding sense of your sovereign power and abiding presence in our lives. May we walk to the way you have set before us in confidence, in hope and in faithfulness to our calling in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Churches, Denominations and Religions: God's Mission Our Gifts: January 2021

Churches, Denominations and Religions: God's Mission Our Gifts: January 2021: Your February Mission & Service Stories Thank you so much for your feedback about the new Mission & Service stories and format. Base...

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Both midwife and hospice chaplain

Frank Yamada, director of the Association of Theological Schools, says he thrives on change

January 27, 2021

The Rev. Dr. Frank Yamada

As a member of Generation X and the person who runs an organization helping seminaries provide great theological education, the Rev. Dr. Frank Yamada said he sees himself as someone who’s present during both the first and last breaths of ministry — as both midwife and hospice chaplain.

 “On the hospice side, it’s allowing someone to transfer with grace and gratitude into another state of life,” Yamada, executive director of the Association of Theological Schools and the former president of McCormick Theological Seminary, said during a recent Facebook Live event hosted by the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, senior director of Theological Funds Development for the Presbyterian Foundation’s Theological Education Fund. “As a midwife, it’s supporting something new in that liminal space between life and death, and that’s birth.

“Meaningful change,” he said, “is an embodiment of what’s going on in theological education. … Because of COVID-19, it’s a place where I feel alive, this area of change. Even sheltering in place, you see this new normal.”

 Asked about his conversion to Christianity as a teenager, Yamada told Hinson-Hasty “conversion may not be a good Reformed word, necessarily,” but “conversion keeps on happening. It’s about you catching up to what God is already doing in your life. The Church needs to catch up to the work of the Holy Spirit.”

“It is not human for us to be excited about change,” Hinson-Hasty responded. “People are anxious about how change is occurring at this time. I want to put on your glasses to see and discern to notice what the Holy Spirit is up to.”

When he became McCormick Theological Seminary president, Yamada, the first Asian American to head a PC(USA) seminary, identified three “vectors of change” he said were coming to theological education. The first was diversity.

“The good news is that a number of ATS schools are already there,” he said. He called the 280 or so member institutions “the meeting place for the formation of leaders and the meeting place for knowledge.”

The second vector of change he identified in that address nine years ago was technology. “Here we are having a remote conversation,” he told Hinson-Hasty, “but there is nothing virtual about it. It’s real, but it’s remote. Digital technology has exploded at ATS schools, especially beginning this spring, and that shift is in full force.”

The third vector of change is a generational shift, “allowing millennials to lead us,” Yamada said. “I think we are seeing that in many different ways — leading the church, on the streets in protest … how they lead in government and in theological schools. I thought I was preaching to the choir,” Yamada said of the address he made at a Chicago church in 2011. “I thought (those changes) were inevitable.”

For most of its 101-year history, ATS was an organization of mostly mainline seminaries, Yamada said. Now it’s about 44% evangelical, 33% mainline and 22% Roman Catholic. While the Master of Divinity is still the most popular degree sought, the Master of Arts degree is the fastest-growing, he said.

“A number of traditions don’t require an MDiv,” Yamada said. “A growing number of students are already ordained, and the education is a companion to their already-serving ministries.”

The student make-up being trained theologically has changed dramatically, Yamada said. As recently as the last century, most students in ATS member schools were white males seeking an MDiv while living residentially at a mainline Protestant institution. Most were attending a seminary within their denomination and would be going on to serve a congregation of that same denomination.

“Now,” he said, “almost every one of those categories has changed.”

As is his custom with these Facebook Live events, Hinson-Hasty asked his guest to deliver a benediction.

“As we go forth into this new world shaped by many challenges and things we haven’t encountered before, the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism, may we live faithfully into the call God has put before us,” Yamada said, encouraging listeners to “be agents of that change, transformation and conversion.” He invoked God’s presence “to be among us, knowing that your presence is not virtual, but that which sustains us and gives us life.”

 Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Jackie Carter, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Nathaniel Carter, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Lord, strengthen, guide and bless us as we labor together to bring your love to those who need it most. We thank you for those who serve. May their obedient efforts continue to bear fruit in the lives of many. In your name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Mission co-workers continue to serve Zambia from Atlanta

Charles and Melissa Johnson: “We’re still working. It’s just harder”

January 26, 2021

The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Health Department team makes a presentation of masks and washable, reusable feminine hygiene kits to the Lundazi Correctional Facility. (Contributed photo)

Charles and Melissa Johnson served as ruling elders in their home congregation, Northwood Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, and now as mission co-workers in Zambia. In both places they found joy and strength in the strong sense of community that surrounded them. Now sheltering in place in Atlanta at Mission Haven, short-term housing for mission co-workers, they are busy staying connected to partners, supporting churches and finding that sense of community in new places.

“We join a different worship service virtually each Sunday,” said Charles Johnson. “We have also participated in Bible studies, minutes for mission, and even a story hour for children. We asked what we can do for them and offer our prayers of support for their community. We tell them, ‘We are all in this together.’”

The Johnsons serve in Zambia at the invitation of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Zambia Synod, working to expand the Church’s efforts in its holistic ministry of community development, food security and improved health. Charles serves as a development specialist and Melissa is a health education program facilitator.

With a degree in agronomy from Texas A&M University and years of experience in farming, Charles’ work is focused on developing an agricultural income — farming for profit to help sustain Chasefu Theological College in Zambia. He is also an instructor in sustainable agriculture at Chasefu, teaching students to feed their own families and providing them with knowledge of new farming techniques to lift up their new congregations and communities. He also works with Chasefu’s model farm project, a training center for small farmers.

Melissa is working with the CCAP Zambia Health Department to facilitate the development and implementation of health education programs that have been identified to improve maternal and child health, to address hygiene issues of girls and women, and to raise awareness about nutritional needs of children and adults.

In late January 2020, the Johnsons began hearing about the new virus hitting China. By late February, the virus was beginning to take hold across the globe. On March 13, even though there were no cases yet in Zambia, the Johnsons made the three-hour trip to Chipata to stock up on groceries with the intention to shelter in place. They had received word from a Peace Corps friend that there were rumors that the Peace Corps was pulling volunteers out of certain countries. They soon received word that the Peace Corps was immediately evacuating all volunteers from Zambia and an email from PC(USA) asking about their thoughts about the situation.

Although they wanted to stay in Zambia, Charles has a medical condition that puts him in a high-risk category, so they made plans to leave.

Charles has been unable to send lessons to students but has been working via WhatsApp with the CCAP/Zambia General Secretary in areas such as harvest of crops at Chasefu and construction of the storage facility. Melissa has helped the CCAP Health Department learn to navigate Zoom so they were able to participate in the rollout of a new strategy for Days for Girls, an international health and hygiene program. The CCAP program temporarily quit making hygiene kits and started making masks. They donated 150 masks and 40 washable, reusable feminine hygiene kits to the Lundazi Correctional Facility. An additional 1,000 masks were made and distributed to several CCAP/Zambia secondary schools.

Melissa worked with the CCAP Health Department to help craft a proposal to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to help provide COVID-19 brochures and education, handwashing stations in some of the most vulnerable families and personal protective equipment and sanitation supplies for the three CCAP rural health centers.

Melissa said CCAP has been working to educate Zambians about truth vs. myths about coronavirus through a WhatsApp group. Some of the false information circulating among the community were that only white people could get COVID-19 and that the virus is caused by 5G networks.

The Johnsons are grateful that they’re able to be near family. Their daughter and son-in-law graduated from Georgia Tech and decided to remain in the area.

“We are still doing the work that is important to us,” said Charles. “It’s just a little more difficult right now.”

 Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Olanda Carr, Presbyterian Foundation
Darla Carter, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

O God, when the world’s needs seem to overwhelm our ability to help, let us remember that you ask us to give what we have, not what we do not have. By your Spirit, we can do more than we ever dreamed. Give us faith to trust your Word and obey your commands through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - This church took out the pews to help feed L.A.’s hungry

Immanuel is one of several Pacific Presbytery churches meeting growing need with support from Presbyterian Hunger Program, Disaster Assistance

January 25, 2021

The Westminster Chapel at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles has been transformed into a food storage facility to meet increasing demand due to COVID-19. (Photo by MarAnthony Aparicio)

As June turned to July, Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles needed a place to store food.

Its direct food service to people in need had skyrocketed from 120 households a week before the COVID-19 pandemic to more than 2,000 a week as the virus staged a resurgence in California that has resulted in it being the state with the most coronavirus infections in the country. Immanuel, in L.A.’s Mid-Wilshire/Koreatown area, was running out of space to keep food – at one point jerry-rigging cooling ducts in a hallway to create improvised, temporary cold storage. Then church leaders cast their eyes on its Westminster Chapel.

Immanuel’s Session expressed openness to making it a storage space before, and the morning of July 3 it approved removing the pews.

“By 4 o’clock that afternoon, half the pews were gone,” transitional co-pastor the Rev. Andrew Schweibert said. “It was like, ‘Boom! Move it.’ By Monday, they were all gone.”

The church also had electrical outlets in the chapel converted to accommodate the needs of refrigerator equipment, and has made other modifications to the facility so that it can help the community experiencing health and economic calamities from the coronavirus that have been particularly hard on Southern California.

“We are all-in right now, all-in,” Schweibert said.

Immanuel has been all-in since the early days of the pandemic.

In an application for a Congregational Emergency Food Grant from the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), the church detailed its direct food service going from one morning a week, serving around 120 families, to six days a week, serving 1,700. In addition to regular clientele —primarily of people who were homeless, low-income, immigrant and elderly — the church was seeing more people who were gainfully employed just a few weeks before the pandemic took hold. Most households being served were between four and nine people.

The church relied on numerous local partnerships to keep its food pantry going through the influx of need.

It’s a situation that is replicated in a handful of churches around the Los Angeles area: Congregations that were serving a few hundred people with their food programs were now faced with more than 1,000 people in need.

“It’s people who have never stood in food lines before,” said the Rev. Heidi Worthen Gamble, mission catalyst and hunger action advocate for the Presbytery of the Pacific. “It’s heartbreaking. It’s devastating.”

In May, the presbytery held a virtual concert that raised more than $10,000 to address hunger in the area. Worthen Gamble says the presbytery and churches have actively sought support in numerous ways to address the overwhelming need in Southern California. Immanuel Operations Director Virginia Beaboa said there have been days during the crisis they did not know where food would come from for the next day — and then an unexpected donation came through.

The Presbyterian Hunger Program grant helped supplement the local donations and partners.

“The work that congregations are doing to feed and house people is so important, especially now,” said Andrew Kang Bartlett, PHP Associate for National Hunger Concerns.

It takes numerous volunteers to keep the pantry at Immanuel Presbyterian Church going. Volunteers load up reusable tote bags with content including fresh produce.

“We all have to practice social distancing,” Schweibert said. “The staff and volunteers know the risks, but they see this as an essential service. They are choosing to be here and work, and work as volunteers.”

Immanuel is partnering with other churches in Presbytery of the Pacific’s Homelessness and Housing Task Force, including Hope on Union, Wilshire, St. Mark’s, First Hollywood, Calvary Hawthorne, and Bel Vue Presbyterian to share resources in the area. Worthen Gamble said that finding volunteers can be a challenge for churches with older congregations more vulnerable to COVID-19 or in lower-income areas where the majority of members work multiple jobs to make ends meet. A number of those workers have also contracted coronavirus, she notes.

 Rich Copley, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Tim Cargal, Office of the General Assembly
César Carhuachîn, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Guide, nurture and sustain, O God, all those whom you call into your ministry and service. May they, in whatever calling of yours they follow, find in you the direction to lead your people faithfully in and to your will and purpose for their individual and communal lives. Amen.