Today in the Mission Yearbook - Madagascar fighting the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and food insecurity

Global partner’s ministry addresses both the physical and spiritual needs of the people

January 13, 2022

FJKM seminary students in Madagascar learn about the Tommy Atkins mango. (Photo by Dan Turk)

Mission co-workers Dan and Elizabeth Turk, who have served in Madagascar for more than 20 years, are working daily with global partners through Skype, Zoom and WhatsApp to address the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and severe food insecurity facing the world’s fifth-largest island nation and one of the world’s poorest countries.

The Turks serve with the PC(USA)’s partner church, the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), in its ministries of health, environment, agriculture and safe drinking water. FJKM believes that Christian witness should include ministry to both the physical and spiritual needs of God’s people and care for all of God’s Creation.

In a recent letter to supporters, the Turks reported that “in the capital city, colleagues report that almost everyone knows many people who have had COVID and some who have died. PC(USA)’s partner church, the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), has been greatly impacted by the new restrictions, which include bans on worship services in the capital city and other affected parts of the country.”

The Madagascar Mission Network sent emergency relief donations to help with the urgency of the situation. FJKM continues to provide worship services over the radio and its pastors go into hospitals and COVID treatment centers daily to pray with the sick.

On March 26, Madagascar joined the World Health Organization’s COVAX program. The first 250,000 vaccines (AstraZeneca Covishield) arrived in May. As in many other countries, health care personnel, the elderly, members of the armed forces and the police were the first to receive vaccine. After a peak of active COVID cases in April of this year, official data indicate the number of active cases has declined precipitously. However, with vaccination rates low, further spread of COVID-19 is expected.

The hunger situation in southern Madagascar continues to be dire.

The World Food Program (WFP), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and Amnesty International have recently issued humanitarian appeals. The WFP and FAO estimate that over 1 million people in southern Madagascar face high levels of acute food insecurity, with almost 14,000 people in the worst category of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The FJKM is participating in efforts to relieve hunger by distributing food and seeds and focusing on longer-term solutions such as digging wells and constructing water catchment systems.

Dan Turk works with the FJKM’s Fruits, Vegetables, and Environmental Education program (FVEE). With per capita income less than $250 per year, many Malagasy people have difficulty feeding their families. Due to ongoing deforestation, many of Madagascar’s endemic plants and animals are threatened with extinction. FJKM is responding to these needs by helping people grow fruits and vegetables to improve their nutrition and get out of poverty.

The FVEE promotes environmental awareness by planting native trees at FJKM churches, seminaries and schools. Dan Turk and his colleagues help pastoral students learn to grow fruits and vegetables. The new pastors use these skills to help their communities and families achieve improved food security and nutrition. The FVEE has established a fruit center to help promote fruit growing, especially many of the world’s best varieties of grafted mangos, on a national scale.

Turk said the FVEE was able to hold several trainings at the FJKM church at Ankaramena in south-central Madagascar, where a new mango nursery is being established and at the fruit center at Mahatsinjo. At the most recent training, 50 people from the town of Tsarahonenana near Andriba learned how to grow and graft fruit trees. In the past few years, the FVEE has trained over 150 farmers.

A new nursery located on the grounds of the FJKM seminary at Mandritsara will be managed by the seminary. It will provide grafted mango trees and other quality fruit trees for growing in Mandritsara and the surrounding area as a contribution of the FJKM to help subsistence farmers increase their food security and gain income to reduce poverty.

Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Tom Harvey, Mission co-worker serving in England, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Robert Hawkey, Director, IT Strategy & Transformation, Information Technology, Board of Pensions

Let us pray

Gracious God, we give thanks that you multiply our small and humble offerings and efforts as we work to care for those in need. We ask that you sharpen our focus on you and on ways we may serve. Amen.

Medical Missions Live - July 6 | MBF

Live International COVID-19 and Ministry Updates

Dear Ministry Partner, Tuesday, July 6th, join us for Medical Missions Live for updates from Kenya, Haiti, DR Congo and Malawi on the current impact of the COVID-19 virus and how your ministry has been affected as a whole. You will get a snapshot of each country’s level of need and milestones that are being accomplished despite the difficulties of this year.  This conversation will include an important announcement that you do not want to miss. We look forward to you connecting with us live via Zoom or on Facebook Live on Tuesday, 7/6/2021 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    You are invited to a Zoom webinar. When: July 6, 2021, 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada) Topic: MBF Anniversary Update Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85411280672?pwd=N3hYdDI3ZEszcm1XajJIYzZLaXdjUT09 Passcode 966424   We have a YouTube Channel Over the past year, we have compiled a library of authors, CEOs, pastors and doctors who have a unique medical mission perspective through their education and experience. We recently created an MBF YouTube channel where we share thoughts from authors like Bob Lupton and Peter Greer about their perspectives on how missions are changing as we move into the 21st century. We have interviewed mission leaders, including Dr. Mike Chupp, CMDA, Ted Esler, Missio Nexus, and Dr. John Crouch, In His Image about their views on medical ministry challenges. It can all be found here for your viewing and shared with your churches and committees as the library expands.  Partners in Hope & Healing INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 9555 W. Sam Houston Pkwy South, Suite 170 Houston, TX 77099 1.800.547.7627 | 1.281.201.2043 | www.medicalmission.org

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 - COVID-19 continues to rise in Indonesia

Christian-Muslim co-op provides food and employment

January 24, 2021

Mission co-worker Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta follows all health protocols daily. (Contributed photo)

The COVID-19 pandemic is growing rapidly in Indonesia, which has one of the highest number of coronavirus cases in Asia. But with fewer than 100,000, the total number of confirmed cases is still relatively small compared to those in the United States.

The real numbers may be much higher, according to mission co-worker Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta, who has served in there since 2003.

In April, Adeney-Risakotta and her husband, former mission co-worker Bernie, who retired in 2019, chose to shelter-in-place rather than travel to be with family in California, where the virus is raging.

Farsijana teaches at Duta Wacana Christian University, helping prepare Christian leaders to serve the church in the world’s largest Muslim country. While collaborating on developing a peace studies program, she also heads the Indonesian Women’s Coalition (KPI) in the province. KPI is a predominantly Muslim group that seeks to empower women and children.

She is the founder and director of the House of Authentic Sense (HAS), a community- based cooperative of village entrepreneurs from throughout the province of Yogyakarta. As a grassroots organization that practices principles of economic justice, the HAS Co-op is a place where community members help each other build businesses and save money. It brings together Muslims, Christians and people of diverse economic and educational backgrounds to collaborate in grassroots poverty elimination and advocacy for a just and peaceful society.

Through the co-op, community members learn skills and build businesses around food processing, batik making, goat milk processing, organic tea cultivation and more. Particularly in smaller villages with limited opportunities for steady employment, microenterprises provide women and men with livelihoods.

As in many countries, in Indonesia many people go hungry if they are not able to work, keeping the government from issuing a total lockdown. The Saudi government did forbid the annual Hajj pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. All but urgent travel is now forbidden in Indonesia. Wearing masks in public places is mandatory, social distancing is encouraged and large gatherings are forbidden. Schools and universities are all online.

During the pandemic, HAS collaborated with the Center for Studies of Development and Social Transformation (CSDST) at the university to purchase member products, including rice, tea, coffee, soy sauce, snacks and other food, to make up packages of basic supplies for co-op members to be delivered at the end of Ramadan, the traditional month of fasting.

“The fasting month was special for me this year because I fasted along with my Muslim friends as a sign of solidarity and concern as we struggle to understand what is happening in our broken world,” Adeney-Risakotta said. “COVID-19 teaches us about solidarity and cooperating to help each other so we can transform the frustration of having to stay home into satisfaction of knowing we are producing quality products that will feed many families.”

During Ramadan, Adeney-Risakotta said HAS also organized virtual discussions about the meaning of Ramadan and the celebration of the ascension of Jesus Christ. The ascension of Christ is a national holiday in Indonesia that this year came at the end of Ramadan. HAS involved a network of mutually supportive institutions including Sunan Kalijaga Islamic Boarding School, the Center for Security and Peace Studies at Gadjah Mada University and CSDST at Duta Wacana Christian University.

HAS has been especially important to its members during the pandemic. Just ask Suko Hadi. The co-op stepped in to buy his tea at a time when there were no buyers because long-distance transportation was shut down. Young premium shoots of tea must be constantly picked to avoid damage to the plant. The pickers are economically challenged residents around the village of Pagerharjo. Picking tea is their only means of earning money to feed their families. The co-op also gave Hadi a small loan to keep his business afloat during the pandemic.

 Give to the Peace & Global Witness Offering to support the peace and reconciliation work of church partners through World Mission.

Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Suzan Cantrell, Presbyterian Mission Agency
James Carey, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, give us strength to follow your call to provide for the needs of people. Help us to remember that man does not live on bread alone, but on the Word of God. Take us to places unfamiliar and to the people whom you know and love. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Mask-wearing and social distancing are spiritual practices

Practicing precaution is a loving act of care

December 27, 2020

Sometimes a great disruption provides the catalyst for change. Sure, disruptions can be painful, causing grief and anger. Disruptions, by their very nature, rupture our lives.

Let’s be clear from the beginning, though. Disruptions are not put into our lives by God. They aren’t tests of faith or punishments for sin. Disruptions are facts of life. They are a part of being human in a really complex world. If you care about something, then you will experience a disruption at some point in your life.

And, while a disruption is not a cosmic message, it is a powerful moment that requires care and attention. In the interplay of grief and anger and anxiety, there might be something worth learning given enough time, distance and reflection.

I live in a home with my spouse and two young girls. I recognize the privilege of a roof over our head and food on our table and (mostly) meaningful work we can (mostly) do from home. At the same time, I’m constantly aware of the recent disruptions on all our lives. While writing this short piece, the 8-year-old has: made a smoothie for breakfast; argued with my spouse about putting spinach in it; made a poster for school and needed help spelling words; rinsed dishes; loudly proclaimed her intentions for the day; annoyed her sister; and, wandered around the house singing and seeking our attention.

While this happened around me, I could feel my anger rise and fall. My fist would clench, and my chest would tighten. Words, some harsh and some soothing, formed in the back of my mind. Of course, these were natural reactions to my disrupted schedule. They were also unfair to my 8-year-old. She is only doing what she does best — being 8.

Reflecting on this, I see the struggle within me. It’s a conflict of belief between what’s good for me and what’s good for the community and our relationships — my need for quiet and concentration and my daughter’s need for attention and affection. So, I try and take a moment to acknowledge my feelings. I let the experience of pain, anger and grief of the disruption have some space, and then try to understand her needs as well. Mentally, I like to think of it as a perceptible pause. Spiritually, I am taking precautions. Taken together, I am trying to develop a faithful response to a new reality, which takes practice.

“Precaution” is not a word we often associate with a bold and risky faith. Yet maybe we should. Precautions are preemptive acts of care, like wearing a mask out in public when necessary, agreeing to sit apart from one another in the church sanctuary when returning to worship in a building, and refraining from large group gatherings. Precautions aren’t about what is being taken away or limiting us. When seen as a spiritual practice, precautions take us beyond our heads and hearts in order to expand our awareness to the world around us. They require us to think and imagine with empathy, then adjust and act accordingly. Taking precautions means being a “care-full” presence in the world. By practicing precautions:

• We place all these needs in conversation with ours rather than one overtaking the other.
• We act out of empathy and imagination rather than control and self-focus.
• We place the pain of others alongside our own, and act with curiosity and compassion.
• We seek the Spirit’s movement within and between us.

To use precaution as a spiritual practice is to co-create with the Spirit an integrated sense of our place in the world. When we take in and allow ourselves to be affected by the world around us, we become aware of the Spirit and how that can help shape our responses.

In short, precaution as a spiritual practice might be the riskiest thing we could ever do. It means taking stock of how we react and respond, lamenting our struggles and celebrating our successes. It means that what we say and do matters to the world around us. It means living into a relationship with the Spirit that moves in and around us and allowing that relationship to shape the choices we make in response.

Jason Whitehead; Therapist, Pastor, Educator and Coach at Mosaic Insight in Denver

Let us join in prayer for:  

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Andrej Ajanovic, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Monty Anderson, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray:

Gracious God, we pray for your blessing and the protection of our brothers and sisters. Thank you for teaching us about the real meaning of faith. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Congregation chronicles COVID-19 in pictures

Georgia church creates ‘Porch Pictures’ to document history

December 22, 2020

Bob and Deb Radabaugh and their dogs, Ginger and Cotton, are just one of the many families featured in Trinity Presbyterian’s “Porch Pictures” book. Anghaarad Teague Dees

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Presbyterians researched their church histories in hopes of discovering how congregations responded to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Some were dismayed, though, to find that there was little to no mention of the flu in session minutes. Trinity Presbyterian Church, however, is making sure history doesn’t forget its response to the current pandemic. The Valdosta, Georgia, congregation has created a photobook called “Porch Pictures.”

Featuring photos of members sitting in front of their homes, the book commemorates the unique time when being a faith family was redefined, says the Rev. Anghaarad Teague Dees.

The photobook idea began in a Zoom meeting when the conversation turned from the logistics of reopening the church to how to preserve this moment in time, says Dees. Then one day, while in the church’s library, the pastor spotted a 9/11 scrapbook, filled with the congregation’s reactions to the Twin Towers attack 19 years ago. “I knew then we had to do something to remember this crisis,” said Dees. With the help of her church administrator, members’ pictures were shot from a prescribed safe distance. A photo printing and sharing website was then used to create the book. Two were ordered for the church’s library. The congregation was invited to purchase their own. The money from the sales of the book, which is also filled with drawings, reflections and poetry from Trinity members, was used to replenish the church’s food pantry, says Dees.

 Donna Frischknecht Jackson, Editor, Presbyterians Today

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Gabriela Zoller, Office of the General Assembly
Beth Ann Zornick, Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

O Holy Spirit, watch over your children in their sickness and fear. Guide those who serve them. Breathe upon us, that we might care well for them and surround them with your love, joy and hope. Amen.

WCC NEWS: A hymn of hope ringing out loud during lockdown

In the midst of the nationwide lockdown, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North Germany finds new ways to connect people in its congregations. It encourages all people to step out on balconies or come together by open windows, at 8 pm on Christmas Eve, and let their voices ring out loud in the Christmas carol "Silent Night.”

Bishop Kühnbaum-Schmidt encourages all to sing “Silent Night” at 8 pm on Christmas Eve. Photo: Marcelo Hernandez/Nordkirche

18 December 2020

In the midst of the nationwide lockdown, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North Germany finds new ways to connect people in its congregations. It encourages all people to step out on balconies or come together by open windows, at 8 pm on Christmas Eve, and let their voices ring out loud in the Christmas carol "Silent Night.”  “Services that bring everyone together are not possible this year, but it is still possible to do something that could bring everyone together, says Bishop Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt. “Singing ‘Silent Night’ together, perhaps with a burning candle in hand as light in all the darkness that weighs down and threatens life, could be a comforting sign on Christmas Eve. Because this particular hymn fits like no other this night, which will be quieter this year than the Christmas nights we are used to – especially for those who will spend it all alone,” she continues.  Hear bishop Kühnbaum-Schmidt’s full message about Christmas in times of pandemic:

See more

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Despite hardships and racism, Native Americans find hope during pandemic

Self-help and collaboration part of recovery, healing

December 6, 2020

Fern Cloud

A timely and sometimes painful discussion on the impact of COVID-19 and racism on Native Americans ended on a hopeful note recently, with a panelist invoking an image from nature.

Fern Cloud, a Native American woman who’s pastor of Pejuhutazizi Presbyterian Church in Granite Falls, Minnesota, likened the status of oppressed people of color to that of a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis.

Though struggling right now, “we will break through,” said Cloud, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Tribe on the Lake Traverse Reservation located in northeastern South Dakota.

Cloud was among the featured guests on a segment of “COVID at the Margins,” a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) series of virtual discussions exploring the effects of the coronavirus and other societal hurdles on people of color. The Native American segment was hosted by the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People.

Anna Marie Rondon, executive director of the New Mexico Equity and Social Justice Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, referred to what she called a pandemic of racism that she traces back to the U.S. Constitution and the Doctrine of Discovery, a concept of law that has been used to justify colonization and the taking of indigenous people’s land and repudiated by the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 2016. She also noted the country’s history of slavery. “All of these genocidal tendencies against our people and people of color are alive and well,” she said.

Cloud wondered aloud why there hasn’t been more federal provisions, from masks to funding, to fight the pandemic among Native Americans. But she also spoke about efforts by the indigenous people to help themselves and the importance of unity.

“It’s time that people of color are coming together in solidarity … and moving forward,” she said.

Fellow panelist Krystal Curley, a member of the Navajo nation, shared how the pandemic has amplified pre-existing problems, such as lack of running water and limited access to health care, in Native American communities.

“Right now, with this COVID-19, it’s really overwhelming our families, our communities, our health-care system, our food chain supply here,” said Curley, who’s based in Gallup, New Mexico. “I think the root of all of this is the racism that we’ve all been feeling for hundreds of years.”

Others on the panel included Marcus Briggs-Cloud, a language revitalizer, scholar and musician, and the Rev. Irvin Porter of the Church of the Indian Fellowship in Tacoma, Washington.

Curley, executive director of Indigenous Life Ways in Gallup, said the pandemic has been challenging for Native Americans in various ways.

For example, when medical treatment is needed, “a lot of our folks, they’re getting flown out to Albuquerque, which is about two hours (away) … or they go to Phoenix, which is a four- or five-hour drive,” she said.

Curley also talked about the challenge of acquiring supplies and other necessities.

“A lot of these business owners make a lot of money off of our people,” she said. “Thousands and thousands of people have to travel to these border towns to get supplies, so there’s no way our people can stay home.”

Curley is part of a grassroots effort called McKinley Mutual Aid that has been able to help feed nearly 2,000 families during the pandemic. “For the past several months now, we’ve been providing food every single week to our community,” she said.

Meanwhile, in rural Alabama, the Maskoke people are looking to the future by protecting their language and traditional way of life inside an ecovillage, Ekvn-Yefolecv. The community strives to be environmentally friendly and self-sufficient, raising and growing its own food, building homes from natural materials and sharing income.

“We have these prophesies among our people that things are going to go bad and only people that know how to live in a good way with the natural world are going to survive,” said Briggs-Cloud, co-director of the ecovillage. “This pandemic is just part of it.”

The work of the Committee on the Self-Development of People is supported by One Great Hour of Sharing. SDOP is one of the Compassion, Peace & Justice ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

 Darla Carter, Communications Associate, Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Michael Wade, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Teresa Waggener, Office of the General Assembly

Let us pray:

Creator God, thank you for lifting us from shadows of darkness to lives of love, joy and peace through your Son, Jesus Christ. Guide your people as they share the gospel with those in need of you. Grant us your peace. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - COVID-19 helping to fuel global hunger

‘How do you tell a hungry man to sit at home?’

November 29, 2020

Paul Raja Rao Valaperla hands a prize to a woman at an event celebrating rural women farmers. (Photo by Valery Nodem)

With the coronavirus continuing to infect scores of people daily worldwide, the number of people experiencing acute hunger is expected to skyrocket globally, and some partners of the Presbyterian Hunger Program say the economic ramifications of the pandemic already are hurting the ability of people around the globe to feed themselves and their families.

In India, “hunger is really rampant,” partially because of multiple lockdowns that have occurred due to COVID-19, said Paul Raja Rao Valaperla,  who chairs Chethana, the PHP Joining Hands network in that country. “We have a lot of malnourishment,” especially among women and children.

Around the world, the number of people facing acute food insecurity could rise to 265 million in 2020, a near doubling from 2019’s estimated 135 million people, according to a recent projection from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

The projection was released in conjunction with the latest Global Report on Food Crises, a project of WFP and 15 other humanitarian and development partners.

In the report’s foreword, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said, “The number of people battling acute hunger and suffering from malnutrition is on the rise yet again. … And the upheaval that has been set in motion by the COVID-19 pandemic may push even more families and communities into deeper distress.”

Calling for action, Guterres went on to say, “We must redouble our efforts to fight hunger and malnutrition.”

This is an issue that should be on everyone’s radar, even as the United States grapples with problems of its own, said Valery Nodem, PHP’s international associate for hunger concerns.

“When we talk about loving our neighbors, it’s recognizing when our neighbors are in trouble as we are ourselves,” he said. “The world has gone through a lot of crises and we can only survive this crisis if we remember that we need to work together.”

Loving our neighbors and thinking about our neighbors around the world “would be the best start,” Nodem said.

As lockdowns are put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus, people know various parts of the world — including India, Nigeria and Haiti — find themselves in a precarious position. Many people depend on being able to go out each day to make money, often in the informal sector, and to secure food and other necessities.

“How do you tell a hungry man to sit at home? How do you tell him to observe social distancing when he has like 20 mouths to feed? He must go out (in order) to eat,” said Peter M. Egwudah, program coordinator for PHP partner CISCOPE in Nigeria.

Likewise in Haiti, where people also have been advised to stay in, “if they don’t go out to have something to eat, they will die,” said Fabienne Jean, who coordinates FONDAMA, the Joining Hands network in Haiti.

The Rev. Dr. Laurie Kraus, director of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA), said, “What we are seeing now, in the midst of the pandemic, is theologically, an apocalypse— an uncovering or laying bare of inequities and unaddressed systemic problems that contribute to food insecurity and increase the vulnerability of peoples. The crisis precipitated by the pandemic has deepened that vulnerability and pushed many communities perilously closer to famine.”

As part of its international response to pandemic, PDA has awarded nearly $1 million in grants in 56 countries. Many of the grants are being used for water, sanitation and hygiene projects to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — but some address food insecurity.

“PDA’s release of emergency COVID grants, placed in the hands of local leaders and agencies, is intended to support short-term efforts to alleviate hunger,” Kraus said. “We have in these efforts paid particular attention to areas experiencing famine or chronic food insecurity. Later interventions, as the pandemic continues and as resources become available, will focus on continuing our collaborative work with the Presbyterian Hunger Program, addressing famine in current and emerging locations with strategies to build long-term food security.”

Unlike in the United States, where many people can receive stimulus checks and unemployment benefits to get by during hard times, many developing countries do not have a strong safety net to support people when COVID-19 and other stressors hit, Nodem said.

Darla Carter, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Julie Tonini, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Joel Townsend, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray:

God of miracles and mystery, take our loaves of bread to feed the hungry. May your Holy Spirit, O God, grow in us the ability to be Christ’s body, building a world in which all enjoy and participate in the abundance of your creation. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - A pastor in Queens has but two pandemic prayers

First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica is the first church in New York City to open a coronavirus testing site

October 13, 2020

First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica was the first church in New York City to open a coronavirus testing site. (Photo courtesy of Robert O’Connor)

When New York City started closing down in mid-March because of COVID-19, the Rev. Patrick O’Connor at First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica had two prayers.

“Lord, help me to be healthy,” he prayed, “and if I’m healthy, help me to be useful.”

Two months later, O’Connor, who serves a multicultural congregation in Queens, considers himself “very privileged.” So far, he doesn’t have the virus. And FPC in Jamaica was the first church to open a coronavirus testing site in New York City.

Church leaders did that by working in partnership with the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation and the Community Healthcare Network, a federally qualified health center in the city, for Medicare and Medicaid services.

“We wanted to use the site as a model for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, so that he knew that religious institution sites could be used to positively impact communities of color,” O’Connor said, “and that we have long roots and trusted relationships in the communities we serve.”

Since opening a month ago, the church site has tested more than 2,000 people in a community that has a high number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Black and Latino people in the city are twice as likely to die from coronavirus than whites — and 75 percent of those doing frontline work during the pandemic are people of color.

O’Connor said the church pushed hard to become a testing site is because of the members it’s lost to the virus. Five of eight deaths in the congregation during recent weeks were attributed to COVID-19. Multiple people have been sick with the virus and recovered.

“The hardest part for me as a pastor is to know how to support and comfort each of them,” he said. “I think there’s a whole set of mental health issues for all of us who have been through this traumatic experience, which will persist into the future.”

Yet the congregation presses on. The church’s food programs are still operational thanks to committed volunteers who weekly say “yes” to O’Connor’s question, “Do you still want to do this?” Part of their responding “yes,” he believes, is because of those the church lost to the virus. Each person was deeply respected. Devoted to their families and church, they committed their lives to serving their community.

Following guidelines given by the city, the church’s food pantry and soup kitchen continue to operate. Prepared packages of food are distributed on Tuesdays and takeout meals are available on Wednesdays. With so many other programs closed in the city, O’Connor said it’s been an “eye-opener” to see all the people coming now, including cab drivers, those who provide home care, barbers and hairdressers, and food servers.

“All of those who provide services that are cash-dependent have no source of income now,” he said.

O’Connor remembers how taxing it was to support the families of those who were killed by the virus. But hope comes to him, he said, from people and churches in the city and around the country who recognize what First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica is trying to do.

“The prayers and giving from PC(USA) churches have been a source of inspiration and provided us with courage to move forward,” he said. “The virus has exposed how much more we are interrelated than we understand.”

While churches of color need to be integral in providing services to their communities, O’Connor said non-communities of color need to recognize that for the nation to be healthy, all Americans need to have better access to health care.

“Our testing site is a baby step, and part of the hope is that we can build on this,” he said. “Currently in partnership with Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, we’re in discussion with elected officials and large health systems, asking, ‘What can we do to effectively ensure that you are more integrated in low-income communities of color?’”

Inspired by those saints killed by the virus, First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica desires to make a difference, O’Connor said, by seeking to help those who are trying to be the church in a time of struggle and heartache.

“Together we live on,” he said.

 Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Sharon Reid, Office of the General Assembly
Susan Reimann, Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

God of challenge and opportunity, help us to demonstrate to all the many ways in which we are called to make a difference. Assist us in bringing the good news and bring opportunities to share that good news with others. Amen.