Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘This is my country’

Sarah Mibulano became a US citizen on her way to GA

September 9, 2024

Sarah Mibulano, with Mother Louise, shows off her citizenship 

certificate. (Contributed photo)

Sarah Mibulano had a little problem.

The 19-year-old Young Adult Advisory Delegate from the Presbytery of Nevada — who emigrated to the U.S. from Congo with her family in 2015 — had her citizenship interview back in February and still hadn’t heard a word.

“I was nervous,” Mibulano said, “because everyone else in my family got their certificate within a month.”

Mibulano, the third oldest of the family’s six children, had a lot riding on the outcome.

“We came as refugees to this country because my parents wanted us all to have a better life and an education,” she said. “In Congo, my parents had to work hard to make sure were all able to stay in school.”

Yet despite the hardships she and her family endured, Mibulano is already well on her way to fulfilling her — and her parents’ — dream by pursuing a social work degree at the College of Southern Nevada.

“In Congo, God was in our lives fighting for us,” said Mibulano, who sings in the choir and teaches the youth at Emmanuel Faith Chapel, a new worshiping community in Nevada Presbytery. “God was providing for us then, too. We can do nothing without God.”

So that’s where she continued to place her hope as she prepared for the 226th General Assembly.

Then, just a week before her scheduled departure for Salt Lake City, the long-awaited letter came.

Only the date when she was to receive her citizenship certificate was June 28, the same date as her flight.

“I was so scared, I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “But I got help changing my flight, picked up my certificate and got right on the plane.”

The outgoing Mibulano, who loves meeting new people and makes friends easily, said that her General Assembly experience was amazing.

“I like the way our YAAD team was there for us, standing up for each other,” she said. “I’m so thankful they picked me to be here.”

Emily Enders Odom, Associate Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: Sarah Mibulano, Young Adult Advisory Delegate, 226th General Assembly

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Kelly Riley, Executive Vice President, Plan Operations, Board of Pensions
Leslie Rizzo, Production Clerk, Hubbard Press, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Dear God, as our friends and partners embark on new tasks, give them the strength and courage. May your hand guide them and lead them, and may your arms be wrapped around them each step of the way. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘Dream big because God is big’

Through power of story and witness, PMA Breakfast inspires attendees to re-envision property as a tool for mission and ministry

September 6, 2024

The Property with a Purpose Breakfast, hosted by the 

Presbyterian Mission Agency, on July 3, included a panel 

discussion with (left to right) the Rev. Mark Elsdon, the 

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena, the Rev. Sharon Core, Commissioned 

Pastor Kevin Riley, and the Rev. Dr. Winterbourne 

Harrison-Jones. Photo by Kristen Gaydos

If anything can succeed in generating a solid crowd at 6:45 a.m. during the already rigorous demands of a General Assembly, it’s the promise that God is doing a new thing.

And, just maybe, a speaker like the Rev. Mark Elsdon.

Elsdon, a Presbyterian pastor and author, energized the early morning gathering not only through his remarks but also as moderator of a panel whose powerful stories of using church property to advance their mission was punctuated with frequent applause.

Following a lively welcome from Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall, the PMA’s deputy executive for Vision and Innovation, the event opened with greetings from a wealth of PC(USA) leaders, including the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, PMA president and executive director; GA Co-Moderators the Revs. CeCe Armstrong and Tony Larson; the Rev. Dr. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk; the Rev. Bronwen Boswell, Acting Stated Clerk; and Paul Grier, vice president for Project Regeneration for the Presbyterian Foundation.

Elsdon, who also co-founded Rooted Good to help churches “generate new forms of income, reimagine the use of [their] buildings and land, and fulfill [their] mission and purpose in [their] community,” introduced the gathering to such resources as its self-guided Good Futures Accelerator before presenting the morning’s panelists.

Asking the panel where they are seeing God at work in the question of property, land and building use, Elsdon opened a floodgate of inspiring testimonies from four PC(USA) innovators.

“We are resurrection people,” Elsdon reminded the gathering. “And because there’s a lot to mourn, we should recognize the sadness, but know that there is also rebirth, resurrection and new opportunities.”

Just such a story of rebirth was shared by the Rev. Sharon Core, general presbyter for the Presbytery of the Western Reserve, who was first to speak. Prior to assuming her current position, Core led the Arlington (Virginia) Presbyterian Church to partner with a development company to provide 173 units of affordable housing with a perpetual presence for the church as part of it.

Core said she knew that “something needed to shift” because church leaders recognized that the building was taking up too much of the budget. Yet after the church’s session, which had become excited about the idea of affordable housing, presented a proposal to the congregation, Core said that “it crashed and burned in fiery balls.”

“It should have failed, and it did because we didn’t know why we were doing it,” said Core. “All we knew was we had this albatross of a building.”

It was only when the church’s spiritual leaders took a step back to “exercise [their] spiritual muscles” to help lead the congregation in following God’s call that the project was able to move forward.

“The sexy part of this was the affordable housing,” Core said. “The really important work is the leadership that it took to get there.”

With story after story, panelists emphasized the importance of courageous leadership and listening to the needs of the community.

Commissioned Pastor Kevin Riley of Mount Baker Presbyterian Church in Concrete, Washington, spoke of how transformation is possible even with limited funds, a building and only a handful of people by listening to — and partnering with — the community.

“Just go for it,” Riley told the gathering. “Why can’t your rural congregation be a hub for that community? We knew the suffering in our community was more than we could do on our own but by building trust with that community, now we are the heart and soul.”

The Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena, chief imagination officer of the Presbytery of Tropical Florida and the Vibrant Together Development Corporation, said that every church that he has watched die was not behaving as a neighborhood church.

“We are hyper focused on how to turn the church around, but that’s the wrong question,” Bultena said. “The question is how do we get involved in the neighborhood and then the church follows it?”

As the program came to a close, Core said that she wanted to name “that sometimes we can treat our buildings as idols.”

“And while it is lovely to have a place to physically gather,” she said, “we worship the God who has set us loose in the neighborhood.”

Emily Enders Odom, Associate Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Breakfast inspire the attendees at the 226th General Assembly

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Katie Rhodes, HR Generalist, Administrative Services Group, A Corp 
Tina Rhudy, Director for Building Services, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 

Let us pray

Loving God, help us to remember that we can grow to know and love you in every situation. Grant that all of us may find the joy of your Spirit as we drop what we have in service to others. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘Our ancestors’ wildest dreams’

Beloved former Stated Clerk, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, is honored for his unparalleled legacy of witnessing to God’s justice

August 31, 2024

The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, was honored at a dinner and 

tribute by colleagues, friends and family. More than 800 people 

attended the event. (Photo by Kristen Gaydos)

In an ecclesiastical tribute — brimming over with affection, admiration, gratitude, tears, laughter and just the occasional touch of irreverence — the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, was joyfully celebrated for changing the denomination that shaped and changed him.

Nelson, a third-generation Presbyterian pastor and the first Black man chosen as the top ecclesial officer of the PC(USA), was elected as Stated Clerk by the 222nd General Assembly (2016), a role in which he served for seven years before stepping down on June 30, 2023.

“Our church is more courageous, more faithful and more willing to risk because you said yes,” Ruling Elder Sara Lisherness, deputy executive director for Mission Program for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, would later say.

And as speaker after speaker took the stage — or bore witness via video —  new and revealing insights into the much-loved former Stated Clerk’s life, family and ministry emerged.

Introduced as “a tall handsome bloke with a captivating smile” by the Rev. Dr. Chenyangu “Cheni” Khonje, a member of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly who emceed the evening, Nelson loomed large in the gathering of some 800 Assembly attendees, his beloved wife, the Rev. Gail Porter Nelson, and their daughter, Alycia Yvette Nelson, by his side.

Parallel themes of faith and foolishness — for Christ — were echoed by each presenter.

A moving tribute from Amy Kym Kyremes-Parks, director of Formation for Children and Their Families at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, North Carolina, brought the room to tears.

She recalled how the Nelsons “adopted a 16-year-old girl from Salt Lake City,” taking Kyremes-Parks to the emergency room after a fall at Montreat Conference Center.

“While he can act a fool, he is still so modest,” she said. “He saw my snark and my cheekiness, and our lives were woven together forever. Mama Gail, thank you for serving faithfully in your support, seen and unseen; Alycia, for sharing your daddy with me and so many others; and daddy, for loving me, our family, and this world. Thank you for loving our beautiful and broken denomination. You are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.”

The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, his daughter Alycia Yvette Nelson, 

and his wife, the Rev. Gail Porter Nelson, at the conclusion of the 

tribute. (Photo by Kristen Gaydos)

Throughout the evening, Nelson was lauded for cultivating young adult leadership and, in all things, for his never-ending commitment to addressing the world’s greatest social justice challenges such as poverty, discrimination, and gun violence.

The Rev. Edwin González-Castillo, director of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, said that what stood out for him in Nelson’s legacy was his quest for justice.

Of Nelson’s “Hands & Feet” initiative, which emphasized mission involvement with the cities hosting the biennial meeting of the General Assembly, González-Castillo said, “You would not only preach about justice and love but teach us to put that into practice every day of our lives.”

Another of the evening’s funniest lines came from the Rev. Carol McDonald, moderator of the Stated Clerk Nomination Committee that selected Nelson, when she recalled something that he said at the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School.

“Get up off your blessed assurances and do something for Jesus,” she said to peals of laughter.

The evening concluded with remarks from Nelson himself, as well as daughter Alycia and wife Gail.

After sharing highlights of the remarkable story of his own life, Nelson said, “If there’s anything where I would give a word, it would simply be not to ever allow that which God has given you to be caught in fear. The Lord has already made the decision, and will remind us each and every day what our calling is.”

Nelson, having earlier shared what a challenge it was trying to keep his daughter, who, like him, was a preacher’s kid, in school, fittingly Gail Nelson — a powerful source of support throughout Nelson’s ministry and a great preacher in her own right — had the last word.

“I want to thank the committee who made this evening possible,” she said, “and just so you can hear the end of the story, Alycia turned out very well!”

Emily Enders Odom, Associate Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: Former Stated Clerk, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, is honored at General Assembly

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Doug Portz, Vice President, Church Relations, Board of Pensions
Sonia Prescott, Reference & Outreach Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society

Let us pray

God of earth and altar, may the bread we share bring your life in abundance to all the peoples of the earth. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Timely sermon calls worshipers to ‘get Jesus into the room’

Cottonwood Presbyterian Church offers General Assembly participants hope and hospitality

August 27, 2024

The Rev. Nathan Sautter (in green stole), pastor 

of the Cottonwood Presbyterian Church in Murray, 

leads worship. (Photo by Emily Enders Odom)

After two busloads of General Assembly visitors had completely filled the sanctuary of Cottonwood Presbyterian Church, responding with an enthusiastic — if perhaps louder than expected — “And also with you” to the pastor’s traditional greeting, all the Rev. Nathan Sautter could say was, “Wow.”

“I’d like to welcome everyone to Utah,” Sautter began, taking it all in. “The hope and prayer of our presbytery is that you get a taste, a feel and a vibe of who we are as we seek to witness to Jesus Christ in our community.”

And in every aspect of the worship hour that followed — and the generous lunch that was cheerfully served afterwards in the bustling fellowship hall — Sautter, the church staff, its members, worship and music leaders, including the Cottonwood choir, praise band and bell choir, handily fulfilled that hope.

Today, Cottonwood, which was founded in the 1950s, is a dynamic congregation with people from seven different nations — Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Myanmar, South Korea and China — worshiping together.

The Rev. Ed Johnson, stated clerk in New Hope Presbytery, and his wife, Kathy, a member of Western Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, were among those worshiping from the Assembly.

“We were drawn to the church for its diversity and how international it seems, and also because we’re a Matthew 25 presbytery,” Johnson said. “Kathy and I have also missioned quite a bit internationally ourselves.”

Worshipers were challenged by Sautter’s powerful message titled, “Seen,” on Mark 5:21–43, the story of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter and the healing of a woman with a hemorrhage.

Sautter opened by asking those gathered this question: “Have you ever been desperate? Really, really desperate, where you did something stupid or dangerous?”

Sharing examples from his own experiences as a foster parent desperate for sleep or quiet to his community context and the influx of Venezuelan asylum seekers “who walked here to seek safety and freedom,” Sautter said desperation can make people do something they would not otherwise do.

“We’ve seen it play out in Ukraine, Palestine, all over the world,” he said.

Turning to the Gospel text, Sautter described “two people at the end of their rope” frantically approaching Jesus, a father who is desperately trying to save his beloved 12-year-old daughter and a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years.

Describing the desperate father’s chagrin at Jesus having allowed himself to be interrupted by the hemorrhaging woman, Sautter wondered whether his GA listeners might be feeling likewise.

“Here’s a man who has just successfully convinced this rabbi to come to his home and now he stops,” Sautter said. “’Jesus, the clock is ticking — we gotta go!’ When you arrived, were you thinking, ‘Let’s get this thing started. I have commissioner business to get to!’”

Interruptions, Sautter, contended, are part of the call following Jesus.

“Sometimes in the interruption there is a moment of great grace and hope and healing,” he said. “Every opportunity with a person is an opportunity for transformation, healing and new life.”

But it all comes down to Jesus.

“Desperation makes us do all kinds of things,” said Sautter, “but what are we willing to do? Are we willing to bring them to the One who does heal?”

Once again weaving in the General Assembly context, Sautter observed that Presbyterians are “desperate about why young people don’t come to church and why what we say nobody cares about anymore.”

“This text reminds us that if we’re not desperate enough to touch the cloak of Jesus — to get Jesus into the room — then all that we do doesn’t matter, because he’s the one who has hope and healing,” said Sautter. “May we continue to bring people to Jesus until that day when mothers and fathers and parents and children don’t have to leave their homes because of war and violence. Our hope is in Jesus. He sees us. He calls us to make things new. And he wants us to bring others to know him, too.”

Emily Enders Odom, Associate Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: General Assembly delegates gather at Cottonwood Presbyterian Church for worship

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Lisa Pesavento, HR Generalist, Presbyterian Foundation
Andrew Peterson, Mission Associate, Presbyterian Peacemaking, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Merciful Lord, forgive us for not listening for not hearing the voices of the oppressed and suffering. May your love guide us in joining our brothers and sisters for transformation, bringing glory and honor to you. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Embodying Easter in a Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, laundromat

The church’s Holy Week laundry outreach makes ‘everything fresh and new’

June 13, 2024

The Presbyterian Church of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania 

has brough a ministry f laundry, presence and hope to 

people living in the community’s margins. (Photos courtesy 

of Caroline Vickery)

While most pastors devote Holy Week to poring over commentaries, planning worship and washing feet, the Rev. Caroline Vickery also washes clothes.

At the local laundromat.

That’s where she and a handful of members from the Presbyterian Church of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania  regularly bring a ministry of laundry, presence and hope to people living on the community’s margins.

Including — and especially during — Holy Week.

“People don’t realize the little indignities that come with dealing with poverty,” said Vickery. “It seems unfair as we enter the season when we’re talking about how Jesus welcomed the outcasts and was a friend of sinners that we wouldn’t be out in the community helping to restore people to being seen as valuable and whole.”

Vickery, who was called to serve the 52-member congregation in September 2021, said that the church’s Outreach Committee had been looking for a community program that could be handled by a small congregation when committee member and deacon, Sarah Stains, discovered a laundry ministry on Instagram.

Ministry by the Presbyterian Church of Waynesboro often includes giving out quarters for people who need them to wash and dry their clothes.

“What I like about this ministry is that it’s not labor-intensive,” said Vickery, who worked as a community organizer before graduating from McCormick Theological Seminary. “It’s something that’s doable for a church of our size. And, because I happened to be living in an apartment with no laundry facilities at the time, I started to use the nearby laundromat to get clean clothes and bedding and had to relearn how expensive clean laundry could be.”

And how important.

“We can go to a laundromat and give out quarters and bring coloring sheets and markers and give people a little bit of joy,” she said. “When you do the laundry by yourself, it’s a chore. Instead, there’s a happy energy that makes the laundry sparkle when people start talking to each other.”

After launching its new “Fresh Start: Loads of Love” initiative, the congregation later received a $500 grant from the Presbytery of Carlisle’s portion of the Peace & Global Witness Offering, which empowers congregations and individuals to become peacemakers in their communities and in the world.

Providing snacks is an important part of the ministry 

provided by members and friends of the Presbyterian 

Church of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.

Vickery said that not only did the presbytery’s grant enable them to continue the church’s laundry outreach, but it also helped the congregation to see the ministry in a new light — as something valuable.

“Every two months we provide quarters, snacks and connection,” Vickery said. “We always go on the last Monday of the month since people on public assistance are running low on money at the end of the month. We have had the opportunity to help a homeless family squatting in a house with no electricity or running water and help a woman with cancer have clean bedding. Through our ministry at the laundromat, we also made contact with a woman living in violence, whom I was eventually able to drive to safety.”

Vickery said that as a Matthew 25 congregation, the church is growing in its understanding of what that means.

“We do know that Jesus makes it clear that how we treat the vulnerable is how we treat Jesus,” she said. “Because most of our members are college educated, literate and middle class, our laundry outreach has put them in touch with a world whose hardships they’re unaware of. It comes as a shock for people to realize how costly doing your laundry can be, and to know that people can’t use their SNAP benefits to buy detergent, cleaning supplies or personal hygiene items. Not being able to keep yourself clean robs people of their dignity. There’s something very restorative about knowing that people will be able to be their best selves.”

And isn’t that the heart of the Easter message?

“Holy Week gives us a chance to show that Jesus makes all things new,” said Vickery. “That’s why we call it ‘Fresh Start.’ It’s a chance to start over.”

To learn more about Special Offerings, click here.

Emily Enders Odom, Associate Director of  Mission Communications

Today’s Focus: Holy Week laundry outreach, Presbyterian Church of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Tamron Keith, Associate Director for Finance and Administration, Presbyterian Mission Agency 
Stephen Keizer, Vice President Ministry Relations, Presbyterian Foundation 

Let us pray

We praise you, God, that you created us with the capacity to learn, to grow, and, most of all, to change our thinking. Open our eyes to see your world and your people in a new way. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Retired pastor thanks the PC(USA)’s Christmas Joy Offering and Board of Pensions for providing invaluable support

Navigating the road to retirement

February 16, 2024

The Rev. Peggy Krong

When the Apostle Paul wrote about the varieties of God-given abilities conferred by the Spirit, the Rev. Peggy Krong — a gifted former English teacher — would be the first to admit that she likely missed out on the gift of financial expertise.

“People who are close to me know that I’m not great with finances,” she said.

Krong, an active Presbyterian for more than 50 years who had always sensed a call to ministry, was advised by nearly everyone that attending seminary and making a career change was not a good idea. For financial reasons.

“But my home pastor gave me the best advice,” she recalled. “‘Peggy,’ he told me, ‘don’t do it unless you can’t not do it.’”

Because God’s call indeed proved irresistible to Krong, she entered the Graduate Theological Union —affiliated with San Francisco Theological Seminary — in 1992. After earning her M.Div. and being ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in 1996, she served Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church in San Antonio and Westwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles for a combined total of more than 15 years prior to her retirement in 2012.

“Although I have never regretted my decision to enter ministry, I do regret that my career change and life circumstances left me with minimal resources for retirement,” she said.

As a lifelong educator, Krong has often availed herself of the many educational resources available through the church, especially the programs offered by the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). When she learned about a clergy retirement planning seminar sponsored by the Board of Pensions in her area, she immediately signed up to attend in preparation for her own retirement.

“When I learned about the assistance programs of the church,” she said, “I felt that people who have served their entire lives in the mission field should be getting that money, not people like me.”

But later, when financial barriers jeopardized her ability to move into the Monte Vista Grove Homes in Pasadena, California, a long-standing Presbyterian retirement community well suited to her needs, she listened to a close friend’s wise counsel.

“My friend reminded me that everybody has different gifts, and while financial planning wasn’t one of mine, I had contributed much to the church and denomination through my service,” said Krong. “She then encouraged me to contact the Board of Pensions.”

The Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions granted her immediate assistance by partially paying the retirement home’s required entrance fee and later set her up with an ongoing Housing Supplement to help her manage the monthly fees.

The support that Krong receives is made possible, in part, by the PC(USA)’s annual Christmas Joy Offering, a cherished Presbyterian tradition since the 1930s, which distributes gifts equally to the Assistance Program and to Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color.

The Assistance Program provides need-based grants to help active and retired plan members and their families. Housing Supplements help eligible retirees and surviving spouses with the cost of remaining in their homes or moving to retirement facilities, as Krong did.

“A life committed to the work of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is one of selflessness and generosity,” said Lucas McCool, director of Member Services for the Board of Pensions. “Because Peggy has brought her gifts of valuing community above all — and at times even herself — I am grateful that she reached out to us for assistance in her time of need.”

Ever since she first connected with the Board of Pensions, Krong said that every interaction has been a pleasure.

“We’re all children of God, and we all struggle,” said Krong. “Thanks to the Board of Pensions and the Christmas Joy Offering, I can now be of more service to the church than I would otherwise have been without this assistance. I just can’t express enough how grateful I am.”

Emily Enders Odom, Associate Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus: Christmas Joy Offering and Board of Pensions provide support to retired pastor

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Analise Brown, Administrative Assistant, Theology, Formation & Evangelism, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Joey Brown, Ministry Engagement Associate, Direct Mail, Ministry Engagement & Support, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Gracious God, we rejoice that you are generous with us. Keep us mindful that you have provided all that we need. Help us to be generous with our loaves, that you might show us once more that what we perceive as not enough may be all we need, with 12 baskets of crumbs to spare. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Offering helps a retired PC(USA) mission worker find her home

Sue Anne Fairman is blessed to have served in many places

February 7, 2024

A Ward family photo includes Sue Anne Fairman. (Contributed 

photo)

If home is where the heart is, then Sue Anne Fairman’s heart is blessed to call several places home.

For the Presbyterian ruling elder and deacon, for whom a call to mission has defined her entire life, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, is home.

Not only is the small town home to Fairman’s alma mater, Westminster College — site of the New Wilmington Mission Conference, where she also served for 10 years as office manager — but it’s also home to the New Wilmington Presbyterian Church, which supported her and her former husband during their years as international mission workers.

But home, too, will always be Kenya, where they lived and worked among the Maasai people in southwestern Kenya. It was there that Fairman cultivated a love for literacy, raised and homeschooled two daughters, and spent 14 of her nearly 25 years in mission service volunteering at Mother Teresa’s Orphanage in Nairobi.

And home, since December 2020, is also Shenango on the Green, a Presbyterian continuing care community, where Fairman is an active volunteer. It’s also where she said goodbye to her own mother, who lived and died there.

Yet Fairman might not have been able to call Shenango on the Green home had it not been for the intervention of her longtime friend and college schoolmate, the Rev. David Dawson, former executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Shenango.

When initially faced with the financial realities of moving into a senior living community, Fairman said she was feeling “more than a bit stressed.”

“I was very concerned about living in this new place with the monthly rent going up, and my savings going down,” she said. “Then I had lunch with my friend, Dave, who said, ‘Why don’t you apply to the Board of Pensions for income and housing assistance,’ which I had never heard of before. He explained it was there for retired pastors and mission workers if they were in financial need. When I made the call and they investigated my situation, they felt I qualified.”

Fairman said that the day she received her acceptance letter from the Board of Pensions, she felt validated.

Sue Anne Fairman’s service to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 

included many years serving in Kenya. (Contributed photo)

“Most of my years of service as a pastor’s wife and missionary in Kenya were not covered by the Board of Pensions, because [my ex-husband] was the one who was called into ministry,” she said. “When I got that letter that said I was accepted, I just cried. It meant that much to me. I cannot tell you how much this income assistance has validated me and my years of ministry!”

The support that Fairman receives is made possible, in part, by the PC(USA)’s annual Christmas Joy Offering, a cherished Presbyterian tradition since the 1930s, which distributes gifts equally to the BOP’s Assistance Program and to Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color.

The Assistance Program provides need-based grants to help active and retired plan members and their families. Income Supplements help eligible retirees and surviving spouses in need by raising to certain levels the monthly income for those who had earned modest wages.

“The Board’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion includes dismantling structures which had previously only served the few,” said Ruth Adams, director of the Assistance Program. “The Assistance Program has taken this mission to heart by expanding access to existing programs and creating new ones during the past two years. Changing pension plan participation for Housing and Income supplements has meant that pensioners who served the church for many years without full benefits may now be eligible to receive support from the Board of Pensions in their retirement.”

“Former church workers who have served long and well deserve to be recognized for their efforts over their lifetime,” Fairman said. “Because there are so many today who are struggling financially because of inflation and other challenges, they need help. Your gifts to the Christmas Joy Offering serve to validate their life and their ministry.”

Give to the Christmas Joy Offering to help the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions support our leaders: past, present and future.

Emily Enders Odom, Associate Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus: Board of Pensions Assistance Program supported Sue Anne Fairman find a home

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Deborah Bernard, Administrator, Office of the President, Board of Pensions
Barbara Betts, Manager of Presbyterian Distribution Services, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Loving God, open our hearts and minds as we share your love with others. As Jesus healed us, lead us also to heal our neighbors, giving hope that they may restore their sense of worth and self-confidence. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Exposing the moral and migrational implications of climate change

Peace & Global Witness Offering contributes toward mitigating the trauma of global and geopolitical neighbors

November 21, 2023

Kotema Lanto

Of the many tools a farmer can usually rely on to help ensure a successful crop yield — resources to control weeds, fight pests or build healthy soil — Kotema Lanto found nothing in his toolkit to counteract the devastating impact of climate change on the family farm.

And there was certainly nothing within his grasp to prevent him from having to uproot his family from the place they once called home.

As residents of Nui Island — one of a group of low-lying Islands and atolls in the South Pacific Ocean that make up the small nation of Tuvalu — Lanto and his young family have been battered over time by the destructive effects of climate change, eventually culminating in their forced migration inland.

“Not only did they have to move further inland,” said Maina Talia, a former International Peacemaker for the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, “but they have been unable to return to the place where they grew up. For people who have no choice other than to leave their homes, there aren’t just financial, agricultural and practical implications, but moral implications as well because they’ve been living in a place for their entire lives. This is where they’re attached to; and, when they move on a small island, they are also intruding into other people’s space, creating internal conflicts.”

Because Tuvalu is especially vulnerable to tropical cyclones, rising sea levels and global pollution, after Tropical Cyclone Pam struck the small island nation in 2015, some 45% of its residents — just like Kotema — were displaced.

“Climate change is unpredictable, especially when it comes to shifting weather patterns,” he said. “It’s difficult to predict when there will be a cyclone.”

Maina Talia

Talia, who regularly works and engages with various nongovernmental organizations, including the Pacific Conference of Churches and Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu (the Tuvalu Christian Church) on a variety of environmental issues, was instrumental in securing funding from the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives for an early warning system to communicate during cyclones and a 15kva solar system to power the Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu head office.

He has also just completed his Ph.D. on the concept of neighbor in Luke 10, the “Good Samaritan,” as viewed through the lens of geopolitics and climate change, which he sees as intimately related to his pursuit of peace and justice.

“In context of climate change and geopolitics, our neighbor is no longer someone living next door to us, but rather someone who is impacted by our actions,” he said.

Talia’s call to peacemaking — including addressing the escalating economic, moral, food security and safety issues that result from the impact of climate change — is made possible, in part, by gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering, traditionally received on World Communion Sunday, which this year fell on Oct. 1.

Kotema Lanto, at right, is one to pitch in and help during a time 

of need. (Contributed photo)

The Peace & Global Witness Offering is unique in that half of it is directed to peacemaking and global witness efforts at the national church level to address critical issues around the world. Twenty-five percent is retained by congregations for local peace and reconciliation work, and 25% goes to mid councils for similar ministries on the regional level.

Talia’s peacemaking work not only involves research and teaching, but also advocacy on behalf of his neighbors, who live in constant fear.

“Although the government can provide food and shelter, we have to ensure that our neighbors are in a good state of mind to continue with the work that they do,” he said. “Pre- and post-trauma counseling is important for us. The Church in Tuvalu is looking into the issue very seriously.”

Talia said that he greatly respects what the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has done in the past and is doing now when it comes to peace. He hopes to continue to build a network with the PC(USA) and its members toward both mutual understanding and working for climate justice.

As Talia continues to highlight Tuvalu and the Pacific on the issue of climate change he embodies Christ’s call to peace, love and justice as it is exemplified by the Matthew 25 movement.

Emily Enders Odom, Associate Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus: Peace & Global Witness Offering

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Gabrialla Rudovic, Housekeeper, Stony Point Center, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Joseph Russ, Coordinator for Migration Issues, Advocacy & Mission with the Northern Triangle, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Father, our hearts ache for our siblings around the world who struggle in the hands of poverty. Continue to sow your seeds of hope, grace and love among us, so that we may find new life and freedom in Jesus. Amen.