Today in the Mission Yearbook - One Great Hour of Sharing gifts save lives and livelihoods in famine-stricken countries

The PC(USA) and its partners are making a difference in Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Northern Nigeria

June 24, 2020

One Great Hour of Sharing gifts save lives and livelihoods in countries stricken by famine. (Photo courtesy of Kaalmo Relief and Development)

Before a hunger emergency struck Somalia, Hawo Abdi and her husband were successful herders near their country’s border with Kenya.

However, two years of intensive drought parched the land to the point that they could no longer raise the camels, cattle, sheep and goats that supported their pastoralist lifestyle. The country’s civil war added further complications to the situation. As her family faced economic ruin, Abdi’s husband died, and at the time of his death, she was two months pregnant with the couple’s fifth child.

Desperate to feed her children, Abdi, 29, decided to leave her home in El-Wak, Somalia, and walk to the Tulia-Anin Camp for internally displaced people. She felt she had no choice but to make the high-risk two-day journey and try as best she could to look out for the safety of her four young children and her unborn child. People who make this trek face the possibility of attack from armed groups, and food and water are scarce.

“We had nothing to take with us, and we had to beg for water,” she said. At the camp, located just outside Beled-Hawa, Somalia, they found refuge, water and food. Abdi and her children receive a monthly allocation of rice, beans, cooking oil and sugar that One Great Hour of Sharing gifts helped provide.

While life is difficult, Abdi and her children, including her baby, are safe and nourished. “The food aid has improved the living conditions of my family,” she said. “I was able to feed my starving children.”

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) partners with Kaalmo Relief and Development to provide food aid to people in the camp. “We are very grateful for your contribution,” said Mohamed Ahmed Iriri, Kaalmo’s director. “It will help us a lot in fighting the hunger and poverty affecting our people in Somalia.”

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 5.4 million people in Somalia are food insecure, and another 2.6 million people are internally displaced.

The U.N. has declared that Somalia and three other countries — Northern Nigeria, South Sudan, and Yemen — are experiencing famine. The causes of famine in the northeast region are driven by political strife, including the Boko Haram insurgency and a conflict between farmers and herders, extreme weather conditions, especially flooding, and a dearth of agricultural infrastructure from years of little to no investment. A famine declaration means that at least 20 percent of people in an area face extreme food shortages and large numbers of people are dying from hunger.

One Great Hour of Sharing gifts are helping to address this crisis through PC(USA) partners in each of the famine-stricken countries. These partners are helping with emergency food assistance and addressing the underlying causes of hunger.

In Yemen, One Great Hour of Sharing gifts are helping to restore the livelihoods of fisherfolk. Their catches provide both income and meals for their families. The Offering helped replace equipment for fisherfolk who lost the tools needed to practice their trade when civil war violence reached their communities.

One-third of Yemen’s population lives along its 1,200-mile coastline, and fish is a nutritional staple for them, says Salah Nehmi, program officer for PC(USA) partner Generations Without Qat, a non-governmental organization based in Yemen.

Nehmi praises the PC(USA)’s commitment to sustainable development and expressed gratitude for the people whose gifts make the church’s work possible. “The Yemeni people appreciate your support and prayers,” he said. “Your support helped some very vulnerable people in Yemen and saved lives.”

For 71 years, One Great Hour of Sharing gifts have been giving a hand up to vulnerable people. The Offering provides support to the Presbyterian Hunger Program, Self- Development of People and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

 Pat Cole, Special to Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

John Glenn, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Edwin Gonzalez-Castillo, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Almighty God, feed us today with the presence of our risen Lord Jesus Christ and the breath of your Holy Spirit, that we may be bold witnesses and bear abundant fruit in all we say and do to the glory of your Holy Name. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - One Great Hour of Sharing gifts support housing affordability and fairness

Thanks to Presbyterian ministries, more people are experiencing a decent place to live

June 3, 2020

Gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing help support Jersey City Together, a New Jersey organization that stands up for people trying to maintain a decent and affordable place to live. (Contributed photo)

For more than a decade, Monica Jones enjoyed her Jersey City, New Jersey, apartment and a good relationship with her landlord.

However, a few years ago Jones’ housing situation began to change. When a new landlord acquired her building, Jones soon started getting notices summoning her to court. At different times, the landlord contended that she had been late with a rent payment, had failed to pay an increased rent charge and/or had failed to pay the rent at all. Other longtime residents of her 18-unit building were having similar experiences.

Jones made repeated trips to court, and each time the allegations were dismissed. While she successfully fended off the legal challenges, Jones was growing weary of the hassle. She was tired of having to take time off from her job with New York City’s city government. She felt alone in her battle and was concerned that one day the landlord might find a way to prevail.

Diane Maxon of Jersey City Together, a group that addresses housing and other community concerns, said Jones’s landlord has a history of forcing people from their building, renovating the structure and raising the rent significantly. The landlord, she said, owns approximately 4,000 apartments in Jersey City.

Maxon, who chairs Jersey City Together’s Tenants’ Rights and Protection Group, said these actions ran afoul of rent control and other housing regulations in Jersey City. However, she said local enforcement officials had largely ignored the violations.

“People were being illegally evicted, and rent was being raised up to three times what the original tenant had paid, which in itself is illegal,” said Maxon. “You can’t just randomly raise the rent just because you have renovated.” She explained the amount of money invested in renovations dictates how much rent can increase.

Jersey City Together is committed to standing up for people trying to maintain a decent and affordable place to live. Gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing are helping the group in this endeavor.

In 2018, Jersey City Together pressed the town’s government to enforce housing regulations more aggressively. The mayor responded by restructuring the board that governs landlord/tenant relations and instituting other reforms related to tenant protection. Maxon is hopeful these moves will make a difference.

Located just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, Jersey City has seen a dramatic increase in high-income families moving there from New York. They are attracted to Jersey City’s newly renovated apartments, which are pricey but still much less expensive than comparable units in Manhattan. Maxon said this has created a housing shortage for middle- and low-income people.

Jersey City Together strives to amplify the voices of people in vulnerable housing situations. When Jones made her most recent appearance in court, after receiving notice that she was to vacate her apartment in three days, Jersey City Together organized a group to accompany her and helped her find reasonably priced legal representation. Previously, she had had to face the legal system alone. This time she came armed with more knowledge of the law and the presence of Jersey City Together. She was vindicated once again.

“The judge didn’t even spend five minutes on it,” Maxon observed. “It was so ridiculous.” One Great Hour of Sharing gifts are helping Jersey City Together pay the partial salary of a second organizer, which Maxon said is greatly needed. “There are so many things to do and so little time and money,” she said. “This grant has really facilitated us moving forward and making a difference, and we are eternally grateful for that.”

In Durham, North Carolina, One Great Hour of Sharing gifts are helping efforts to build more affordably priced housing in the city’s urban core. Offering gifts are supporting Durham CAN, a coalition of faith-based groups and civic organizations which has persuaded government officials to devote publicly owned land to affordable housing. Already, more than 400 affordable housing units have been built on land provided by the city and county.

Construction on hundreds of additional affordable housing units is expected to begin in late 2020 on 20 acres of abandoned and vacant land acquired by the Durham Housing Authority.

Pat Cole, Special to Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Anna Edlin, Presbyterian Foundation
Laura Edwards, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

O Lord, help us to see the light and gifts of others. Teach us as we teach your word and love. Place your strong hands upon us and lead us as we lead your children into a life of compassion and service. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Stillman College helps student move from homelessness to hope

Alumnus Devon Kelly says the Presbyterian school shaped his desire to help ‘other people to do well’

March 23, 2020

In 2016, Devon Kelly earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Stillman College, a historically black college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), He was able to attend because of Stillman’s relatively low tuition and generous financial aid package made possible in part because of the Christmas Joy Offering. (Contributed photo)

As a high school senior, Devon Kelly had no place to call home and little hope that his plight would improve.

Beginning at age 14, he slept wherever he could find a place to lay his head. He stayed with cousins, friends, his grandmother and his aunt. Sometimes he spent the night on a park bench. His mother’s struggles with mental illness and other medical issues had diminished her ability to care for Kelly and his brother.

“Growing up on Chicago’s South Side was really tough,” he said. “By the time I was 18, I had lost several family members to gun violence. I had lost other family members to the judicial system. Honestly, I thought I was going to be another statistic.”

However, his outlook began to change when he encountered an admissions representative from Stillman College, a historically black college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), at his high school.  Kelly eventually enrolled in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, institution and graduated with a history degree in 2016.

Today, he is pursuing a master’s in social work at the University of Alabama, and he has his sights set on helping children and youth who, like him, have faced severe adversity. “I am getting my master’s in social work because people are hurting, and they are in need of someone who can listen — and not only listen but connect them to resources,” he said.

For Kelly, Stillman College was his source of help. “Stillman has made me the person I am today,” he said, adding that the college has instilled in him “the desire I have for other people to do well, the professionalism I carry and the desire to show the love of God, the love of Christ.”

Kelly sees God’s hand at work in his journey to Stillman. His trek to Tuscaloosa began when he stopped at a Pop-Tarts vending machine at Chicago’s Morgan Park High School and bumped into Joseph Moreno, then a Stillman admissions representative.  The machine was near Morgan Park’s guidance counseling center, where Moreno was available to talk with students. Kelly was somewhat puzzled by his craving for Pop-Tarts. At the time he didn’t like them, “but now I believe this was the Lord’s way of leading me to a bigger plan for my life,” he said.

Before he met Moreno, Kelly assumed that he “didn’t have any hope of going to college.” However, his mind changed after the two had a “heart-touching conversation.” He began to imagine Stillman as a place where he could succeed. “I knew it was far away from the environment I was used to, and that it would give me a chance to do something productive with my life.”

Kelly’s life-changing journey to Stillman was possible because of its relatively low tuition and generous financial aid packages. Gifts to such Special Offerings as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Christmas Joy Offering help Stillman reach out to students like Kelly.

At Stillman, Kelly found the embrace of a caring community. “My professors made me feel like I was a student rather than just another person paying tuition,” he said. “The small class sizes were also a plus.”

Despite his unstable upbringing, Kelly felt academically prepared for college. “In the environment I grew up in, it was safer to stay in the house and study all day rather than go outside.”

Kelly graduated from Stillman cum laude. While a student, he was chosen for a team that competed in the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge, an academic bowl for historically black colleges and universities.

When he finishes his master’s degree, Kelly hopes to work with nonprofit organizations that help disadvantaged youth and children through group homes and afterschool programs. “My hope is that they will have a heart to listen to not only my advice but anybody’s advice who is steering them in the right direction,” he said. “My hope is that they will steer away from the negative direction, which is so easy to choose in this world.”

Kelly is grateful that Stillman helped him choose a positive path. He also appreciates Presbyterians who give to the Christmas Joy Offering and other supporters who made his education there possible.  To them, he says: “Thank you for the opportunities; they make a difference. And thank you for the scholarships; they make a difference.”

Pat Cole, Former Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

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:

Loving God, thank you for leading your children in new directions. Help us hear your call to ministry, wherever it is. In the name of the Good Shepherd, we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Menaul School helps young people succeed

In gratitude, Tony and Lilia Acabal devote many volunteer hours to the Presbyterian-related school

March 12, 2020

Parents Tony and Lilia Acabal pose with their son Marco, a 2019 graduate of the Menaul School, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-related secondary school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Contributed photo)

When Tony and Lilia Acabal were determining where to send their children to school, they both carried deep memories of the struggles they faced years ago as new immigrants.

Tony’s family had managed to escape violence-riddled Guatemala in 1987 when he was 15. A decades-long civil war, which claimed the lives of 200,000 people, posed danger at every turn.

Lilia’s family came to the United States from Mexico in 1991 when she was 14.

For Tony, getting a good education in his home country was difficult at best, and the lagging educational attainment compounded the challenges of learning a new language and culture. Lilia still remembers the feelings of loneliness she encountered when she started high school in the U.S.

While Tony and Lilia were able to secure educations and gainful employment, their journeys were tough. “It took us a while to get back on our feet,” Tony said.

The Acabals feared their children’s school experience would also be difficult. “When I was in high school, I felt left out,” Lilia said. “I didn’t want them to go through the same thing.”

Tony and Lilia decided to send their three children to the Menaul School, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-related secondary school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and they have not looked back.

“Our children feel like they belong to the community, and we feel like that as well,” Lilia said. “They build close relationships with other students as well as their teachers.”

Lilia and Tony are also pleased with Menaul’s commitment to spiritual emphasis as well as its academic success.

Tony said the strength of Menaul’s academic program was affirmed for them when their eldest child, Marco, a 2019 graduate, began to plan his college course schedule. His college told him to skip algebra. “He’s starting with calculus because he had already learned so much at Menaul,” Tony said. “He wasn’t expecting that. He did very well on his SAT.”

Marco acknowledged that Menaul is “kind of a challenging experience,” but he said the concern of teachers and small classes help students succeed. He also complimented the breadth of learning available at Menaul. “I liked learning about cultures and religions from other parts of the world,” he said. He added that Menaul, much more than most schools, offers classes where “they talk about spiritual things.”

While undecided about a college major, Marco said he believes Menaul prepared him well for further studies.

All three Acabal siblings — Marco, Celeste and Luis — have attended the Menaul School, which is supported in part by gifts to the Christmas Joy Offering. (Contributed photo)

Marco and his siblings, Celeste, an 11th-grader and Luis, a seventh-grader, were able to attend Menaul thanks to the commitment of their parents and the school’s financial aid program.

In gratitude for their children’s opportunities, Tony and Lilia are among the school’s most faithful volunteers. They are frequent chaperones at dances and other school events, and Tony, a nurse, accompanies students on school-sponsored camping trips with medical supplies in tow.

“We really want to give something back because Menaul has done a lot for us,” Tony said.

Their involvement is welcomed by their children. “My parents are always there with us,” Celeste said. “They know who our teachers are, they know what we are learning and they are always there to encourage us when we are struggling with anything.”

Celeste loves chemistry and biology and has a special interest in studying about the human body. She hopes to one day enter the medical profession as a nurse or a physician.

Though still in middle school, Luis is already forming career aspirations. “I want to get good grades so that hopefully one day I can become an engineer,” he said. “I’m very interested in engineering and design, and I really like science and physics.”

While Tony and Lilia sacrificed financially to send their children to Menaul, they are keenly aware that their children’s educational experience at the school would not have been possible without the generosity of others.

“We are very grateful for their support,” Lilia said. “A lot of families like ours would not be able to send our children to Menaul without their support. More than 60 percent of students are on financial aid.”

Pat Cole, Former Communications Specialist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Yvonne Wathen, Office of the General Assembly
Kimberly Wells, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Gracious and loving God, we thank you for emerging young adults, for their curiosity and eagerness to learn. Amen.