Today in the Mission Yearbook - Praying for others

Ask questions and keep it simple

May 20, 2022

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I have never used the praying hands emoji as much as I have the past two years. I serve as a chaplain in a city trauma center, so I pray a lot. But the COVID-19 pandemic provoked more need for prayer than I have ever felt before; thus, the use of the praying hands emoji increased as the pandemic continued.

As people of faith, when we come to the edge of what we can fix on our own, we draw near to God in prayer. And when we are with someone else amid their suffering, we know to bring them to God in prayer. It’s precisely when the stakes are high that we don’t want to mess up the prayer. It’s natural to worry: What if we say the wrong thing so God won’t read our text or open our snap? What if the prayer doesn’t work and nothing changes?

Mark 2:1–12 makes a great prayer road map. The day began with five friends realizing that Jesus had come to town. One of them was paralyzed; four were able-bodied. All of them agreed that it would be good to get closer to Jesus. So, they conspired to make that happen with four of them carrying the one paralyzed fellow on a mat. Mark is sparse on details, but we get the picture: The whole town showed up to see Jesus, gridlock at the front door, rerouting, perilous scrambling up onto the roof, ripping open a hole and lowering the friend on the mat to place him at the feet of Jesus. And Jesus took it from there.

What we learn is that praying for others is collaborative. At first, we see the collaboration between a person who was paralyzed and the able-bodied friends. And by the end, we see a collaboration between Jesus and the person on the mat. We see the able-bodied friends beginning their prayer for their paralyzed friend with the obvious physical considerations: getting him from point A to point B. Sometimes our prayers are practical like this, too, such as doing the grocery run for our homebound friend or going to a follow-up appointment to listen to the test results.

Unlike a text message loaded with praying hands emojis, praying for others requires actual conversation and permission. We need to clarify what our friend really wants. A basic question like “Would you like to pray together?” is helpful. Maybe they will say, “No, but keep me in your prayers” or “Add me to the prayer list at church” or “Yes please! Let’s pray together!” But first begin by asking for permission and clarifying the prayer need. If you are physically present with someone you are praying for, be mindful of asking if physical touch is welcomed: “Is it OK if we hold hands?” Sometimes people have hidden pain that we won’t know about until we ask.

In the end, the four friends seeking healing for their paralyzed friend brought them all to the feet of Jesus. Prayer for others does that. Remember, though, we take turns in these roles: Some days, we are the ones offering to pray. Other days, we are the people in need of prayer. And some days, we are all the above.

Elizabeth Gibbs Zehnder serves as Presbyterian staff chaplain at LAC+USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, providing spiritual support to patients, their families and the hospital staff.

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Effie Shipp, Assistant, Credit Operations, Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program
Natalie Shilstut, Director, Programs & Services, Presbyterian Historical Society

Let us pray

Gracious God, grant wisdom as we explore new ways of serving. Though none follow your path perfectly, we know your grace goes with us on the journey. Help us to serve others along the way. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Reimagining the ‘Charity Garden’

Planting the seeds of justice

May 19, 2022

Gardening began for me as a personal spiritual practice. Something about having my hands in the dirt grounded me. As I began getting more serious about it, I began seeing how food intersects many of the areas of justice, from race and immigration to ecology and wealth inequality. I saw that growing food was a way to effect change on a local level as well as a place to start conversations about larger systemic changes. When done well, gardening can be both a means of connecting to the Creator and to our neighbors.

At the end of 2019, a pastor friend of mine was bemoaning finding volunteers for a garden project. “I like to garden,” I told him, not realizing what I was stepping into. A month later, he introduced me to the Rockrose City Farm —  one of several community farms throughout Baltimore that was once a rock quarry, then later a baseball field. It eventually became a community garden with individual plots and one central plot called the “Charity Garden.” The Charity Garden had been maintained by a couple who attended my friend’s church. The church inherited the garden after the couple retired to Florida.

In the best of times, getting a garden off the ground would have been a challenge. But as we know, the spring of 2020 was not the best of times. After about a month straight of not leaving my house, I came to garden and was overwhelmed by what I saw: The plot was overgrown with weeds, and the hoop house was filled with garbage and random tools.

Fortunately for me, the Presbytery of Baltimore has an amazing asset in The Center — an organization that exists “to inspire and equip churches and individuals to engage boldly with their neighborhoods.” The Center’s staff supplied Rockrose with volunteers in those beginning months. It was also through The Center that Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church became involved. Their associate pastor, the Rev. Michele Ward, put out a call for volunteers. One member of Ward’s church particularly found gardening to be healing. McKay Jenkins, a journalist and English professor at the University of Delaware, dedicated additional time to build raised beds, potting tables and an irrigation system. The connection to the space became intensely personal for Jenkins, who started working at the farm shortly after losing his parents, both of whom were avid gardeners. “Working with my hands helped me find some sense of grounded-ness in an otherwise very unsettled time,” he said.

Jenkins’ leadership has extended beyond growing food for others. He and I have both bristled at the “charity garden” label that we inherited. We’ve challenged ourselves to move beyond charity. Jenkins has begun by inviting his students, most of whom come from affluent backgrounds, to work in the garden and learn about the food justice issues that exist in Baltimore. It has also meant inviting local students from the city to the farm. These are small steps, but we continue to dream big about ways the garden could be used for education, job training and resourcing small business. Our hope is that this space can be as healing for the community as it has been for each of us.

Derrick Weston is the co-host of the “Food and Faith” podcast at foodandfaithpodcast.org. He is a member of Ashland Presbyterian Church in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Julianna Sheridan, Business Administrator, Investments, Board of Pensions
Alejandra “Alex” Sherman, Executive Assistant, President’s Office, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Lord, give us the willingness to love others to the point of sharing our faith intimately with them in deed and in words. Help us to appreciate the least of these in our midst. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength

Talk gives faith leaders reasons for tending to the mental health of their Asian American congregations

May 18, 2022

Photo by Finn via Unsplash

More than 750 people were present online for the daylong Mental Health and Asian Americans Conference recently put on by the Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Dr. Josephine Kim, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, licensed mental health counselor and the founder of the organization Mustard Seed Generation, led off with an hourlong talk titled “Mental Health in Asian American Communities: Unpacking External and Internal Factors that Keep Asian Americans Vulnerable.”

Kim began by rhetorically asking the faith leaders present whey they should care about mental health. The obvious answer is that it’s affecting significant amounts of the people in their congregation or worshiping community:

According to NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 10 young people experience periods of major depression.

One in 25 Americans lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression.

One in five youth ages 13–18 will have a serious mental health challenge.

Forty million college students and young adults live with a mental illness or significant mental health issue.

More than 4 in 10 people 65 and older say they feel lonely on a regular basis.

Since the pandemic began, 55% of adults report having “little interest in taking pleasure in doing things,” Kim said. “None of us are immune from this.”

Asian Americans are in a “double bind,” Kim said, when they’re viewed stereotypically as both “perpetual foreigner” and “model minority.”

“We have to think about the forces that push us and keep us vulnerable,” Kim said. “Mental health is where we sit at the intersection between those two things.”

Leaders of faith communities ought to be increasing literacy rates both in matters of race and mental health, Kim said, focusing on “how those factors impact those we are preaching to every week.”

Although statistically the rates of depression and anxiety are up among Asian Americans and others during the pandemic, “as a church we need to understand we may not have people falling apart before our eyes,” Kim said. Students may be bringing home A+ report cards, “but in our community, grades are not necessarily a marker of their well-being.”

More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, “we have survived a whole lot, and kudos to you,” Kim told the gathered faith leaders. “This is where God’s grace is.”

But keep in mind that if 100 people show up for worship on Sunday, 26 of them will be suffering from a diagnosable mental illness or will this year. “We aren’t above it,” Kim said, “just because we’re tethered to Christ.”

“God created us as emotional and social beings,” Kim said, reminding the audience of Jesus’ response in Mark 12:30 to the scribe who asked him which commandment is the most important. Jesus’ reply says a lot about who we’re created to be and in whose image we’re made, according to Kim: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

“The fact that we have emotions is a sign of how emotive God is,” Kim said. “When socially and emotionally we are not doing well, the other parts often fall apart. All the pieces are interlinked.”

In the U.S., nearly 80% of Korean Americans belong to a Protestant church. Rather than seeking a therapist because of a mental health challenge, “they come to you, like it or not,” Kim said to church leaders in attendance.

What’s the faith leader to say? They might start with, “I want to accompany you in the process, but I also want to connect you with someone with training to give you that support,” Kim suggested, adding this possible line: “We can pray and look into God’s Word.”

“That’s the holistic approach we need to get people healthy again,” Kim said.

Faith leaders can see themselves as first responders, Kim said, when they know the signs, learn the actions and are a lifeline to those who are seeking help.

“We need to be familiar with what youth and the elderly are going through,” Kim said.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Robyn Davis Sekula, VP, Marketing Communications, Presbyterian Foundation
Ellen Sherby, Acting Associate Director, Global Connections , World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Gracious God, as sisters and brothers come together, we pray that you will wrap your loving arms around each of them as they worship, work and share with one another. In Christ’s name. Amen.

WCC NEWS: Latest issue of International Review of Mission continues focus on “Christ’s love: mission and unity”

Continuing to look toward the 2022 assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) that will gather around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” the latest issue of the WCC journal International Review of Mission focuses on “Christ's love: mission and unity.” 16 May 2022 “It is important to observe that the assembly theme is the first explicitly Christological theme since the WCC assembly in Vancouver in 1983, which had the theme ‘Jesus Christ, the light of the world,’ ” writes editor Rev. Dr Risto Jukko, Director of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches, in his introduction to the issue. Previously, the journal published issues on mission and reconciliation, and one issue on mission and unity. The current issue deals with the same topic: relations between mission and unity. “The message that God has reconciled us and the world through Christ is the message that is the basis for unity in mission, the unity of churches, and the unity of humankind, and at the same time the message of hope that the world needs, especially now, when we are living our third year with the COVID-19 pandemic,” writes Jukko. Jukko further notes: “Based on God’s reconciliation with us, we need to be reconciled with ourselves, with people around us, and with creation or the environment.” The diversity of articles is vast. One article in the issue reflects on “The Challenge for Christian Unity and Reconciliation Today from a Decolonial Perspective,” while others focus on mission education in Burma, the spirituality of moderation, and many other facets of the intersection of mission and unity. International Review of Mission is published twice a year by Wiley on behalf of the WCC. Contents of the latest issue (May 2022): “Christ’s Love: Mission and Unity” The International Review of Mission in the Wiley Online Library Subscription information See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland

Today in the Mission Yearbook - The power of solitude

An ancient practice remedies busy life

May 17, 2022

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Movie theaters and concert venues have reopened, and my social life has become colorful again. After experiencing pandemic social distancing, I can mingle in a crowd and exchange appreciative comments and nods. As social animals, we are driven to connect and congregate. Yet the Christian faith also makes a strong case for the spiritual practice of solitude: If you want to find your life, you need to lose it by stepping back from the crowd, by doing less and by doing with less.

The church has scheduled an annual observance of solitude for us called the season of Lent. What can the beginning of Lent tell us about the benefits of solitude that we might have forgotten after having an unwelcomed season of COVID-19 solitude?

The Lenten season began in the late fourth century when Christians were no longer persecuted for their faith. They no longer had to meet in secret. And they no longer had to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit to join the church. In short, most people were Christians in name only. So, a small group resolved to do something about the lax attitude they witnessed. They sold their possessions and gave to the poor. They lived in the wilderness in the style of John the Baptist: eating what the land offered and spending much time in prayer. Above all, they practiced silence, solitude and simplicity.

Soon these communities of loners made headlines in the ancient world. Bishops made the journey to see these solitary wise ones for themselves. What they discovered was people who had little in terms of physical comforts, yet they had what traditional Christians back home lacked: Their faces were radiant. Upon their return to their parishes, bishops scheduled a season prior to Easter where Christians were to live like those desert folk.

My social life has become colorful again, but I cannot forget the important need for practicing solitude. We need this holy time — and we need not wait for Lent to have it. Start by making intentional time for solitude. Turn off all electronic devices for half a day. Set aside time when you make phone calls and answer emails, rather than sprinkling them throughout the day. Now that you have made the time, try sitting and not doing any other activity except becoming more aware of Christ alive in you.

Practicing solitude is not about being alone, but about being more present to God. The church had good reason for implementing the practice of solitude. By it, we once again recover a sense of joy and peace.

The Rev. Dr. Annemarie S. Kidder; Pastor of Pennfield Presbyterian Church, Battle Creek, Michigan; Author of several books on spiritual practices, including “The Power of Solitude: Discovering Your True Self in a World of Nonsense and Noise.”

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Jonathan and Emily Seitz, Mission Co-workers serving in Taiwan, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Dear Lord, sustain us as we seek to sustain each other in the beauty of your kingdom, with the bounty of your earth, amid the needs of your cities and through the fellowship of neighbors working together. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Palestinian Nakba Remembrance Day

May 15, 2022

Dr. Bernard Sabella (provided)

Like thousands of other Palestinians, my parents experienced dispossession and became refugees because of the Nakba (disaster) that befell the Palestinian people and society on May 15, 1948. Becoming refugees and seeing the disintegration of all that you used to love is a very difficult transition. Spiritual guidance and comfort are a resource that I witnessed both my father and mother use to recoup and go on. But it was not an easy process. I often accompanied my father to the nearby Holy Sepulchre where the saga of Crucifixion and Resurrection happened. Our home of refugee was just minutes away from the church and it became essential for my parents to reinvigorate themselves by visiting the church frequently to recover from the trauma of dispossession and refuge. The model that my parents offered was one of faith, despite all odds.

Palestine and the Palestinian people have been on the trek of transition since the Nakba day in 1948. The experiences of the first generation of refugees from the 1948 Arab Israeli war, which saw the disintegration of Palestinian society and the ingathering of the Jews in the nascent State of Israel, pointed to two opposed processes. On the one hand, there was rebirth, and on the other, there was death and disintegration. The essential question remains can these two conflicting processes be reconciled? Healing remains needed to reconcile to trauma and dispossession experienced by Palestinians. It is needed also as a means of acknowledging the narrative and pain of the other by the Israelis. Healing is a mutual undertaking and religion can have an instrumental role in the process. The model of my parents, and I am sure that of countless others, who reverted to their belief and faith to overcome remains to be explored by more Palestinians and Israelis.

Disasters, Nakbas, are part of our collective experience and recollection. Now that our world experiences conflict in Europe, the Old Continent, in countries of the Middle East Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Occupied Territory as well as in Yemen and Libya among others. With climate change and the millions affected in Africa and all over, we all need to learn from the lesson of Resurrection and to rise together to face the challenges of a world in crisis.

For us, in Occupied Palestine and in Israel, we have a particular challenge: how to make of Nakba day a day for coming together; acknowledging each other and overcoming decades of conflict and communal confrontation. We need each other, as our populations increase and as our land, the Holy Land, remains limited in its resources. Nakba day is not simply a day for recollection, but it is also a day that calls for recouping and for exploring ways towards a future of healing where occupation is no longer and where reconciliation becomes in order.

Dr. Bernard Sabella, Director of the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees of the Middle East Council of Churches, retired associate professor of Sociology at Bethlehem University, living in Jerusalem with his wife, Mary

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Corey Schlosser-Hall, Deputy Executive Director of Visioning, Rebuilding and Innovation, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Jeanie Schmuckie, Legal Assistant, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

As in the promise of Revelation 21:2–4 that the old order of things will pass and so in Palestine and Israel: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘This is our story’

The National Caucus of Korean Presbyterian Churches holds its Jubilee Symposium

May 16, 2022

“This is Our Story” was the them of the Jubilee Symposium of the National Caucus of Korean Presbyterian Churches. (Contributed photo)

To celebrate the first 50 years of the National Caucus of Korean Presbyterian Churches (NCKPC), the organization held its Jubilee Symposium, “This Is Our Story,” last fall.

The hybrid event not only allowed for testifying to God’s faithfulness in the Korean American churches of the PC(USA) for the past 50 years, but also for envisioning the next 50 years of Korean American churches that serve and bless the third through fifth generations of Koreans.

Keynote speakers for the symposium included a fifth-generation Chinese American sociologist, third-generation Japanese American theologians, and first- and second-generation Korean American scholars. Through the keynote presentations and a panel discussion, presenters shared their stories and experiences for the future of Korean American churches.

Dr. Russell Jeung, co-founder of STOP AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islanders) HATE and an expert on Asian American hate crime, addressed the issue of the rise of anti-Asian racism in the United States.

The Rev. Gun Ho Lee, pastor of the Greenville Korean Presbyterian Church in Winterville, North Carolina, and a member of the Jubilee Preparation Committee, said, “The 2021 Jubilee Symposium of the NCKPC provided an opportunity to enlarge the NCKPC’s tent through intercultural learning led by various Asian leaders. The organization was strengthened by intergenerational cooperation between the first-generation and the second-generation leaders.”

Lee says the symposium challenged the NCKPC to think outside of the box and do such things use English, not Korean, as the event’s main language. “The invitation of non-Korean, particularly other Asian speakers and most of all, the co-planning of the symposium between the first-generation and second-generation leaders, meant a great deal to the NCKPC,” Lee said.

The Rev. SuYoung Kim, education pastor of The Korean Church of Boston and also a member of the preparation committee for NCKPC’s First Jubilee Symposium, said, “As a first-generation pastor of a Korean immigrant church, this was an eye-opening experience for me. I now realize the power of our stories — the stories of great Korean Americans who left their birthplace and relatives, like many in the Bible, and made America their home in the face of many challenges. These are the stories of Asian Americans who had been discriminated against and condemned then later joined to build the country together and tried to become a part of the blessing for the country, and the stories of Asian American kids who look just like my kids (they are girls!) having grown into bold and bright leaders finding their own voices, places, and meaning in America.”

When asked what he thought was accomplished at the Jubilee, the Rev. Samuel An, senior pastor of The New Hope Church of Michigan, in Redford, Michigan, and a member of the group, replied, “Over the course of more than a year, many leaders of the Korean-American caucus [NCKPC] were praying and looking at where we had come from to discern our path for the next 50 years. We looked at our history and saw too much pragmatism and not enough prophetic self-critique within our churches. We repented of neglecting to work on generational divides, the marginalization of many women, the needs of those outside the church, and a lack of partnership with other churches. I believe the work of the committee did much to prepare the hearts of many leaders for the messages we heard during the symposium.”

“This Jubilee is a sign of hope for the future,” said Lee. “This means that the NCKPC is no longer a gathering of the first-generation pastors and elders, but it means that intercultural and intergenerational fertilization is possible.”

Many women played a key role in the planning and execution of Jubilee Symposium. Ruling Elder Hu Nam served as chairperson of the Jubilee Preparation Committee. However, there are not many Korean women pastoring Korean churches.

Lee said, “I do not think there is any theological problem with Korean women leading Korean churches. There are many good women leaders in Korean churches. It is a matter of very slow cultural transition from the first generation to the next. I am looking forward to seeing what happened in the PC(USA) in terms of women leadership happening in Korean churches, hopefully in the near future.”

To watch videos of the symposium, click here.

Gail Strange, Director of Church and Mid Council Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Eileen Schuhmann, Mission Specialist, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Michelle Schulz, Administrative Manager, Information Technology, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Dear God, let us not become complacent in our daily lives but see instead the many ways we can reach out to others in our own community every day. Amen.