Read letters from Bob and Stacy Bronkema
June 2011
October 2010
June 2010
March 7, 2010
November 26, 2009
September 9, 2009
May 25, 2009
March 9, 2009
Robert and Stacy Bronkema
Robert and Stacy Bronkema ended mission service with the PC(USA) in 2011.
In July 2006, Bob and Stacy Bronkema were appointed to serve with the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy, an international faith community composed primarily of students and refugees from the developing world. Bob is pastor and Stacy also works in the congregation’s ministry, which has a strong emphasis on social justice.
Serving in mission overseas isn’t a new experience for either Bob or Stacy. They served as mission diaconal workers with the PC(USA) from 1994 to 1998 in Naples, Italy, where they were co-pastors of four Italian-speaking Waldensian churches. During the same period, Bob was also the chaplain at the Casa Materna Orphanage in Portici.
Prior to his appointment, Bob was senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Palatka, Florida, from 1998 to 2006. “Although I was pastor of a growing church,” Bob writes, “I felt the longing to be involved in full-time Presbyterian mission again. I know that calling well, since my grandparents, parents, and I have all been missionaries with the Presbyterian Church at one stage in our lives.”
While in Palatka, Bob helped rekindle a mutual mission exchange between Palatka, Florida, and Palatka, Russia. This, in turn, rekindled Bob’s call to mission. Bob recalls an incident when he was leading a group from Florida to Russia. “A member of our church asked the teenage son of one of our hosts if he had ever considered moving to a place with greater economic opportunity. The boy said, ‘We don’t need what you Americans think we need. We can live on that which God provides for us, and it is sufficient.’ He was quoting Matthew 6 without even realizing it. God was at work in that room, teaching me what it means to rely completely on God.”
Bob and Stacy both have M.Div. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Bob’s B.A. is in political science from Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and Stacy’s is in psychology from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.
Bob and Stacy are both ordained Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ministers of Word and Sacrament and are minister members of the Presbytery of St. Augustine.
The Bronkemas are accompanied in Russia by their three daughters, Rachel, Naomi and Bethany.
Birthdays:
Bob - June 28
Stacy - September 6
Rachel - June 8
Naomi - May 16
Bethany - July 16