A letter from Tricia Lloyd-Sidle in the Caribbean
December 4, 2007
Behold, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
- Isaiah 43:19
Friends,
Worship has ended but adults and children alike linger to converse and play at the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Taguasco, Cuba.
Taguasco is a small, out-of-the way Cuban town where one does not expect to discover novelty. Our God, however, always seems to be doing new things in the least likely places!
It had been four years since I last visited Taguasco and worshipped with the small, primarily elderly, congregation. I had no idea that the Presbyterian Church in Taguasco had grown and changed so dramatically until we arrived there for a Sunday morning visit last month. The sanctuary was filled with people of all ages, mostly women and children. The worship service included lively singing by congregation and choirs, drama by the youth, lay liturgical leadership, and a strong biblical sermon by the pastor, Miriam Naranjo.
Following worship, there was lunch, games, conversation, and singing in the small annex and in the sanctuary itself. The sanctuary, Pastor Naranjo believes, is a “place to play as well as a place to pray. We don’t have a fellowship hall or a gym or a playground. We want people of all ages to feel at home in our church. This is a holy place in the sense that all life is holy—not in the sense of quiet and pure and apart from life.”
Determined to become self-sustaining, the congregation has begun several projects to supplement offerings. We rode in the horse-drawn cart that brings people from the town’s outskirts to church activities, and operates as a taxi the rest of the time. We visited the pigs that will be sold at the appropriate time, purchased the crafts made entirely of materials gathered from nature, and participated in the lunch that is cooked and sold (at a reduced price) each Sunday. A few pesos here, a few pesos there, and a huge increase in dignity and gratitude!
Tropical storm Noel
Dominicans looking for food in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Noel.
The water has receded but the suffering goes on and on. Tropical storm Noel caused widespread devastation in the Dominican Republic in late October. Mission Associates Kristin Hamner and Greg Penza write from the D.R., “The magnitude of this disaster is really incomprehensible! First, the flooding destroyed their homes, then the flooding covered their fields, so they have no work and third, the flooding ruined the crops, so they have little to eat.”
Please pray for the Dominican Evangelical Church, for Kristin and Greg and their colleagues in the Foundation for Peace, and all who are ministering in the midst of this difficult time.
Mission Celebration '07
Back in the U.S., October was a momentous month. Seven-hundred folks gathered in Louisville for Mission Celebration ’07 and regional mission network meetings. If you would like an update on what is happening in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) vis-à-vis World Mission (as our program area is now called), go to the Mission Celebration Web site to hear some of the presentations and read articles about the conference. I was especially delighted the Rev. Dora Arce, a Cuban pastor, was one of the conference preachers. One of the on-line articles, “World Needs Everyday Heroes,” is about Dora’s sermon.
Mission Challenge '07
Also in October, there was an historic “Mission Challenge ’07.” Forty-eight mission co-workers, including yours truly, spent four weeks speaking and preaching in 144 presbyteries. Again, there is a wealth of information about this event, and more importantly, about the mission co-workers and their ministries, on the Mission Challenge Web site.
I call Mission Challenge ’07 “historic” for several reasons. First, there has not been a coordinated church-wide mission interpretation effort since the days of the Witness Season in the PCUS (one of the predecessor denominations that joined to become the PCUSA in 1983). Second, we are necessarily becoming more assertive and explicit in asking that Presbyterians give generously to support mission personnel.
Third, we are focusing in a new way on the roles of mission workers. In the late 1970s, as my husband and I prepared for cross-cultural ministry, churches around the world were well on the road to “self-governance, self-support and self-propagation.” We frequently heard that the role of U.S. mission workers serving overseas was to “work ourselves out of a job.” In many ways, that has been accomplished. Today, our use of the term “mission co-worker” (often used interchangeably with “missionary,” or simply, “mission worker”) emphasizes that we join in ministry as equal partners, as co-heirs of God’s grace, with Christians around the world. Together we seek to witness faithfully to Christ’s passionate love and powerful hope to broken hearts and a broken world.
To find out what PC(USA) mission co-workers are doing around the world, go to the Mission Connections Web site. You may also use the site to support mission workers. For those who would prefer to send a check by mail, please designate it to account “E132192” to support all mission co-workers or “E200376” to support me specifically, and mail to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)/PO Box 643700/Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.
Thank you for your interest in my ministry!
Tricia
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 51
