Read letters from David Walter
October 16, 2009
June 4, 2009
April 16, 2009
August 25, 2008
June 17, 2008
March 31, 2008
For older letters, contact Mission Connections
David Walter
David ended mission service with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 2012. David is available to speak as his schedule permits. Email him to extend an invitation to speak with your congregation or organization.
Email: David Walter
David was appointed as a long-term volunteer in May 2005 to serve as regional liaison for the Pacific region. Out of his home base in Holland, Michigan, David is responsible for connecting to partner churches in Vanuatu, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. His role as advisor to the Presbyterian Hunger Program might take him anywhere in the Pacific.
David served in Vanuatu from 1998 to 2001 as a mission co-worker assigned to teach English, science, religious education and computer science at Onesua Presbyterian College. The introduction of a curriculum in computer science was the first in Vanuatu. In 1999, David and his wife, the Reverend Linda Knieriemen, were appointed as “Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu ambassadors to the United States.”
“I recognize my ‘call’ to the mission field now,” writes David, “but when I first went out I wouldn’t have used that word. I began feeling ‘compelled’ to go to Vanuatu. The word ‘call’ was scary, and only after serving for a year there did I realize that I was indeed called by God to serve in mission. Now my love for the people of the South Pacific continually calls me back.”
Formerly known as the New Hebrides, Vanuatu is a group of 83 islands slightly larger than the state of Connecticut and home to just under 200,000 people. It is in the South Pacific Ocean between Fiji and Australia. The British and French who settled the New Hebrides in the 19th century agreed in 1906 to an Anglo-French Condominium (known to locals as the “pandemonium”), which administered the islands until independence in 1980.
Since leaving Vanuatu in December of 2001 David has visited his former “mission field” frequently, most recently in the summer of 2005 when he taught a special ESL immersion class.
From 1990 to 1997 David was president and owner of American Multimedia Systems, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan, a company that specialized in high-end animation and multimedia computer applications. He has had a varied career, including several years as a U.S. Army officer during which he served a tour of duty as an advisor to Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).
David is a member of First Presbyterian of Holland, Michigan. He holds a B.A. in general arts and sciences from Penn State University.
Birthday: October 23
