Report to the Congregation
Celebrating Mission, 2003-2005
Part Three: A Closer Look at Global Missions

The Heifer Project

Lillian Holland writes: "In the fall of 2004, the Stewardship and Finance Committee, along with the Sunday School teachers, decided to use the Animal Crackers Program of the Heifer International Project with the Sunday School during the annual Stewardship Campaign. This program is a resource to help children, youth, and adults feed themselves as part of the global family and give a deeper appreciation of the uses in which Heifer Project helps people. This project was approved by Session. We chose to study and collect monies to purchase three animals. Learning stations were set up to teach the children how cows, sheep, and chickens provide food, clothing , and wool for themselves and selling them so that they can buy supplies, and passing on the young animals to other families. We purchased boxes of animal crackers and converted them into banks for the children to use to bring their collections each Sunday during November. We challenged the congregation to purchase a cow ($500.00) and collected $1,800.00 totally. This money was donated to the district of Lilongwe, Malawi to purchase animals and related supplies. The children enjoyed this activity and learned how to become good stewards by helping less fortunate people."

 The Guatemala Partnership

     I know everyone at Ashland is familiar with this ministry so richly supported by Bill and Bonnie Clarke. We are very fortunate to have their strong voices so close at hand, reminding us of the need to adopt other perspectives of faith to aid us in the development of our own calling. The Mayan Presbyterians in Guatemala are certainly an example of faith through perseverance: preserving the ancient Mayan culture while adding to it relevant modern voice and thereby rejoining the Twenty First Century as a new creation.

     The Guatemala Partnership spans some fifteen years and is the oldest of the Presbytery's offshore Missions. Some of the important elements of the project are:

* Scholarships allowing students to attend school.
* A technological school and learning center for adults, permitting them to learn new skills which have marketable value in Twenty First Century society.
* The Herb Valentine Clinic which administers health care and education to surrounding villages.
* The Lorena Stove project makes it possible for families to improve air quality within the home; eliminating respiratory illness, eye irritation, accidental burns, not to mention back aches. Several of Baltimore Presbytery's churches are participating in the Lorena Stove program.

Bonnie Clarke writes: Mission is a relationship of companionship and accompaniment, it befriends those who have been left out to such an extent that they have few or no social resources with which to develop the kind of life that suits them and their culture. Mission is not delivering a charity check to some unfortunate people. That is demeaning to their personhood; it says, "I know what you should do; I have the resources to do it. Use my money to create a better life like I have."   Would you want to be told that? Rather, mission is a mutual partnership between people of faith. Yet for many First World Christians it is difficult to imagine what a foreign mission partner could give back to us, conditioned as we are by measuring life in terms of material abundance. The Mayan Presbyterians ask us to: * Learn something of their 4,000 year history; the Mayans were the only early American civilization to have a written language. Their spiritual beliefs were codified in the Papul Vuh, a book which teaches Creation stories and moral guidance. * Learn something of their recent history. It is a nightmare of genocide, spanning the years 1954-1996. The Eisenhower Administration was responsible for destroying the "Ten Years of Spring", the only Democratic period Guatemala has ever known. It feared the Arbenz government's acceptance of a socialist voice within its constitution. The Cold War in Latin America cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. Death Squads in Guatemala were responsible for over 150,000 alone. The true total of murders is unknown. * Raise awareness of what is happening there.  Look for what is happening NOW in violations of Human Rights [also see Moviemiento Comunal Nicaragüense below] the destruction of the environment, gender inequality, and social, economical, and political injustice.  * Pray with us and for us. * Stand in solidarity with us, walk with us as Jesus taught his disciples to do. * Become our friends. Reconciliation with God happened 2000 years ago; but our call is to appropriate this reconciliation now, in this life, not after Judgment Day. Take the hand of your Mayan neighbor who is suffering in this life and bring to him the same presence that Jesus brought as he healed, cleansed, and created miracles in the very instant.  This is what Jesus meant when he said, " You will do this, and much more." John 14:12 Bonnie Clarke

The Cuba Partnership

     I hope you will forgive me for using what may seem like an inordinate amount of space for this part of the report. In past years I published it separately; this year I chose to wait and fold it into the overall 2005 Mission Activities of our church.

     We are now a formal Baltimore Presbytery Partnership and have begun to add membership. Please see www.cubapartnership.org  As of February 2005, Light Street Presbyterian Church has joined the partnership and has decided to partner with the mission church in Paraíso, a neighborhood (barrio) in Cabaiguán.  A new brochure being created at Light Street Presbyterian Church celebrating this event will be available soon in hard copy as well as posted to the partnership's website. 
       
Report on the January 2005 Mission Trip

     In the course of the last six years, we have made many types of travel arrangements for the delegations visiting El Centro Presbytery, Santi Spiritus, Cuba.  However, given the availability of direct charter flights from Miami International Airport, which began in 2004, we have elected to fly directly to Cienfuegos, 175km from our host church, located in Cabaiguán. This has saved our host- as well as us- many hours of traveling by car from Havana.

     The Department of Treasury, OFAC continues to affect the way in which Cuba travelers are treated at Miami.  This trip, TSA agents segregated Cuba travelers from the rest of those passing through the security process. While our treatment was not significantly different, we were required to wait longer before being processed through security. In addition, the airport tax collected for this flight has more than doubled since 2003. It is now $60.00 USD.

Travel Members in the January 2005 Delegation:
* John Walter, group leader, Ashland PC
* Jo Ann Ruther,  Light Street P.C.
* Carole Shortle,  Light Street PC
* Bonnie Cosner,  Light  Street PC
* Wendy Kunz,  Ashland PC
* Emily Thayer,  Anglican Church

Activities and Events:

      One of the most culturally reinforcing activities in which we have always focused are the "relámpagos"  or lightening visits.  These are impromptu or unannounced visits whose only purpose is to share news or conversation, usually over refreshments. Relámpagos  historically last ten minutes to an hour, depending on the complexity of drinks, desserts, and conversation.  Saturdays and Sunday after service are fair game to be descended upon by neighbors or incoming delegations. These visits represent a very important opportunity to acquaint our new participants with the Cuban community. A very high emphasis is placed on human contact and conversation, especially if  extrañeros   (foreign visitors) are present.   

     Given that the Light Street delegation had three members traveling for the first time; and that Light Street's declared intention is to partner with the mission church in Paraiso, it was perfect that we spent considerable time on Saturday meeting and worshiping with that small congregation.
      Fortuitous also is the fact that Light Street is joining the partnership just at the time Wendy Kunz, an Ashland member and architect, is finishing plans for the overdue refurbishment of the small church whose history included a small clinic to serve the neighborhood. Pastor Mairolet Vega Comas envisions reopening the clinic as part of its restoration.  Other elements in the restoration are new doors and shutters for the windows, a new roof over the Sunday school room, and a small kitchen to serve refreshments.
9/2005 update:   During this past summer, Mairolet and I talked about Bonnie Clarke's suggestion of creating a library in Cabaiguán. The main church, like ours, is bursting at the seams. The mission church in Paraíso has sufficient room and may be the future home of this effort. This would send a powerful message to the Cabaiguán community. It would say, "Look, the Presbyterian church is restoring its social community network. It is reestablishing its support for those most needy among us."

     A task force of members from Light Street and Ashland Presbyterian churches is being assembled to consider the issues facing this Cuban community.  Deliberations will include how to use grant money to support any of the following projects:
* The Family economic crisis involving food.
* The country wide scarcity of medicines.
* The damage to the Paraíso Mission church.

     I met with Mr. Cy Brennan, aid to Senator Paul Sarbanes. February 23, 2005.   The following is the document I presented Cy Brennan:

Mr. Cy Brennan   Foreign Affairs Aid    Senator Paul Sarbanes                                             309 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Mr. Brennan: We appreciate the opportunity to spend some time with you.  As you may know, since June 2004, the official regulations governing relationships and travel to Cuba have eliminated many worthy educational programs as well as severely limiting individual rights to visit Cuba. The remaining organizations legally allowed to travel are predominantly religious, whose stated mission includes, but is not limited to the spiritual support of their partnering congregations. The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) has had a formal relationship with the Presbyterian Church in Cuba (IPRC) beginning at its inception in 1896 under the direction of the Synod of New Jersey. In 1967 the IPRC incorporated and became autonomous. Since that time, the Worldwide Ministries of PCUSA has maintained a relationship to the Cuban Church through fourteen recognized Presbytery to Presbytery partnerships and other entities whose general goals are: the maintenance of communication, sharing of spiritual values, development of intercultural trust, and cross cultural education, among others. Baltimore Presbytery formalized its relationship with El Centro Presbytery, located in Sancti Spiritus Province, this past June after five years of program development. During that time, delegates from both sides of the partnership experienced an ever increasing growth of mutuality.  Working with two other PCUSA Presbyteries with partnerships in El Centro, our combined organization now speaks to the spiritual and material needs of all of the churches within El Centro's boundaries. It is through the visits of our delegations, meeting directly with the people of Sancti Spiritus province, that we hear and confirm news within Cuba's communities. Based on these developments, both sides of the partnership discuss specific project goals and implementation. We recognize that this is rather privileged information. That is, it is given and kept in trust; yet we also believe that due to our forward position, we should advise our government on the status of the Cuban people whenever its policies continue to bring harm. The Bush Administration's May 2002 "Initiative for a New Cuba" seeking to facilitate humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people by permitting direct contact with Non Governmental Organizations was largely swallowed by political hostility originating from either side.  Nationwide fear of terrorism, the declaration of Cuba as a terrorist state, the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, our funding of Cuban dissidents and the exigencies of our last national election completed its demise. The progressively restrictive and punitive regulations put into effect since June of 2004 by the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets have more than accomplished their primary goal of halting the financial gains made through tourism originating from the United States. By successively reducing familiar visits, remittances, and gifts, it has deprived the Cuban communities-and not the government- of its ability to acquire even the most basic health maintenance items such as tooth paste, soap, and shampoo.  Prescription and over the counter medications are scarcer yet, often simply not available in either the local clinics or the hospitals. Our policies will not drive the Cuban people to take action against their government, or invite the United States to do so; it will simply reinforce a perception that we have turned our back to their humanitarianism needs. As tensions continue between our countries, the Cuban government is forced into knee-jerk reactions, striking at the U.S. with any means at its disposal. The abandonment of the US dollar as its monetary standard is a good example. Such shifts scarcely affecting us here are always at the expense of its own people, and always resulting in unspoken misery for the Cuban communities who must attempt to survive both the Castro and the US. Governments' hostility.  As the embargo's regulatory effects exacerbate the Cuban economy, more radical means are sought to maintain normalcy. For example, sending twelve thousand medical doctors to Venezuela, widely seen as a political strategy to maintain petroleum commerce between the countries, has had the secondary effect of reducing the availability of medicines even further due to the fact that the Cuban doctors took much their hospitals' and clinics' medicines with them on departing. Humanitarian relief reaching the Cuban communities from Europe and Canada has proven to be insufficient; and we, the NGO's of the United States are punished by a system of licensing that seems intentionally inconsistent. Our motive is apolitical; we are impartial to the historical political intransigency of either side. Our aim is to provide Senator Sarbanes with a true voice, to hear directly from the Cuban majority living there, and then act to allow our non governmental organizations broader freedoms in support our Cuban brothers and sisters. John Walter       The Cuba Partnership Baltimore Presbytery

     The 2005 proposed Cuba Partnership Schedule:
* I will be making a solo trip to Cuba this year and will remain there as an adjutant to Moderator Mairolet Vega Comas and El Centro Presbytery.
* Plan for the Summer International Symposium to be held in Santa Clara. This event will be for young adults between the ages of 18-28. Details have been announced in Tidings, the Cuba Partnership web site as well as Baltimore Presbytery's web site.
* Plans to Bring Mairolet Vega Comas and two of her Session or congregation back to Ashland and Baltimore Presbytery in September 2005.This may be in conjunction with efforts made by Monmouth Presbytery in New Jersey.
* A late year trip, perhaps in late November or December. Possibility to joining them for preparations for Navidad.

The Mañacap Family

     The Sunday school has been collecting coins for more than a dozen years supporting Jeffrey from elementary school, through high school, and now to college.  Throughout this time, Flor, Jeffrey's mother, has longed for a day when she had a home with a small shop to sell bread and small household goods.  With the help of the Philippine Department of Social Services, arranged by Suzette and Brett Morgan, Flor Mañacap's dream has finally come true in late 2004. The house, shown at right, was completed on time and on budget. Why can't we do this in the United States?

Mary Jo Kern writes:   "A huge success has been the Ashland Presbyterian Church Sunday School's support of the education of Jeffrey Mañacap and his younger siblings, John and Nino, who live in the Philippines in an impoverished region. Through their weekly offerings, the Sunday school students provide tuition, books, school supplies, clothing, and medicine for Jeffrey and his brothers. Our efforts were supported by our Mission Committee which later purchased land and funded the construction of the house-store pictured above.  Jeffrey was "adopted" by our Sunday school program when he was a toddler; he is currently beginning his second year of college. John has graduated from elementary school and Nino is in high school. All of the boys are serious students and very talented artists. They are also attentive to their family responsibilities. As a Sunday School teacher, I watched through the years as our children connected to the lives of the Mañacap family through their gift of education. Our students learned that through education, we and others can have a better life, and without education, life is very difficult indeed.  By listening to and reading from the letters and poems written by  Jeffrey and his family, our school children have felt the link of warmth and love shared between the Mañacap family and our church. They have heard Mrs. Mañacap express what her life is like in the Philippines and what a difference our support has made to them. They have also listened to her hopes for the future, not too different from our own in some ways.  In return, our children are thrilled to receive the letters and cards sent by the Mañacap family, it seems Valentines and Christmas cards flowed particularly freely this year!  Additionally, Mrs. Mañacap often sends trinkets and beads to captivate our younger children. Nearing college age themselves, our high school students have taken a special interest in Jeffrey´s  college education. They are naturally curious about Jeffrey´s experiences and successes as they move closer to experiencing some of the same. As graduates, our students as well as Jeffrey will be able to make better lives for themselves and for their children to come. The lesson learned by all is that education is the gift that keeps on giving! We thank the Mañacaps for the opportunity to learn this life long lesson.

Medical Benevolence Foundation 

     I can remember the Medical Benevolence Foundation's  presentations made by Dr. Eggleston ever since I have attended Ashland. Every year for the last three years, we have increased our contributions and are now supporting MBF led projects throughout the third world, including Nepal and Nicaragua.  Please see: www.pcusa.org for more detail on MBF.

Movimiento Comunal Nicaragüense 
(Nicaraguan Community Movement )

     Shortly after Bill and Susan Johnston moved to Nicaragua in 2001, I received a series of emails from Bill who had become involved in a local group that was promoting education about and support for human and civil rights for Managuans.  Soon thereafter, I came to know Harold Urbina,  Movimiento Comunal Nicaragüense's co-founder, better known as "Shaggy". If you happen to have been walking by the Mission bulletin board, and don't feel affronted by the Spanish language, you may have stopped to look at their poster concerning water rights and other local issues in Managua.

     MCN attacks a wide spectrum of issues, all dealing with injustice and human rights. We have maintained contact with them after the Johnston's departure from Managua and will continue to receive reports form Nicaragua on their progress.

Fletcher Padoko's KOCG Ministry,
Malawi, Africa

      The Missions Committee (and especially this Mission Chairperson) want to thank Jacquie Sasser, Jo Ann Ruther, Julee Jackson, and Elizabeth Seiber for stepping up to the plate to begin adding some much needed form and structure to our involvement with the African ministries in Malawi.  One of the most important factors in any mission or ministry is the level of trust and familiarity gained by good communications. Jacquie and Jo Ann have taken the hodge-podge of emails, information, and requests and have turned them into an asset both for us and for the African Bible College students in Malawi as well as developing a relationship with Fletcher Padoko in his new KOCG ministry. Recently, Julee and Elizabeth have joined this ministry to begin to refocus our efforts and finances.  A new endowment will be set up from the gifts many of you gave at the time of the Johnston's departure. An online application will be posted to Ashland's web site and made interactive in the months to come. This will provide direct access for students and create a relationship between our two countries. Mission is personal, it is involved, and as we are all finding out: it is work.

    I can't remember the exact order of events for this ministry, but during Bill Johnston's tenure at APC, an African Bible College student named Fletcher Padoko found Ashland (our web site?) and wrote a convincing enough letter to win a small  scholarship which he used to finish his studies at the African Bible College. Other students have followed Fletcher, making requests for scholarship aid, but none have maintained communications with Ashland as Fletcher has.

     After graduating, Fletcher became part of the Save the Orphans Ministry (SOM) in Malawi. He remained with this group for at least one year as he clarified his own personal call. During that time, the Mission Committee supported the Save the Orphans Ministry (SOM).  Here is a brief summary of Malawi's HIV problems, taken from www.savetheorphans.org  The information is now quite out dated. More than 470,000 are now infected.

      Malawi: By the end of 1997, 6% of children under age 15 were orphans, and numbers of orphans are increasing, since about one of every 7 adults age 15 to 49 in Malawi is currently infected with HIV. In some urban areas, more than 1/4 of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics test positive for HIV.

     Fletcher's vision cleared by comparing what he did like and what he didn't like regarding the aid organizations working in Malawi. A year ago, Fletcher, ever the organizer, began to conceive and construct his own ministry serving the children in his local community.  It is this ministry: KOCG, that Ashland is currently supporting in its Mission budget.

 

Fletcher writes: "Founded as a nonprofit Christian ministry in 1999, Kasupe Orphan Care Group (KOCG) was developed with the aim of meeting the spiritual, physical, and social needs of Malawi's orphans and widows, along with those caring for them. The ministry is educating, feeding, and sheltering about 400 orphans in nine rural villages of Malawi.  We plan to provide private, Christian based, and local community education for HIV / AIDS orphaned high school children. KOCG will again provide basic neighborhood housing as well as give health care services for these less privileged children. Pray for the orphans' support in education, feeding, medical care, and sheltering. God bless you,  Fletcher Padoko

Additionally, Bob Hensley writes: "During the summer of 2004, the Stewardship Committee was reflecting on how to make a bold statement on the value and importance of giving in order to support the Ashland Presbyterian ministry. We believed that the noise that surrounds us in our daily lives could drown out a message that was logical but commonplace in format. The question was asked, "What is there at Ashland that is so unique that if it were raised up as an example of our willingness to help others that it would serve as a model from which generous giving could result?" When we asked that question, it was obvious that what we had done to assist a young man attend Bible College half a world away was the perfect example for that which we were looking. Our generosity toward his education and the grass roots work that is being done by the ministry where he works serve as an example of what can happen through vision, trust, and commitment. These values apply to any and all financial needs of a church, whether for the operating budget, youth education, or mission, the formula is the same. Great things can happen when people identify a need and set out to use the resources that they have been given by God. Our responsibility is to use our time , talent, and treasures, not store them in a shed. Fletcher turned out to be not only the perfect example of how we can make a difference around the world, but also around the corner. Meeting him in person showed us how one person, inspired to make a difference, can bring about positive change. From this we have not only learned more about his ministry and how we can help further the cause, but also how we can affect change in whatever we believe, no matter how large or small. An inspired person can make a difference. Our hope is that a long and successful relationship will result between Ashland , Fletcher, and the KOSC Ministry. But equally important is the hope that we will learn from the success of sharing our resources and aspire to find new ways to do God's work on this world."

                   
     Finally, please read the following article regarding how MISSION can go far, far astray in this world. It is written by a nurse practitioner volunteering through the PCUSA, printed with her permission.

My Money Was Valued More Than My Expertise         by Charlott Gott                                              Having recently returned from one of the world's 10 poorest countries to one of the richest, I find it easy to let myself fall back into imagining that a simple transfer of wealth could alleviate the developing world's dual problem of poverty and disease.       The average Malawian makes less than $1.00 per day and has a life expectancy at birth of 37 years. As a white, middle class, college-educated American, I could easily afford to double one person's income and probably extend his or her life by several years. But the thirteen months I spent in this sub-Saharan African country, where I worked as a nurse practitioner and a volunteer in missions for the Presbyterian Church, PCUSA, have taught me that money can create almost as many problems as it can cure.       Like most Americans, I had never experienced true poverty until I flew into Malawi's tiny Lilongwe airport and traveled hours to Mulanje Mission Hospital, located among tea plantations in the shadow of Mount Mulanje. That first day, my housemate, an American doctor, told me, "We're not at the end of the world, but you can see it from here."  I had read the statistics before I came: that 50% of the country's population is under the age of 15, that those between the ages of 15 and 49 are at the highest risk for HIV/AIDS and especially if they are women, but that didn't prepare me for what I saw.  I watched rail thin women walking for miles in the rain; shoeless, with their babies tied to their backs, weary men, pushing enormous loads of firewood on their bicycles up mountain roads, starving children begging on the streets.  I walked those same roads, but I did so in comfortable shoes; and the chasm between my wealth and their relentless poverty immediately become a feature of my daily life. Money can be a useful tool if it is used discriminately, otherwise it encourages dependency and apathy, I discovered.   White SUVs owned by non-governmental-organizations such as UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and Save the Children were a common sight on Malawi's roads. The democratically elected government was known to be primarily supported by foreign aid, and because I am white, the people I met considered me a donor. In fact, as far as many Malawians were concerned, that was why I was there. So they asked me for help-not the medical help I had come to offer- but for money. I went from the nursing school to the public health clinic to the outpatient department, offering to teach, to write grants, to work on the antiretroviral program, to start a women's clinic. I found that everyone would say, "Yes, yes." But no follow up would occur. Instead, the health care providers would come to my door wanting help to buy refrigerators, or to pay for school fees, or to get new laptops. That is what our donations have trained them to expect.  Although Malawi has very few doctors, and their poorly paid nurses are scrambling to leave the country for better pay overseas, my expertise was rarely viewed as an asset. There was little interest among the hospital administrators in my running a clinic that might benefit the underserved women or teaching the health care providers such skills. Knowledge, in itself is not considered Power-money is. Even the smallest children had learned the English words: "Give me Money." They knew I had it, and I knew it wouldn't really help them.    The few local health care providers that were eager to go to educational workshops sponsored by the NGO's went to supplement their meager salaries, not for the education. I remember one man rushing out to buy a toaster after getting his allowance. After attending a two week UNICEF workshop on the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, nurses still refused to talk to pregnant women about being tested for HIV because of the stigma associated with the disease. I asked a group of nursing students what they planned on doing after graduation. They said that they wanted to go to the United Kingdom, although there were some who wanted to save the Malawians.   But these nurses won't be able to save their fellow Malawians unless they can overcome the prevailing stigma themselves. AIDS disables entire communities because of the strain it places on the patient's minimal resources. The most productive members of society are the ones who are getting sick. Women are often abandoned by their husbands if they reveal that they are HIV positive. I was involved in supplying maize flour to 25 starving elderly people in a nearby village; 16 were women and 98 were men. All the women were caring for orphans, many of them their own grandchildren.   What's more, aid programs estimate that only ten percent of those living in Sub Saharan Africa know their HIV status. To get a patient tested in Malawi, a health care worker cannot simply send him or her to the lab. The patient must first meet with a special counselor who can see a maximum of eight per day. At our hospital there were four such counselors. This time consuming process was mandated by the government because of the stigma associated with HIV. Malawians fear being ostracized by their community, an outcome often considered worse than death, so many die without ever being tested for the disease. In a moment of cynicism, I thought about paying people to be tested.   But perhaps the most telling moment came one morning when an American ob-gyn I worked with began a discussion among health care providers about what the developed world can do to help. She talked about health economist Jeffrey Sachs's U.N. Millennium Development Goals and his suggestion that the battle against malaria, Malawi's biggest killer, could be won if malaria nets were available to everyone in malaria-ridden countries.  No one at the meeting thought so. First of all, only a few of the providers themselves used nets and rarely advised their use. Sure, people will take free nets if given out. But will they sleep under them? That is not as likely. Some Malawians believe they cause impotence; others say they feel hotter sleeping under the nets; and some use them for fishing nets.   There are no easy answers to the questions I have after leaving Malawi. As Americans, we have good reasons - moral, political, and economic- to be engaged with those living in poverty. They may think we are there only to give money; but money is not the answer; the real solutions are much harder than that. Charlotte Gott, a nurse practitioner who has worked in a family practice in South Carolina, returned to the United States from Malawi in March

   
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