Louisville/Kentuckiana mission conversation

Izzy [Jones] gave some information on what CHPC is already doing.

Presbyterian Community Center
• CHPC serves meals at the Kids Café the third Tuesday of each month.
• PCC needs more tutors.

United Crescent Hill Ministries
• One Monday per month during the school year a group serves a meal.
• UCHM also has a senior program.

Habitat for Humanity
• One Friday and Saturday a month, three people each day are needed to volunteer.
• Sometimes difficult to find volunteers. Maybe this is not what we should be doing now.
• May 16 and 17, CHPC taking lunch to those working on the house.
• The old guys really know what they are doing.
• Habitat for Humanity gives lessons on how to handle money.
• Houses are not given to people.

Other
• CHPC sells fair-trade coffee.
• CHPC Mother’s Day cards.


Comments and Suggestions from the Group

• We need to hear more about organizations (PCC, UCHM, and Habitat).
o Have directors come to CHPC and discuss what is going on, and what they are doing.
o Give directors sermon time.
o Will get best audience if directors speak during service rather than afterwards.
• Move beyond organizations and build relationships.
o Maybe partnership with another faith community – maybe from South Louisville.
o Do this as a congregation and/or one on one.
• Meals.
• Involved with Cottage Suppers.
• Work together on local mission.
• Work together on local social justice issues (new munitions depot).
• Joint worship service a couple of times a year.
• Once at CHPC.
• Once at other congregation’s worship space.
• Or at a neutral location (such as the zoo).
o Maybe joint service with the congregation worshiping in our building Sunday evenings.
• Don’t want all CHPC members to just show up one Sunday evening and scare the other congregation.
• Maybe joint dinner with the other congregation followed by attending the worship service.
o We don’t know what fruits will be born from building relationships.
o Find out what other churches associated with UCHM are dong and attach ourselves to their mission projects.
o Make sure to involve children and youth in such activities.
o Talk with presbytery to see if they have model for churches in partnership.
o Talk with Kentucky Association of Churches for model of churches in partnership.
o Talk with CHPC members who work at other united ministries about possible church connections.
o Members of St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church were in Washington, D.C. lobbying and joined up with CHPC people there. Worked well together.
o When looking for partnership, do we want to stay within the “church” [within Protestant denominations or Christian faith] or go outside?

-- Dave Bush

Earth Day celebration and mission conversations

CHPC Mission Co-Workers

Furlough Home (pictured above), Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian Center have been sources for Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church relationships with mission co-workers. When people arrive in Louisville on assignment, CHPC members in the Center invite them to attend worship, which has then developed into a more lasting relationship. In addition to prayer support,

CHPC sends annual financial support to each person.

Several co-workers are members of CHPC: Christi, Jeff, Matthias, Salome and Naomi Boyd; Hunter (clergy member), Ruth, Ndaya, Billie and Andrew Farrell; Dorothy Hanson; Tricia (clergy) Elena and Sam Lloyd-Sidle; John Strong; Bruce, Lora, Kinsey and Emily Whearty.

Christi and Jeff Boyd with their children Matthias, Salome and Naomi returned from the Congo and came to us from the Furlough Home. They transferred membership to CHPC and when they left for another term in Cameroon, CHPC shared support for them.

Rev. Tricia Lloyd-Sidle. Coordinator for Cuba, came from the Center. She, husband Phil, children Elena and Sam had served in Ecuador. Phil is now pastor of nearby James Lees Presbyterian Church and when Tricia was re-assigned as a mission co-worker to Cuba, part of her support came from CHPC.

John Strong was already a CHPC member when he married Kim who had been serving in China. Together, they serve as mission c-workers in Hong King with their son Ben.

Rev. Michael and Irene Sivalee, of Brazil came from the Furlough Home to CHPC when invited by former Brazil co-workers, Peter Kemmerle and Maria Arroyo. Irene is a "mish kid" whose parents served in Brazil. I had the privilege of working in campus ministry in Oxford, Ohio with her father during a furlough, when she was a little girl.

Nancy Collins and son Charles also came from the Furlough Home while preparing for another term in Egypt. Her work with CEOSS, the social outreach agency of our partner Coptic Evangelical Church, provides literacy training along with skill training and health care.

Ruth Farrell and husband ,Rev. Hunter, served in Peru after years in the Congo. Children Ndaya, Billie, and Andrew assisted with children's work in the Andes mountains. Ruth is now "missionary-in-residence" and Hunter has moved from mission co-worker to Director of World Mission.

Dorothy Hanson was on the Center staff when she began worshiping at CHPC. As a "mish kid" in Ethiopia she accepted a call to serve there again, as part of the PC USA effort to prevent the spread of AIDS.

Bruce and Lora Whearty, and their daughters Kinsey and Emily, came from a term in the South Pacific island of Vanuatu to the Furlough Home, and to CHPC. All have joined as church members, active in the choir, as Session members and committee members. Lora is missionary-in-residence at the Center while Bruce will soon complete an advanced degree in education. Both daughters are enrolled at the University of Louisville and will stay in Louisville while Bruce and Lora leave in August for a new assignment in Ethiopia.

(The "Presbyterian Mission Co-Workers from Our Congregation" link, to the right, i connected to the church Web page with pictures of most of these folks.)

We are grateful for the faithful witness and courageous work these servants of Christ provide to people in need of Christ's love in their lives. Thanks are also given to Peter Kemmerle and Maria Arroyo who completed service in Brazil and to Ben and Shannon Langley for their term of service in the Dominican Republic.

-- Bob Abrams

Louisville/Kentuckiana (and elsewhere)

In our own town, Crescent Hill members and friends have helped build Presbyterian House (house currently under construction pictured above) each year for 8 or 9 years (with 12 other churches)! We work with the partner-families to put up the frames, put on the roof, nail up blue board, insulation, siding, doors, windows, painting, whatever job we're taught to do, we do our best....----and by the grace of God, Presbyterian House gets built each year and is dedicated and celebrated by the family who works so hard to buy and build it -- and by the people who help them. We work 1 or 2 weekends a month for about 4 months (as a church).

At the Presbyterian Community Center we do several different jobs. Two of us go to a liaison idea time at the center with other Pres churches to see how we can best be helpful. A group goes down on 3rd Tues. to serve Kids' Cafe to any children who come in from the community--about 60-80 children (or sometimes even more) each time. We've been doing this for 5-6 years. Others of us work as tutors to the children and still others work to help neighborhood families do their tax returns.

At United Crescent Hill Area Ministries we serve Kids' Cafe dinners to a much smaller group of children on 1st Mon. of the month. Several of our members have served on the board Some have helped with the very active Senior Citizens group.

Some members of the church take the many warm coats, scarves, caps, gloves, and backpacks that we all bring to church, down to the Homeless Coalition.

One church member started a church garden (with the help of another member), on a plot in the back yard of the church and invites children (ages --to--) to come to Garden Camp. Children who wouldn't otherwise have opportunity to learn about growing one's own food, making meals, and canning salsa from it, are invited and transportation provided.

In our Gathering Room at the entrance to the sanctuary, we have a cabinet that holds many delicious coffees, teas, cocoas and cooking chocolate from Equal Exchange which we love to buy in aid of the Presbyterian Coffee project.

In the spring we sell the Mothers' Day cards from the Presbyterian Network program in order to buy treated mosquito nets for women and babies in Malawi to save their lives.

In the summer we love to bring our money to provide the funds for as many wells as we can for villages in Africa which so desperately need clean water.

We are very blessed to know and be close to the 9 mission co-partner families that are associated with our church. Their work is very important to us and we want to and try to be helpful where we can.

We have also been blessed to know the Immokolee Farm Workers and some church members have been to their work and living place in Florida. Then when they came here to Louisville to seek justice for the tomato pickers, we were able to have them come to our church to eat and sleep, and to worship together.

--Izzy Jones

Farmers, farm workers, and eaters (us)

Long-term participation in and solidarity with alliances of farm workers, farmers, rural women's organizations, indigenous organizations and movements are for some the key to building a movement capable of creating that Other World to which so many aspire. (A protest at McDonald's by Committee of Immokalee Workers activists and supporters is pictured.) What are the challenges and joys of living into relationships of mutuality, long-term solidarity, and informed advocacy with and on behalf of those most directly impacted by structural economic injustices, racism, exploitation and oppression? How is a tomato consumed from the garden a link in the web of transformation we all pray for? What is God asking of us now?

-- Stephen Bartlett

Guatemala

Crescent Hill began connecting with folks in Guatemala in earnest a couple of years ago, when Pastor Jane Larsen-Wigger returned for a visit and Pastor Carlos Lara Gabb came to preach and pastor us for several months. Last summer a group of 19 Crescent Hill folks visited an Eastern Guatemala area on the shores of the country’s largest lake, Lago Izabal, where most folks speak an indigenous Mayan language, K’ekchi. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission folks helped connect us with folks in a group of six congregations that were part of the PC(USA)’s partner Evangelical Presbyterian denomination there. We helped build cement floors in houses and led youth, women’s children’s, and elders’ and deacons’ workshops. (A group of children who intereacted with us in connection with one of our construction projects is pictured above.

Guatemala is one of the poorer, more dangerous countries in Latin America, with water we couldn’t drink, machine gun-toting security guards, and a history of inequality, civil war, and military rule. The country also features a vibrant, growing Protestant culture, with hospitality, joyous worship, and a yearning for greater scriptural literacy and theological depth.

We left with an idea of building a longer-term partnership, but mediocre relationships between the PC(USA) and the Evangelical Presbyterian church in Guatemala, low budgets, and other pressing demands have us wondering whether it’s something that we can pursue. The PC(USA) Guatemala Mission Network next meets in Guatemala City in November, and we have considered sending some folks to that meeting with hopes that they can connect with Izabal area folks either in Guatemala City or back in El Estor.

Communication remains a serious challenge. Some of us speak Spanish but others don’t. None of us speak Kek’chi. The mail service we’re told is not trustworthy. Although everyone has cell phones there we haven’t established phone contact. And although we’ve gotten an e-mail address for one person, that person would have to go to the Internet café regularly (and be able to afford to do so)

These were a very hospitable group of people who I personally would love for us to build deeper relationships with. Guatemala is such a rich country and yet such a poor country, only five or so hours flying time away, and we have a chance to work with folks with growing congregations who don’t see North Americans all the time. In addition to consulting with Izabal Presbyterians (not an easy task), however, we would need more people interested, perhaps with more time and money, and/or some financial investment by the church as a whole in this.

-- Perry Chang

Appalachia/Eastern Kentucky/environmental justice

Following the summer of Pastor Jane Wigger's sabbatical in which we heard music, teaching, and preaching on Appalachia, adults and youth from Crescent Hill participated in two environmental education tours of Eastern Kentucky. We met local residents such as Sam Gilbert who told us about his battle to preserve his land from the encroachment of mountaintop removal mining. We viewed a film about the sludge pond disaster that contaminated all the water in the Big Sandy river basin and learned of advocacy efforts by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. During the day, we hiked in pristine areas such as Lilley Cornett Woods which contains old growth forest and some of the greatest species diversity in the United States. At night, we joined residents for a bluegrass concert and square dance. On Sunday, we worshipped with folk at Isom Presbyterian Church.

Not long after our trip, some of us formed an environmental justice group to study ways in which we could be more environmentally responsible with our use of energy and natural resources. The energy we consume derives from coal, and thus, has a direct bearing on the lives of those we met in Appalachia whose wells have been contaminated and house foundations have cracked due to blasting from mountaintop removal.

As a church, we'd like to continue our dialogue about how we might partner with people in Appalachia--what we might learn and receive from people like Sam Gilbert, and what we might have to offer.

-- Leslie Townsend