World Roundup
Nancy McGaughey in South Sudan helps hold refresher training sessions for traditional birth attendants. “It is one of my favorite trainings,” she says. “The women are so eager to learn.” She tells about Martha, a birth attendant, giving a moving tribute at the closing of a training period, saying that she and her family had been changed by her training. The traditional birth attendants can now identify some of the women who are high risk and can refer them to clinics for help. As a result, fewer women die in childbirth—in a country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Read more →
Debbie Blane, who had been serving as a lecturer in theology at Nile Theological College in Khartoum, in the north of Sudan, after a period of furlough and itineration in the United States this summer, has returned to a new location, in South Sudan. Nile Theological College was founded in 1991 by two Presbyterian churches, the Sudan Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which has its roots in Egypt, and the Presbyterian Church of the Sudan. It has provided training for evangelists and pastors serving both churches, in the whole of Sudan, and plans to continue as one college with two campuses, continuing in the North despite many challenges posed by holding its Arabic track in Khartoum. The English track has relocated from Khartoum to Malakal in South Sudan, where Debbie teaches.
TAIWAN
Choon and Yen Hee Lim work among aboriginal university students in Hualien, Taiwan. Most of the students come from Christian backgrounds, but as they have left their villages and gone to college, they have tended to leave the church. After more than a decade of service, the Lims have established ministries on campuses in and around Hualien. Once several student groups had been formed, Choon brought them together in the Hualien Aboriginal Campus Ministry. Among the many programs housed in the ministry’s mission center is a Gospel Coffee House that many non-Christian students come to for the free coffee, cakes and good conversation. Students from Hualien have been involved this year in street evangelism and such projects as a 12-hour worship service, which included moving student testimonies. Read more →
CONGO
Dr. John Fletcher, who works with the Christian Medical Institute of the Kasai and the Presbyterian Community of Congo, says grants from Presbyterian Women are making a big difference in the country. Presbyterian Women awarded the Presbyterian Community of Congo a 2011 Thank Offering grant that will fund a program designed to improve the employment prospects of Congolese high school girls by teaching them high-demand skills, in computers and English. The Education Department of the Presbyterian Community of Congo oversees more than 500 public elementary and secondary schools in the Kasai provinces. The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study tells about Pastor Jacky of Bulape, one of the Presbyterian Community of Congo’s six ordained women pastors. Jacky conceived and oversees a project for teaching basic literacy along with income-generating skills to illiterate women and teenage mothers. Presbyterian Women also awarded a Thank Offering grant to this project.Read more →
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
170 churchwomen from congregations around the Dominican Republic came together for their annual Women’s Camp in August. This year’s educational focus incorporated the theme “Peacemaking: Creating Cultures and Families of Peace.” Jo Ella Holman, regional liaison for the Caribbean, explains: “So far in 2011, the news media report, 105 women have been killed by their domestic partners or ex-partners. The Dominicana’s Evangelical church’s women are responding to God’s call to peace and peacemaking in a society that is increasingly violent. This year’s four-day Women’s Camp focused on the problem of domestic violence and how the church is being called to respond—particularly through its women reaching out to women.” The Dominican Evangelical church, the PC(USA)’s partner church in that country, is the oldest Protestant denomination in the Dominican Republic (and will celebrate its 90th birthday in 2012). The church’s Women’s Association has been an active force within the church and country since 1947.
KOREA
Simon Park traveled to Pyongyang in early July to visit Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. This was his first visit to the country, where both of his parents were born before the country was divided in 1945. The university is the first private school in North Korea to be underwritten largely by Christian groups in the United States and South Korea, educating top students in science, technology and management. Park wrote: “I was impressed with the vision, dedication and the quality of the students, faculty and administration. There is no question that the university operates within the tight domain allowed by the government authorities, but genuine care and education happens. Currently there are 500 graduate and undergraduate students learning English and technical subjects. Qualified teachers in electrical engineering, computer science, management and English are urgently needed. All instructors and staff serve as volunteers without financial compensation. I pray that these interactions with the future leaders of the country continue to grow.” Read more →
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