Mission in Action - Mission Presbytery

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

World Mission Challenge

A great opportunity is coming our way in October. A team from the World Mission Challenge (Click here to read more) will be traveling around Mission Presbytery, telling us of our sisters and brothers around the world with whom we have close ties. The team coming to us consists of Dr. Alice Winters and the Rev. Diego Higuita-Arango, both serving the Church in Colombia.

Alice has been a missionary in Colombia since 1977. She is a Bible scholar and teaches at the School of Theology of the Reformed University of Colombia. She is also on the editorial council of RIBLA (acronym in Spanish for the Journal of Latin American Biblical Studies), and participates in ecumenical Bible study programs for the Latin American Society of Biblical Scholars. She has translated several Old and New Testament textbooks into Spanish and has numerous publications in Spanish and English in the areas of biblical studies and mission.

In response to the increasing violence in Colombia, Alice, along with others in the Presbyterian Church of Colombia, has become involved in the struggle for human rights. She is active in the Ecumenical Network of Churches and Christian Organizations for Human Rights and in the work with displaced persons in the area of Barranquilla, where she lives. (Click here to read more about Alice)

Diego, once Alice’s student and now a good friend, has been chosen as the new executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia. He considers himself first a farmer, then a preacher. For eleven years he served in ministry in the region of Uraba’, working with people in rural areas and as the Director of Popular Theology in the presbytery. He has been eyewitness to many violent acts in that region and joins in the struggle to return peace to Uraba’, to Colombia, and to the world. (Click here to read more)

This team will come to us under the joint sponsorship of the WMC and the International Peacemaking Program. We are fortunate to have this particular team assigned to Mission Presbytery; they are dynamic speakers.

If your congregation would be interested in having this team speak at your church, let us know immediately. They will be available from October 9 – 16, though probably the first and last days will be taken up in travel. You would probably have to provide housing and travel to their next place of speaking. We would encourage you to invite members of other Presbyterian churches in your area to join you in hearing these saints.

Contact the Mission, Outreach and Service Division chair, Moneta Prince, at myongsook@aol.com, or 512-708-8293.