¹   Praise is due to you,
O God, in Zion;
and to you shall vows be performed,
²        O you who answer prayer!
To you all flesh shall come.
³   When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,
you forgive our transgressions.
⁴   Happy are those whom you choose and bring near
to live in your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
your holy temple.

⁵   By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,
O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas.
⁶   By your strength you established the mountains;
you are girded with might.
⁷   You silence the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.
⁸   Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.

⁹   You visit the earth and water it,
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide the people with grain,
for so you have prepared it.
¹⁰  You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
¹¹  You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
¹²  The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
¹³  the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.

Let us pray:

Lord, strengthen, guide and bless us as we labor together to bring your love to those who need it most. We thank you for those who serve. May their obedient efforts continue to bear fruit in the lives of many. In your name we pray. Amen.

¹   To you, O LORD, I call;
my rock, do not refuse to hear me,
for if you are silent to me,
I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
²   Hear the voice of my supplication,
as I cry to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your most holy sanctuary.
³   Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who are workers of evil,

who speak peace with their neighbors,
while mischief is in their hearts.
⁴   Repay them according to their work,
and according to the evil of their deeds;
repay them according to the work of their hands;
render them their due reward.
⁵   Because they do not regard the works of the LORD,
or the work of his hands,
he will break them down and build them up no more.

⁶   Blessed be the LORD,
for he has heard the sound of my pleadings.
⁷   The LORD is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts;
so I am helped, and my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.

⁸   The LORD is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
⁹   O save your people, and bless your heritage;
be their shepherd, and carry them forever.

From The Mission Year Book

Charles and Melissa Johnson: “We’re still working. It’s just harder”

January 26, 2021

Charles and Melissa Johnson served as ruling elders in their home congregation, Northwood Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, and now as mission co-workers in Zambia. In both places they found joy and strength in the strong sense of community that surrounded them. Now sheltering in place in Atlanta at Mission Haven, short-term housing for mission co-workers, they are busy staying connected to partners, supporting churches and finding that sense of community in new places.

“We join a different worship service virtually each Sunday,” said Charles Johnson. “We have also participated in Bible studies, minutes for mission, and even a story hour for children. We asked what we can do for them and offer our prayers of support for their community. We tell them, ‘We are all in this together.’”

The Johnsons serve in Zambia at the invitation of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Zambia Synod, working to expand the Church’s efforts in its holistic ministry of community development, food security and improved health. Charles serves as a development specialist and Melissa is a health education program facilitator.

With a degree in agronomy from Texas A&M University and years of experience in farming, Charles’ work is focused on developing an agricultural income — farming for profit to help sustain Chasefu Theological College in Zambia. He is also an instructor in sustainable agriculture at Chasefu, teaching students to feed their own families and providing them with knowledge of new farming techniques to lift up their new congregations and communities. He also works with Chasefu’s model farm project, a training center for small farmers.

Melissa is working with the CCAP Zambia Health Department to facilitate the development and implementation of health education programs that have been identified to improve maternal and child health, to address hygiene issues of girls and women, and to raise awareness about nutritional needs of children and adults.

In late January 2020, the Johnsons began hearing about the new virus hitting China. By late February, the virus was beginning to take hold across the globe. On March 13, even though there were no cases yet in Zambia, the Johnsons made the three-hour trip to Chipata to stock up on groceries with the intention to shelter in place. They had received word from a Peace Corps friend that there were rumors that the Peace Corps was pulling volunteers out of certain countries. They soon received word that the Peace Corps was immediately evacuating all volunteers from Zambia and an email from PC(USA) asking about their thoughts about the situation.

Although they wanted to stay in Zambia, Charles has a medical condition that puts him in a high-risk category, so they made plans to leave.

Charles has been unable to send lessons to students but has been working via WhatsApp with the CCAP/Zambia General Secretary in areas such as harvest of crops at Chasefu and construction of the storage facility. Melissa has helped the CCAP Health Department learn to navigate Zoom so they were able to participate in the rollout of a new strategy for Days for Girls, an international health and hygiene program. The CCAP program temporarily quit making hygiene kits and started making masks. They donated 150 masks and 40 washable, reusable feminine hygiene kits to the Lundazi Correctional Facility. An additional 1,000 masks were made and distributed to several CCAP/Zambia secondary schools.

Melissa worked with the CCAP Health Department to help craft a proposal to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to help provide COVID-19 brochures and education, handwashing stations in some of the most vulnerable families and personal protective equipment and sanitation supplies for the three CCAP rural health centers.

Melissa said CCAP has been working to educate Zambians about truth vs. myths about coronavirus through a WhatsApp group. Some of the false information circulating among the community were that only white people could get COVID-19 and that the virus is caused by 5G networks.

The Johnsons are grateful that they’re able to be near family. Their daughter and son-in-law graduated from Georgia Tech and decided to remain in the area.

“We are still doing the work that is important to us,” said Charles. “It’s just a little more difficult right now.”

 Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus:  Charles and Melissa Johnson, Mission Co-workers in Zambia

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Olanda Carr, Presbyterian Foundation
Darla Carter, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

O God, when the world’s needs seem to overwhelm our ability to help, let us remember that you ask us to give what we have, not what we do not have. By your Spirit, we can do more than we ever dreamed. Give us faith to trust your Word and obey your commands through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

¹   Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
until the destroying storms pass by.
²   I cry to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
³   He will send from heaven and save me,
he will put to shame those who trample on me. Selah
God will send forth his steadfast love and his faithfulness.

⁴   I lie down among lions
that greedily devour human prey;
their teeth are spears and arrows,
their tongues sharp swords.

⁵   Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be over all the earth.

⁶   They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my path,
but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah
⁷   My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast.
I will sing and make melody.
⁸        Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn.
⁹   I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
¹⁰   For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens;
your faithfulness extends to the clouds.

¹¹   Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be over all the earth.

From the mission year book

Immanuel is one of several Pacific Presbytery churches meeting growing need with support from Presbyterian Hunger Program, Disaster Assistance

January 25, 2021

The Westminster Chapel at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles has been transformed into a food storage facility to meet increasing demand due to COVID-19. (Photo by MarAnthony Aparicio)

As June turned to July, Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles needed a place to store food.

Its direct food service to people in need had skyrocketed from 120 households a week before the COVID-19 pandemic to more than 2,000 a week as the virus staged a resurgence in California that has resulted in it being the state with the most coronavirus infections in the country. Immanuel, in L.A.’s Mid-Wilshire/Koreatown area, was running out of space to keep food – at one point jerry-rigging cooling ducts in a hallway to create improvised, temporary cold storage. Then church leaders cast their eyes on its Westminster Chapel.

Immanuel’s Session expressed openness to making it a storage space before, and the morning of July 3 it approved removing the pews.

“By 4 o’clock that afternoon, half the pews were gone,” transitional co-pastor the Rev. Andrew Schweibert said. “It was like, ‘Boom! Move it.’ By Monday, they were all gone.”

The church also had electrical outlets in the chapel converted to accommodate the needs of refrigerator equipment, and has made other modifications to the facility so that it can help the community experiencing health and economic calamities from the coronavirus that have been particularly hard on Southern California.

“We are all-in right now, all-in,” Schweibert said.

Immanuel has been all-in since the early days of the pandemic.

In an application for a Congregational Emergency Food Grant from the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), the church detailed its direct food service going from one morning a week, serving around 120 families, to six days a week, serving 1,700. In addition to regular clientele —primarily of people who were homeless, low-income, immigrant and elderly — the church was seeing more people who were gainfully employed just a few weeks before the pandemic took hold. Most households being served were between four and nine people.

The church relied on numerous local partnerships to keep its food pantry going through the influx of need.

It’s a situation that is replicated in a handful of churches around the Los Angeles area: Congregations that were serving a few hundred people with their food programs were now faced with more than 1,000 people in need.

“It’s people who have never stood in food lines before,” said the Rev. Heidi Worthen Gamble, mission catalyst and hunger action advocate for the Presbytery of the Pacific. “It’s heartbreaking. It’s devastating.”

In May, the presbytery held a virtual concert that raised more than $10,000 to address hunger in the area. Worthen Gamble says the presbytery and churches have actively sought support in numerous ways to address the overwhelming need in Southern California. Immanuel Operations Director Virginia Beaboa said there have been days during the crisis they did not know where food would come from for the next day — and then an unexpected donation came through.

The Presbyterian Hunger Program grant helped supplement the local donations and partners.

“The work that congregations are doing to feed and house people is so important, especially now,” said Andrew Kang Bartlett, PHP Associate for National Hunger Concerns.

It takes numerous volunteers to keep the pantry at Immanuel Presbyterian Church going. Volunteers load up reusable tote bags with content including fresh produce.

“We all have to practice social distancing,” Schweibert said. “The staff and volunteers know the risks, but they see this as an essential service. They are choosing to be here and work, and work as volunteers.”

Immanuel is partnering with other churches in Presbytery of the Pacific’s Homelessness and Housing Task Force, including Hope on Union, Wilshire, St. Mark’s, First Hollywood, Calvary Hawthorne, and Bel Vue Presbyterian to share resources in the area. Worthen Gamble said that finding volunteers can be a challenge for churches with older congregations more vulnerable to COVID-19 or in lower-income areas where the majority of members work multiple jobs to make ends meet. A number of those workers have also contracted coronavirus, she notes.

 Rich Copley, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Tim Cargal, Office of the General Assembly
César Carhuachîn, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Guide, nurture and sustain, O God, all those whom you call into your ministry and service. May they, in whatever calling of yours they follow, find in you the direction to lead your people faithfully in and to your will and purpose for their individual and communal lives. Amen.

¹   Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
²       Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!

³   If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
⁴   But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.

⁵   I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
⁶   my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.

⁷   O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
⁸   It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.

From the Mission Year Book

Authority, obedience and conscience: new challenges, new tensions

January 22, 2021

These are the strangest of times. As of this reading, things will likely be different than they were a month ago.

How much so? I cannot guess. But as a retired minister now serving as a spiritual director, I can say the anxiousness felt by the pastors I see will continue.

These pastors have been putting in long hours, figuring out new technologies and imagining innovative ways to be the church. Adding to the pressure of having to master new skills are the session showdowns that can happen when ruling elders and pastors might disagree on how to move the church forward. Ruling elders might not be feeling the holiness of virtual worship. They will put up with doing church differently for a while, but they aren’t going to wait for the “all clear” from their state before insisting on returning to church life before COVID-19 safety precautions existed. Which leads to the question: What is the relationship, in this new time, between faithful obedience and faithful conscience?

The Westminster Confession of Faith, drawn up in 1646, says that “God alone is Lord of the conscience” (Chapter 20, Question 2). The Barmen Declaration, written in 1934 in response to Hitler’s influence on German Christians, proclaims that “Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and faith” (II.8.11).

“God alone is Lord of the conscience” is a hallmark for Presbyterians, meaning that faithful women and men, as they seek to follow Jesus Christ, study and interpret Scripture together in making decisions for the church. This Presbyterian governance of shared decision-making works most of the time. But now we have sessions needing to discuss seismic shifts in how church is done. When does a pastor take a stand?

In the “Book of Order” we find perspective, but perhaps not definitive guidance. G-3.0201 says, “The session shall have responsibility for governing the congregation and guiding its witness.” However, G-2.0501 says that pastors are to “discern the mind of Christ and to build up Christ’s body through devotion, debate and decision.” Pastors are also to “participate in governing responsibilities, including leadership in the congregation” (G-2.0504).

If paradox is the essence of truth, we are there. Session members are elected to lead the congregation, not the pastor. Ruling elders are to rule, but pastors — also called teaching elders — are to teach. Teaching with authority, though, is not always easy, especially when the pastor is new to a church or younger than most of the elders. Studies show that the saints in the pews keep getting older, while the saints in the pulpits will likely keep getting younger. Still pastors, with many of the tough decisions that needed to be made, are finding themselves compelled to stand their ground. But the stand must be based in prayer, Scripture, and a commitment to faithfulness to God and not just one’s self.

A statement issued by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Theology and Worship at the start of the recent pandemic also states that at a time of high anxiety “pastors and other congregational leaders have an important role in setting an appropriate tone for the church’s response.” The statement continues: “Leaders can model a response that is faithful, gracious and wise — trusting God in all things, remaining calm in a time of distress.”

In my own ministry, some 20 years ago, I faced a moment of truth when my capacity to keep everyone happy collided with my deep conscience. The issue was over sexuality, and session and I spent six months debating nothing else. We lost members. We lost giving revenue. Yet the session worked together. We came out the other end a new church. I most certainly was a different pastor.

Everyone will walk this walk uniquely, but remember you are not alone. The “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) is with you, and we rejoice that “nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Brief Statement of Faith; Rom. 8:38–9).

 David Butler, Honorably Retired as Minister in the PC(USA) 2012, Member of John Knox Presbytery, living with his wife on a farm in Montello, Wisconsin

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Monica Buonincontri, Board of Pensions
Cherrie Burch, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Most gracious God, we seek your help to multiply the resources of those who struggle daily to meet the needs of their families. It is your power that can overcome the challenges faced by the many communities. Give us the strength to stand beside them. Amen.

¹   Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in their hearts;
there is no fear of God
before their eyes.
²   For they flatter themselves in their own eyes
that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
³   The words of their mouths are mischief and deceit;
they have ceased to act wisely and do good.
⁴   They plot mischief while on their beds;
they are set on a way that is not good;
they do not reject evil.

⁵   Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
⁶   Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your judgments are like the great deep;
you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.

⁷   How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
⁸   They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
⁹   For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.

¹⁰  O continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your salvation to the upright of heart!
¹¹  Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me,
or the hand of the wicked drive me away.
¹²  There the evildoers lie prostrate;
they are thrust down, unable to rise.

From the Mission Year Book of Prayer

The metamorphosis of the caterpillar transforming itself into a butterfly reminds many Christians — Emma Reed of First Presbyterian Church of Virginia Beach in Virginia, among them — of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The 17-year-old Girl Scout wanted younger Sunday school and preschool students at her church to see the same connection, and so she constructed a teaching tool they can visit when in-person worship resumes — a butterfly garden.

Reed, who belongs to Troop 163, completed the butterfly garden and accompanying instructional materials as part of her Girl Scout Gold Project Award.

“It is very common to see young children watching hours of television every day or even carrying around their own electronic device,” she said. “But allow me to pose this question: How often do you see kids wanting to run around the backyard or go on an outdoor adventure?”

Modern society “raises children to be comfortable with technology, not dirt,” she said. “It is extremely important to teach kids to be comfortable with nature at a young age because humans are, in fact, part of nature. Personally, I am a huge fan of nature — going for a hike or swimming in the ocean are activities I would do any day. I am also a huge supporter of educating young kids on the great outdoors.”

In addition to constructing the butterfly garden, Reed’s project includes educational posters, felt board and drawing activities on the butterfly life cycle for Sunday school students as well as preschoolers at the church’s Beach Day School. “I sincerely hope that my project will spark interest in these kids to want to learn more about butterflies, gardens and anything about nature,” she said. “As important as it is to get young kids involved in the outdoors, it is just as important to bring the whole community together in these endeavors.”

The butterfly garden’s spot is intentional, she said. “Due to the current COVID circumstances, my church has not been open for services when the kids and families would normally be able to enjoy the garden,” she said. “However, several adults who have guided me during my project have said they greatly enjoy it!”

Once in-person worship is again offered at First Presbyterian Church, the garden should become a gathering spot for worshipers as well as butterflies, which of course can take advantage of the plants despite the pandemic.

New to her position as pastor at the church, the Rev. Dee Dee Carson said she’s grateful for Reed’s gift.

“As the new pastor at First Presbyterian, I arrived to a beautiful, completed butterfly garden, but I know there was a lot of work and adaptation that happened prior to my arrival,” Carson said. “Emma did a great job of adjusting her plans as she assessed our grounds and determined what was best for the church and for her project. She moved her location several times before finding the right spot, and she has done a beautiful job of incorporating a vision for our children into her plans.”

“Her garden will help our Sunday school classes and students at our day school learn about butterfly life cycles for years to come,” Carson said. “It will also give us a chance to help children think about Jesus’ resurrection in creative ways as we help them understand the beauty of the Easter story just as they understand the beauty of a butterfly. What a gift Emma has given us!”

Reed said the butterfly garden was moved a couple of times for maximum effect.

“The garden is located in the churchyard at a convenient location where parents and grandparents are able to visit it with their children after a Sunday service,” she said. “I think this butterfly garden will help bring our church community closer to nature. … I highly encourage other churches to adopt educational green spaces for their congregations as well.”

More about Reed’s project is available on the church’s website here.

“I hope the congregation will be able to enjoy the butterfly garden,” Reed said, “and learn about the butterfly cycle as well as remember Jesus and all that he went through for us.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Dana Bryant, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Lucy Bryant, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Come, Holy Spirit, empower us to be the hands of Christ in our communities. Grant us the joy of your presence, and may we continue to make a difference — for Jesus to everyone we encounter! In his name we pray. Amen.