Outreach Stories

by Juan Sarmiento

Did you know that?

• The largest Presbyterian congregation in the American continent is in the Brazilian Amazon.

• There are more Presbyterians in Latin America than in the United States and Canada.

• 20 % of Latin Americans are part of Protestant/evangelical churches.

• Mexico is home to the largest Presbyterian denomination in the Western Hemisphere.

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by Dan Turk

This Christmas, you can help plant native trees and fruit trees at schools and churches in Madagascar; produce grafted mangos and other fruit trees to help low-income farmers get their families out of poverty; produce and plant fast-growing trees to provide needed fuelwood and construction wood. A gift of $50 will provide 5 trees, from production through planting at a church or school.

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by Mark Mueller

A fair number of people around the world (nearly 40%) read portions of the Bible every day. It is one of the most published and printed books in history. It has been printed in just about every known language.

The Bible contains eyewitness accounts of historical events of such magnitude that they have literally shaped the world in which we live. I think it would be fair to say that the Bible has transformed the world, at least a good portion of it.

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Justo Mwale University, located in Lusaka, Zambia, is an institution of higher learning started and operated by Presbyterian and Reformed churches that provides quality, contextual and holistic theological education from a biblical, Reformed and Presbyterian perspective. This education for Christian men and women enables them to carry out God's redemptive mission in the Church and society in Africa and beyond. The African church continues to grow, and training leaders is their number one priority. Join us as we welcome and hear from Justo Mwale University Vice-Chancellor, Rev. Dr. Lukas Soko.

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Hear the conversation with The Outreach Foundation's Juan Sarmiento and Rev. Paulo Feniman, a Presbyterian pastor who leads the Brazilian Association of Transcultural Missions, an umbrella organization bringing together more than 7,000 people ministering beyond their own culture and country. You will learn how to be a part of this significant development.

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Over the past few weeks, you have seen the troubling news coming from Syria, as Turkey has made assaults against the Kurdish forces in the area even as U.S. troops hastily withdraw. Caught in the swath of this conflict are 3 of the 18 Presbyterian congregations in Syria which are a part of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. For the past 8 years, and with your help, The Outreach Foundation has not only supported these congregations but has made 7 visits there during the war. The last visit was just this past February and included stops in these 3 congregations in northeast Syria: Qamishli, Hasakeh, and Malkieh.

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by Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development

I am about to make my 12th trip to Iraq.

I made my first journey there in 1998. Having done most of my college and graduate studies in ancient art and archaeology, I was “pumped” to lay eyes on the wonders of the ancient Near Eastern cultures I had studied: Sumeria, Babylonia, Assyria. As a “practicing” art historian, I had, over and over, shown my college students slides of the Ziggurat of Ur, the blue-tiled Ishtar Gate from Babylon and the giant (composite) bull-headed, winged lions whose fierce faces and menacing postures were intended to intimidate visitors as they entered Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh. I was thrilled to be able to see them “in person” on that sweltering June trip that took me as far south as Basrah and as far north as Mosul.

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Theodore Roosevelt delivered a speech on April 23, 1910, in Sorbonne, France that has been widely used and frequently quoted. An excerpt of the speech is as follows:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

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by Rob Weingartner

A long-term relationship between the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba (IPRC) congregation in Guanabacoa and the First Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Thomasville, Georgia, has been bearing fruit for nearly fifteen years. The congregations decided to walk together and pay attention to what God is doing in their contexts, and together they have discovered new ways to share in God’s mission.

For followers of Jesus, the idea of partnership comes to us not from the business world but from God’s Word. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians: “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

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