Julie Burgess has made 17 journeys with The Outreach Foundation to the Middle East. She agreed to tell the stories of several graduates of the Near East School of Theology (NEST). This is the first installment of these compelling stories. The next installment will be emailed and posted on our website.
Read MoreDue to concerns related to the coronavirus, schools, churches, and the airport have been closed in Haiti since March 20. Cases of coronavirus are increasing in Haiti, although our Medical Director Dr. Quency reports that very limited testing makes it difficult to know the number of confirmed cases that exist in our communities. Our medical staff prepared for the virus when the outbreak first began and has since been educating patients and members of the community.
Although U.S. teams cannot travel and schools and churches cannot meet, much is happening. Here are a few highlights about HOM/MICECC’s recent ministry activity
Read MoreWarm greetings from Akrofi-Christaller Institute (ACI) in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We hope that in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of you are doing well and keeping safe. We pray that our good and ever-faithful God will preserve and sustain you in these difficult times. It was heartwarming to see Jeff Ritchie leading an Outreach Foundation group to visit ACI last February, pictured above. This letter is to update you on how we are coping with the challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
We have been closed since March 16 when the government of Ghana directed all educational institutions to close. Our international students, however, remain on campus. We have managed, ahead of schedule, to transition to online teaching. We have continued to supervise research students who are writing their project essays and dissertations during this period. We have had to postpone our annual doctoral seminar even though we are in the process of working out how to conduct graduate seminars online. We have conducted one faculty-led online seminar. Our face to face continuing education programs have had to be suspended and that, together with our inability to generate support from our partner congregations (because they cannot meet), has had an impact on our finances. We are currently working on how we can move our continuing education programs online.
Read MoreThis spring semester in Lahore was shaping up to be one of the best in Forman Christian College’s 156-year history. Over 8,300 students were enrolled in the Intermediate, Bachelor, Masters and Doctoral programs. FCC Rector Dr. Tebbe recently wrote this report on the spring semester…
We had the biggest and best job fair ever this February with 108 companies coming to recruit our students. Our newly appointed Registrar was blown away by it all. He commented that there was nothing like this in all of Pakistan. International student exchange has been thriving. Internship placements have exploded and are being well managed.
Students and faculty who come to us from other universities assure us that there is no place like Forman Christian College in all of Pakistan.
Read MoreThe Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET) provides a high quality, diversified theological education program that prepares young church leaders to meet the challenges of growth in existing local congregations, including those of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba, and pursuing new church developments throughout Cuba. We recently received this note from the Rev. Dr. Carlos Emilio Ham, president of the seminary:
Undoubtedly, the world is undergoing one of the most difficult moments in its history with the COVID-19 pandemic, a disease that does not distinguish social classes nor geographical locations. Many countries have been affected in a bigger or lesser magnitude in a surprising way since this disease causes severe damage to human beings’ health. Cuba has not been free from it, which is why our Council of Ministers, together with the highest leadership of our country, determined to take a series of measures corresponding with the different epidemiological stages that our country could go through. Educational centers at all levels have closed their premises; sometimes these places have become isolation facilities for patients who were suspected to carry the disease or were positive for the virus. However, alternatives have emerged by using the media to continue teaching students.
Read MoreA mission effort of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) Riamukurwe parish, the Tumaini Children’s Ministry comprises the Tumaini and Huruma homes for vulnerable children. Before the pandemic, more than 100 children lived and attended school at Tumaini. Huruma, a nearby facility that includes a number of disabled children, housed 50 children. The Tumaini ministry also includes a vocational training program, which serves post-secondary students and people from the community.
On March 15th, the Kenyan government announced the closure of all schools and learning institutions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read MoreA “holding pattern”
….is a concept I am too-well acquainted with, considering how much time I spend on airplanes because of my work with The Outreach Foundation. Given the fact that my “hometown airport” is Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta it is not uncommon to hear the pilot come on the sound system in our approach to the world’s busiest airport to apologize for being in one, sometimes, because of storms in the area, but, most often, because the “traffic” for landing has backed up. Recently, we were stuck in one of these weather-related holding patterns for so long, that we had to bop over to Nashville to get gas – before coming back to Atlanta to land!
In much the same vein, schools all over the world, from Boston to Baghdad, from Denver to New Delhi, from Peoria to Paris have gone into a “holding pattern” because of COVID-19 and such has been the case with the schools for Syrian refugee children run by the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. Over the years, your generous gifts have supported and encouraged these four schools in Lebanon (in Minyara, Tyre, Tripoli and in the Beqaa Valley at Kab Elias). With the local Presbyterian church providing oversight, these places of love and hope have embraced the fragile, displaced refugees in their midst.
Read MoreThe CCAP Synod of Zambia is proud of its Community Schools Initiative, and rightly so. Because of the large number of vulnerable and orphaned children in Zambia, there is a critical need for them to access early learning opportunities in order to break the cycle of poverty in their lives.
The synod initially opened daycare centers with feeding programs in 2001 to serve poor communities. In 2004 these daycare centers were transformed into community schools. The community schools educate children who would not have access to school due to financial constraints. The synod now operates 40 community schools nationally, linked with CCAP congregations, that serve more than 6,000 vulnerable children. As the number of schools increased, the synod created a Department for Early Childhood Education and Community Schools.
Read MorePars Theological Center is a London-based virtual seminary that uses the internet, IT technology, satellite TV, and conferences to deliver Farsi-language theological training to Iranian Christians both inside and outside Iran. Classes are taught by well-known Iranian pastors, Bible teachers, and theological instructors including Rev. Dr. Sasan Tavassoli, Coordinator of Iranian Ministries for The Outreach Foundation. Students are mentored by the Pars team on how to integrate the principles they are learning into their ministry and personal spiritual lives. Pars also includes a Christian Counseling Center. The words that follow reflect the thoughts of the leaders of Pars Theological Center.
You will have read or heard by now about the impact that the Coronavirus pandemic is having on mental health all over the world. At Pars, this is manifested through a 50% increase in Iranian Christian clients seeking therapy through our Counseling Center in the months of April and May. Our counselors report that the majority of these cases concern marital and familial struggles (among refugees in particular) that have come to the surface as a result of life in lockdown. Others have sought therapy due to relapses into addiction and the return of depression as a consequence of experiences of loss too difficult to bear.
Read MoreWe received the note below from Lukas Soko, Vice-Chancellor of Justo Mwale University on May 27. Through the generosity of a number of congregations and individuals, Outreach provides full scholarships to 12 Presbyterian pastoral students each year at a cost of $5,500 per student. This augments scholarships that other partners provide. The mission of Justo Mwale is “to provide quality, contextual, Christ-centered, holistic education that empowers persons to serve the church, academy, and society in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.” It is a leading seminary in the region.
Greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
How wonderful and edifying it is in these trying moments to stay connected through our relationship and partnership. I am greatly indebted to you for all your efforts and would like to update you on what is going on at Justo Mwale University during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also my prayer that The Outreach Foundation community at large is in good health and under God’s providence.
Read MorePraying for Venezuela
Prayer is a crucial element of everything we do at The Outreach Foundation. As you join us in intercessory prayer, please consider this information about the difficult situation that the people of Venezuela are facing:
1. Food Prices: Since the quarantine began, food prices have increased by 153%. A chicken or a carton of eggs is $5.00. Because most monthly salaries are around $4.00, there are serious problems of food insecurity in impoverished neighborhoods. Please pray for the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan families suffering from food insecurity, and for pastoral families who are also affected.
Read MoreGreetings in the most powerful and almighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Even though we are facing a pandemic situation, COVID-19 is much more than a health crisis. This virus is stressing every one of the countries in the world, with the potential to create shocking social, economic and political crises that can leave deep wounds in the world. But in every situation I believe that God’s Word is amazingly relevant and is the source of hope, encouragement, and truth. We can turn to it in the midst of this pandemic and any hardship we will ever face.
Read More“Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2
South Sudanese refugees, in the camps of Ethiopia and Kenya, are struggling to survive, where living conditions are crowded, UN agencies are underfunded, PPE is at a premium, and people are hungry. But what is so amazing about this situation is that the church leaders in the camps are describing an even deeper hunger - for God’s Word. They seem to truly understand the ultimate Source of Help. We, at The Outreach Foundation, are eager to help them meet this priority need. Through our past involvement in trauma healing, literacy training, and Bible distribution, we now have learned of an opportunity to ship a container of 5,000 Bibles in the Nuer language to the refugees!
Read MoreA Joyful Return (Ebenezer)
In September, I wrote one of these updates about a visit I had made to Sweida, about 90 minutes south of Damascus, Syria Appeal September 2019. I had just met with a Presbyterian congregation there who had been displaced, in 2014, from their hometown of Kharaba, about 20 miles away. One of the many terrorist groups operating in Syria during the war had overrun the largely-Christian town and “set up camp” in the churches while breaking into private homes and taking up residence. This faithful flock was now being pastored “in exile” by the Rev. Saleem Ferah who had been given a place to worship in the local Alliance Church. Although much of Syria had already been liberated from terrorist organizations by that time, Kharaba was one of the last holdouts, and the Syrian government had been reluctant to mount a military operation there because of the number of citizens still present…
Read MoreDear friends in the United States,
Here in Hong Kong, our colleagues and families are all fine. After gradually returning to work in the office in late March, we had to resume working from home in early April. Many of the students returning from overseas after Easter break brought back the virus although they were unaware of being infected. This led to a sudden, drastic increase in the number of confirmed cases.
Although working again from home, we continue to serve churches and individual Chinese speaking Christians by conducting training and providing literature through online platforms, which has been very well received! In March we held 57 online courses, seminars, and talks.
Read MoreWith all the world struggling with the pandemic, it seems timely to share this “good news” update written by the Rev. Nancy Fox, a former trustee of The Outreach Foundation and a frequent pilgrim in Egypt, experiencing “God at work” there. With your help, Outreach continues to stand beside the Church in Egypt, especially now, and has wired emergency funds to both the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo and the Synod of the Nile (additional information about their special emergency appeal follows this update). As I write, we are hoping to make another mission-vision trip to Egypt in November, if the situation allows. Additional information about that may be found HERE.
---Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development
For sixty years, the church in Dronka, Egypt, founded and built by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1890, had been without a pastor. There was not much left but a decrepit, cracked, and crumbling church building too close to a busy highway. The church was empty but the village was full of need: deep poverty, high rates of addiction and abuse, poor health and lack of quality care, and a shortage of good news coming from too few churches. Dronka needed a resurrection.
And then, a little like the way God took the prophet Ezekiel to the valley of the dead, dry bones and told him to preach the word of the Lord to them, the Synod of the Nile sent a young lay pastor to revive the church body with the life-giving breath of God’s Word and service to the community’s needs.
Read MoreNote from Outreach: We are receiving frequent updates from global partners on how they are coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outreach trustee Berry Long shared the following news of partners in Tete Province:
Dear friends of Tete Province,
I want to give you an update on our Holistic Evangelism Project in Tete Province, Mozambique. The government of Mozambique has instituted social distancing and mitigation efforts to try and prevent widespread COVID-19 infection. At this point, there are very few reported cases in the country, but there has been very little testing. I am happy to report that Sebber and her family are well.
Read MoreNote from Outreach: Even during these unsettling times, Outreach partners continue sharing God’s love around the world. We received this update from Todd Luke in Mexico:
Dear friends, We had a great January and February. At the request of over a dozen families, we took our cistern building ministry to the village of Guillermo Prieto—an eighty-minute drive south of Xpujil.
We built fourteen cisterns with fourteen local families. But COVID-19 forced us to cancel a mission team scheduled to arrive on March 21.
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