wfn.org | Assembly observer proves saying, "Ask, and it will be given you"

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6680 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

13-June-2001
GA01122

Assembly observer proves saying, "Ask, and it will be given you" 

by Emily Enders Odom

LOUISVILLE, June 13 - Susan Baker was not about to sit still in Louisville
this week.  In fact, she and her husband Walter, a member of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Mission Support Services, already have an
established history of seeking out new mission opportunities as they travel
the country and the world together on business and on pleasure.

	When a vacation trip recently took the Bakers to Spain from their home in
Mound, Mn., they asked Duncan Hanson, the coordinator for Europe for the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Ecumenical Partnership Office, to recommend a
mission site to visit.  They soon found themselves on a fascinating tour of
Granada, accompanied by the Rev. Alfredo Abad of the Spanish Evangelical
Church.  Abad acquainted the Bakers with his church and the Presbyterian
mission there, and later escorted them on a guided tour of the Alhambra.

	When the Bakers learned that the business of this 213th General Assembly
was to carry Walter to Louisville, Susan Baker asked how she could be of
assistance as she accompanied him.  A plum assignment was quickly found, an
assignment that providentially included their new friend, Rev. Abad, an
Ecumenical Advisory Delegate to this Assembly.

	Since volunteering along with several others to serve as a host to the
ecumenical delegates and representatives assembled here, Susan Baker has had
a wonderful time.  "The day that they shared partnership visioning," Baker
said of her experience, "when all of the Ecumenical Advisory Delegates
shared from their country's perspectives - the strengths and weaknesses in
the global church - was awesome."

	Baker's hosting assignment covered the representatives and delegates from
Western Europe, including Robert Herron, Northern Ireland; Gionni Genre,
Italy; Alfredo Abad, Spain; Luca Negro, Italy; Laurens Hogebrink, the
Netherlands; Endre Longh, Croatia; and Steven Kendall, added to the group
from Canada.

	"This experience has made me very aware of how we are all parts of Christ's
body," Baker said.  "We face different challenges and have different
approaches to things, but we are all the same body."

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