wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] 20 new missionaries deployed overseas

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8891 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05466
Sept. 8, 2005

20 missionaries put to work overseas

by Jerry L. Van Marter
and Catherine Cottingham,
WMD communications volunteer

LOUISVILLE - Twenty new Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) long-term missionaries
have been deployed overseas by the church's Worldwide Ministries Division
(WMD).

	They were among 183 long-term and short-term mission workers
commissioned at the New Wilmington Missionary Conference on July 24 for
service in the United States and around the world (see
http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2005/05392.htm). They completed orientation this
summer.

	The new appointees:

	Debbie and Del Braaksma
(http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/braaksmad.htm) will work in
southern Sudan, assisting churches in programs of reconciliation, trauma
healing and civic education. They will be based in Kampala, Uganda, but will
spend considerable time in southern Sudan helping to train church leaders on
behalf of the Resource Centre for Civil Leadership, an agency of the New
Sudan Council of Churches.

	The Braaksmas served for 11 years as Reformed Church in America (RCA)
missionaries among the Orma people in Kenya, working in community
development. Later, Del Braaksma worked as operations manager for a Chicago
company and Debra Braaksma was the RCA's mission supervisor for Africa. She
was recently ordained as a minister by the RCA.

	The Braaksmas will serve under appointment of both the PC(USA) and
the RCA.

	John and Paula Ewers
(http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/ewersj.htm) will serve in
Colombia as pastoral "accompaniers" for human-rights workers and displaced
people. This ministry, in partnership with the Presbyterian Church of
Colombia (PCC), was created in response to paramilitary groups that target
rights and church workers for assassination.
 
	For the past seven years, John Ewers has been active in Miami
Presbytery's partnership with the Presbytery of the North Coast of Colombia.
When the PC(USA)'s General Assembly Council launched the Colombia
accompaniers program in September 2004, John Ewers was one of the first to
apply.
 
	The Ewers are members of College Hill Community Church in Dayton,
Ohio.

	David Francis
(http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/francisd.htm) is serving as
chief fiscal officer of Forman Christian College (FCC) in Lahore, Pakistan.
Francis, who since 1986 has been the PC(USA)'s financial agent in Pakistan,
will also continue in that role.

	Forman, "the crown jewel of Presbyterian educational mission in
Pakistan," was returned to the control of the Christian community in March
2003, 31 years after it was nationalized by Pakistan's government. General
Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, is a graduate.
 
	Francis, a graduate of the University of Punjab in Lahore, is a
member of St. Jerome's (Roman Catholic) Parish in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
His wife, Augustina, is a lifelong Presbyterian. 

	Marianne Vermeer and the Rev. Robert Johnson Jr.
(http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/johnsonr.htm) also are
serving at FCC. Vermeer will be executive assistant to the principal, and
Johnson will teach.
 
	Vermeer, a member of Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA,
earlier served a two-year appointment as a PC(USA) mission volunteer in
Egypt.
 
	Johnson, an ordained minister in the PC(USA), was director of the
Institute for Reformed Theology at Union Theological Seminary and
Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond from 2000 to 2003. He
also served on the PC(USA) national staff as associate for theology, and
pastored churches in Wellston and Patalaska, Ohio.

	Brian Clifford Gilchrest
(http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/gilchrestb.htm) is an
advisor to the Peace Commission Office of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church
Mekane Yesus (EECMY) in Addis Ababa. In this new position he will be
developing resources, training people, and mobilizing the EECMY in support of
peace.
 
	From 1998 to 2003, Gilchrest served the PC(USA) as a social worker at
the Gore Bethel Home for Children in Gore, Illubabor Province, Ethiopia ¾ a
place for school-age children orphaned by war, famine, or disease, or whose
families cannot afford to send them to school.
 
	Gilchrest's work with the Gore Home led him to pursue a master's
degree in conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite University in
Harrisonburg, VA. He is a member of Windy Cove Presbyterian Church in
Millboro, VA.

	Tracey King 
(http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/kingt.htm) is a
thrice-appointed PC(USA) mission worker, this time as regional liaison for
Central America. 

	In her new role, King will facilitate communications among WMD,
mission personnel, partner churches, and PC(USA) congregations interested in
ministry in Central America, especially programs of reconciliation and
peacemaking. She will live in Nicaragua and travel frequently to the other
four Central American countries in which the PC(USA) has denominational
partners: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

	From 1999 to 2003, King was seconded to the Council of Evangelical
Churches in Nicaragua (CEPAD) in Managua, where she organized and coordinated
travel seminars and study tours. As a participant in the Reconciliation and
Mission Program in 1997-1998, she worked in Chiapas, Mexico.
 
	King is a lifelong member of St. Peter's by the Sea Presbyterian
Church in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Her work in Central America will be
supported by the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands, a five-year
PC(USA) campaign to raise funds for missions and new-church development.

	Janelle and Mike McCarty
[http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/mccartym.htm] will serve at
Bethel Evangelical Secondary School (BESS), a boarding school for students in
grades 9 through 12 in Dembi Dollo, Ethiopia. The school is operated by the
Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus.
  
	Janelle McCarty will teach English. Mike McCarty will do community
development work.
 
	Before his appointment, Mike McCarty was an assistant planner for the
city of Snoqualmie, WA. Janelle McCarty is a former middle school teacher who
also served as a volunteer English teacher in Hungary in 1994 and 1998. The
McCartys are members of First Presbyterian Church of Kent, WA.

	The Rev. David and Jeannene Wiseman
(http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/wisemand.htm) will serve
with the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala, organizing
and hosting visits of study groups and mission teams from the PC(USA).

	After 26 years as pastor of Cary (NC) Presbyterian Church, David
Wiseman in 2004 retreated for a year of contemplative silence at a monastery
in Kentucky, and also received mediation training. The result was a call to
international ministry.

	Since 1985, Jeannene Wiseman has been self-employed spiritual
director and retreat leader. She has also taught pastoral care at the Duke
University Divinity School. 

	The Rev. Charles E. (Ted) and Susan Wright
(http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/wrightc.htm) will be WMD
regional liaisons for east and central Africa, with special attention to
Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They will connect
PC(USA) churches and middle governing bodies with partner churches and
institutions and support PC(USA) mission personnel.
 
	The Wrights' primary focus will be on evangelism and church growth in
southern Africa, and will be supported jointly by WMD and the Outreach
Foundation, a validated mission support group.

	Ted Wright was pastor of Langhorne Presbyterian Church in suburban
Philadelphia, which is in partnership with a congregation in Zimbabwe, for 22
years. Susan Wright, a licensed social worker, has been self-employed as a
clinical therapist and social worker for children and adults, including
family and marital counseling. 

	Don and Kate Lindsay, the Rev. Hugh and Antoinette Wire and Rachel
Sterrett are serving as English teachers with the Amity Foundation in China.

	The Amity Foundation
(http://www.amityfoundation.org:80/page.php?page=76) is a social-welfare and
development organization started by Chinese Christians in 1985. Its Education
Division places foreign teachers in rural teacher-training colleges.

	Don Lindsay is an attorney who practiced in Austin, TX. During and
after law school, he also served part-time as a Christian Church (Disciples
of Christ) minister in Texas, Kansas and Kentucky. Kate Lindsay is a nurse.
They are members of Shepherd of the Hills Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) in Austin.

	The Wires served in China in 2002, working for Amity. Hugh Wire is a
retired PC(USA) minister and ecumenical executive who recently served as
interim pastor of Clayton Valley Presbyterian Church in Clayton, CA.
Antoinette Wire is a retired professor of New Testament at San Francisco
Theological Seminary.
 
	Before her PC(USA) appointment, Sterrett was an instructor at the Du
Bois Center in Du Bois, IL, where she led ecological and team-building
activities for children in elementary and middle schools. She is a member of
Zion United Church of Christ in New Baden, IL.

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