Note #9243 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06210 April 12, 2006
NMD director's mother makes $20,000 gift to MIJHH
Racial-ethnic angle is apt for donation in memory of Rev. Curtis Kearns Sr.
by Emily Enders Odom MIJHH Associate for Communication
LOUISVILLE - When it comes to supporting the ministries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), it's all in the family.
The Kearns family, in fact.
Earlier this month, when Laura H. Kearns made a $20,000 gift to the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) in memory of her late husband, the Rev. C. Andre Kearns Sr., she said: "Over the years, my late husband and I both enjoyed rich ministries in the Presbyterian Church (USA), he as a minister and I as an elder. Together we worked for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ towards seeing the church become a truly loving and inclusive community."
The MIJHH is a five-year, $40 million campaign to raise funds for overseas mission personnel and for church growth in the United States, particularly racial-ethnic and new immigrant congregations.
"It was only natural for my mother to support church development through Joining Hearts & Hands," said the Rev. Curtis A. Kearns, Jr., director of the National Ministries Division of the PC(USA) and a son of Laura and Andre. "My mother, who has always been very active in the church, especially with Presbyterian Women and in Christian education, is really a very enthusiastic supporter of the PC(USA) in all of its various ministries."
The Mission Initiative's emphasis on racial-ethnic and immigrant-group church growth made it the perfect choice to honor the memory of Kearns Sr.
"Joining Hearts & Hands is all about our partnering together to become the church that God would have us be," said Elder Bill Saul, co-chair of the MIJHH national steering committee. "We are grateful to Mrs. Kearns for lifting up and generously supporting our shared emphasis on inclusiveness, to which her husband so faithfully dedicated himself."
Kearns Sr., born in Charlotte, NC, in 1916, served as a minister for more than 40 years, working to help Presbyterians and the society at large embrace diversity rather than fear it. He died in Charlotte in 2000.
Laura and Andre Kearns' three adult children, who are all active in the church, learned many important life lessons from their father. "My father absolutely loved his work," Curtis Kearns said. "He loved and was energized by the people he worked with, and he loved his faith. He was delighted, but somewhat surprised, when I told him I was going into the ministry."
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