wfn.org | Homeless Ministry Emphasis Launched with House Building

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22-August-1996 
 
 
96301    Homeless Ministry Emphasis Launched with House  
         Building by Youth at Annual Mariners Conference 
 
                          by Nancy Borst 
         Director of Communication, Presbyterian Mariners 
 
LAS CRUCES, N.M.--When asked what they did this summer, 37 junior and 
senior high Presbyterian youths can respond with this head-turning answer: 
"I traveled to a foreign country and built a house there in two days," an 
experience made possible by Presbyterian Mariners and an ambitious border 
ministry near this city in southern New Mexico. 
 
     A youth mission project has long been part of Mariners' annual Family 
Conference. Mariners is a family ministry of the PC(USA) organized in local 
congregations, with 7,000 members nationwide and one group in Canada. This 
year's Family Conference was held July 28-Aug. 1 at New Mexico State 
University. It attracted nearly 300 Mariners.   
 
     The organization teamed with an ecumenical ministry called Casas por 
Cristo ("Houses for Christ"). The youths and their adult sponsors crossed 
the U.S. border to Ciudad Ju rez, Mexico, July 29, and spent the next two 
days building a simple 24-square-foot, three-room house for a family of 
eight.  The family had been living in a makeshift structure of cardboard 
and wooden pallets. 
 
     Mariners' National Executive Board voted in January to undertake the 
project with Casas por Cristo, now in its fourth year along the El Paso, 
Texas-Ciudad Ju rez border. The house built by the Mariner team was the 
72nd built under the auspices of the Casas ministry, which seeks to improve 
housing among Ju rez families whose average income is $200 or less per 
month.  
 
     Unlike other housing programs, there is no expectation of payback from 
the families.  This was the most ambitious youth mission project ever 
undertaken during a Mariner Family Conference.  Building teams usually take 
three to four days to complete a house, hence the Casas por Cristo saying 
"Build a house in four days, change a life forever." Because the Mariner 
work team only had two days to give to the project, the concrete slab for 
the house was poured in advance by Casas personnel. But the Mariner youth 
and adults did the rest of the construction, completing the house in a 
total of 12 working hours. 
 
     A high point was the dedication of the house, when the family and the 
work team gathered inside the completed structure. There was prayer and the 
gift of a Bible to the family from Casas. The Bible was signed by every 
member of the Mariner team. 
 
     Mariners raised the $3,500 cost of the house through local 
fund-raising projects and a special offering taken the last night of the 
conference (after the project was complete). Videotape of the Mariner team 
at work and personal stories from several of the youth who participated 
were shared prior to taking the offering. 
 
     On the opening night of the conference, the Rev. John Buchanan, 
moderator of the 208th General Assembly, helped commission the work team. 
Buchanan also spoke to conference participants, lauding the mission 
project. 
 
     The Mariners were front-page news twice in the first three days of the 
conference. The first article appeared in the "Las Cruces Sun-News" on July 
29, and the second article appeared in the "El Paso Herald-Post" on July 
31. Both articles featured the Casas project, with the El Paso article 
including work photos and referring to the Mariner work team as "angels."  
 
     The house-building project served as a kick-off to a three-year 
national mission emphasis by Mariners to help the homeless entitled "A 
Place to Call Home." 
 
     The Family Conference also featured daily family worship and vespers, 
a talent show, election and installation of national officers, and a 
children and youth program, with participants ranging in age from infant to 
college. Adults also could choose from among more than a dozen workshops, 
supplementing the conference theme "Parenting Is for Everyone." 
 
     Dr. Janet Fishburn, professor emerita of teaching ministry at the 
Theological School of Drew University, author and well-known workshop and 
event leader in the denomination, was the conference resource leader. She 
authored Mariners' latest book, "Parenting Is for Everyone -- Living Out 
Our Baptismal Covenant." 
 
     Fishburn praised Mariners for its multigenerational ministry, saying, 
"You make a place for all age groups." In reference to Mariners' inclusion 
of single adults as well as married couples and families, she told 
Mariners, "The church rarely even asks about the needs of single adults. 
It's no wonder why people find us boring and irrelevant." 
 
     "Responding to family diversity is and will continue to be a 
challenge. You are literally the only group doing this," she said. "It's a 
terrible time for the denomination to decide family ministry is an area we 
don't need to give more to." 
 
     She referred to a budget cut in the Congregational Ministries Division 
(CMD) that will eliminate a staff position for family and single adult 
ministry as of Jan. 1, 1997. The position has been partially funded by 
Mariners since its creation in 1990 and is staffed by the Rev. C. Raymond 
Trout.  
 
     A commissioners' resolution introduced at the recent General Assembly 
urged the denomination to continue its commitment to family ministry. The 
resolution was approved, but without any funding.  That means there is a 
mandate, but no money to fund it. 
 
     Mariners' National Executive Board, during a preconference meeting 
here, heard a proposal for creation of a family ministry team that would 
include Mariner representation and would attempt to maintain family 
ministry after Trout's position ends. Other team members would come from 
the CMD and the National Ministries Division.  
 
     According to the Rev. Marvin Simmers, a CMD staff member who presented 
the proposal, the team would meet for the first time in January 1997 to 
begin its work. Simmers initially will serve as coordinator. 
 
     The Mariner board approved a draft of a new covenant agreement between 
the organization and the CMD, outlining the role of the family ministry 
team and Mariners' part in it. The Division will review the draft in 
September and approve a final version in November. Mariners will approve a 
final version in January. 
 
     The Mariner board also voted to send the National Skipper and National 
Executive Secretary to the January team meeting. 
 
     Plans are already under way for the 1997 Family Conference, to be held 
July 20-24 at the university of Idaho at Moscow, Idaho. 

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