wfn.org | A Mountain to Climb ... for Mission

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10-June-1998 
98206 
 
    A Mountain to Climb ... for Mission 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-A base camp on Everest - somewhere around 18,000 feet - is 
the highest they've ever gone.  That was two and a half years ago, on their 
honeymoon. 
 
     But this summer the goal is to peer down on the plains of Kenya and 
Tanzania from the snowy summit of Kilimanjaro, more than 19,000 feet (340 
more feet, to be exact) up - higher than "anything else we've done," they 
say. 
 
    We're talking about Darren and Elisabeth Kennedy, students at Princeton 
Theological Seminary.   Climbing is something they both like to do.  So is 
mission - so much so that they intend to pursue full-time mission worker 
positions when they finish school.  This climb is a way to do both. 
 
    The Kennedys are shooting for what they're calling a vertical Crop 
Walk.  They're looking for congregations, businesses, organizations and 
even individuals willing to commit to a per-foot pledge: from a tenth of a 
penny per foot, coming out at $19.34 for traipsing up the whole mountain, 
up to a dollar a foot, which, of course, equals $19,340. 
 
    The money will go to the Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF), a 
validated mission support group of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 
headquartered in Houston, Texas, which provides medical personnel, 
equipment, supplies and financial aid to medical outposts and clinics 
outside the United States.  Income from this particular climb will go 
toward MBF's greatest health facility needs, such as heat and electricity 
costs. 
 
    "We're trying to give [people] a foothold on this climb," Darren told 
the Presbyterian News Service, adding that he hopes that those who choose 
to fund the Kennedys' climb might get initiated into the possibilities for 
mission that exist throughout the world.  "We thought of the mountain as a 
metaphor ... there is a mountain of need.  And we as a church should be 
climbing together." 
 
    That's a message that MBF representative Rob McClelland hopes will 
entice the generation of churchgoers that sociologists call "X" - one of 
the toughest groups to reach with traditional mission strategies. 
 
    "Darren and I met weekly ... and we were dreaming," said McClelland, 
referring to Kennedy's seminary field placement with MBF and the notion of 
a fund-raising climb. He added that he and his own son, an X-er, had 
bantered about the idea previously. "My dream would be to take 100 kids, 
post college.  Get them over there.  Let them see the medical work [and 
say], `Let's climb that mountain.'" 
 
    The Kennedys first will be part of an MBF-sponsored work trip to Kikuyu 
Hospital, a longtime Presbyterian medical mission outside Nairobi.  Then 
they'll head south alone to Kilimanjaro.  Pledges may be sent to the 
Kennedys' seminary address: Princeton Theological Seminary, 312 Emmons Dr. 
#7B, Princeton, NJ  08540. 
 
    McClelland said the Presbytery of New Brunswick has signed on to the 
Kennedys' climb as a way of raising funds for the presbytery's own 
partnership in Ghana.  "The point is that all the money raised will go to 
validated mission projects, medical projects," said McClelland.  "If people 
pledge as much as two pennies [per foot], that's close to $500." 
 
    The Kennedys intend to tackle the mountain in late June. 

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