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8-December-1998 
98404 
 
    Notes about People 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
    Elizabeth Duncan Hodges died Thanksgiving Day in Huntsville, Ala.  A 
lifelong Presbyterian, she is the mother of the Rev. Houston Hodges, editor 
of Monday Morning Magazine. A service of witness to the resurrection was 
held Dec. 2 in Huntsville and another service will be held at the First 
Presbyterian Church of Littlefield, Texas, where Hodges and her husband, 
Allen, lived and published the town's semi-weekly newspaper from 1945 to 
1953.  Memorial gifts may be made to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
Foundation, 200 E. 12th St., Jeffersonville, IN 47130.  The family has 
asked that the gifts be undesignated. 
 
    # # # 
 
    Julia Hudson, a long-time head teacher at John Hyson School, a 
Presbyterian mission school in Chimayo, N.M., has been named in the fifth 
addition of "Who's Who Among America's Teachers, 1998." 
    All of the teachers being honored were selected by former students who 
themselves are listed in the "Who's Who Among American High School 
Students" or the "National Dean's List" publications.  "In this publication 
we clearly have the best teachers in America selected by the 
best students," said Paul Krouse, publisher of "Who's Who Among America's 
Teachers." 
    John Hyson School serves children from pre-school through third grade 
in the mountain village of Chimayo in northern New Mexico.  The school was 
started in 1900 by women of the 
Presbyterian Church, with a gift of $600 from Miss Alice Hyson, a teacher 
at the Presbyterian School in Ranchos de Taos, NM.  John Hyson School 
functioned under mission agencies of the General Assembly until being 
transferred in 1970 to the Menaul School, Albuquerque.  The 
school continues to be supported by mission giving from congregations and 
individuals and through the Christmas Offering for Racial-Ethnic Schools 
(through Menaul). 
 
    # # # 
 
    The Rev. John F. Schultz, a Presbyterian minister and member of the 
Presbytery of the James in Richmond, Va., has been elected president of the 
Christian Children's Fund (CCF). 
    The CCF is an international non-profit child development organization 
that provides long-term assistance to more than 2.5 million impoverished 
children in 31 countries.  It has delivered more than $1.6 billion in 
assistance to children around the world since its founding in 1938. 
    Schultz, a native of North Carolina, has served Presbyterian churches 
in Indiana, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia.  He has been on the 
staff of CCF since 1990.  Prior to that, Schultz worked for Church World 
Service, the relief and development arm of the National Council of 
Churches, for 14 years. 
 
    # # # 
 
    A hymn -  "The Storm Came to Honduras -- written by the Rev. Carolyn 
Winfrey Gillette, co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pitman, N.J., 
is attracting nationwide attention.  The hymn, set to the J.S. Bach 
harmonization of the hymn "O Sacred Head Now Wounded," has been widely 
distributed to pastors and churches via the Internet.  On Nov. 22, the PBS 
television program  "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" featured a Gettysburg 
(Pa.) College professor singing "The Storm Came to Honduras." 
    The hymn has reportedly been sung in churches throughout the United 
States since the devastation wrought by Hurricane Mitch and even in 
churches in Nicaragua and Honduras.  Gillette visited Honduras in 1996. 
    The lyrics of the hymn: 
 
The storm came to Honduras, To Nicaraguan towns; 
El Salvador felt anguish As rains came crashing down. 
O God of wind and water Who made the sea and sky, 
Amid such great destruction, We ask a mournful, "Why?" 
Great walls of mud and water Swept homes and towns away: 
A thousand Rachels weep now For children lost today, 
A million madres mourn now As rivers flood the shore-- 
O Jesus, friend and Savior, You suffer with the poor. 
A weaving loom is shattered, A school in ruin lies, 
A bridge is washed down-river, A lonely child cries; 
O Spirit, send your comfort-- And give us faith that dares. 
For when our neighbors suffer Our lives are bound to theirs. 

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