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1-April-1999 
99128 
 
    CREATING GLOBAL AWARENESS 
 
    by Linda Post Bushkofsky 
    Synod of Lakes and Prairies 
    (Reprinted with permission) 
 
BLOOMINGTON, Minn.-They came from small towns, urban centers and rural 
communities.  They told stories of faith, of spreading the gospel.  They 
spoke of challenges of finding pastoral leadership, of sharing the gospel 
message with those outside the faith community, of dealing with 
deteriorating buildings. 
 
    These people aren't Midwesterners, although their challenges and joys 
parallel what many of us face here.  These folks are 11 international 
colleagues who came to the Synod of Lakes and Prairies recently through the 
Mission to the U.S.A. (MUSA) program. 
 
    Because the PC(USA) is currently celebrating "The Year with Education," 
these colleagues have some connection to an educational system in their 
home countries. 
 
    MUSA brings Christian leaders to the United States to educate 
Christians here about our partner churches in their homelands and the 
challenges facing Christians in other parts of the world, explains Sandy 
Wagener, associate synod executive and coordinator of MUSA.  The MUSA 
colleagues help Christians here acquire a deepened understanding of the 
global context of the church.  The cross-cultural program is concerned with 
personal contacts, global awareness and mutual sharing of faith. 
 
    "Every culture has something to learn," says Souheil Jamil Saoud, a 
MUSA colleague from Lebanon.  "Our Middle Eastern culture has something to 
teach about the value of family life and family ties.  It also has 
something to offer about the difficulties and the joy of survival in a 
Muslim context where the majorities of Christians have immigrated and are 
still immigrating. 
 
    Souheil serves a Presbyterian congregation located in West Beirut, near 
the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University. 
His congregation ministers to the students who study at these two 
universities.  He spent his visit in Omaha, Neb.(Presbytery of Missouri 
River Valley) at the Presbyterian Church of the Cross. 
 
    U.S. congregations are greatly enriched by the MUSA visits, as the Rev. 
Paula Vander Hoven of Second Presbyterian Church in Racine, Wis.(Presbytery 
of Milwaukee) explains.  "Aiste (Motekaitiene) comes to us from Kithuania 
where the church was underground for so long.  Now its growing and changing 
and achieving its identity."  Second Church hosted Aiste, the study abroad 
program coordinator for the Lithuania Christian College, a school begun 
after the fall of communism by the Mennonite Church of Canada. 
 
    The MUSA spent the month of March in the synod. 
 
    For more information about the Mission to the U.S.A. program, contact 
the Rev. Patricia Lloyd-Sidle, coordinator for global awareness and 
involvement in the Worldwide Ministries Division, at (502) 569-5260. 

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