You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS listserv of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
============================================================
This story online at: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2006/06612.htm
06612 November 21, 2006
Synod of the Sun supports PC(USA) international mission candidate with a $5,000 grant
Texas teacher halfway to $50,000 goal for Jamaica assignment
by Emily Enders Odom Mission Initiative communications officer
WEBSTER, TX * Jesus' own prescription from the Sermon on the Mount * Ask, and it will be given you * gave Vicki Smith, a candidate awaiting funding in order to serve as a PC(USA) mission co-worker, the impetus and the courage she needed to approach her home synod, the Synod of the Sun [http://www.synodsun.com/], for financial assistance toward her deployment.
"When I went to Louisville for my examination and interviews," Smith recalled of her mission candidacy process, "the staff of the new World Mission in Partnership program area said to go to my presbytery and to my synod for money for my position, which is exactly what I did."
In partnership with the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands [http://www.pcusa.org/joiningheartsandhands/], the classroom teacher and member of Webster Presbyterian Church here, is seeking to raise over $50,000 to answer a call to teach at the Iona Preparatory School in Jamaica.
Smith, who had no prior, direct experience with her synod, jumped into its Mission Initiative Grant application process with both eager feet.
The synod's Mission Initiative Grants are one of the most successful efforts to empower mission in the Synod of the Sun. In six years, the Mission Initiative Grant program has awarded more than a half million dollars toward new mission projects to congregations everywhere around the country.
On Oct. 27 Smith learned that she had been awarded $5,000 by the program toward her two-year deployment to Jamaica.
"I literally jumped up and down when I got the call from the synod's mission committee," Smith said. "I was completely awed by the news."
Synod of the Sun Executive the Rev. Judy Fletcher explained that while the synod's Mission Initiative Grant program is able to fund a broad range of local, national, and global mission projects, it has never been used for salaries per se.
"Because international mission is so important and because the funds included travel and living expenses," Fletcher said, "the synod was happy to approve her grant application."
The grant to Smith is just one example of the synod's thriving emphasis on international partnerships at both the synod and presbytery levels, Fletcher said. "Our synod is doing some exciting things with the northernmost synod of the National Presbyterian Church in Mexico," she noted, "and our presbytery partnerships are all over the map * Romania, Malawi, and Chili, to name just a few. Vicki Smith will be an integral part of the synod's international fabric."
Smith has found it to be an ongoing challenge to request money for herself. Her pastor, the Rev. Mark Cooper, helped her to see things differently. "You're not asking for money for Vicki Smith," Cooper told her, "you're asking for money for the Lord so that Vicki Smith can do God's mission."
"Those were the words that I used from that point on," Smith said.
To date, a total of $31,580 in gifts and pledges has been committed toward the cost of Smith's two-year deployment. $25,360 remains to be raised.
As Smith continues her journey toward fulfilling God's call, the mother of two adult children is planning to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with her son in Carrollton and her daughter in Denton, Tex.
"I may use that opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the synod office in Irving," Smith remarked, "to bow down there in gratitude to God."
============================================================
You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS listserv of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to
mailto:PCUSANEWS-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To update your email address, send your old email address and your new one to mailto:PCUSANEWS-owner@halak.pcusa.org.
For questions or comments, send an email to mailto:PCUSANEWS-owner@halak.pcusa.org.
To learn more, visit http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 100 Witherspoon Street Louisville, KY 40202 (888) 728-7228