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This story and photo online at: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2007/07174.htm
07174
March 23, 2007
Long-term missionary Hunter Farrell named head of World Mission program area
New director has served in Africa, South America
by Jerry Van Marter
LOUISVILLE * The Rev. Hunter Farrell, a career missionary with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who has served in Africa and South America as well as on the national staff of the denomination, has been selected as the director of the General Assembly Council's World Mission program area.
Farrell, who begins his new work Aug. 1, will oversee all aspects of the PC(USA)'s mission service and recruitment, including national and international calls, as well as other forms of direct mission involvement. In addition, he will coordinate the denomination's missionary work with ecumenical and international church partners.
In making the announcement, the Rev. Tom Taylor, deputy executive director for mission, said, "Hunter Farrell's commitment to Jesus Christ is borne out in his words and his acts in ways that I've seen in few other people in my life. He combines a first rate intellect with a compassion for people who are hurting. I couldn't be happier to have a person of his caliber leading this international ministry."
Farrell's career has been devoted to international mission. "When I was 23 years old, Walt Shepard, of Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, where I grew up, encouraged me to go as a volunteer in mission to Zaire, and I've never regretted that decision," said Farrell.
"I sense an urgent call to bring together the newly emerging energy, creativity, resources and commitment of thousands of congregations across the Church with our denomination's remarkable mission history," said Farrell. "In my missionary work in Africa and Latin America, I have seen that our Church has developed a solid reputation as a Christ-centered, responsible church-in-mission * a partner in Christ that can be counted on. We must build on that witness."
For the past decade, Farrell and his wife, Ruth, have served as a mission co-worker in Peru, working with Peruvians and a growing number of Presbyterian congregations, particularly from Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery, to overcome poverty, in partnership with the Presbyterian Hunger Program.
His work with the La Oroya community in the mountains above Lima has drawn international attention from more than 100 newspapers, National Public Radio, CBS News, Christianity Today, and Vanity Fair.
La Oroya is on a list of the world's most polluted communities due to lead smelting operations that have poisoned an entire generation of children * over 99% of the children living in La Oroya have blood lead levels that exceed acceptable standards.
Ruth Farrell has worked with indigenous women's groups in Peru on health, education and economic development issues. As a result of her work with a group of Peruvian craftswomen, registrants at the 2004 General Assembly received colorful, hand-woven tote-bags.
The Farrells have three children * Ndaya, Billy and Andrew.
"Our family is sad to be ending this chapter of our ministry in Peru," said Farrell, "but we are open to all that God intends to do in and through us in the next chapter. We are thankful to all of our supporting churches for their decades of faithfulness to Christ's mission through our family's ministry."
From 1991 through 1997, Farrell worked in the General Assembly Council staff as coordinator of Presbyterian mission work in east and west Africa. In this capacity he worked with the PC(USA)'s partner churches and supervised the work of 50 mission co-workers in seven African nations in programs of health, development, evangelism, education, and theological education.
Prior to his service on the national staff, Farrell spent five years as a mission co-worker in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he taught Greek, New Testament exegesis and theology, and community development at the Faculty of Reformed Theology of the Kasai (Ndesha) in Kananga.
Farrell is fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Tshiluba (a language spoken in the south central Congo).
Farrell received his B.A. in political science and Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin and his M.Div from Fuller Theological Seminary in cross-cultural studies. He spent a year studying in Lima, Peru, at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, where he is currently completing a doctorate on the impact of Peru's political violence on an indigenous community in the central Andes. He also studied traditional African religions at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, France.
With Farrell's appointment, directors have been named for five of the six new GAC program areas. Taylor expects to name a director for the Relief and Development program area in the near future.
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