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07501 August 14, 2007
Continuing a mission calling
Farrell brings passion and experience to World Mission leadership
by Pat Cole World Mission Associate for Communications
LOUISVILLE - Hunter Farrell left for his first mission assignment in Zaire with a sense of call and a load of doubt.
He was 23 and living in Washington, DC., when he heard God's call to mission service in 1981. But Farrell, who became director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s World Mission program area on Aug. 1, had serious misgivings about the relevance of the institutional church.
"At age 16 I left the church for six years," Farrell says. "I was frustrated with the church in general and the Presbyterian Church in particular. I thought we were functioning as a social club and not living out what God is calling us to do in the world."
Farrell had gone to Washington anticipating a career in foreign service with the U.S. State Department. He had passed all the written and oral exams and was awaiting an international placement. That career path seemed like a natural fit. He knew both Spanish and French, had studied abroad during a portion of both his high school and his college years and had earned a bachelor's degree in political science and Latin American studies.
Though still skeptical about the church, the aspiring diplomat became involved in a Bible study with a Campus Crusade staff member. During a study of Matthew 25 he sensed God's call to mission. He sought the counsel of veteran missionary Walt Shepard, who had close ties to Farrell's home congregation, Highland Park Presbyterian in Dallas.
Shepard guided him to the Presbyterian Church's volunteer mission program, and soon he was headed to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) on a one-year assignment.
"I really went almost testing the church," he recalls. "I wanted to see how the church was working in mission overseas. I wanted to see if it was a valid way to invest my life."
In Zaire he found a vibrant church that was making a difference. "I saw a church struggling to be faithful in its witness under incredible oppression and extreme poverty, people making less than $1 per day," he says. "That made a major impact."
Farrell was an administrative assistant to Remy Tshihamba, who was general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Zaire. "He was a very godly man committed to both effective evangelism and social justice," Farrell says, "and he brought that together in a beautifully African way."
Farrell also worked with young people seeking to make sense of their faith amid tremendous oppression. He saw them harassed by an authoritarian government bent on snuffing out even the potential for dissent.
Farrell left Zaire convinced that the church can be an effective agent of change. He also departed knowing that international mission would be his life's work. "I don't think I ever looked back," he says. "A call to cross-cultural mission is a call to who I am. I can't imagine doing anything else."
After a degree from Fuller Seminary and ordination by Grace Presbytery, Farrell returned to PC(USA) mission service as a seminary professor and community development worker in Congo for three years. He spent the next six years as the coordinator for the denomination's work in East and West Africa and most recently served for nearly a decade in Peru.
In Peru Farrell and his wife, Ruth, worked with the Presbyterian Hunger Program to link Peruvians with Presbyterians in the United States in efforts to overcome poverty. Ruth, working with the Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery, helped open a "fair trade corridor" that enabled local artisans to market their creations in the United States.
Much of Hunter's work was centered in La Oroya in the mountains above Lima. A lead smelting operation has made La Oroya one of the world's most polluted communities. A study by St. Louis University found that more than 97 percent of the town's children have blood lead levels that exceed acceptable standards.
Farrell and a coalition of Peruvian and North American churches and community groups worked tirelessly to persuade the company and the government to reduce emissions. Their efforts have drawn the attention from more than 100 newspapers, National Public Radio, CBS News, Christianity Today and Vanity Fair.
"My experience in Africa and Latin America have shaped how I understand myself and the mission of the church," Farrell says. "I am an evangelical Presbyterian-that is one of the languages I speak. I am a Reformed Christian-that is one of the languages I speak. Another language I speak is that of millions and millions of people living in poverty in the Two-Thirds World. Those issues will always be present with me."
Poverty and oppression in the developing world are deeply rooted in structures that Christians must work to change, he says. "That draws us into the cultural realm, the political realm and the social realm, but I am convinced that Christ came to be Lord of all our lives."
Farrell has been impressed with Linda Valentine, the General Assembly Council's executive director and Tom Taylor, deputy executive director for mission. He says their leadership makes him optimistic that World Mission "will become relevant to an even greater part of our church."
He's also excited about building more connections with "mission initiators," grassroots Presbyterians who are involved in mission work around the world. He notes that the PC(USA)'s work in facilitating direct mission involvement has been one of the "unsung stories" in PC(USA) international mission.
"One of our major roles is to help mission initiators learn from the remarkable depth of our mission history and the experience of our partner churches," Farrell says. "They have so much to teach us about evangelism, social justice and caring for the widows and orphans among us. I'm excited about World Mission being a bridge to this, and believe God is offering us the opportunity to renew our church through the gifts of our global partners."
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