Mission El Savador

Dear Friends,

On Friday, March 26th, I will be leaving Charlotte along with a team from Myers Park Presbyterian Church to go to Ahuachapan , El Salvador on a mission trip. We will be spending Holy Week with our brothers and sisters in Christ working in the Getsemani neighborhood. We will also deepen relationships with the Getsemani neighborhood that have been developed by previous groups from Myers Park Presbyterian. You can find more information about the Myers Park Presbyterian endeavor in Getsemani at the following web site: http://www.myersparkpres.org/www/docs/10930.3424 .

As part of the project in the Getsemani neighborhood, a total of 90 new homes will be built, in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity El Salvador, over a four year period. Habitat for Humanity El Salvador has developed a blog site for this project at the following web site: http://Habitatelsalvador.wordpress.com/

You can follow our team activities through our blog site which we will attempt to update daily:
http://mppcelsalvador.blogspot.com/

I would appreciate your keeping our team in your prayers as we go forth to serve in God’s name.

Peace,
Dennis Grills

A Note For The Month of March

Very soon we all will be planning and packing for our July trip to Peru. We hope this blog will be a good way to spread the information that will be coming. The calendar at the bottom of this page has a tentative itinerary for our July trip. Check back often for changes and updates!

Alissa King, one YAV (Young Adult Volunteer) is now serving in Huanta and in the Cristo Rey church that we will be visiting in late July and early August. Sadly, we will arrive a week or two after Alissa has left Huanta after completing her year long tenure. We do recommend that you take time to read the insights of Alissa and other YAVs that are serving in Peru. You will be blessed by their dedication. Link to Alissa's Peruvian Adventure.

Thank You, Brenda

Brenda Paredes returned home to Lima, Peru, March 20, 2010. During her three months with us, Brenda has served as a junior advisor for Sharon Presbyterian Youth, participating in the Sharon Presbyterian Youth Ski Trip and other Sharon Presbyterian Youth activities, spoken at a Men’s Breakfast and Sunday School classes, assisted with the children after Children’s Worship, assisted in the Sharon Church Office, served as an usher and attended Worship and Sunday School regularly. Brenda has also participated in the preliminary planning for the 2010 Mission Trip to Huanta, Peru. She has also served as a substitute teacher at the Sharon Weekday School and tutored students at Carmel Middle School and South Mecklenburg High School whose second language is English.

Brenda also traveled to New York City to visit a high school friend and to Sacramento, California, to visit her great aunt and other family members who immigrated to the United States over ten years ago.

We thank God for the time that Brenda has spent sharing her faith and culture with us. We wish her safe travels and hope that she will visit us again.

Randy

Brenda's three month visit to the U.S. went by way too fast! Brenda's love, patience and courage have proven that she is a perfect representative for the wonderful Peruvian people. Those that have met Brenda either last year in Peru or on her recent trip to the U.S. have been very fortunate. Those that will meet Brenda in Lima for the first time in July, will quickly understand and agree that we are the ones that have been blessed for knowing her.

wvd

Kentucky Update

Greetings from Mt. Vernon, Ky. Two months have passed since I arrived in eastern Kentucky to work with the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) and what an experience it has been. CAP is a wonderful organization that offers many programs to help the underprivileged people of the Appalachian mountains. I work in the food pantry where we serve about 40 different families a day with food. What good and appreciative families they are! Even though they have many needs, they are happy for the most part and have a tremendous amount of love for The Lord and their families. CAP’s philosophy is to offer a hand-up not a hand out so that the Appalachians can have more opportunities to better their living conditions. The Lord is definitely hard at work here.

I live in a volunteer house with 9 other ladies ranging from the ages 17 - 67. Community living is a new and fun experience for me where we share in the cooking and house keeping. Kentucky is a beautiful state where the snow falls are awesome. I have been introduced to a lot of the local customs and culture which have been interesting and exciting. Since I am only 3 hours from our Gatlinburg house, I get to go “home” on week-ends.

I miss all my friends and family in Charlotte but October will be here before we know it. Take care! Love, peace and good health.

Nancy Tabor

The Joy of Giving

As we travel to visit others during mission trips, we are amazed and humbled by the outpouring of interest, support and prayers of those who physically stay behind. One Sharon Presbyterian ministry that quietly supports the annual mission trip to Peru is the Prayer Shawl Ministry. Members of this ministry began making prayer shawls and church pew seat cushions for our precious sisters in Huanta in 2009.

We only wish that the ladies that make the prayer shawls and cushions could witness in person the joy and blessings that the fruits of their time and talent bring to the good people of Huanta.

Special Prayer Requests

• Pastor Juan Martin Escuza and his wife Demetria Montes who was injured in a bus rollover in the Andes in January.
• Pray for the communities of the Andes Mountains as rainy season, which has just begun, devastates the region with flooding, destruction of crops, buildings and transportation networks.
• Pray for the communities as they work together to alleviate disasters. Just in the state of Cuzco 4,689 homes are destroyed, nine bridges are ruined and 40,000 acres of crops have been lost.
• Pray for the family of Pastor Samuel Montes (Vice President of the national IEPRP church) whose home was flooded.
• Pray for the daughter of Pastor Gaspar Huiche (Light & Life Church) whose house was washed away.

From Peruvian Bridges

News From Our Friend Samuel Montes

Samuel Montes recently resigned as director of Radio Amauta. He has also “rotated off” as President of the Presbytery of Huanta. Samuel remains a member of the Junta Directiva (the governing council) of the Presbytery and he will continue to coordinate the activities of mission delegations. In this capacity, Samuel will be actively (and no doubt enthusiastically!) involved in Sharon Presbyterian Church’s 2010 mission trip to Huanta.

Samuel also remains a member of the Junta Directiva of the national church, the Evangelical Presbyterian and Reformed Church of Peru (the “IEPRP”).

Change is often unsettling but nonetheless inevitable. Sharon Church has certainly experienced its share of change in recent years. And yet, despite change and the associated uncertainty, Jesus Christ remains the head of the church. The grace of our Lord endures and His work must go on.

When Sharon Church began its relationship with the Presbytery of Huanta just a mere two years ago, it was based on the hope and understanding that the relationship would be one in which TOGETHER we would share in good times and bad times, feast and famine, togetherness and separation, hope and despair, sunshine and rain, joy and pain. It is my hope that our relationship with the Presbytery will continue and be strengthened.

I found inspiration and comfort in Samuel’s words in the letter that follows. I hope and trust you will too.

Please join me in keeping our precious brothers and sisters in the Presbytery of Huanta and especially the Montes family in our thoughts and prayers.

Randy Ross


Huanta, Peru
February 16, 2010
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you very much for the donation to the Presbytery of Huanta which allowed the Presbytery to purchase calaminas (corrugated metal roofing panels). During Sara Armstrong’s and Rusty Edmondson’s recent visit to Huanta, we took the opportunity to distribute 600 calaminas directly to the beneficiaries of your donation, or to their local churches.

As you may have heard, I am no longer the President of the Presbytery. The new leadership asked me to assist with the distribution of the calaminas, a basic and humble task. We have completed the distribution of the calaminas to those most in need; the elderly, widows and others who lost their houses in the recent rains, floods and mudslides.

Leaders of the local churches will be responsible for motivating their congregations to build homes for the elderly and widows in their communities. This is another way the churches can think about meeting the needs of the poor. The president of each church session collected the materials and then will undertake to build the houses and report back to the Presbytery on their construction progress.

The churches which received materials on behalf of their members are: Light and Life (7 houses), Cristo Rey (3 houses), Aranhuay (5 houses), Ccantuyucc (5 houses), Hatun Rumi (3 houses), Choccewichqa (5 houses), Chula (4 houses) and Pucara (5 houses). The Presbytery is committed to deliver a final report by the end of July 2010.

Once again, thank you for your love and solidarity with our churches. Thank you for your prayers for me, my family, and my concerns about my employment status. I am not alone; I have my brothers and sisters everywhere thinking of me and a great God to continue guiding me. I know the Lord has a purpose for me although I cannot understand it at this moment. I am very happy and at peace because I am in the hands of God.

No matter what happens, we will still be together again as a family in August in Huanta. I love you all very much. Greetings to all my brothers and sisters at Sharon Presbyterian Church, especially those who have traveled here to be with us and most of all to my brother Randy and his family. Randy, your words inspire me to continue supporting the church.

Hugs,
Pastor Samuel Montes

God's Mission Matters

How many times have we participated in a mission trip and felt that "we just didn't get anything done"? This month in Mission Crossroads PC(USA), Hunter Farrell, PC(USA) Director of World Missions, explains "Just be there! Being, not doing..." should be our true mission.

Also listen to this month's edition of "God’s Mission Matters" and hear stories by Doug Welch, former mission worker in Congo for 20 years and current Associate Director in Presbyterian World Mission, and Rob Fohr, former Young Adult Volunteer to Argentina.

We often try to persuade other church members to join mission trips because "you receive much more than you can possibly give". That is always true, on every visit.

Mission members usually don't get satisfaction by the building or repair. The receipt of satisfaction and blessings come by the interaction, the working side by side, the giving, the heartfelt thanks, the worship and the sharing with our hosts.

ACT Alliance in Haiti

This video link has been sent to us from Dennis Smith PC(USA) missionary in Guatemala by way of his colleague Karla Koll. They have received the video from Paul Jeffery, a good friend and Methodist missionary photojournalist in Haiti. The video is based on ACT Alliance, (Action by Churches Together) the global church emergency aid agency of which Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is a part of.

Please keep ALL of our missionaries in your prayers, especially those suffering through the earthquake in Haiti and those struggling through the floods in Peru.

Thank you to Dennis Smith for sending the video, Karla Koll for passing it on and Paul Jeffery for creating it.

Huanta Floods

Several provinces in the Andes Mountains of Peru were declared disaster areas during the week of January 25, 2010, due to several days of torrential rains and the resulting floods and mudslides. In the province of Huanta, several hundred homes were destroyed or severely damaged. Many families have lost what few possessions they had. Pictures The Ministry of World Service has responded to this disaster by sending a donation of $2,500 to The Presbytery of Huanta.

Sharon Presbyterian Church’s Ministry of World Service responded to this disaster by sending a donation to The Presbytery of Huanta. The funds will be used by the Presbytery to purchase new corrugated metal roofing panels for the homes of widows and single mothers. These families are often the humblest and poorest.

Upon learning of the donation, Pastor Samuel Montes, President of the Presbytery of Huanta, wrote:

“I am extremely grateful for the support of the members of Sharon Presbyterian Church. While I have no words to adequately thank you, I pray that God will always bless you for your everlasting love for your brothers and sisters in Huanta. God has placed me here to be with people in need, both materially and spiritually. Thanks be to God for my brothers and sisters at Sharon Presbyterian Church who help me walk with my people.”

Please keep the precious people of the Presbytery of Huanta in your thoughts and prayers.

Give, Act & Pray for Haiti

By now most of the world knows of the terrible earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In the wake of this great human tragedy, we are grateful for the outpouring of so many expressions of care and generosity from Presbyterians everywhere. Because of your quick response, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) was able to double its commitment of funds to provide immediate aid those first few days following the quake. Your gifts were put to effective and strategic work in coordinated efforts with our international and ecumenical partners, Action by Churches Together (ACT) Alliance and Church World Service (CSW). The first phase of response included search and rescue teams, food and water distribution sites, and medical care for the injured. There is still much work to be done.

One week later, following a major aftershock, the death toll keeps rising. There may well be more than 100,000 fatalities. Among the dead is a long-time partner in relief efforts, Sam Dixon, executive director of United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). Our hearts are heavy, yet inspired by the daring and faithful service of so many people. Despite the overwhelming circumstances and even threat of personal danger, God’s love is made incarnate by the courageous and compassionate work of God’s people.

PDA staff member Carlos Cardenas reports from Port-au-Prince that shortages of fuel and transportation create extra challenges to the already overwhelming challenge of receiving and delivering food, water, and medical supplies.
Jean Zaché Duracin, who leads the PC(USA)’s partner church in Haiti, is living in a tent city in Port-au-Prince. Duracin, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, rejected offers to be evacuated after his home crumbled in the earthquake. He vowed to “stay with my people,” the Episcopal News Service reported. Given the extremely limed resources at the moment, the bishop urges American congregations to have patience with regard to sending large volumes of volunteers at this time. Every outside volunteer places a demand on resources, fuel, food and water that is desperately needed by the earthquake survivors right now. Those who do have a passion to serve are encouraged to register their interest so that we can contact you when the situation is stable and appropriate.

The Episcopal cathedral is gone. Schools and hospitals are destroyed. Government buildings are in ruins. With so many symbols of safety and security destroyed the people search for signs of hope. Mark Hare, PC(USA) mission co-worker to Haiti, writes:

Port au Prince has been deeply wounded. The whole country will be deeply affected. I have no answers for any of these problems. Just the reminder that I felt, again, this morning while reading the [Mission] Yearbook [for Prayer & Study], that our God is a God of hope, that despair has already been defeated, and [that] now is the time to face what has happened and to act, act out of that hope and not out of despair. I don't have any idea what that will mean. But our God is up to the task. Pray for us, that we will also be up to the task.

Yes. Our God is up to the task. Pray that we will all be up to the task.
Join Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in the relief efforts. As God’s people we are called to stand in the “GAP” — GIVE. ACT. PRAY.

Give — Financial support for relief efforts can be made online and designated to DR000064. Gifts can also be made by phone at (800) 872-3283, and checks can be mailed to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.Act — Prepare for a special worship service in your congregation using the hymn, bulletin inserts and other worship resources available from PDA. Congregations and individuals can also put together hygiene kits and baby kits to be distributed through Church World Service.Pray — Join with others in lifting up the people of Haiti and those seeking to provide aid in this critical time. As the eyes of the world turn to Haiti, let us join our hearts in prayer.

Torrential Rain in Peru

Several areas in the Andes Mountains and jungle areas of Peru were severely impacted by torrential rains during the week of January 18, 2010. On Monday, January 18th, torrential rains in the state of Ayacucho caused widespread damage and some deaths. The following letter, from Pastor Samuel Montes, President of the Presbytery of Huanta, was sent to Sara Armstrong and Rusty Edmondson, PC(USA) Delegations and Partnerships Coordinators in Peru. We thank Sara and Rusty for their translation of Samuel’s letter and for informing us of the disaster that has affected our brothers and sisters in Peru. Sharon Presbyterian Church will be responding with financial assistance during the week of January 25, 2010. Please keep these precious people in your thoughts and prayers.BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST AND FRIENDS. January 19, 2010

This week, the Andean and jungle regions of Peru are being hard hit by heavy rains, affecting thousands of the most humble and poorest families and their homes.

Yesterday, the province of Huanta, in the Ayacucho Region of Peru, was hit by torrential rain that lasted a little over 5 hours, from 4:30 PM until 9:40 PM. According to the telephone calls received by Radio Amauta from affected people and the findings of Radio Amauta Radio emergency personnel, the rains and subsequent flooding left at least 350 homes severely damaged. The walls, mostly made of adobe brick, were severely damaged by water. In some areas of the city of Huanta, drainage/sewage systems collapsed. We had a report about 10:00 AM this morning that 46 houses (for migrant families) located on the outskirts of Huanta were destroyed. According to reports of the authorities, more than 80 houses of the poorest families (widows, and single mothers), are uninhabitable in the rural communities of Huayrapampa, Aranhuay, Cercan, Pucara, Chocco Wichqa, Razuhuillca and Tanauasi. Vast areas of crops and orchards are affected. Roads are impassible due to landslides.

For our part at Radio Amauta, we are participating in the relief, helping families, making announcements by radio, letting the public know the painful news, and airing their complaints to the authorities. We also publicly acknowledge that, in some cases, the affected people must recognize their errors. They constructed their homes in river courses. There has been negligence in constructing drains inside and outside the city.
During yesterday’s rains, from early in the morning, Radio Amauta has been an essential means of communication with family members who left Huanta to go to work. It is urgent that they come back to rescue some of their belongings.

In Huayanay, a community of the state of Huancavelica, 5 people were reported missing in mudslides caused by the rains. At this moment, they are still searching for two bodies. There are hundreds of families at risk.

Actions in Solidarity with the Suffering:
At this moment there are hundreds of residents working to recover some belongings from the rubble. The municipal authorities and civil defense, are serving, cleaning affected houses and redirecting/ channeling rivers. Many are giving food to those most affected. The Governor of the state of Huanta announced that some materials to build new homes would be provided. But due to the magnitude of damage caused by the rains, families in rural areas are calling and reaching out to us. Mostly they are asking for repairs to the roofs of their homes so they can move back in. They desperately need roofing panels (“calaminas”). All morning they have called the radio station from their communities, asking for help with donations of roofing panels. They were calling because they woke up exposed to the elements, along with their minor children who are affected by respiratory diseases.

Emergency Proposal:
Radio Amauta, together with the Presbytery of Huanta, (of the Evangelical Presbyterian and Reformed Church of Peru), intends to provide support according to our means. We also ask for help. The priority is at least 1,000 calaminas to help at least 80 families (mostly widows and abandoned/single mothers) in rural areas. The cost of a single roofing panel is S/.14 (about US$5.00).

Pastor Samuel Montes
President
Presbytery of Huanta

Earth's Cruelty Rains Down on Haiti

Sometimes, the earth is cruel.

That is ultimately the fundamental lesson here, as children wail, families sleep out of doors, and the dead lie unclaimed in the rubble that once was Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Sometimes the rains fall and will not stop. Sometimes the skies turn barren and will not rain. Sometimes the seas rise and smack the shoreline like a fist. Sometimes the wind bullies the land. And sometimes, the land rattles and heaves and splits itself in two.

Sometimes, the earth is cruel.

And always, when it is, we do the same thing. We dig ourselves out. We weep and mourn, we recover and memorialize the dead, we rebuild our homes. And we go on. This is the price of being human. And also, arguably, the noblest expression.

Sometimes, the earth is cruel, and you have no choice but to accept that as part of the bargain called life. And when it is your turn to deal with it, you do.

But what if it’s always your turn?

Surely some homeless, dust-streaked Haitian can be forgiven for thinking it is always Haiti’s turn, just days after the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere saw its capital city smashed by the strongest earthquake it has ever known, a 7.0-magnitude monster. Surely, the rest of us watching from afar, experiencing tragedy and devastation from the comfort of desk chairs and living room couches, are tempted to believe the same thing.

Bad enough, Haiti is wretchedly poor. Bad enough it has a history of political instability and colonialism, of being ignored by the major powers when it is not being exploited by them. Bad enough, all that, yet at the end of the day, those are disasters authored by human hands, by human greed, human corruption, human economic predation.

Sometimes, though, you have to wonder if the planet itself is not conspiring against this humble little nation.

After 1994, when Tropical Storm Gordon killed several hundred people, after 1998, when Hurricane Georges swept away more than 500 lives, after 2004, when the rains of Tropical Storm Jeanne claimed more than 2,000 souls, after 2005, when Hurricane Dennis took 25 lives in July and Tropical Storm Alpha snatched 17 in October, followed by Hurricane Wilma, which stole 11 more, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Fay and Gustav in 2008 killed more than 130 people and destroyed 3,100 homes, after all that, comes this latest insult — and a death toll officials cannot begin to even imagine. Perhaps as many as 100,000, they were saying on Wednesday.

Sometimes, the earth is cruel. To crawl the planet’s skin, scanning for tornadoes in Oklahoma, charting storm tracks in Florida, running from wildfires in California, is to understand this in a primal, personal way. It is to breathe a prayer that begins, “There, but for the grace of God ...” It is to write relief checks, donate blood, volunteer material and time and to fear, even in the doing, that these gestures are small against the need, inconsequential against the ache of a people whose turn seems never to end.

But what else are you going to do? As the playwright put it, your arms too short to box with God. Even less have we the ability to answer the question that burns the moment: Why are the most vulnerable repeatedly assessed the highest price?

We are hamstrung by our own limitations, so we can only do what we always do, only send prayers and help. And watch, staggered by the courage it takes, as Haitians do what human beings always do, the thing at which they have become so terribly practiced.

Dig out. Weep and mourn. Memorialize the dead. Rebuild. Go on. And show the world once again a stubborn insistence on living, despite all the cruelties of the earth.

Leonard Pitts Jr., winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, is a columnist for the Miami Herald. His email address is lpitts@miamiherald.com.Haitian Personnel Update

Mission Trip 2010

For those interested in participating in the 2010 Adult Mission Trip to Peru, the trip is scheduled to take place from Friday, July 30 to Sunday, August 8, 2010. Links to trip information and applications or may be picked up from the Peru Mission Trip mailbox located outside the Choir Room in the Sharon Church Sanctuary.

If you are interested in learning more about the trip, please contact Randy Ross at (704) 552-5573 or mrandallross@aol.com.