George and Jan Beran, former Presbyterian missionaries now in their 70s and living in Ames, Iowa, have challenged other Presbyterians from Iowa to come up with $250,000 for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)’s Joining Hearts & Hands fundraising campaign. The money would be used to send two mission co-workers or a family to the Democratic Republic of Congo for three years to do agricultural work.
To kick things off, the Berans have pledged the proceeds from selling a duplex they bought 25 years ago as a rental property.
From their own time overseas, teaching as missionaries in the Philippines and later as Fulbright professors in Nigeria, the Berans have seen firsthand the impact of Presbyterian mission work.
They also know what grassroots believers can do. Close to 30 years ago, their adult Sunday school class at Northminster Church in Ames was studying world hunger. Members raised money to support mission work in Kenya and Tanzania — underwriting projects that helped farmers learn to improve their crop yields, to store food and produce drinkable water.
Today, they see the needs persisting — with people in impoverished areas still needing food and clean water.
“We knew there had been requests for mission co-workers coming from our partner churches that the national church was not able to fill for lack of money,” Jan Beran said in an interview.
So they convinced North Iowa presbytery to pledge $250,000 to The Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands campaign, starting off with their own donation. Their children and grandchildren have made pledges too, which the Berans find heartening because “in a way this would be their inheritance we’re giving away,” Jan Beran said.
George Beran is a veterinarian who teaches at Iowa State University and has worked internationally in public health through the World Health Organization; Jan is a physical educator who’s taught at Iowa State as well. They’re believers that ordinary Presbyterians — folks who aren’t millionaires but are willing to give — can make a difference in the quality of life of others, and that lots of smaller donations will add up to something big.
“We just have so much faith and trust in Presbyterian mission programs,” Jan Beran said. “There’s so much bang for the buck.”
