For Harry Horne the satisfaction of being a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) co-mission worker in Peru is watching those he ministers to achieve a deeper understanding of the Word of God — in Hebrew and Greek. The Colorado-born former pastor teaches Hebrew and Greek language courses at a branch of the Latin American Biblical University located in Lima.
“Nobody becomes an expert on Greek or Hebrew in a course or two, but they get enough to start using it,” said Horne, who also teaches other Bible courses at the school. “It’s fun watching people reach a level where they feel confident enough to use those tools. When it becomes useful it’s really good to see when folks find new things in text because they have those tools.”
Horne recently was in the United States telling his story as part of Mission Challenge ’07, a month-long initiative by the PC(USA)’s World Mission office to spread the denomination’s global witness story in at least 144 of the 173 presbyteries in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
In July 2004, he and his wife Debbie, who is also a co-mission worker, began their latest appointment in Peru, where Harry finds being in ministry with his students highly rewarding.
“I get to be part of the life of an academic community and through the students, in a secondhand way, a part of the life of a whole bunch of different churches and a part of those churches that are trying to be faithful, and neighborhoods and town and villages,” he said. “I think that’s a wonderful privilege and I appreciate all the folks who help make that possible.”
Hebrew and Greek lessons are taught through the Latin American context in a way that focuses on “Peruvians as the interpreters of the word of God” for their communities, he added. “They’re the folks who know that context far better than I do,” Harry Horne said. “All I can do is give them some tools so that they can dig into the text themselves in a more profound way. Then wrestle with what God is saying to the churches, neighborhoods, towns and villages that folks live in.”
The Hornes’ first assignment as PC(USA) co-mission workers was 1983-1987, when Harry served as a youth minister and Christian educator in the Grand Cayman islands in the Caribbean. Then the couple returned to the U.S., where Harry accepted a call as pastor of First Church in Darien, Ga.
The two later served in Guatemala from 1994-2003 with the Evangelical Presbyterian Seminary in Guatemala and the Central American Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies. While at the seminary, Harry Horne taught a variety of Bible and theology courses and developed curriculum resources. Debbie Horne, a Jacksonville, Fla. native, was the director and a teacher at a preschool and kindergarten program she started at the seminary.
While Debbie Horne has worked with children some since arriving in Peru, her time has been limited by traveling back and forth to the U.S. to help assist with her ailing mother who is in a Florida nursing home.
Harry Horne, who is a member of Savannah Presbytery, said he feels like he’s doing what God intended for him in Peru.
“I do feel like I’m doing what God has called me to do,” he said. “It’s just really wonderful to be a part of the academic community, and also through the students a part of so many church communities that are struggling to be faithful in the urban neighborhoods and the villages and towns.”
