Know some folks who like to travel? How about traveling as a group? How about traveling to the land of Israel-Palestine and Jordan? How about tracing the steps of Paul? How about visiting those places that still reverberate the voices of Athanasius and Patrick, Luther and Calvin, Zwingli and Knox?
What if you visit all those places and still hunger for more?
The well-traveled fellowship of pilgrims at First Church in Kingwood, Tex., faced that dilemma in the mid-1990s. They had recruited their well-schooled and widely-traveled pastor, Bob Covington, a retired Army chaplain, to coordinate those trips. After having exhausted the sites of primary theological and ecclesiastical influence, they asked for more. So he proposed an alternative: Why not visit mission sites?
This wasn’t entirely new for them. In most of their earlier pilgrimages he had incorporated visits to Presbyterian churches and mission centers (with coordinating help from the denomination’s mission offices). They shared fellowship with the living stones of partner Christians while observing ancient and medieval stones, the edifices that have housed and shaped the faith.
But this time he was proposing something different — traveling to regions simply to learn about and, perhaps, even begin to engage directly in mission with our partners already working there.
They jumped at the idea. So off to South America they went. They booked flights to Brazil and Peru.
Something clicked with them, particularly in Peru. Not only were their hearts moved with compassion for the needs they saw. They thrilled to see such vital, Reformed faith being proclaimed amidst those needs. They heard their Peruvian colleagues tell stories of the leadership of John Mackay, the American Presbyterian who planted the evangelical faith there in 1916 and built the first Christian school in 1917 (years later, Mackay would serve as president of Princeton Theological Seminary). They also heard of work launched up in the highlands in 1946.
The Peruvians’ stories inspired their American visitors to action.
The following year, the pilgrims returned. In partnership with members of Lima’s John Calvin Presbytery, the travel group recruited doctors from the congregation. The presbytery set up a short-term medical clinic to do basic diagnostics, give immunizations and treat diseases and injuries.
Peruvians turned out by the droves.
So the Kingwood folks repeated the medical mission again in 1998. Then in 1999 pastor Pedro Amana, a Presbyterian pastor and director of the Peruvian Bible Society in Lima, urged the Kingwood folks to bring their help to San Genaro. This village on the outskirts of Lima resembled barrios of other major Central and South American cities. Given the minimal rainfall (less than an inch per year), travel on the dirt streets stirred up constant dust that permeated homes with cracked plastic roofs.
The church set up a medical clinic. They worshipped with the local fledgling Presbyterian congregation. They began to multiply their travel dollars — with the help of fellow Kingwood church members — to help fund construction of a sanctuary and education building for the congregation.
The need for a children’s outreach center prompted a further project. They built and organized after-school programs for elementary-through-high school students. Most funds came from Kingwood but the work was done by the church with presbytery help.
Beginning just after public school dismissal around noon each day, the uniformed students now arrive to enjoy a full, balanced meal. For most new students each fall, it takes several weeks for their stomachs to adjust to digesting a full meal; this is something new for them. But very slender frames soon fill out and their energy strengthens considerably. After lunch, enrichment learning mixes with sports and other activities.
The Kingwood Church pilgrims continue to travel to Peru, now twice a year, each time setting up medical clinics in other areas of the city and doing other service projects, in coordination with the presbytery. Through these years the presbytery has established connections with Lima’s medical community, who now partner in offering short-term clinics in various communities around the city.
The John Calvin Presbytery is one of 24 presbyteries in Peru, comprised of nearly 10,000 members. Given the broad distribution of Bibles done through the country by the PBS, a member organization of the United Bible Societies, Pastor Pedro Amana serves as an informal ecumenical bridge between Christians of all denominations there, from Pentecostal to, beginning six years ago, Roman Catholic. The devastating earthquake this past August 15 hit a mostly Catholic region of the country, and for the first time Presbyterian Peruvians did relief work there, providing blankets, food, and water. Bible societies from the US, Scotland, and Norway also have been helping repair roofs.
Pastors and elders from the presbytery all hope for increasing partnerships with the American churches. “It is our understanding that we be self-supporting in our ministry; we don’t want to depend on funds from abroad,” assured Dr. Apolos Landa, an elder and community health worker from the San Borga church. “But we can use help for our social work and to buy land for churches.”
The churches there also hope their Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) partners will help them train their pastors and elders. “We need to build a better foundation,” Landa added.
In the world of mission studies, a rising tide of criticism is challenging the idea of local churches sending their own members for week-long mission pilgrimages. Hunter Farrell, director of global mission for the PC(USA) and former mission worker in Peru explains: “An increasing number of dollars are going into transporting John and Jane Q. Presbyterian from their local church to a mission experience overseas and then coming back. So the $2,500 that they would have given to further Christ’s mission in the world is taken up by them traveling from point A to point B and back. Short term mission experiences are wonderful experiences, but there is a growing body of evangelical missiologists’ critique of the short-term mission phenomenon.” Any Americans going to any mission field should be aware of this stewardship issue and ask themselves, “To what end are we going?”
For the folks at First Church, Kingwood, the end has turned into a means — a partnership for lasting, transforming mission.
