Latin American Action Team - Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy

Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy, Presbyterian Church (USA)

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Missional Outreach Ministry Team

Latin America Action Team

Joining Hands - Peru

Nicaragua

Joining Hands - Peru

>> News Service article 03/15/2006
>>Dallas Morning News article 12/4/2005
>> Presbyterian News Service article 12/02/2005

For many years the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy has been in global mission partnership with colleagues in Peru, the work facilitated by Mission Co-Workers Hunter and Ruth Farrell. One focus of the work has been to address issues of lead and other heavy metal contamination in the Andes mountain town of La Oroya by the U.S. owned, St. Louis based Doe Run lead smelter. Nearly 100% of the children in old town La Oroya are lead-poisoned. After the removal of many blocks by the Peruvian government and Doe Run, for the first time, at the invitation of Archbishop Pedro Barreto of the Junin District of Peru, an independent, comprehensive health study (testing for 12 heavy metals: blood levels, air, soil, and homes) was conducted in 2005 by members of the School of Public Health of St. Louis University. The study will be key to establishing the basis for future actions to ensure the health of the people of La Oroya.

The Rev. George Humbert, Pastor, College Avenue Presbyterian Church, Alton, IL.
(618) 465-8861 capcrev@sbcglobal.net
Coordinator, Joining Hands Against Hunger, Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery

>> Joining Hands-Peru Website
>> Information about Christmas Boxes to support Fair Trade

Learn more about Peru and our Joining Hands partnership by visiting our missionaries Rev. Hunter and Ruth Ferrell on-line.

Click the image above for information and to browse the Bridge of Hope Gift Shop and support the Joining Hands ministry with your purchase.

Julia Huamani, a Presbyterian women's leader, works on placemat sets from traditional-style Andean "manta" cloth for the Joining Hands "Fair Trade Bridge.

Nearly 100% of the children of La Oroya, Peru have lead poisoning, 27% have levels high enough that they would be hospitalized immediately if they lived in the United States.

Peruvian Congressman Hildebrando Tapia (center) with Giddings-Lovejoy Joining Hands representatives Rev. Elinor Stock and Rev. George Humbert discuss children's health in La Oroya.

Mission To Nicaragua

Mission Coworker Ellen Sherby
Our mission coworker in Nicaragua, Ellen Sherby, visited the presbytery in November. Ellen spoke to the presbytery at our stated meeting on November 18th at Oak Hill Presbyterian Church, 4111 Connecticut Street, St. Louis.
>> You can learn more about Ellen's ministry by visiting her Mission Connections Homepage and the website of the Council of Evangelical Churches in Nicaragua (CEPAD)

Mission Coworker Douglas Orbaker
The Rev. Douglas Orbaker is also a mission coworker in Nicaragua. Doug has hosted delegations from the presbytery on visits to Nicaragua.
>> You can learn more about Doug's ministry by visiting his Mission Connections Homepage

More about Plan Grande 2, Nicaragua...
The first time Omar flashed his grin, I saw the spark. He was 10 years old, one of the younger members of the remote community in the lush, green mountains of northern Nicaragua where a group of 23 Presbyterians had come to participate in Hurricane Mitch reconstruction. The year was 2000, and Plan Grande 2 was one of myriad communities pummeled by “la tormenta.” As we worked alongside our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, Omar was never far from members of our delegation. I imagined him wondering why it was that we had come such a long way to be a part of work in his community that, frankly, could better be done by the people living there. Whatever the reasons, Omar stuck close, and in spite of our language barrier, he found a niche in my heart. I pressed his parting gift, a dew-kissed hibiscus flower, in the pages of my Spanish-English dictionary, which still bears the stains of tears shed as we drove away.

It was people like Omar who moved the Latin American Action Team of the Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery in St. Louis, Missouri, to pursue a longterm relationship with the community of Plan Grande 2—people who, in spite of (or perhaps precisely because of) living in one of the most impoverished countries in the hemisphere, possess a wealth of warmth, graciousness, and hospitality all too rare in our culture of economic wealth. Within our partnership we are learning that a “handout” isn’t what being partners in mission is about, but rather that mission lies in the outstretched hand grasping the hand of a brother or sister whose wealth lies in what we lack. In this case, the outstretched hands are most often our own. Time and again, we receive far more than we give.

July 2005 marked the tenth partnership visit between our communities. During our time together we play, we work, we sing—we learn through our shared experiences more about what it means to be partners in mission and about walking together in a relationship of solidarity, spirituality, friendship, and accompaniment. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that propels us toward this mission: the Good News that Christ came to make us one; that we are members of the same family and, as such, we have gifts to share with one another and things to learn from each other.

Omar, now age 15, shared with us one of his many gifts—a spark. From that spark we have learned of and experienced a wealth previously hidden to us. It is Omar’s wealth, and the wealth of people like Omar in the community of Plan Grande 2, that has enriched and nourished us as we continue to build bridges of reconciliation, to span the gulf between members of the family of God, and to bring us together in the spirit of unity and the bond of peace.

Thanks be to God,
Kathie Sherman, chair
Latin American Action Team
Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery

Learn about Plan Grande Dos in a sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Barbara Willock. Get the Sermon in PDF Here. and tell your church about Plan Grande Dos with this bulletin insert Bulletin Insert in PDF >> 2006 Partnership Evaluation - Learn about what we've accomplished and what we hope for the future!	This is Omar, a friend of our missionaries in Nicaragua.

The Latin American Action Team has invited members of Plan Grande Dos to visit us again in 2007. Our hope is to bring at least one of the seventeen scholarship recipients to Giddings-Lovejoy.

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