Zimbabwe is a place of struggle and strength, of potential and problems. It is a place of warm hospitable people who in the midst of difficulties offer a smile and a helping hand to visitors. The following are excerpts from a prayer written by Herb Perry, a longtime friend of Zimbabwe: Eternal God, we offer heartfelt prayers for the people of Zimbabwe, both so richly endowed with your gracious blessings – a land that we know is capable of abundant production and a people blessed with a beautiful heritage of fortitude and joy. We thank you for the strength and resourcefulness of Zimbabwe’s people. We especially ask that you be with mission agencies as they struggle to continue providing essential humanitarian service. While the full potential of this land and its people is yet to be realized, may the vision of its fulfillment be energized by the life and labor of your faithful servants. Amen.

Story: MISSION Moment Church Camp: Brought to you by Our Church’s Wider Mission Lives can be shaped or changed at church camp. Ask the campers and you’ll hear: “I really enjoyed who I was at camp. I was able to be myself.” “We had a special sense of community where everyone could feel loved and included.” “Camp gave me a safe place to talk about my beliefs and questions, surrounded by others doing the same thing.” “Great friendships and great memories.” “A place to grow in trusting God and appreciate God’s creation.” “Music, music, music. Discovering my gifts.” And a camp counselor says, “A week at church camp can have as much impact as a year of Sunday school. A lot of kids will remember camp as one of the most significant faith events in their lives. I do.” Conference camp trustees work creatively to promote camp usage and set registration fees to cover costs–directors and staff, training volunteers, processing registrations, food, equipment, program supplies, insurance, facilities upkeep, and remodeling and additions. Our Church’s Wider Mission may supplement fees, paying staff salaries, promoting camp, providing camp scholarships, or balancing the camp budget when needed.

The youth of First Congregational Church spent several hours on a cold winter night handing out the items that the congregation had generously donated to their New York City mission, “Midnight Run.” It is difficult to describe the appreciation that the homeless people feel for receiving the warm clothing and hot food. It is especially nice because some of the items still had tags in them and the folks receiving them felt extra special. Usually when the youth would go on the midnight run they would encounter perhaps 100 folks, but last winter over 200 meals were made, distributed and more could have been used. One of the biggest stops is at Penn Station in NYC. We can all be proud of these youth and others who serve those whom God so dearly loves.

Humanitarian groups such as United Church of Christ mission partner Church World Service are the first to acknowledge that, six months after the devastating Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake, the road to recovery will be long and difficult.

(Continued from July 15, 2010) This is only one part of the real story of the Oglala Lakota people who call Pine Ridge home. The people themselves are a warm, generous, giving and welcoming people. Even after all that they have experienced as a cultural tribe, the Lakota not only survive but they are building an even stronger community. To help build the community the youth from Eden helped to make the houses more secure, more energy efficient and safer. They even helped to build new houses.

A 12-member task force comprising a diverse group of people, staffed by the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries, recently convened at Franklinton Center (N.C.) to develop an Economic Justice Church Covenant Program.

In April of 2010 the Senior High youth and leaders from Eden United Church of Christ, Edwardsville, IL, worked with the Oglala Lakota People on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. They worked with the organization Re-Member.org. Through work projects and cultural immersion, they developed a growing circle of advocates standing in solidarity with the Lakota people on Pine Ridge. There is much poverty on Pine Ridge. The poverty there can be described in no other terms than “third world.” It is common to find homes terribly overcrowded, as those with homes take in anyone in need of a roof over their head. Many of the houses are without electricity, running water or ever sewers. (Continued July 16, 2010)

Sometimes it is easier to recognize and address the needs of those removed from us rather than admit our own neighbors are in dire need. Martha Mensendiek who serves at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan experienced this in her capacity as advisor to the Habitat for Humanity group on campus. Student volunteers would go abroad to countries like the Philippines and Thailand to build homes for the homeless in those countries. But until recently, the homelessness issue in Kyoto was largely ignored. Recently, she witnessed a change in attitude as a subgroup of students now participate in a project to provide support for those without homes in Kyoto. The volunteers connect those who are homeless with government social agencies but, perhaps more importantly, they themselves connect with the people they are trying to help – sharing a cup of tea, taking time to talk and to show they care.

In July 2008, seven members of Church of the Beatitudes UCC in Phoenix and members of the rural community of Chacraseca, Nicaragua, worked side by side and, in the process, learned much from each other. Made possible through Global Ministries missionary partner JustHope, church and community members built a home, established a small dental office in the local clinic, and equipped a youth meeting space with sports equipment. Church members heard life stories, played with children, and shared photos of their own families. They ate new foods they’d never seen before, and offered granola bars on the work site, candy at the fiesta, and shared peanut butter – a cherished treat – with community leaders at the end of the week. Participants from Church of the Beatitudes not only helped bring needed services to Chacraseca, they were transformed by the extravagant hospitality and steadfast hope of the town’s people.

Project MAESTRA began in August 2006 to help improve the quality of life in the poorest communities of Paraguay through medical care and health education. Started by Global Ministries partner Friendship Mission, Project MAESTRA offers health services through a mobile clinic that serves communities where no other health care is available. According to project records, the most commonly addressed health issues are diabetes and hypertension. A recent study found that 79 percent of those treated are poor and 47 percent live in extreme poverty. Since its inception, workers have completed more than 3,000 consultations in seven communities. In addition, Friendship Mission and Paraguay’s government have an agreement in which currently unstaffed local clinics are used as treatment centers. The government provides medicines and Project MAESTRA covers the cost of fuel, salaries and other expenses. The interdisciplinary teams of Project MAESTRA serve weekly in eight treatment centers.

The Bigger Picture “No island is a man,” said Ernest Campbell, former pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, playing off John Donne’s familiar verse. No congregation is the church. We are part of a much bigger picture—God’s worldwide mission, of which we are a part in the United Church of Christ. Our motto comes from Jesus’ prayer, “that they may all be one” (John 17:21)—brought back into relationship across all that divides us, whether point of view, class, creed, color, or sexual preference. As former UCC General Minister and President, John Thomas, reminds us, our unity is not simply “happy conviviality.” It’s shared focus on a Christ who “for the sake of the joy before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Following Christ is demanding. It often involves conflict. But we’re not in this alone. We’re called to see through differences with one another the support we need to give and receive to discover the joy meant to be ours, too. When we feel distant from God it’s often because we’re not close to one another. When our congregation is not close to the wider church, we are not the church we’re meant to be. Giving to Our Church’s Wider Mission (OCWM) supports the work of the wider church—the regional, national, and international expressions of the United Church of Christ. It also puts your congregation right in the middle of “the bigger picture” that is the church, our part of God’s mission.

Secret Sisters is an activity of the women of First Church in Manchester, NH. One woman is paired with another for the purposes of extending greetings, pleasantries, sending cards, surprises, or whatever else the participants choose to do in order to brighten up the day or enrich the other woman’s week or month. The women who receive the pleasantries do not know from whom they come . . . thus, Secret Sister. The activity usually begins in February when everyone is notified of the name of their Secret Sister and this will run for one full year at which time the name of the Secret Sister is revealed. Such hospitality learned at “home” often times teachers us to hospitable to the strangers among us as well.

People of faith know that “neighbors” don’t have to live next door – they can be thousands of miles away in actual distance but still close to our heart. Members of Plymouth Congregational Church, Lawrence, KS know this feeling well in their relationship with the Family Village Farm (FVF) in Vellore, India. FVF is a Child Sponsorship ministry partner with Global Ministries. Several Plymouth church members have sponsored children from the FVF orphanage including their pastor Reverence Peter Luckey. The congregation raised $2,250 that will be split between the orphanage and the Ashabhaven Respite Center in Kottayam, Kerala, India – a home for women with intellectual disabilities. The Respite Center is run by the Women’s Fellowship of the Madhya Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India. Both ministries are close to the heart of Plymouth members – caring neighbors thousands of miles away.

(Continued from July 7, 2010) In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina demolished six of the seven buildings at the Mission. Today, with the help of United Church of Christ donations and grants, the main office and supply building was gutted and remodeled, a new dormitory for work campers and a Center for Community Ministry were built;. Because of past and current United Church of Christ investment in Back Bay Mission’s work, over $15 million in vital services are delivered annually to South Mississippians in such diverse areas as education, legal aid, health care, feeding programs, early childhood development, family counseling, housing, and domestic violence. Like many United Church of Christ congregations, St. John’s in Chambersburg, PA participates in the work camps at Back Bay Mission. Keep the folks form St. John’s in your prayers as they are in Biloxi this week from June 19 – June 27, 2010.

John E. Morse, who served as assistant to the executive vice president of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries in the late 1960s, died April 13 at his home in Vancouver, Wash. He was 86.

Back Bay Mission was founded in 1922 as an outreach effort of the First Evangelical Church of Biloxi (later the United Church of Christ). Members responded with compassion and service to the needs of the poor “fisher folk” living in deplorable conditions along the Back Bay of Biloxi, Mississippi. Since then, Back Bay Mission has continually grown its services and ministries, always keeping the impoverished and marginalized at the center of its concerns. Although there are no longer any United Church of Christ congregations in Biloxi or the state of Mississippi by the early 1970’s Back Bay Mission remained to offer a witness of the United Church of Christ. Its commitment is to be faithfully responsive to the emerging and critical needs of God’s people, ever seeking a day of greater justice and peace. (Continued on July 8, 2010)

(Continued from July 5, 2010) Rev. Dunkerson stated, “I went to the Middle East to see what is happening there and how our mission dollars are being used there. But, I encountered unexpected prophets of God.” There are many theories and truths about what caused the trouble in the Middle East – the English and the French created a mess after World War I, the Germans created a horror in World War II, the Arabs went to war with Israel, Israel is creating chaos by their treatment of Palestinians. All statements that may bear some truth, Rev. Dunkerson says, but all lead us to this same place where “the stones cry out with stories of remembered blood shed from long ago and irrational decisions being made today in political parlors right here at home. We stir an ant nest and wonder at the trouble we cause.” One thing is clear for Rev. Dunkerson. “The work we do as people of peace, as people who proclaim kinship with all human beings is the most important work on earth. May our voices not be silent and may our hearts not be proud. We have much to do to bring about the Reign of God.”

Nebraska Conference Minister, the Rev. Roddy Dunkerson, visited the Middle East as part of a delegation of UCC Conference Ministers seeking to understand the issues facing the people in that part of the world. He returned home with the image of an Iraqi boy suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the Queen Noor Clinic in Amman, Jordan. “I don’t know his name, but his eyes will be with me the rest of my life,” Dunkerson said. “I know they are eyes that no eight-year-old should display. His eyes never leave the floor. They seem to look into the core of the earth.” Rev. Dunkerson is haunted by a passage from the Bible that reminds him of his experience with the Iraqi boy: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind?” Rev. Dunkerson went with the Global Ministries-organized fact-finding mission and found much more. (continued July 6, 2010)

MISSION Moment Lifting Every Child "Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty..." James Weldon Johnson’s hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing" describes a vision of unity we can apply to American public education. Our country might be very different if we imagined a system of public schools where all children's voices would be lifted together. Imagine! Jonathan Kozol, a noted author on education, contrasts the kind of education for children of privilege with schooling for poor children, and especially children of color in big cities. He interviewed a girl at Fremont High School in California. "Why is it,” she asked, “that students who do not need what we need get so much more? And we who need it so much more get so much less?" Jan Resseger serves the United Church of Christ in the national ministries as the Minister for Public Education and Witness. She calls the church to advocate for equal education in public schools. Pointing to the opportunity to rectify the injustices in our schools, she simply states, “The choice is ours. Will we imagine a future where all children in the United States can lift their voices to sing together?” Global mission moment July, 2010 Tenacious Hope "I will not let you go until you bless me." (Gen. 32:26) Every Wednesday at noon, Mrs. E is there. She sits in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Korea with her friends to ask the Japanese government to apologize for its past treatment of Korean women as sex slaves during the Asia Pacific War. Mrs. E is elderly, as are her friends. Many of the so-called "comfort women" have passed away. Mrs. E hopes that justice will be done before she meets her grave. She is surrounded by a crowd of civilians who support her struggle. Over the loud speaker a statement is read, a song is sung, a prayer is given. The window blinds of the Japanese embassy are shut. Stone faced guards and secret police make sure there is no outright confrontation. This peaceful sit-in has continued for seventeen years. In December 2009, religious leaders from around the world, gathered for the Second Conference on Article Nine and Peace in Asia. There were various Buddhist, Christian and Muslim denominations represented. There was great meaning when we gathered in Seoul, because we were all made aware of the realities of the Cold War which still divide the Korean peninsula. East Asia has not been able to move beyond the dualisms of the Cold War era. What we witnessed was a wall; a remnant from the Cold War. The wall is invisible, but no less as real as the wall being built in Israel. Part of our program was to join the sit-in, and pray alongside these women who were victimized by war. We were all moved by the experience. I was reminded of the story of Jacob who wrestled all night with the angel of God. Jacob refused to let the angel go until he received a blessing. Mrs. E is one of those Jacobs of our time. I see in her a faith that refuses to let go, trusting that God is a God of love and blessing for all. Let us pray for the tenacity of Mrs. E and others that their belief in the possibility of justice becomes our call for the enactment of justice. Jeffrey Mensendiek serves as a Global Ministries missionary with the Council on Cooperative Mission, and as director of the Gakusei (Student) Center in Sendai Japan.

Grace Immanuel is a small inner-city church on the near east side of downtown Louisville, KY. Our church became involved with refugee ministries in 1999, when the crisis in Kosovo displaced many Albanian Muslims. We partnered with Salem UCC (Louisville) that year to welcome Fexhrije Gashi and her two daughters Florentina (5) and Venera (3). Since that first experience, the congregation has sponsored four “lost boys” from Sudan, a family from Liberia, Meskhetian Turks from Russia, ethnic Karen from Myanmar, and Sunni Muslims from Iraq. Twenty-three people have thus found a new home in Louisville through the church’s ministry, twelve of them children and teens. We find refugee sponsorship to be a peace-making activity. It has not escaped our notice that we have sponsored Muslims fleeing from Christians, as well as Christians fleeing from Muslims. We have learned that tyranny wears many masks and that any time people are made to flee it is an opportunity to recognize Christ’s presence in the oppressed.