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National/Global Opportunities Below are descriptions of the national and global efforts supported by BPC's Mission Ministry. Click on the program name below to learn more. For more information on volunteering nationally and globally, please contact Nancy Munn Smith, Coordinator for Mission, at 310/826-5656 ext. 3128 or nsmith@bpcusa.org.
Three times each year, BPC members travel to Mexico to build homes for families living in the poblaciones of Tijuana. These three work trips are a joint effort of BPC and AMOR Ministries, a nonprofit, nondenominational organization, and take place as follows:
No special construction skills are needed, and the rewards are profound. Over the course of three to five days, participants build a simple home from the concrete slab foundation on up. As the mother of a junior high participant said, "How often do you get the opportunity as a teenager - or as an adult, for that matter - to make such a substantial, tangible difference in another family's life?" Participants travel to Mexico in church vans, and sleep in tents and sleeping bags at an established campsite. Since the first BPC/AMOR-affiliated trip to Mexico, nearly 200 homes have been built by hundreds of BPC members and their friends. Participants build more than houses - they build relationships with families in Tijuana through working and worshiping together, and getting to know one another around the campfire. Read about the life-changing experience of building homes in Mexico through the eyes of one of our youth or just check out photos from a recent Mexico Work Trip. BPC's Mission Ministry is exploring a new relationship with BorderLinks, a Presbyterian ministry. With its multinational staff and bi-national headquarters on either side of the border - one in Tucson (U.S.A.) and the other in Nogales (Mexico) - BorderLinks offers unique opportunities to learn about economic and social issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. It seeks:
An article by one of its cofounders, Rick Ufford-Chase, describes some of the issues BorderLinks addresses. To read the article, "Glimpsing the Future," click here. To learn more about BorderLinks, click here. Rick Ufford-Chase is also currently Moderator of the 216th General Assembly of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Covenant Relationship with Bluefields, Nicaragua BPC formalized a covenant relationship with the Pastoral Committee of Bluefields, Nicaragua in 1998. It continues to deepen this covenant, based on mutuality, respect, and shared decision-making with our Christian brothers and sisters in Nicaragua. A covenant relationship is mission ministry that focuses on building personal connections by sharing faith, dreams and struggles, and by being a presence in each other's lives. To participate in this international commitment is to transcend relationships based on economic disparities and to struggle together with ways to honor Christ and each other through walking into tough issues. There are many ways to be involved with our Nicaraguan partners. When a delegation visits BPC, you can host a guest in your home, share a meal with the group, assist with interpretation as needed, and accompany guests to places of interest in the community. Or you can be part of a BPC delegation to Bluefields. Embangweni Hospital (Malawi, Africa) BPC has a long-term relationship with the Presbyterian Church of Central Africa's Embangweni Hospital. The relationship with the hospital, located in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in Africa, was initiated in 1990 through the Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF). The MBF, an organization with formal recognition by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is dedicated to carrying on the "preaching…teaching… healing ministry of Jesus Christ," through the support of mission hospitals and clinics in developing countries. Support takes the form of educational assistance, volunteer recruitment, and contributions of medical equipment, supplies and funds. In past years, BPC has selected Embanagweni Hospital for its Christmas Joy Offering and funded the building of a children's wing. We also continue to feature the hospital in our annual Christmas Angel Store catalogue, through which people can make donations for items such as polio inoculations and prenatal care. Partnership with Presbyterian Church Bastos in Cameroon, Africa BPC's Mission Ministry is exploring a potential partnership with Presbyterian Church Bastos (PC Bastos) in Cameroon, Africa - a large, well-educated, English-speaking, urban congregation, not unlike BPC in many ways. Through mutual sharing of faith and mission, we will have the opportunity for a spiritually transforming relationship. From September 15 to 27, 2005, a group from BPC made the first, long-awaited trip to PC Bastos in Yaounde, Cameroon. You can read more about the trip in the September issue of Sharing. And you can share in the experience by reading letters and viewing photos sent back to BPC by members of the delegation. September
21 Letter For more about
the potential partnership with PC Bastos, see these past issues
of Sharing: February
2005 (page 11); March
2005 (page 6); and April
2005 (page 6). Partnerships with Presbyterian Church (USA) Through our affiliation with our national denomination, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), BPC contributes to funding and carrying out mission work on a far-ranging scale, nationally and globally. Individuals seeking missionary service can be linked through PCUSA partnerships for travel study seminars, short term service (2 weeks to one year), long-term service (1 to 3 years), and disaster relief work teams (2 weeks and longer). Extensive opportunities are listed on the PCUSA Website at www.pcusa.org. For more information on national and global opportunities, contact Nancy Munn Smith, Coordinator for Mission, at 310/826-5656 ext. 3128 or nsmith@bpcusa.org; or visit the PCUSA Website at www.pcusa.org. If you are interested specifically in PCUSA's Disaster Assistance information, you can go directly to their site's Disaster Assistance page at www.pcusa.org/pda/index.html.
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 Copyright 2001, Brentwood Presbyterian Church 12000 San Vicente Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90049 Phone: 310-826-5656 Fax: 310-826-5272 Email: info@bpcusa.org |