The purpose of the World Missions Division at First (Scots) is to help carry out Jesus's great commission as it is recorded in Matthew 28:19-20: "Go therefore to all nations and make them my disciples; baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you." To this end, we support a number of global ministries not only with financial gifts, but also with direct personal involvement. Among these ministries are the following:
Presbyterian (U.S.A) Missionaries:
Rev. Dr. Edward Harry Horne and Deborah Horne In an area surrounded by tensions and violence, Edward Harry and Deborah Horne are serving a three-year term spreading the Good News in Mazatenango, Guatemala. A professor of New Testament at the Seminario Evangelico Presbiteriano de Guatemala, Harry teaches high school and college-level classes and develops curricula for the seminary and outlying centers. Debbie assists Harry by ministering from the home and teaching at the seminary preschool. The National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala serves approximately 80,000 people and consists of fourteen presbyteries organized by language: seven Indian presbyteries and seven Spanish speaking presbyteries. The Hornes have four children: Amy, Ed, Stephen, and Sarah.
Rev. Gordon Gartrell and Dorothy Gartrell, New Church Development, Brazil Reestablishing our historic connection with the church in Brazil, First (Scots) is providing support for the ministerial activities of the Gartrells in the city of Imperatriz. Gordon works with the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil as an evangelist and church planner. Dorothy is active in their church as a youth director and Sunday school teacher. She is also a resource to other teachers and assists in leadership development with their Presbyterian Women.The Gartrells are on furlough this year, living in Decatur, Georgia. When they return to Brazil in June of 2006, they will be assigned to the city of Recife.
Dr. Michael and Nancy Haninger, Good Shepherd Hospital (Ob-Gyn), Congo Continuing our long established connection with the Good Shepherd Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we are pleased to provide support of the Haningers as they begin their work there this summer. Mike is a physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, and will be working as a physician and teacher at Good Shepherd. Nancy is an R.N. specializing in perinatal care, and will be working as a nurse-midwife and in disease prevention programs.
Drs. Leslie and Cynthia Morgan, Christian Mission Hospital, Bangladesh Extending our direct outreach into Bangladesh for the first time, our church will begin providing support for Les and Cynthia Morgan and their work as staff physicians in the Christian Mission Hospital in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and with public health programs in the surrounding community. The Christian Mission Hospital provides a healing ministry of compassion reaching out to Muslims, Hindus, and Christians. The Morgans have been part of this program for eleven years.
Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship The Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship, a "validated mission support group" of the PCUSA, supports mission work that aims to spread the gospel among groups of unreached people throughout the world. Groups of "unreached people" are those among whom there is no indigenous community of Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize in their own locations. PFF supports mission projects that directly begin new church movements among people with no church of their own. The PFF was the focus of World Missions Sunday in 2001 when its director, Rev. Cody Watson, preached at First (Scots).
La Gonave Church at Nouvelle Cite, Haiti
Funds will go toward physical improvements and other items at the church at Nouvelle Cite. Funds will be used to purchase Bibles and hymnals and to cover such costs as teacher salaries and a communication system for the community. Nouvelle Cite is our partner church on La Gonave.
| Witnessing Ministries of Christ, India |
Witnessing Ministries of Christ seeks to reach out to the Untouchables (Dalits) in India through the Rural Presbyterian Church of India. Religion, education, economic development and health care have been denied the Untouchables, numbering over 135 million people, for at least 3,500 years. This project is an important effort to help boost the children of Untouchables to a level of education where they can compete and gain admission to higher education while remaining in touch with Untouchable and Christian roots. The membership of the Rural Presbyterian Church of India is increasing, so the number of children needing education continues to increase as well. Forty-eight hundred U.S. dollars will educate ten children for one year.
Pastoral Institute, PCEA, Kenya The Presbyterian Church of East Africa is one of the fastest growing Presbyterian churches in the world. Training of clergy continues to be a priority in Kenya, where forty new students began their instruction at the Pastoral Institute in 1999.
La Gonave School at Nouvelle Cite, Haiti
Funds will help make necessary repairs to the school building. Other needs are $3,000 to purchase new books and materials at the school. Seventy-five hundred dollars will cover the cost of the salaries of the director and the seven teachers at the school for one year. There were 149 students at the school in 1999.
Clinic, La Gonave Island, Haiti First (Scots) has established a partnership with the church at Nouvelle Cite and its pastor, Pere Valdema. This island of 100,000 people is extremely primitive and is in dire need of medical facilities as well as such necessities as electricity, potable water, sanitation systems, telecommunications, and roads. First (Scots) has been instrumental in supporting the construction of the new clinic, yet much remains to be done. The clinic will need equipment for x-ray and lab supplies and will also need funding for health worker salaries.
Nutrition Program, La Gonave Island, Haiti The nutrition program on the island is directed by Mrs. Carmel Valdema, a nurse, and the wife of Father Pere Valdema. The program teaches mothers how to care for their babies and supplies them with vitamins, vaccinations, worm treatments, and AKMiL, a gruel made from rice, peas, corn, and other grain. The cost of participation in the nutrition program by one child for a year is around $100. Members of First (Scots) have personally witnessed the benefits of this program to the health of the children.
St. Croix Hospital, Haiti Hospital St. Croix is the tertiary hospital for the Presbyterian/Episcopal medical mission work in Haiti, It serves 250,000 people and, therefore, is vital to all other medical mission projects in the country. Several members of First (Scots) have volunteered at this hospital over the years. Despite the need, the General Assembly of the PCUSA has had to cut its direct funding to the St Croix Hospital at a time when the hospital is charged with implementing an HIV program for women and children.
St. Vincent's Children's Clinic, Haiti St. Vincent's School for Crippled Children operates a medical clinic where physicians and other members of First (Scots) have volunteered over the years. The clinic, the largest in Haiti, treats about 400 patients. Patients are either deaf, blind, or wheelchair-bound, and most have been abandoned by their parents. They are desperate for food and basic supplies. They also need a new orthopedic surgery suite.
Good Shepherd’s Hospital, Congo The Good Shepherd’s Hospital (or Christian Medical Institute of Kasai (IMCK) ) is an academic medical center located outside of Kananga, the second largest city in the Republic of the Congo. The hospital has 160 beds and a staff of seven physicians including our missionary, Dr.Michael Haninger. In addition, IMCK runs a nursing school and a laboratory technological school, and trains medical residents. The Hospital provides the best medical care in that part of the country, if not the entire country. Over the years more than half a dozen members of First (Scots) have done volunteer service at this hospital. Missionaries serving there were forced to leave the country this past year due to the uprising in the Congo but were able to return in May. They have suffered tremendous losses as a result of this civil war.