Outreach Stories

by Jeff Ritchie

Almost 2,000 years ago the Apostle Peter wrote a letter to people whom he called “the exiles of the Dispersion” living in what is now Turkey. Who were these “exiles of the Dispersion?” They were Jews living outside their homeland dispersed among the non-Jewish majority population, and so were called by a short-hand word, “the Diaspora.” These Jews had come to believe in Jesus as their Messiah, and they in turn shared their new faith with Gentiles. The churches to whom Peter wrote were born out of mission among the Jewish Diaspora.

Today the phenomenon of Diaspora Mission is once again a major part of God’s mission to build up his kingdom. 

by Jeff Ritchie

November 30 is the Feast Day of St. Andrew, one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus. Andrew has always been my favorite among Jesus’ first disciples, and this blog is dedicated to St. Andrew.

Andrew was the first evangelist of the Christian faith, for he brought his brother Simon Peter to Jesus (John 1:41). As I have been involved, directly or indirectly, in sharing the Good News of Jesus most of my adult life, Andrew has been a model disciple for me.

Andrew was not one of the three disciples closest to Jesus – Peter, James and John. He played a background role as his more famous brother became the spokesperson of the early church. Nevertheless, a look back at references to Andrew in the Gospel accounts reveals that he made key contributions to the story that became the Good News, the Gospel.

by Nancy Fox

We know the story of Martin Luther, and this 500th anniversary of the posting of his ninety-five theses in Wittenberg has refreshed our memories.  To some degree, many of us also know the story of John Calvin, the spiritual father of our Reformed/Presbyterian branch of the movement, and of the church he led in Geneva. But what about the Reformed churches in Syria and Lebanon? On this Reformation Day, let me tell you some of their stories and how all of these connect…

by Juan Sarmiento

The dynamism of the historical movement within Western Christianity known as the Reformation has had much to do with its emphasis on translation and communication efforts. Thoughtfully appreciating different cultures and diligently working to convey God’s message in ways that relate to a broader audience has been at the core of our Reformed identity since its early days.  

Known as the “Ninety-Five Theses,” Martin Luther used Latin for the publication of his “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences” in October 1517. As other documents intended to provoke the exchange of opinions among university students, it was reasonable to use the language of the church, academic and administrative elite. With help from the new advances of the printing press, the polemical document was soon printed and distributed in many surrounding towns. It was three months later when, translated into German, it “became viral” throughout Germany. On March 1518, he published another piece entitled “Sermon on Indulgences and Grace.” 

by Marilyn Borst

I have just returned from my 10th trip to Iraq. I first encountered our Presbyterian family there on a trip in 1998. My admiration for their faith and faithfulness under difficult circumstances multiplies with each visit. Middle Easterners have “hospitality” in their DNA and food is one of the ways in which this is extended – with frequency and in abundance! In an attempt to offset the generous hospitality we had been receiving from the church in Baghdad, I had taken to walking laps in the church courtyard/parking lot, just down the stairs from the guest apartments where we have been staying. 30 minutes goes slowly when you are walking confined laps so I passed the time singing hymns (in my head, because everyone else is asleep) and praying for that place and for its work and witness. Each lap took me past the "guard house" outside the gates where, around the clock, in eight hour shifts, Iraqi soldiers protect this Holy Ground – and I offer a prayer of thanks for them.

by Rob Weingartner

Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God (in Matthew, the Kingdom of Heaven) more than any other topic or theme. He speaks of how the Kingdom is at hand, among us. We are to seek first the Kingdom of God and to pray that his Kingdom will come. We are to proclaim the Kingdom and enter into the Kingdom.

Looking far ahead, Jesus tells us that people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.

To what shall we compare this Kingdom, this grace-filled realm in which God is recognized as having full claim on us? Jesus unpacks the meaning of the Kingdom in parable after parable.

We announce… We behold… We exhibit… But we do not “build” the Kingdom, despite how popular that phrase has become in church circles.

by Jeff Ritchie

My wife and I live in Jacksonville, Florida. Along with thousands of other Floridians, we evacuated as Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida a few weeks ago. Returning after the hurricane, we found that our home was spared; electricity was back on, and the neighbors who had not evacuated had already cleaned the debris from all the yards of the houses on our street. We were the fortunate ones. Others in Jacksonville and other parts of Florida were not so fortunate. Neither were far too many people in Texas and in several Caribbean countries who will be spending years getting their lives back in order.  

Last week on The Outreach Foundation’s Facebook page we posted this prayer request regarding hurricanes Harvey and Irma, “Please join us in praying that relief efforts will restore lives and that we will ultimately see the good from these events.” I started thinking about what “the good from these events” might look like. And the image of a magnifying glass came to me.

In disasters we experience great loss – the destruction of property, the loss of irreplaceable parts of our past, and we mourn even as we wonder about the future. At the same time, however, we find surprising, unexpected goodness, love and support that the disaster, or rather, the response to the disaster, magnifies. 

by Marilyn Borst

By God’s grace, I am about to return to Iraq for the 10th time since 1998. In preparation, I have been rereading my journals and share this memory from 2002 when I was making a third visit to the Presbyterian Church in Basrah. I had just left the “safety” and camaraderie of the group with whom I had been in Baghdad and had ventured south on my own – a bit nervously, I can now admit. This required a flight through a “no fly zone” where my own country’s military had permission to shoot down unauthorized planes – a fact that I was oblivious of until I had settled into my seat and was reminded of it by the man sitting next to me! [Cue: fervent prayer….]

...On previous visits, while a part of larger delegations, I had always stayed in a hotel in town, but I was now solo, and everyone was eager for me to accept the hospitality of the church’s guest room. Not many visitors had been hosted, of late, in the shabby-but-adequate guest quarters which the church kept in its run-down education wing.

by Juan Sarmiento

Life will never be the same for Maricela Muñiz. She will soon graduate from the Matanzas Evangelical Theology Seminary (SET, for its initials in Spanish) in Matanzas, Cuba, where God has transformed and called her to serve Him in her native country of Cuba.  

Her first touch with the seminary was in grade school. Maricela was brought up in two locally popular religious traditions, Santeria and Spiritism. However, at the age of 12, she attended Sunday School through a program sponsored by SET in her small rural village. It was there that she first came to the realization of God’s grace in her life through Jesus Christ. “I realized that God could help me with my difficulties and give me hope,” she shared. As she was nurtured and grew in her faith, she began to feel God’s call to ministry. 

Upon completing high school, she enrolled in the bachelor of theology program at SET. “My understanding of our participation in God’s mission has grown tremendously during the three years that I have been here,” says Maricela. In her quiet but strong way, she says she feels equipped to make a difference and is confident in her ministry.

by Jeff Ritchie

This month the United States has experienced violence during a white supremacy rally in Charlottesville that exposed once again racist and hate-filled ideologies among us. At the same time, we have seen a heightened tension with North Korea triggered by that country’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon that could threaten our country and North Korea’s near neighbors. The rhetoric from Pyongyang and Washington has escalated to the point that some fear we are on the verge of war. 

These two flash points are by no means the only places where evil abounds in the world, but they raise the level of urgency to find answers to the question, “What can followers of Jesus Christ do individually, collectively as the body of Christ, and with other people of good will who are concerned to respond to evils such as these?”