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Global Missions
Our Mission: The Global Missions Committee sponsors and supports missionaries and mission projects throughout the world and fosters mission-mindedness in the Neelsville community of faith, in service to our Lord Jesus Christ. What we do:
Global Missions Supported by Neelsville Presbyterian Church:
William Addai –Center for African Leadership Studies, Ghana, Africa – William is building and developing a Christ-centered university complex to train Africa’s leaders. William's vision is to be a catalyst in reforming African leadership values to create a better Africa. William is the founder of the Center for African Leadership Studies (CALS), which will be an 88-acre "Leadership University" located in Kumasi, Ghana. William continues to teach leadership seminars and workshops sponsored by colleges and universities in Africa and around the world. He also preaches in local Ghanaian churches when he is at home in Kumasi, where he lives with his wife, Cecilia. When in the United States, William visits Neelsville to give a personal update on the work in Ghana. He invites us to visit and join in the work of building the university. A team of Neelsville youth and adults traveled on a mission trip to Ghana in the July 2005.
Advocates International - www.advocatesinternational.org Advocates International is an organization of lawyers linking over 120 countries together, to help believers transition from closed atheistic societies, to open, democratic societies where freedom of worship, respect for human rights and the rule of law are a reality. Advocate’s strategy is to encourage Christian lawyers, judges and national leaders to meet locally, nationally, regionally and globally in order to advance justice, religious freedom, biblical family values, conflict resolution and the integration of faith and profession. Advocates has achieved remarkable success during the past thirteen years, at all levels of legal practice, especially in developing countries and former communist nations. Their efforts have been as varied as helping street sellers obtain justice from predatory local officials, to helping to write law for a new national judiciary in a developing country.
Cook School for Christian Leadership, Tempe, AZ – www.cookleadershipschool.org Cook School for Christian Leadership, a multi-denominational Christian center for learning, is committed to providing Native Americans with the knowledge and skills that will allow them to excel in accomplishing the work of their churches and communities. The school maintains close connections with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and is a member of the Racial Ethnic Schools and Colleges consortium of that denomination. In its 95 years of existence, Cook has educated hundreds of students, representing some ninety tribes throughout the U.S. and Canada, many of whom have gone on to become successful ordained and lay pastors, tribal officials, and professionals in varying fields. The school exists to educate, enable, and empower Native-Americans to become effective, dynamic, and powerful leaders in the church and community, who will proclaim the love and justice of the creator God revealed in Jesus the Christ. Students attending the college find a caring, educationally nurturing environment respectful of Native-American culture and values. A mission team of Neelsville adults spent a week working on resident apartments, and we have supported this school for several years.
Fraser & Liz Bennett - Wycliffe, SIL www.wycliffe.org - Liz and Fraser are Bible translators currently working in Dallas, TX. Prior to their transfer to Texas, Fraser, who has a doctorate in Linguistics, spent most of his time teaching and working as the head of the Linguistics Department of Payap University, Thailand, where the student body is split evenly between Christians and Buddhists. In Texas, at the Wycliffe headquarters, Fraser manages the training, assignment, and supervision of Wycliffe linguistics missionaries sent to Southeast Asia. Liz, who has a master’s degree in Linguistics and taught for five years in China, is the daughter of Dave Henry of our congregation.
Kim & Steve Blewett – Wycliffe Bible Translators USA - www.wycliffe.org – Kim and Steve Blewett are linguists, developing a written language with the Rapoisi people of Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea, and working to translate the Bible into their language. They lived and worked among the Rapoisi people from 1987 to 2002. Steve and Kim now live in Waxhaw, NC, continuing their translation work via email, while caring for Kim’s father. They are currently advising and training two Rapoisi men who are assisting in this project. Kim and Steve make periodic trips to PNG to supervise translation, and to teach translation courses at a new SIL training center. They have helped to develop both children and adult reading skills programs. It is hoped that every Rapoisi speaker will be able to read the Rapoisi Bible fluently when it is finished.
Howard & Jo-Ann Brant – SIM USA – www.simusa.org Howard and Jo-Ann Brant are based in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. Howie is SIM’s International Champion for Mission, and Joann is the Acting Director for Sudan missionary teams. The Brants were formerly based at the Charlotte, North Carolina headquarters of SIM where Howie was the Deputy International Director of SIM with direct responsibility for all SIM work in East Africa and Asia. Their current major projects, as missionaries once again in the field, include managing Southern Sudan missionary teams as peace and stability is achieved in that war-ravaged country, and establishing creative access initiatives in volatile areas like Eritrea and Nepal. Since their re-posting in Kenya in late 2006, they have together and separately made many trips into war-torn areas to set up missionary activities, including secondary schools in areas where children have had no schools for over 20 years. The purpose of SIM is to glorify God by planting, strengthening and partnering with churches around the world. SIM is involved in evangelizing the unreached, ministering to human need, discipling believers into churches, and equipping churches to fulfill Christ's commission.
Sons of Thunder www.sons-of-thunder.org - This mission originated in Damascus, MD, and started as a 10,000 acre farm in Zambia, Africa. The mission project was birthed by the Damascus Wesleyan Church, and many from our area have been on working/mission trips to "the Farm". Beginning with a ministry to teach Africans to farm, it has grown to include a medical center, orphanage, school, Bible School for rural pastors, and continuing outreach and evangelism to the people of Africa. They have many successes to thank God for: the farm houses and trains 58 families; over 100 students attend the school in 1st to 3rd grades; and the children in the orphanage are thriving.
Shirley Killosky - Kids Alive International - www.kidsalive.org – Shirley’s mission field is in Hauna Village, Papua New Guinea where she has been since 1979. An educator by training, Shirley founded and directs the Hauna Schools which ministers to children and adults from preschool through high school. She spends much of her time teaching, writing teaching materials, developing primers, directing the children’s choir, training and supervising preschool teachers, and supervising and teaching Sunday School and Bible study. In addition to learning Sepik Iwam, their own language, the people are learning English, which is the official language of the country. Hauna has a church, school, and medical center. These people are reaching out to other villages in the upper Sepik River area.
Marilyn Laszlo - Laszlo Mission League - www.laszlomissionleague.org - In the spring of 1967, Marilyn ventured to Hauna Village, Papua New Guinea and spent 24 years creating a written language for the local people and then translating the Bible into that language so that the people might clearly understand God’s word. Since that time, she continued to work with Wycliffe Bible Translators on many different projects and has spoken to many groups and conferences around the country. She has now started the Laszlo Mission League where she can fulfill one of her greatest callings; "to challenge, motivate and encourage the church, and especially students of the church, to be involved in missions and helping people receive God’s word in their own language." Marilyn speaks at hundreds of meetings a year, including college campuses, conventions and conferences as well as at local churches. Learn more about Marilyn and her work on her web site; by visiting the Neelsville Library and reading her autobiography, Mission Possible; or by viewing one of her three videos: Mountain of Light, Come By Here, or Return to Hauna.
Medical Benevolence Foundation www.mbfoundation.org – PCUSA’s Medical Mission provides medical and other services in developing countries worldwide, as well as sending funds and equipment to support over 100 hospitals and clinics in 36 emerging countries. Presbyterian Hunger Fund www.pcusa.org/hunger - The Presbyterian Hunger Program, a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (USA), works to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes, responding with compassion and justice to poor and hungry people in local communities in the United States and internationally. Presbyterian Seminary Student – Our Missions Committee regularly supports a PCUSA seminary student who feels called to enter the mission field after graduation. We have thus far contributed to the education expenses of two seminary students who are now pastors. When a student graduates, we take applications from new applicants for this scholarship. Gary & Pat Sheppard - SIM www.simusa.org - Gary and Pat relocated in 2001 to Charlotte, NC to begin working at SIM USA headquarters. Gary is currently involved in the Services Department and is the Volunteer Coordinator. Pat works in the Candidate Department. She also coaches new appointee couples in the process of developing their support teams. In October 2004, the Sheppards began a new ministry of representing SIM to the Finishers Project. The Finishers Project is an organization that seeks to match people who want to begin a second career with the needs of mission boards. Prior to their return stateside, Gary and Pat had spent fifteen years in Niger and Nigeria, West Africa, where Gary was a pilot responsible for transporting missionaries and Pat practiced nursing in a local hospital. |
