Prayers
Fern Winter (mother of Joyce Bardeen), mother-in-law of Bob Bardeen (Westfield Church), died on February 1.
An Anniversary to Celebrate This Sunday
The first foreign missions society in the United States was formed in 1810 by Presbyterians and Congregationalists. 200 years ago this Sunday (February 5) this American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission ordained its first missionaries. Two weeks later (February 19) they sailed for Burma.
In those days we thought of missionaries as going from the “west to the rest”. Today missionaries go from “everywhere to everywhere”. The second largest missionary-sending country today (after the US) is Korea with over 20,000. Most of our churches in Shenango Presbytery are involved in supporting missionaries in the Nile Valley (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia). A total of $42,588.83 was given in 2011.
While you are remembering the events of 200 years ago, please continue to pray for the Sudan. Yesterday the government of Sudan bombed Heiban Bible School. This is not the one supported by our churches (Kumo Bible School), but it is in the same area of the Nuba Mountains. Missionary work, in the Sudan and even in our backyard, can still be dangerous.
The Presbytery of Shenango 