Dear Steering Committee Members and Friends of Joining Hearts & Hands,

Update on Mission Personnel Activity

As we reported to you last week, Carol Dolezal-Ng, a PC(USA) mission worker funded through the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands, requested your prayers for the people, the church, and the PC(USA)’s partner organizations in Lebanon in the light of the escalating violence there.  Dolezal-Ng, a development associate for interpretation and support with the Near East School of Theology (NEST) in Beirut, Lebanon, is U.S. based, working from her home in Berkeley, Calif.  On May 12, she shared a letter of thanks from NEST's president, Dr. Mary Mikhael.  To read Dr. Mikhael’s letter, visit the Joining Hearts & Hands Website [http://www.pcusa.org/joiningheartsandhands/index.htm]

Update on New Church Development Activity

As reported by the Presbyterian News Service on March 10, Presbyterians in Riverside Presbytery [http://www.riversidepresbytery.org/] are getting behind the presbytery’s new church development in French Valley, CA. The NCD “launched” worship on March 2.

The InterACT Church [http://www.interactchurch.org/] is the most recent new church development to be planted under the auspices of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH), with which Riverside Presbytery partnered last fall in a $500,000 campaign.  The presbytery, which is headquartered in San Bernardino, Ca., has designated $400,000 of its campaign goal to be used for new church development within the bounds of the presbytery, and $100,000 in support of a PC(USA) mission co-worker. 

Teams from the presbytery’s churches are assisting the InterACT Church in door-to-door canvassing, placing welcome packets on doorknobs in the community and serving on a number of “core teams” set up to provide critical services such as hospitality, nursery care and “kid’s club” for elementary-aged children as the new congregation gets up and running.

The Rev. Rog Beukelman is the “planting pastor” of Riverside’s newest congregation.  According to the church’s Website, Rog and his wife, Glenda, have already planted a Southern California church – that birthed a daughter church – while raising their family.  Because the Beukelmans missed being in the “thick of things” as local church leaders, they were led to birth another church.  “With us, our kids are committed to missional churches reaching today’s emerging generations,” say the Beukelmans.  “We ‘get it’ and love it!”

Yours in Ministry,

Emily