GETTING IT DONE
These days, it is good to hear
of a missionary project being undertaken by a church affiliated group which seems to be working to the advantage of some needy people. Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church, Fort Defiance, Virginia - one of ten churches so committed, mind you, that has been engaged in such a project annually. Each of those ten churches joins with the others in sending out a "Baja Mission" work team.
. This year - this very month through July 29th - those two teams will be building sturdy, practical homes for Baja California natives to call their very own. The larger team of sixty-one members this year, will complete four, double houses according to native plans and actual needs. The smaller team will build two such homes and all of the members will be , in some way, associated with another project on-going which provides pure, safe, dependable water to the homes in the growing community of well-placed homes. Such teams installed that water system in 2004.
A total of three hundred people have gone to this Baja Mission point, "The Stone Tablet", the bi-weekly newsletter of the old church stemming from around 1740 when it, too, was something of a mission point to the settlers moving into the western wilderness from coastal cities and town as well as a steady flow of European immigrants. Several other projects have also been initated and accomplished in the needy Oaxacan Indian tribal area. The work teams are of all ages with an emphasis upon youth forming a group of members who have, I think, responded well to the work ethic involved and who have revived the old concept which caused individual works of church teams recognized and supported once again. The general missionary work, so much a part of the protestant church in the past has decreased largely due to loss of membership and, hence, lower gifts in well-know denominations and a general malaise in giving in living, physical commitment of members to those in need both near and afar.
I have a feeling that much of the loss of interest in church social work among many churches has gone hand-in-pockets with their inability to associate personally through a lack of physical participation.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 7-18-06 [c-402wds]
