October 30, 2007

Dear Friends,

I have been traveling in the United States during my interpretation assignment (August – November). I am one of 48 PC(USA) missionaries  who have been trained, commissioned, and sent to speak in 144 Presbyteries throughout the country from October 5 to November 2. It’s called “Mission Challenge ’07,” and it’s a campaign to reconnect Presbyterian churches to Presbyterian mission workers. When I speak I tell a story, and it occurs to me that you may not have heard it.

In 1921 a young couple heard God’s call to become missionaries. Sent by the United Presbyterian Church, they arrived in Ethiopia with a baby girl, born in Egypt on the way. They joined two other mission families in a village called Dembi Dollo. Ras Taferi, the king of Ethiopia who would later be crowned Emperor Haile Selassie, invited these missionaries to establish a hospital because his people were dying from a plague. A school was also part of the invitation.

Soon after arriving, the missionary started a Bible study in his home. He had seen a blind beggar in the village, led around by a small boy, both dressed in rags and walking about barefoot. The missionary invited the man to the Bible study. When the day came, he found the man sitting outside his door. “Please, come in” he pleaded. Entering the foreigner’s home, the blind beggar sat on the floor. “No, no, please sit in a chair. I invited you here.”

Gidada Bible School women students with Dorothy Hanson, January, 2007.

Many years later, this blind man dictated his autobiography and he said, “That day I thought, if there is a god who would send this white man around the world to my village, invite me not only to come inside but to sit in a chair in his home, I want to know more about this god.” And he did learn more: Gidada became the first evangelist, the first ordained pastor, and the first missionary spreading the gospel from the western portion of Ethiopia to the east. Today the Gidada Bible School has 50 students and a new women’s dormitory. I attended the ordination of 26 men there on July 1 this year. This church, now known as the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) now has 4.6 million members.

Do you see what God can do with one? That new missionary was my father, Fred Russell. Sent by Trinity United Presbyterian Church, a young church in Santa Ana, California, who knew they would grow if they supported a missionary family, Fred and Daisy Russell were their very first missionaries.

Gidada Bible School students with Bishotu and Lamesa, HIV and AIDS staff of Western Wollega Bethel Synod who teach a workshop called “HIV and the role of the Church.”

The story applies to me as I work in with the EECMY in HIV prevention and ask the question, “Who is marginalized today?” Those who are HIV positive. Just as my father invited a marginalized man into his home and became friends with him, I am privileged to work with those who are HIV positive, to become friends with them, and to partner in meaningful activities as we fight the AIDS pandemic together. One God, one church, one man or woman—our benevolent God uses each one to the glory of His kingdom. Thank you, good  Presbyterians. Your giving sustained this mission work over the years.

Every church in the denomination received letters explaining Mission Challenge ’07, a DVD, and a bundle of bulletin inserts. Church leadership has taken a risk to launch such a campaign, which besides the effort to connect missionaries to churches is also an attempt to raise funds, but I think the risk is worth it. We have identified 40 high-priority requests from our partner churches for new mission workers. These are going unfilled until more funds can be raised. In addition, missionaries like myself (there are 231 of us) are awaiting decisions about our next term because we are not fully funded. To complete this term, I am returning to my home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on November 21.

When I visited and spoke in churches, homes, and schools, I did not ask directly for support. But over these months of speaking, God has laid it on my heart to ask for what I need. My account number is E200355. If you’d like to support me, send a check payable to PC(USA) to:

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Individual Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA  15264-3700

For churches that wish to support me through Directed Mission Support, my account number is D506417. Send your check to your normal receiving site or to:

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Church Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643678
Pittsburgh, PA  15264-3678

Your donation will help. Thank you in advance for your generosity and your prayers.
 
Prayerfully,

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 329