Partnership With Church in Sri Lanka

WEST PARISH OF BARNSTABLE UCC

WEST BARNSTABLE, MA

How Mission Renewed Our Congregation

The mission – a partnership with a village church in Sri Lanka, which involved the church school, a Women’s group, the Board of Outreach, and eventually a trip by the pastor and his spouse.

How it came about: in 1999 a former missionary to the Church of South India in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, attended worship at our church when he was here in the States for a meeting related to a school in Jaffna that was founded by American missionaries almost 200 years ago. In out time of sharing prayer concerns, he told us of the decades-long civil war that raged in Jaffna, the poverty this caused, the abduction of children by the rival military forces, the problems faced by women who out-numbered men in the villages by a margin of 9-1. By the time he had finished speaking we all knew without a doubt that the Spirit was calling us to get involved, somehow.

Next steps: Informed that the bishop of the Jaffna diocese was going to be coming to the area, we invited him to worship with us, and to preach; when he did, we asked him for thoughts on how we might help. He responded by connecting us with the pastor-in-training at a village church in Jaffna. Much correspondence followed, together with funding through our Board of Outreach. Other initiatives soon followed:

Children of the Church School started a Pennies for Sri Lanka campaign, which led to the funding for three girls to attend school in the area (room, board, clothes, etc.)

Women in the Spirit, a women’s fellowship and spirituality group, hand-crafted a tapestry to send to the women of the congregation.

The Board of Outreach, along with individual members of the congregation, sent money to fund the church taking in orphans that had been living in resettlement camps.

In our capital campaign, funds were sent to the church to build a parsonage and fellowship hall, which housed a Women’s Vocational Training school, enabling women to learn skills leading to economic self-sufficiency.

On his sabbatical, our pastor and his spouse visited Sri Lanka and the church, meeting the pastor and members of the church and learning more about the issues facing them

Learnings:

This entire effort, which ended up touching many in the congregation, was not our idea – it was the Spirit’s leading which brought this mission to us, and which empowered us to move forward with it, in stages, in many different ways.  It energized us, brought us together in new ways, and taught us much about our faith as we saw how the faith was lived out by our brothers and sisters in very different circumstances half the world away.

Further information: contact Pastor Reed Baer at West Parish of Barnstable, United Church of Christ 

508-362-4445

The Mission to New Orleans

WEST PARISH OF BARNSTABLE UCC

WEST BARNSTABLE, MA

How Mission Renewed Our Congregation

The mission – with members of three other local UCC churches, undertake a week-long trip to New Orleans to rebuild homes destroyed by hurricane Katrina.

How it came about: in the fall of 2009 the pastor of the Cotuit Federated Church, aware that the newly-arrived pastor at the North Falmouth Congregational Church had served in New Orleans at the time of hurricane Katrina, called the three of us together to discuss the possibility of a joint mission trip. Interested lay members of the churches quickly joined the team. We divvied up the tasks (arranging a job site, transportation and housing, food, and spiritual leadership).

The trip itself:  15 folk from the three churches, including the three pastors, made the trip. We stayed in bunk rooms at St. Paul’s Church in New Orleans. We worked at three job sites for an organization that is rebuilding homes, St. Bernard Project which can be contacted at: 8324 Parc Place, Chalmette, LA 70043; 504-277-6831; http://www.stbernardproject.org/. (The UCC-related sites were full for the week we could go). During the day, under the supervision of Americorps volunteers, we did a wide-range of construction efforts: major demolition, finish carpentry, painting. Most of also had the opportunity to meet the home-owners and learn from them their stories of the hurricane and how it affected them and others. In the evening, after a jointly-prepared meal, we had an hour of debriefing and shared worship.

Learnings: Key to the entire experience were the evening debrief and worship sessions. Here we were able not only to share the day’s frustrations and joys, but also link those experiences to the gospel and to our faith. Group members came away from the experience saying that they had been transformed. Subsequent to the return to their parishes, each group made presentations to their congregations, telling them about the experience and how it had impacted them personally. We then took our learnings “on the road”, sharing them at the annual meeting of the Barnstable Association, the 20 UCC churches of the Cape and Islands.

Follow-up, next steps: As a result of the testimony of those who went in Year 1, another group signed up to go back the second year, and this time were joined by two members of another congregation, the Wellfleet Congregational Church. Their experience was as successful as that of the first group, and we are in the planning stages at this time for going back a third time.

Further information: contact Pastor Reed Baer at West Parish of Barnstable, United Church of Christ 508-362-4445

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