At the same worship service in which Stephanie was blessed in advance of her Guatemala trip and Isabel Rose was baptised, I gave the following Minute for Stewardship presentation:
I should start out by mentioning that my Mother grew up in Ohio. Our ancestors on her side of the family going way back are English and Irish.
For many years, my Mother’s parents – my Ohio grandparents – supported something called the Oriental Missionary Society. The Oriental Missionary Society was an organization dedicated to the spread of the Gospel in East Asia.
Every year Grandma and Grandpa went to a fund-raising banquet put together by the Columbus, Ohio affiliate of the Oriental Missionary Society. There they joined with others in praying for the liberation of China, North Korea, and North Vietnam from Communist rule. They also prayed for the Oriental Missionary Society mission workers in different parts of East Asia. And they prayed for the people of East Asia, that they might hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and feel a connection with that message.
They also got to hear from a couple of Oriental Missionary Society mission workers visiting from East Asia. And they got to write a check to the Oriental Missionary Society.
My grandparents were very generous. But my Grandpa was also a very cautious man. My grandparents had lived through two world wars and a Great Depression. They lived very simply and very frugally. The tell-tale signs of my Grandpa’s do-it-yourself approach to home improvement were evident throughout their house: lots of duct tape. My Grandma never met a serving of food in the refrigerator that she thought should be thrown away. Food was meant to be eaten, not thrown away. I always thought that my Grandpa took so well to recycling when I came to their town in the late ‘80s because it harkened back to the scrap metal drives of the war period.
When it came to writing that check, I’m sure that Grandpa wrote a check big enough that it hurt . . . somewhat. But only somewhat. Grandpa trusted God to provide. But he also figured God expected him to look after not only the church but also himself and his family.
God never did choose to liberate the people of China and North Korea, at least not exactly as Grandpa and Grandma had imagined. God did answer one of their prayers in a particularly creative way. You see – in the days before Skype, the Discovery Channel, mission trips, and the new immigration to the United States – my grandparents also prayed that they might meet and get to know someone from East Asia and they might see of the fruit of the labor of Christian mission workers in that part of the world. So, God sent them a Christian young man from northern Korea, whose family had been directly touched by the work of Christian mission workers there – in fact, by Presbyterian mission workers. They got to know this young man and they accepted him as their son-in-law. For a middle American family, 11 years before Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, this was more than a little daring. They also got to know some members of this young man’s extended family, including his father, who soon was enrolled in seminary in the neighboring state of Kentucky.
In the involvement of my grandparents with the Oriental Missionary Society, I see some of the hallmarks of mission involvement here at Crescent Hill church. I see local and international involvement. I see long-term commitments. I see support for international mission workers. I see attention to structural change. I see building personal relationships. I see answered prayer. I see sacrificial giving. I see personal stewardship, including stewardship of self.
Through prayer and volunteer work, many of you are already involved in the mission enterprises that Crescent Hill church supports. Those enterprises include: the possible Guatemala K’ekchi Estoreño Izabal Presbytery Partnership. They include the Environmental Justice Committee. They include the Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church Pre-School and Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville and its summertime Garden Camp. They include United Crescent Hill Ministries, Presbyterian Community Center, and Habitat for Humanity. They include Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian seminaries, and the half a dozen Presbyterian international mission workers who are part of our congregation.
On November 9, by pledging for the first time to make regular financial contributions to Crescent Hill church or by matching or even increasing this past year’s pledge, you will not only help the church continue to support these and other mission enterprises but you will also help shift us towards a goal of making mission a bigger part of the annual church budget.
In all of this – as in many other things – we could do worse than following the example of my Grandpa – who – in two months – God willing – will celebrate his 95th birthday. Happy birthday, Grandpa!
I should start out by mentioning that my Mother grew up in Ohio. Our ancestors on her side of the family going way back are English and Irish.
For many years, my Mother’s parents – my Ohio grandparents – supported something called the Oriental Missionary Society. The Oriental Missionary Society was an organization dedicated to the spread of the Gospel in East Asia.
Every year Grandma and Grandpa went to a fund-raising banquet put together by the Columbus, Ohio affiliate of the Oriental Missionary Society. There they joined with others in praying for the liberation of China, North Korea, and North Vietnam from Communist rule. They also prayed for the Oriental Missionary Society mission workers in different parts of East Asia. And they prayed for the people of East Asia, that they might hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and feel a connection with that message.
They also got to hear from a couple of Oriental Missionary Society mission workers visiting from East Asia. And they got to write a check to the Oriental Missionary Society.
My grandparents were very generous. But my Grandpa was also a very cautious man. My grandparents had lived through two world wars and a Great Depression. They lived very simply and very frugally. The tell-tale signs of my Grandpa’s do-it-yourself approach to home improvement were evident throughout their house: lots of duct tape. My Grandma never met a serving of food in the refrigerator that she thought should be thrown away. Food was meant to be eaten, not thrown away. I always thought that my Grandpa took so well to recycling when I came to their town in the late ‘80s because it harkened back to the scrap metal drives of the war period.
When it came to writing that check, I’m sure that Grandpa wrote a check big enough that it hurt . . . somewhat. But only somewhat. Grandpa trusted God to provide. But he also figured God expected him to look after not only the church but also himself and his family.
God never did choose to liberate the people of China and North Korea, at least not exactly as Grandpa and Grandma had imagined. God did answer one of their prayers in a particularly creative way. You see – in the days before Skype, the Discovery Channel, mission trips, and the new immigration to the United States – my grandparents also prayed that they might meet and get to know someone from East Asia and they might see of the fruit of the labor of Christian mission workers in that part of the world. So, God sent them a Christian young man from northern Korea, whose family had been directly touched by the work of Christian mission workers there – in fact, by Presbyterian mission workers. They got to know this young man and they accepted him as their son-in-law. For a middle American family, 11 years before Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, this was more than a little daring. They also got to know some members of this young man’s extended family, including his father, who soon was enrolled in seminary in the neighboring state of Kentucky.
In the involvement of my grandparents with the Oriental Missionary Society, I see some of the hallmarks of mission involvement here at Crescent Hill church. I see local and international involvement. I see long-term commitments. I see support for international mission workers. I see attention to structural change. I see building personal relationships. I see answered prayer. I see sacrificial giving. I see personal stewardship, including stewardship of self.
Through prayer and volunteer work, many of you are already involved in the mission enterprises that Crescent Hill church supports. Those enterprises include: the possible Guatemala K’ekchi Estoreño Izabal Presbytery Partnership. They include the Environmental Justice Committee. They include the Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church Pre-School and Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville and its summertime Garden Camp. They include United Crescent Hill Ministries, Presbyterian Community Center, and Habitat for Humanity. They include Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian seminaries, and the half a dozen Presbyterian international mission workers who are part of our congregation.
On November 9, by pledging for the first time to make regular financial contributions to Crescent Hill church or by matching or even increasing this past year’s pledge, you will not only help the church continue to support these and other mission enterprises but you will also help shift us towards a goal of making mission a bigger part of the annual church budget.
In all of this – as in many other things – we could do worse than following the example of my Grandpa – who – in two months – God willing – will celebrate his 95th birthday. Happy birthday, Grandpa!
-- Perry
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