Worldwide Missionary Program

Mission personnel in Malawi, Haiti, and Croatia, receive part of their support through the mission budget of Second Presbyterian Church.

A mission work trip to Honduras took place in May 1998. We seek to support and learn about mission outside our country through mission education and through mission work trips.

Missionaries - Malawi

Jodi and Jim McGill and their adopted year-old twin sons, Michael and Jason, live and work in the rural village of Embangweni, Malawi. Jodi works as a staff nurse and nursing instructor in the Embangweni Hospital and Jim is the building project manager, supervising completion of the hospital and surrounding clinics.

The hospital has 120 beds and often reaches 100% occupancy. There is no grid power at the hospital, so all power is collected from solar panels, which often requires maintenance from Jim. He also works on a Shallow Well Project and helps in the design and construction of schools and churches.

Jodi collaborates with Malawian nurses to develop and implement public health activities such as training HIV counselors and conducting surveys on nutritional and immunization status. (3/98)

McGills Write From Malawi

We have two long letters from the McGills in Embangweni, Malawi:

• Letter of October 21, 1998
• Letter of May 22, 1998

Jodi, who is a Family Nurse Practitioner and has a MPH in Health Education, works with the nutritional rehabilitation unit and led a health leadership workshop last summer. Jim grew up in Zaire/Congo and knows the Hulls whom Second supported as missionaries some years ago. His MS is in Geological Engineering and he oversees the Shallow Well Project and designed and built the school for the deaf. He is also responsible for overseeing maintenance for the hospital and mission station facilities. Their 2-year old twins, Jason and Michael, each have two teeth and are crawling all over their house.

Several excerpts from their May 22 letter follow:

Embangweni is located in northwestern Malawi, about 30 km from the Zambian border (Get out your maps!) We are under the Synod of Livingstonia which is one synod within the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. The mission station is composed of a church, the hospital, a secondary school, primary school, and school for deaf children. The 120 bed hospital serves about 90,000 people with currently three doctors. It has pediatrics, female, male, and maternity wards and also a nutrition rehabilitation unit for malnourished children. The church has a congregation of nearly 3000 people. It split into two congregations two years ago because the congregation was too large. Now both churches have 3000 members. The minister visits a prayer house each month by bicycle so that communion can be given. There is one minister for each church so the churches rely heavily on women and men elders to preach, teach, and carry on church activities.

One in four children do not live to see their fifth birthday and Malawi has the highest level of infant mortality for 11 countries of eastern and southern Africa. The causes are malaria, anemia, pneumonia, malnutrition, TB, and Aids. On the other hand, Malawi actually has a better immunization rate than the USA; nationwide 82% of children have been fully vaccinated against TB, measles, polio, diphtheria, and tetanus.

If you would like to learn about Africans taking control of their destinies and "innovating the past," read Karl Maier's new book, Into the House of the Ancestors, Inside the New Africa.

Missionaries - Haiti

Dr. Joseph and Linda Markee are one of four missionary teams which the Mission Committee is helping to support. Joseph is an obstetrician /gynecologist and Linda is a nurse / photographer. The Markees are assigned to Haiti. Dr. Markee is on the staff of Hôpital Ste. Croix, which is the about twenty miles from the capital, Part-Au-Prince. He is the only American physician on staff. Linda is documenting the country and its people through photographs and is outlining what short term mission trips can do for lay people in the United States.

The Markees state, "Life for the Haitian people is very difficult. As we have worked with the poor of Haiti over the last fourteen years, we have treated their acute medical and dental needs and shared the love of Jesus Christ." Pray for the Markees as they combine medical care with evangelism.

The Markees welcome our support. Cards and letters are appreciated. Joe's birthday is August 2 and Linda's, October 29. Their address is Hôpital Ste. Croix, c/o Lynx, P.O. Box 407139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33340.

Missionaries - Croatia

December 5, 1999 - Ministry in Croatia
June 13, 1999 - A Hope for Peace in Kosovo!
June 1, 1999 - Report from Albania
May 4, 1999 - Leaving for Albania!
April 16, 1999 - April 4, 1999 -
March 26, 1999 - October 17, 1998

Can you imagine being seven years old and hiding for months in a dark, damp, cold cellar out of fear of being killed by the bombs you could hear constantly overhead? Or being ten years old and being forced to flee at gunpoint from your dinner one evening and leave everything behind? Or as a thirteen-year-old, how would you cope with seeing your mother raped? Could you even begin to imagine how a four-year-old might respond to watching family members killed by shells, bullets and land mines?

Our congregation supports Brett McMichael through Presbyterian Worldwide Mission. Brett is a psychologist with specialized training in child development, grief counseling and play therapy. Brett has been working in conjunction with local professionals to design treatment programs to help children who have survived the war in Croatia. Brett works with Agape International Humanitarian Aid for Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina in Osijek, Croatia, and teaches at the Evangelical Theological Seminary there.

Brett met with us on July 19, 1998, to preach and to tell about his work during Sunday School hour. Some of Brett's work is cited by the Presbyterian 1998 Mission Yearbook and by the AGAPE Post War Counseling Program.