Mission Committee
Our Mission Committee here at Faith is divided into two sub-groups, World and Local, so that we can better focus our efforts to share the love of Christ.
World Mission
Our church is involved in supporting a number of missionaries around the US and throughout the rest of the world. Additionally, the church has chosen to establish a five year plan for support of several churches in a Presbytery on the north coast of Colombia. This effort has included mission trips to Colombia, sponsoring children at a Colombian Children’s Home, and sending gift packages to the children. In addition to these effort, many of our members engage in short-term missions trips both in the US and overseas.
Local Mission
The Local Missions Committee of Faith Church exists to encourage our body to pray for, participate in, and provide financial support to ministries in our community that proclaim the gospel of Christ. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (I Corinthians 15:58B).
Locally, our church assists with the Frederick Rescue Mission, Habitat for Humanity, CareNet, and other agencies. We try to be responsive to needs that become known outside of our congregation to share the love of Christ.
A Little of What We’ve Been Up To
Project Paraguay
Trip Report
by Martin Hudzinski
This summer I had the chance to put together a little of how God moves in our lives. Many years ago I was part of the RPCES and a church that was supporting a missionary couple named Cross in Chile. They became foster parents to a young Chilean boy, who grew up, went to seminary, and was sent by the Chilean Church to Paraguay as a missionary. He founded the church in Luque. Subsequently he came to the US and joined Potomac Presbytery of the PCA. My wanderings eventually brought me into the Potomac Presbytery and I was invited to join the Committee on Mission to the World. Through that committee, I met Joel Acevedo, the founding missionary of the work in Paraguay. He was part of the Men’s conference that Faith put on in Colombia several years ago, and served to translate my talk on Loving Your Wife. The work in Paraguay has prospered and is ready to start ordaining some local men to be Presbyterian Pastors and form its own Presbytery. Several congregations within Potomac Presbytery have taken a particular interest in the work in Paraguay, creating Project Paraguay, which sponsors short term mission’s trips to aid the church there. Because of that connection the PCA General Assembly tasked Potomac Presbytery to form the commission to oversee the ordinations and founding of the new presbytery in Paraguay. Pastor John was asked to serve on that commission because of his work on the Committee on Credentials; and I got asked because they needed some ruling elders and Joel knew me. So with the blessing of Faith’s Session and the World Missions Committee of Faith, Pastor John and I left for Paraguay with a mission team of Project Paraguay on July 29, from Dulles Airport. We flew to El Salvador and then to Lima Peru and then on to Asuncion Paraguay, arriving around 2AM. Our hosts were there to meet us at the airport, and the team members and our baggage were dropped at the homes of various church members. Saturday we did some planning for the week and a little sightseeing around town. On Sunday we attended church and heard a sermon preached by Fredi Sosa who was one of the candidates we were there to examine, translated to English by one of the congregation’s members.
On Monday morning, some of the team went off to El Parque to start work on various projects at the church there, such as painting, updating the wiring, installing a men’s room, and a screen and projector. The rest of the team stayed in El Renuevo to put the final touches to the plans for a Vacation Bible School. John and I were assigned to work with the VBS. John was in charge of a craft project for the older children, and I was general gopher. On Monday afternoon John and I, went out to El Parque to use their woodworking tools to create the wood plaques for the craft project.
On Tuesday, we did VBS in the morning and then John and I were asked if we could build a wood cabinet, to store the sound equipment at El Parque, out of a sheet and half of plywood they had at the center. We figured we were up to the challenge. First we had to discuss with the pastor, between my limited Spanish and his limited English, what he had envisioned and needed. We had him show us the equipment he wanted to put in the cabinet and then we made our measurements. We drew a simple design, and then realized that we did not have sufficient wood, so we adjusted dimensions, until we had a design for a cabinet that would hold all the equipment, and leave a few board feet left over, and sketched it out to show Miguel. He liked the design, and we told him we would need some wood screws a few pieces of 1×3 boards to serve as shelfing supports, wood glue and hinges and a locking mechanism. Knowing that we did not have a lot of room for error we planned our cutting list and then figured out how to lay it out on the plywood we had to maximize the use of the wood. That led to our first real challenge, we did not have a straight edge nor a chalk line to mark our cutting lines on the plywood sheet. Then John, noting that we had several inches of width along the larger piece of plywood that we would not be needing, suggested that we could presume the uncut edge of the plywood was straight. So we marked the presumed straight edge and trimmed our piece and dubbed it the Expeditionary Straight Edge, in deference to John’s Marine Corp background and the total confusion of the rest of the team, who were not in on the joke.
We spent two days cutting the wood to size and labeling the parts as we created them so we would not get confused. Progress was slowed as we had to share the extension cord and sometimes the tools with other members of the team working on other projects. Occasionally, we had to pause to assist with something that required an extra hand. We even supplied a wood platform for the projector. By Thursday we were ready to assemble the cabinet, but Wednesday evening I came down with the virus that had been slowly making its way through the team causing vomiting followed by diarrhea. I was not in condition to be far from a toilet and so John assembled the cabinet on Thursday, with the help of other team members.
On Friday, John and I changed hats again to join the Commission sent by Potomac Presbytery to interview candidates for ordination. Originally there were to have been three candidates, but circumstances had culled that down to only one who was ready for examination, Fredi Sosa. We had received his written examinations on Theology, Church History, and Church Government; translated from Spanish to English shortly before leaving for Paraguay, so John and I had spent free time reading his responses on the trip down and through the week. The commission interviewed him and his wife on their Christian Experience and then quizzed him on any questions we had about his responses to the written examinations. John’s experience with the Committee On Credentials of Potomac Presbytery proved invaluable, as he was able to keep us on track to be sure we covered and did all the things that were necessary.
Saturday we had the opportunity to finish details on the projects at El Parque, browse through some shops, and attend the Churches 15th Anniversary Celebration. This was a formal dinner with presentations by church members, music and interpretive and traditional dances. On Sunday we attended church at El Pargue, and Sunday evening we participated in the ordination service for Fredi Sosa.
Monday morning at 3AM, we arrived at the airport for our 6AM flight to leave Paraguay. As the leader of our team got to the check in desk, he was informed that our flight was canceled, but that they would send us out on the flight of their sister airline which had a plane leaving at 5AM. Shouldn’t have been much of a problem, however the airline did not transfer the first of the information until 4:30AM, and my information did not get to the check in desk until 4:55AM, the attendant handed me my boarding pass and said run to the gate. Unfortunately, the security agent must have figured this old guy boarding a plane at the last minute must be a terrorist, and decided she needed to take everything out of my carry-on bags and inspect it. After confiscating the bandage scissors in my first aid kit, I was allowed to proceed to the plane. I was the last to board. John and I were able to leave Paraguay, but three members of our team ended up staying over another night.
Our changed flight was not entirely without its benefits. We ended up laying over in Panama for 8 hours and so were able to go on a tour of the city and see one of the locks of the Panama Canal. On the final leg of our flight, John was surprised to learn that his seat had been upgraded to first class. As I boarded the plane he was sitting in Row 1, but I had 33. The flight was uneventful, however we did not leave Dulles Airport, after passing through immigration and customs, until almost 3 AM on Tuesday.
Despite the little hassles and last minute changes, the trip was rewarding. It was exciting to be with members of God’s family in a different part of the world and to see how He is working to grow His church, to see how a small act of kindness to a child in Chile, has resulted in a Bible Believing Denomination in Paraguay. It was an honor to be part of a Commission to help establish that church as a truly indigenous church.
Colombia Trip
Trip Report
by Martin Hudzinski
The Faith Church Colombia Missions trip is over and I am home enjoying some of the simple pleasures of life in this country and thanking God for them, like a shower head that actually sprays water at a temperature I have selected, rinsing my tooth brush under the faucet, drinking cold water from the tap, not worrying about what kind of water the ice was made from, and going to Olive Garden and having two big helpings of salad, raw vegetables are generally not recommended to consume in 3rd World Countries. Colombia is a land of contrasts, modern earth moving equipment lined up out front of a hardware store right next to a donkey hitched to a wagon standing patiently waiting for instructions. There were homemade bicycle taxis next to motorcycle taxis, and small yellow cars for taxis everywhere. We crossed the Magdalena River in wooden canoes with hand hewn beams and boards with pitch on the joints, powered by modern outboard engines. We saw Egrets and Herons and Hawks as we crossed the river.
In El Pinyon where we held our first clinic, there were paved roads and dirt roads, and pigs and donkeys and chickens wandering the streets and eating the grass that grew there. We held the clinic in a school and things went well even though it was very hot and there was really no air conditioning except in one room and that barely cooled the room, and the light was provided by a florescent bulb plugged into an extension cord and tied with string to the drop ceiling. The people were appreciative, some we could treat, some we could reassure that the treatment they were taking for their blood pressure was working. Some we could only tell them that their vision problem was related to cataracts and only an opthamologist could help them. The Pastors working with us and taking time to speak with the patients about spiritual things told us that several made confessions of faith. Pray that the word takes root and His church there grows.
On Wednesday we said our good byes, reboarded the canoes, recrossed the river and walked up to the highway, and praise God our bus was there waiting for us, with air conditioning and an on board toilet. We traveled to Santa Marta and checked into our hotel, nice clean, but very basic, bed ( I am convinced mine was poured cement sides with a plywood top and a mattress), TV, Closet, and a bathroom with shower that had no temperature control, oh and air conditioning that worked quite well.
We held our clinic in Nueva Ciudad, a poor suburb of Santa Marta, and the church which is really a garage building. We got there in a small van that sat 14 tightly pushed together, which was labeled as a school bus, with all our gear for the clinic lashed to the roof. Praise God we got there safely and everything intact. We ran our clinic in fairly tight space but it went well and despite the heat, we all stayed hydrated and did not suffer heat stroke, though a couple people managed to bump their heads on low overheads, but without serious injury. Again we were able to help some and reassure others, and seeds were sown. We had a second day of clinic here but made it a little shorter because of the extreme heat. Pray for this church too that it might grow in numbers and bring glory to God.
After clinic that second day and returning our gear to the hotel, we went to the beach, cooled off in the ocean, and then ate and visited a local bazaar and did some shopping. The following day we returned to Barranquila and did a half day clinic for the employees of the church sponsored school, and played with the children. On Sunday we went to the church in Barranquila and then boarded taxis for the airport. We checked in and went through airport security and had some of our checked luggage searched, but we all boarded the plane and flew home without incident, and had no problems making our connection in Panama.
We saw God working in the details. The travel arrangements plane, bus, taxi, boat all were without problem or incident. All our luggage and gear arrived with us and was undamaged. Customs had many questions about what we brought in but in the end passed it all through. The team came together and there was not any interpersonal drama. We had good cooperation from our hosts, the Gospel was preached in deed and word and people were helped.
