Presbyterian missionaries voice fears over overseas impact

Featured were Presbyterian missionaries in Zambia, Kenya, Romania and Spain and all underlined the difficulties they faced in maintaining their church and mission roles in poor economic and social situations.

Their reports resonated deeply with concerned church people back home. The Irish Presbyterian Church has 27 mission workers located in 11 countries.

Presbyterian board convenor the Rev Uel Marrs said: “Our church has a long tradition of overseas mission and in these difficult times we give thanks to God for our global mission workers, remembering them in our prayers as we also pray for PCI’s partners in mission, and the effect the pandemic is having on them and their people.”

In South America, Irish missionary Naomi Keefe works alongside a congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil in church-based and Bible-based community development and outreach activity.

“At the moment, I am following the Brazilian state recommendations to stay at home. Activities of the congregations, Sunday services, and the evangelistic activities in the communities have been cancelled indefinitely,” she writes. “All schools together with universities have been closed along with all shops, except for supermarkets and bread shops.”

Presbyterian missionaries Peter and Jayne Fleming have been serving with the United Mission to Nepal since 2017.

Peter writes: “At the beginning of April there were only six confirmed cases of Covid-19 and no deaths. These figures have begun multiplying and no one knows where it will end. What we do know is that there are some huge trials ahead. Even if the disease does not take hold and kill many thousands, a damaging wave of poverty is about to sweep the country. The economic impact will dramatically change life for millions.”

Last year Nepal tourism was worth £1.6 billion and provided work for over a million Nepalis. “That has now finished. Many other businesses in Nepal are closing. A huge number of Nepalis are ‘daily wage earners’ – if they get work that day they will be paid, otherwise they receive nothing. The result is going to be poverty for large numbers.”

For years thousands of Nepali overseas workers supported families at home. In 2018 the amount sent back home was £8.1 billion,