March 2016

The mission field has changed. The challenges are greater than ever, and resources stretched thin. Fortunately, Presbyterian Women – and men – have continued to respond to the increasingly complex needs. In addition to identifying critical areas of concern, such as human trafficking, and educating us as to how to identify traffickers, they support mission workers, host them when they itinerate, participate in mission trips, and give to local, national and world mission.

The Presbyterian Foundation brings people and mission together, by offering a menu of giving options ranging from online giving at the Presbyterian Mission Exchange to donating to an existing or newly established Permanent Endowment Fund.

A year or so ago I was blessed to assist in establishing a permanent endowment fund in honor and memory of two Presbyterian missionaries – Samuel and Lydia Martin – by their great-granddaughter, her mother, and a group of her siblings and cousins. The Martins were missionaries to the Punjab region of India (now Pakistan) after the Civil War. They established two schools that continue today to educate and teach peace and tolerance among Christians and Muslims. The Samuel and Lydia Martin Fund provides school scholarships for children, girls especially, who would not otherwise be able to attend in this extremely poor region of the country. Donations to the fund flow to the schools through Friends of the Presbyterian Education Board of Pakistan (PEB). Learn more about the Friends of PEB from Veeda Javaid at our website, and view the many mission-giving options at the Exchange.

If there's a mission you feel passionate about, contact your Ministry Relations Officer to explore ways to translate your passion into action. The generosity of individual Presbyterians can change the world, one gift at a time.

A few years ago, Dr. Judith Kleinman, one of the Martins' great-grandchildren and a retired psychiatrist visited with her mother and attended St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Boulder, Colo. There she heard how Presbyterian schools in Pakistan, which had been nationalized in 1972, had been returned to the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan in 1998, and were today offering quality education and teaching peace and tolerance to children in the region, both Christian and Muslim, regardless of their ability to pay. She then contacted Sherry Kenney, the Presbyterian Foundation's Ministry Relations Officer in Denver.

The role of the Ministry Relations Officer (MRO) is multi-faceted and dynamic. Although the MROs perform duties that are somewhat standardized – the Culture of Generosity presentation, for example – each of their churches, committees, and donors is different. When they work with an individual donor in structuring a gift to the Foundation to support an important ministry or mission, they explore all the possibilities and ways to leave a legacy gift.

In this instance, Kleinman drew a family tree for Kenney and shared stories about her grandparents. Kenney contacted the Presbyterian Historical Society and provided Kleinman with archived articles about Samuel and Lydia. According to one of the articles, Dr. Martin served in India until his death in 1910 and was buried there. Over the course of his ministry, he taught generations of Indian families, and baptized an estimated 15,000 new believers in the Christian faith.

After meeting with the family, the obvious solution to the family's goal was a permanent endowment fund with the Presbyterian Foundation, subsequently named the “Samuel and Lydia Martin Memorial Fund. The fund was established June 11, 2014, to receive current gifts and future bequests “for scholarships for the Presbyterian Education Board schools in Martinpur, Pakistan.”

“In 1998, when we got the schools back [from the government], the church in Pakistan rejoiced” said Veeda Javaid, director of the Presbyterian Education Board. “We rejoiced because once again we had an opportunity to build bridges between different communities in Pakistan. Once again we had the opportunity to give new life to the dry bones of education in Pakistan, and once again we had the opportunity to build bridges between East and West in Pakistan.”

Javaid calls the new endowment, “a new day in the life of the Presbyterian Church in Pakistan and a new day in the life of the schools there.”

Javaid calls the new endowment, “a new day in the life of the Presbyterian Church in Pakistan and a new day in the life of the schools there.”