The church at its core is about relationships. Our ancient creedal efforts describe one God, the Christ, who is actually three equal persons described as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a mystic relationship. When we make the sign of the cross we remind ourselves that we are relationally connected with God and all that God created.

It wasn’t too big of a step for St. Francis of Assisi to recognize the Cosmic Christ in nature and neighbor. Martin Luther, when arguing about the presence of the Christ (not just Jesus) in the sacrament, quipped that “since God is present in the mountains, the sunshine, the flowers and my cabbage soup, I am confident God is present in the bread and wine of the sacrament.”

All of that to introduce the picture below.

• Our Global Missions ministry has begun describing our work as “cultivating global partnerships.” We think it better describes what we do.
• We offer support where and when our partners tell us they need it most. They know better than we, and it’s good for us to know that.
• Our partners also support us with prayer and a witness of what God is doing in their part of God’s world. It is encouraging, and we try to share with you that good news.
• All twelve of our “mission partnerships” have a personal connective relationship. You’ve met some in person. We know them all! When we gather each month, one of members reports how the partnership is going, what they need from us and we need from them.
• [Add the October 22 Prince of Peace Fall Lecture series on your calendar, as one of our mission partners shares the life changing work we are doing in Uganda.]

The picture, right?

One of our Haitian partners, H.E.L.P. (Haitian Education Leadership Program) has a student (Jean Kensle Figaro) studying for two years at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University in Phoenix. What a story of achievement to get accepted at that prestigious program from humble Haitian roots.

In his first year there, he competed for and won a two-month summer internship at Chase in Polaris. We rallied some Global Missions folks, notably council member Roger Colson who works at Chase. He was able to greet Figaro with a smile on his first days at Chase. Figaro has worshipped with us several times.

This month our team received the photo below with this note from Roger: “Hi Team, we recently had Jean Kensle Figaro over for dinner again with my family and he was also able to join me for part of the Zack Brown Band concert. You may recall my father is French and my mother (both pictured) is Haitian, so we had some great Franco-Anglo conversation!”

I can’t stop seeing the smiles, and tender touch in this picture. Well done, Colsons! It literally filled a dark day with joy for me. I give thanks that that we are called to love our neighbors, and they to love us. It is so much more than “raise money/send money.” We have Global partners, global friends, global relationships. What a gift!

Pastor Jim Wilson