[한국어] As followers of Jesus Christ, we lift up our prayers for the families of San Bernardino who have suffered loss. We pray for the recovery in body and spirit for those that were wounded. We shake our heads in disbelief and despair as December 2 had two mass shootings in the United States in a year with a record number of mass shootings.

The Presbyterian Mission Agency has issued a call to prayer for the people of South Sudan, who have been battling hunger and human rights issues for years now. The situation took a turn for the worse after civil war broke out in December 2013. Ongoing fighting and skirmishes have resulted in more than 50,000 persons dead, 1.8 million people displaced and an estimated 3.5 million persons on the verge of starvation, according to Presbyterian Church leaders in the region. 

“In Her Place,” a 15-minute video created by international award-winning film director Maggie Morgan, shares the true stories of the sexual assault of four women and girls, one as young as 5 years old. These stories are heartbreaking, true and representative of the treatment of women and children in all cultures of violence. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt’s Council of Services and Development (CSD) commissioned the video. CSD, one of 12 councils in the Synod of the Nile, promotes development services and ministries of compassion and justice in Egypt’s eight presbyteries.

Luis Antonio (Tony) De La Rosa’s first day as interim executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency was far from business as usual.

Katherine G. Johnson, a PC(USA) member and career NASA scientist, was one of 17 Americans honored November 24 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Johnson, a member of Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Va., for more than 50 years, has served the church in several leadership roles including, not surprisingly given her gift with numbers, its finance chair.

Mission Magnified, a Presbyterian World Mission conference held in Kansas City, Mo., recently brought nearly 70 congregational mission leaders from 22 states together for tools, training and networking to enhance Presbyterian mission around the corner and around the world. 

When the Rev. Barry Ensign-George, associate for Theology in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) office of Theology and Worship, first heard about Periscope, the live streaming video mobile app bought by Twitter in February 2015, a light bulb went off in his head. Or maybe it was on his iPhone.

Thirteen new worshiping communities (NWC) are scheduled to receive more than $200,000 in mission program grants from the Presbyterian Mission Agency. Highlights of the grant funding—and new worshiping communities made up of geeks, millennials, Arabic speakers, Togolese, homeless, college students, Puerto Ricans, Hispanic and Latino worshipers—are listed below.