Global Missions Offering focuses on justice & mercy
___ATLANTA--As a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary to the United Nations diplomatic community, Ana D'Amico has discovered a common bond that joins women of varied faiths--a desire for peace in their hearts and in their homelands.
___"I have been impressed by how women in many different religions have overcome the oppression that they have suffered within their religious and political systems," said D'Amico, who appears in a video now available to churches to promote CBF's Offering for Global Missions.
___D'Am
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MISSIONARY Marc Wyatt cooks hotdogs at a Toronto church hosting a barbeque attended by many refugees and immigrants.
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ico looks for ways to express genuine friendship to the women she encounters.
___"We have not even begun to tap the resources of creativity among Christian women as we face the issues of ministering to women of other faiths," she said. "Followers of other religions wish to experience culture, acceptance and understanding."
___Through their ministry to New York City's diplomatic community, D'Amico and her husband, David, deal with issues of justice and mercy on a daily basis. A former professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, David D'Amico also served as minister to internationals at South Main Baptist Church in Houston.
___After the tragic events of Sept. 11, the D'Amicos' ministry expanded as they dealt with immediate needs of victims and their families. Within hours of the attacks, the couple, who live only eight blocks from the World Trade Center site, went to the New York University Medical Center, where they helped wash soot and ashes from the "walking wounded" and counseled injured people and their family members.
___"Doing Justice and Mercy in a World Without Borders: It's Time!" is the theme for CBF's Global Missions Offering. The theme encourages individuals and churches to reach out to marginalized people, to refugees and immigrants, as well as those who have been disenfranchised for social, economic, political, ethnic or racial reasons.
___The theme centers on Micah 6:8: "The Lord God has told us what is right and what he demands: See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God."
___"This verse says to me that I truly have no choice. My ministry is about mercy and justice," Mrs. D'Amico emphasized.
___Extending justice and mercy to refugees in Canada is an integral part of the day-to-day ministry of CBF missionaries Kim and Marc Wyatt.
___"We feed, we clothe, we welcome, we comfort, we protect," Wyatt said of the ministry of Matthew House, a Toronto shelter sponsored by Canadian Baptists and CBF that helps refugees seeking asylum.
___Matthew House workers help refugees get ready to live on their own.
___"They ask us, 'Why do you love us?'" Wyatt explained. "And then, we are able to share why we love--because we have been loved and because we have been taken care of."
___CBF missionaries Ellen and Rick Burnette also consider mercy to be the basis of their ministry.
___"Otherwise, our work with the hill tribes in Northern Thailand would be superficial," he said. "Without paying attention to mercy, much of our work would end up being merely charity."
___The Burnettes work in rural and agricultural development ministries, helping Northern Thailand's minority tribes find the best ways to cultivate their hillsides and produce profitable crops.
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