AGENDA FOR July 2019 MMN CONFERENCE (updated 7/13/19) - subject to change

Rev. Alex Benson Maulana
General Secretary CCAP Synod of Blantyre

Alex Benson Maulana is a Minister of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Blantyre Synod in Southern Africa, born on 6th July, 1963 in Mulanje district, Malawi and he is based in Blantyre, Malawi. Alex Benson Maulana was ordained into the Holy Ministry of Word and Sacrament on 13 April, 1991 at St. Michael and All Angels Church. He served as full time parish Minister to 10 Congregations of the CCAP Blantyre Synod. He has also worked as a full time Synod Youth Director organising youth activities in the Synod from December 1992 to June 2000. He has been privileged to study internationally at Fort Hare University in South Africa on MTh. Level. Alex has also been privileged to travel extensively to a number of countries some of which are:-USA, Scotland, Thailand, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, China, Switzerland, Mozambique, Ghana, Israel, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Zambia etc.  Currently he is working as a full time General Secretary of the CCAP Blantyre Synod operating in the eighteen presbyteries in the Southern and Eastern and part of Central Regions of Malawi.

Rev. Cheryl Barnes’ call to long-term mission service did not fully evolve until her daughter became a 2017 Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) in Lima, Peru. As she supported her daughter and witnessed her spiritual growth during her YAV year, Cheryl became increasingly open to seeing her gifts being used in a different context within the church. She recalls, “As a pastor of a small congregation in a marginalized community, I often prayed the prayer of Jabez, ‘Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!’” Believing that God will keep her from harm, she has answered the call to serve in Malawi, Zambia and

Zimbabwe. God is faithfully enlarging her borders far beyond what she had imagined. “As I have dared to look at my life through a wider margin, I have seen the hand of God leading me to this place,” Cheryl shares.

In answering the call to mission service, Cheryl feels great affinity with Abraham, a man of faith who was called out from his familiar surroundings to enter another land. “Like Abraham,” Cheryl explains, “I am unsure of the difficulties, inconveniences, and uncertainties that are on the horizon. But my faith ensures me that I am not alone, that the omnipresent God sees me wherever I am. I know that my journey comes with the opportunity to share my gifts with the loving people of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe and to learn from them.”

Prior to entering ordained ministry, Cheryl taught special education and worked in early childhood education. Her experience in educating children, a commitment to service, and a teachable spirit have prepared her well for this ministry. Additionally, God has given Cheryl a deep love for people, and a heart for the most vulnerable. Cheryl’s hope for the Church is that it will “focus on well-planned, spiritually motivating ministries that instill knowledge, life skills, and hope while encouraging the body to glorify God through words AND deeds.”

Cheryl grew up in Georgia. She earned her Bachelor of Science in special education at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia; her Master of Business Administration at Nova University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; and her Master of Divinity at Colombia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. She is a member of the Northeast Georgia Presbytery.

Paula Cooper

When Paula Cooper entered Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PTS) in 2006 at the age of 50, she didn’t fit the profile of the typical matriculating student. Paula’s decades of life experience that had brought her to this stage of her journey had also endowed her with a unique perspective on what it means to follow God and serve alongside her brothers and sisters in Christ.

Paula served in a variety of ministries in her home church, Holy Trinity-Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia — as ruling elder, youth director, Christian education chairperson and worship committee chairperson, among others. She also worked in the “urban mission field” of the Logan community of Philadelphia as the executive director of Youth Project and as a community organizer for Logan Olney Family Support Services. In addition, she attended meetings for community stakeholders of Logan, sponsored by the Department of Human Services’ Equal Partners in Change (EPIC). Paula’s work with Youth Project, Logan Olney Family Support Services, and EPIC, all programs committed to walking alongside the residents of the Logan community as they strive to better their quality of life through education, advocacy and truancy prevention, prefigured her mission work in Africa in its focus on relationship-building and listening to community stakeholders’ voices. Paula’s time working in this urban setting was indeed formative. In seminary, her academic concentration was urban ministry, and she earned a Graduate Certificate in Urban Ministry through PTS’s Metro-Urban Institute.

Seminary opened many doors for Paula, including the opportunity to fulfill her childhood dreams. “I used to lay on my bed at night as a child and dream of visiting the Holy Land and the Motherland — Israel and Africa,” Paula shared. Working with her professor and peers at the Zeitah Excavation site in Israel for six weeks in 2007 deepened Paula’s faith, allowing her to experience the landscape and artifacts of ancient Israel firsthand.

That same summer, Paula had the opportunity to visit Zambia for two weeks to attend a conference concerning the Church’s responsibility in addressing HIV/AIDS in the region. Seven years later, she was called by God to return to Zambia in a different capacity. In 2017, she was named by Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City as a Phillip Talbot Global Mission Fellow, a position that took her back to Zambia to serve with Theological Education by Extension in Zambia (TEEZ). In training Zambian church leaders in her work with TEEZ, Paula found herself being transformed along with those she was training. Accompanying her Zambian brothers and sisters as they discovered how God can use them, she came to understand more deeply how God can use her.

In her work as regional liaison for East Central Africa, Paula emphasizes the necessity of “collaboration between God’s people and their gifts for ministry.” She strives to support and equip fellow mission co-workers, international partners and U.S. congregations as they “educate and galvanize church members in addressing issues that interfere with God’s desire for people ‘to have life and have it more abundantly.’”

Paula received her Bachelor of Arts at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, and her Master of Divinity and Master of Sacred Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. In addition to her work in mission, she was a hospice chaplain, and from 2014 to 2017, she served as designated pastor of Curby Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri.

Paula’s Christian journey was shaped and deepened as an active member of Holy Trinity-Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, where she was under the care of the Philadelphia Presbytery. She is now a member of the Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery of St. Louis.

Debbie Braaksma 
Presbyterian World Mission
Africa Area Coordinator

As Africa Area Coordinator Debbie is responsible for facilitating and resourcing PCUSA partnerships in Africa.  She supports Regional Liaisons in their work with 34 African partners and 40 mission personnel serving in Africa and is a member of the World Mission Leadership Team.  Debbie grew up in the First Presbyterian Church in Cambria Wisconsin.  Her call to cross-cultural service began as she served as a literacy teacher in Mexican migrant worker camps in the congregation’s Operation Friendship program throughout her high school years.

She is an ordained minister and served as a Reformed Church in America (RCA)   Mission Worker in an evangelism and community development ministry with semi-nomadic Muslim pastoralists near the Kenya/Somalia border for 11 years and as the RCA Africa Supervisor for 7 years.

Debbie served as a PCUSA/RCA mission worker engaged in peace building and trauma healing in Sudan from 2005 until 2010. She served as the Principal of the RECONCILE Peace Institute and also led community-based trainings in areas of South Sudan experiencing high levels of inter-ethnic conflict. She co-authored “Bringing Healing to Traumatized Children” and has been involved in the Sudanese peace building, outreach and children’s ministries of Beechmont Presbyterian Church in Louisville, where she serves as a parish associate.  Debbie received a Master of Theology degree from the University of Edinburgh and a BS in Social work from the University of Minnesota. She is married to Del Braaksma and is the mother of four children and has seven grandchildren.

Ken Gentili

            University of Livingstonia

 Sylvia Gentili

Doug Kee

            First Presbyterian Church, Plymouth, MI

 Rich Keller

            Mountain View Presbyterian Church, Loveland, CO

Jocelyn Logan

            Marion Medical Mission, Marion, IL

Tom Logan

            Marion Medical Mission, Marion, IL