(Nashville, Tenn. – 7/11/2011) – Disciples and leaders from churches across the world gathered Monday night during the 2011 General Assembly for the Global Ministries International Dinner to honor current and former missionaries and celebrate the work of David A. Vargas, outgoing co-executive of Global Ministries and president of the Division of Overseas Ministries.
More than 600 people attended the dinner in the Grand Ballroom of Nashville’s Renaissance Hotel.
Beginning the evening’s recognitions and honors, Global Ministries’ area supervisors introduced international guests, who included church leaders from Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the nations of Bangladesh, China, and South Korea.
Continuing a tradition begun at the 1985 General Assembly in Des Moines, Global Ministries presented Awards of Affirmation to people, churches, or organizations in honor of their faithfulness in ministry even under challenging or threatening circumstances.
Global Ministries area executive for Africa Sandra Gourdet presented the first award to Johnson Mbillah, general advisor to the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa.
Accepting the award for the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea were that church’s moderator Kim Jong Soung and general secretary Bae Tae Jin. Cally Rogers-White, executive minister of Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ and co-executive of Global Ministries, presented the honor.
Vargas presented the award to Vitalino Similox Salazar of the Christian Ecumenical Council of Guatemala. Salazar accepted the recognition "in honor of those people — men and women — who have given their lives during the last few years for peace in Guatemala."
Unable to attend the awards ceremony were recipients Mohammad Sammak, General Secretary of the Lebanese Committee of the Arab Group for Muslim-Christian Dialogue, and Khamphone Kounthapanya, president of the Lao Evangelical Church.
Global Ministries honored two long-term North American missionaries, Marjorie Hill and Alice Porter, who together gave nearly 80 years of service to India. Both Hill, a social worker, and Porter, a nurse, began their work through the United Christian Missionary Society, predecessor to Global Ministries.
After the awards, focus turned to Vargas, scheduled to retire August 1.
Vargas has served the Division of Overseas Ministries for 28 years, leading the organization as president for eight years, according to Linda McCrae, DOM board member and pastor of Central Christian Church in Indianapolis.
McCrae, who emceed the program to honor Vargas, added that the DOM leader had served as pastor for more than 40 years and worked at the general level of the church more than 30 years.
Various church leaders and family members proceeded to the microphone to honor Vargas, speaking not only of his accomplishments as a missions administrator but of his love and loyalty as father, friend, or colleague.
Joined by Esteban González Doble, general pastor of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Puerto Rico, Disciples general minister and President Sharon Watkins read a proclamation from Puerto Rican Disciples commending Vargas. The proclamation thanked Vargas for helping define and maintain the ongoing relationship between Disciples in the U.S. and Puerto Rico through his pivotal contributions to a joint commission between the two churches.
David Vargas, Jr., spoke of his dad’s deep concern for others, recalling Vargas’s urgent phone calls to verify the safety of lifelong friends in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. He credited his father’s model with his own decision to enter the ministry.
Vargas, Jr., hopes his father can relax after retiring. "I bought dad a fishing pole for Father’s Day," he said. "Maybe instead of being one of the greatest fishers of men, I can get him to actually fish for some fish."
In what Vargas called a "tremendous surprise," bishop of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church Medardo Gómez paid a moving tribute to the retiring DOM leader.
Gómez related how Vargas and Global Ministries had played a key role in his life in a time of crisis. In the early 1980s, as civil war raged in El Salvador, death squads kidnapped him, the bishop said. He became one of many victims of government repression.
"When I was freed, I screamed out, asking for help," Gómez continued, speaking through an interpreter. The bishop said that the first churches to come to his aid after the traumatic events were the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.
Gómez presented Vargas with a "subversive cross," as the bishop called it, as a gift. The small white cross commemorated the Salvadoran military’s capture of a cross from Gómez’s congregation, seized by soldiers entering the church to arrest him. The bishop gave Margie, Vargas’s wife, a colorful towel showing a Central American scene.
"I am very grateful to God for many, many, many reasons," Vargas told the crowd toward the end of the evening, joking that organizers had allotted him only three minutes to speak. The leader expressed gratitude for his family, friends, colleagues, and pastors, as well as for the church and the Obra Hispana, the Disciples’ Hispanic ministry.
"There’s one I want to highlight, … my sweetheart," Vargas said, singling out his wife. Through the ups and downs of missions administration, he could always count on a loving welcome back home, he said.
"Margie, we made it," Vargas told her. "Bendito sea el nombre del Señor. The glory be to God."
By Ted Parks [email protected]
