The Pacific Network for Mission Education (PNME) is a Christian ecumenical organization with roots in the global mission education movements of the early 1900s.
For over a 100 years PNME, and it’s predecessor PSCWCM (Pacific Southwest Conference on World Christian Mission), has worked to support mission education with mainline Protestant denominational mission education bodies and ecumenical councils, evangelical mission organizations and overseas NGO’s, interfaith, Catholic, and ecumenical justice organizations, and local congregations.
Until 2010 PNME co-sponsored conferences and travel opportunities for service and learning to China, Malaysia, and Ecuador. PNME has also co-sponsored inter faith dialogue on issues of peace with Islamic, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist and other faith traditions.
In 2011 PNME made a decision to change it focus. It would now use it’s funds to providing grants that let recipients take part in mission-based approaches to learning offered by other organizations.
PNME desire is to introduce people to Christian mission in the world. PNME seeks to offer grants that helps participants grow and expand their understandings of mission and see how they can participate in positive change in the world.
PNME’s objective is to encourage and enable mission education experience whose objective is to further the justice and compassion urged by Christ. PNME seeks to facilitate cross cultural experiences by participants who will widely share their reflection, experience and knowledge with others.
Successful applicants should…
- be prepared to share, educate and proclaim to others what they have learned from their mission experience once they return home with a plan to accomplish these goals
- be part of a Christian faith community
- have a passion for learning and being involved in what God is doing through Faith communities around the world
The project/mission should focus on…
- individuals rather than organizations or groups.
- West Coast US residents.
- experiences outside of the US or in places where there there are cross cultural opportunities.
- learning rather than service projects although service projects are considered when they have a strong educational component and/or a mentoring component.
Grants are limited to a short term experience of less than 3 or 4 months and $1000.
PNME has seen some wonderful results from the grants they have been able to offer and will continue to offer grants to individuals. But the board of PNME has been disappointed in the number of request that truly meet the objectives of their grants. This frustration lead the board to entertain an additional way of supporting mission education.
PNME NEW PROJECT MISSION/EDUCATION GRANTS
PNME is now open to receiving request for grants that might nurture a new mission/education vision or idea that would take a larger grant to help make this event possible. Because of PNME’s funding these grants would need to be limited to no more than $8,000. These grants could be used to help make a new mission/education project possible. This projects could be offered by denominational bodies, individual churches or groups of churches or other Christian groups involved in mission education. The focus will still be on West Coast groups and bodies.
Here is the example of one such group project
The Justice-Coffee Project
This project was born out of the vision of PNME board member Karl Shadley. For some time PNME has not been receiving request for it’s small grants that fit the goals of the PNME board. At one of the PNME board meetings Karl asked if he could try and develop a project that would fit the goals and values of the organization. As part of this vision Karl asked PNME members if we would consider a larger grant to support the creation of this new project.
In 2016 PNME approved a grant of $8,000 to send 7 youth and 3 adults do Palin Guatemala to learn how folks in the US could come alongside coffee farmers in Guatemala to help them sell their coffee beans at a price that would allow them to participate more fully in the value added steps in the coffee industry. This new project would not have been possible without the greater support of PNME.
La Ceiba Justice-Coffee Project mission/education trip video. This video shares some of what the group experienced on it’s July 2016 Mission Education Trip mission/education trip to Palin Guatemala. This is the trip where the team learned how they might help an indigenous/mayan coffee cooperative sell their coffee beans to a roaster in Oakland CA.
In November of 2016 PNME approved a second grant for $2,000 to the La Ceiba Justice-Coffee mission/education project. By now Farm2Cup was formed to help support the growing work with the La Ceiba cooperativa. On this trip the group was able to be part of the integration of he new wet coffee mill that was bought by supporters of Farm2Cup. Now the farmers were able to have a dry coffee bean that could be sold to a coffee roaster in the US. As a result of this trip 4 new people were introduced to this important mission/partnership work and the cooperativa was able to sell 19,000 lbs of their raw coffee beans to Red Bay Coffee Roasters in Oakland CA. This was first for an indigenous coffee cooperativa.
Farm2Cup, and it’s partner churches, continue to take new people to Guatemala to learn about how this coffee-justice projects works and to become part of this good work. Farm2Cup has introduced coffee roasters and buyers, a phd student in economics, educators, pastors, college and high school students, photographers, videographer, business persons, denominational leaders and more to this mission. Maybe the most amazing thing is how people who had given up on the church of their youth as an agent of change and justice and now are completely supportive of this new partnership of church, community and business in doing mission, facilitating justice in the world.
None of this mission/education work would be possible without the support of PNME. In fact, this project would not have started without PNME’s support and encouragement.