Help Rhonda Everdyke, Our Communications Director, change the lives of women around the world! Rhonda is an appointed Delegate for the United Nation’s Commission on Women for 2012. She will need to spend almost two weeks in NYC at her own cost for the UN’s conference.

I am writing to you today to ask for your support in this effort.

This Delegate position is an unpaid position. I will be volunteering time over the next year, but will be in NYC for 16 days which I am responsible for the costs. I am hoping that this Thanksgiving season you will be able to support me in this cause and mission to send along whatever you may give for me to be in a very expensive city for over two weeks being a part of something so big.

Please send check, money order, or cash in the enclosed envelope to our office — writing UN NYC Trip in the memo line if you could:

Rhonda Everdyke

2472 State Route 54A

Penn Yan, NY 14527

To find out more information about this Commission, please go to: www.unwomen.org.

Thank you for all taking the time to read this short blog. You have at one time or another may have heard my passion about global issues or about my other mission trips and with that I hope I have been able to make a small difference in sharing stories from around the world and the struggles of so many women.

Joelle welcomes Rhonda Everdyke as the Guest Blogger!

The power of our community has shown bright heading into our member trip to NYC this weekend! 36 of us Presbytery of Geneva members will be in NYC working to spread the word of the mistreatment of the youngest world citizens. We have a fun-filled weekend ahead of us with an important mission project on Saturday! Our multigenerational group of members will be visiting the United Nations and we are bringing over 250 paper “red hands” to this meeting from people in the Finger Lakes region from churches, community events, and family and friends of the trip participants.

Thank you to all of you who we have YOUR hands with us! Our local “red hands” will be sent all over the world to governments that still do not say NO to child soldiers existing in their countries. Talk about connecting local mission to global concerns!

This issue is a scary one– to think that small children can be used in a time of war and conflict. We felt as a community, we needed to do something while on this enjoyable trip to NYC for a holiday weekend. This concern for these global children is also a personal one for me.

In my pre-Presbytery of Geneva life, I traveled to third world countries to promote peace building skills and was a resource to the countries I visited. I went to Sri Lanka as their 26 year civil war was ending and I at the time was ironically 26. I looked around at this country as I saw my “peers” who knew nothing of peace, nothing but war and did not know what it was like to have an actual childhood. There was a true fear in their eyes and mystery talking about what peace looks like.
I visited several “child rehabilitation” centers while there. What a chilling course of events. The rooms were filled with children living there getting an education, medical and mental health attention…most for the first time in their young lives. These places had been set up for children after the war ended to come and work on themselves after being forced to fight, forced to be a part of such an adult world for most of their lives. I still can never forget their faces, their fear, and the way their bodies looked after such a life. I am proud to currently be working at a place where we care about these young people, want to share their story, and want to stand up for others just like them around the world.
While on such missions, I always wondered about the young people’s voice in all of this. Where was it? Some countries, like Kenya, it was so loud and empowering, in others like Sri Lanka and India, not so much. With young people being heard and a part of the conversation, it really can change the world! We at the Presbytery are looking for more ways to empower our own youth in our organization and with this trip, we have a wide age range of people going and I hope the young people will hear these stories about child soldiers and that visiting the UN have a deep impact on them and may help them discover a stronger voice for our organization, community, and the world.

Get Involved:
• Visit the Presbytery office and pick up some Red Hand Advocacy Postcards
• Blog: http://www.pcusa.org/blogs/swords-plowshares/
• Presbyterian Ministry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PresbyterianMinistryUN
• Red Hands Campaign on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PresbyteriansSayNoChildSoldiers

Rhonda Everdyke lives in the Finger Lakes area working for the Presbytery of Geneva as the organization’s Communications Director.