Corpus Christi UM commissioned as missionary

A Corpus Christi United Methodist was one of eight young adults commissioned for missionary service in the United States July 30 in New York City.
Valerie Borhauer, a member of Grace UMC, Corpus Christi, is to spend the next two years as a school liaison/education assistant at the UM-related David & Margaret Home in LaVerne, Calif.
She goes there as part of the General Board of Global Ministries’ US-2 short-term missionary program.
US-2s serve for two years in mission assignments in the United States. Some go to community centers or other denominational institutions. Others serve in congregation-based ministries.
US-2 missionaries must be between 20 and 30, be college graduates or have equivalent life experience, and be connected to The United Methodist Church through local congregations or campus ministries.
Borhauer is part of the 54th annual class of US-2 missionaries.
The commissioning service took place as part of morning worship July 30 at Christ Church United Methodist in New York City.
Bishop Jeremiah J. Park of the New York Episcopal Area officiated at the commissioning. He was assisted by John Peterson, a young adult director of the United Methodist mission board, and staff members from both the mission agency and Christ Church.
They laid hands on the eight young missionaries. That act symbolizes the Holy Spirit’s igniting of Barnabas and Saul into mission service. That event is reported in Acts.
“The call of God is always profound, and our response can be no less extraordinary,” Park said.
In his sermon, the Rev. Stephen P. Bauman, senior pastor of Christ Church, commended the young missionaries for doing “good and holy work.”
“The US-2 program is nourishing ground for future United Methodist leadership,” said the Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive of the mission board. “These young adults have a deep commitment to Jesus Christ and to the church. They are smart, alert, filled with compassion, and willing to work hard. We praise God for them.”
Many United Methodist leaders on national, annual conference and local levels have been US-2 missionaries, Day noted.
Joining Park Peterson in the act of commissioning were the Rev. Edith Gleaves, deputy general secretary of the mission board for mission personnel, and three Christ Church pastors.
Gleaves gave each new missionary an anchor cross, an early Christian icon.
“Christian mission can be a perilous mission,” she said. “The anchor cross is a reminder to be firmly rooted in faith, hope, and love.”
The new missionaries recited the Wesley covenant prayer. It began with the words, “I am no longer my own, but thine.”
The missionaries wrote their own litany of commitment, asking “for God’s empowerment in our attempts to be catalysts of social change.” The eight dedicated themselves “to our planet… to each other…to the inherent value of all persons… to economic integrity… to justice…and to harmony.”
During the three weeks before commissioning, the young people spent almost all of their waking hours together studying, praying and learning. They discussed faith, leadership, the journey ahead, mission work and United Methodism with each other and with staff members from the mission board.