Rev.
Leith & carol fujii
Rev. Leith Fujii,
visited our church February 18, 2007
(pictured with lap robe and prayer
shawl presented to him by
Roberta Lightner, from the Pray Shawl Ministry of our church)
Leith, Carol and family
Leith and Carol Fujii were appointed in
1998 by the PC(USA) to serve in Thailand in partnership with the Church of
Christ in Thailand (CCT). Leith is an instructor in English and evangelism at
the Bangkok Institute of Theology. Besides his teaching responsibilities, Leith
advises students and alumni, and serves local churches through the ministry of
the Word and Sacrament. Carol provides ministry from the home and serves
on the faculty of the Bangkok Institute of Theology, where she teaches English
to the entering class. Besides her family and teaching responsibilities at BIT,
Carol volunteers with The Well, an outreach ministry to women in prostitution.
She also enjoys helping at Lani’s international school. Carol says, "Mostly, I
enjoy and desire to live for Jesus in the relationships with my family, Thai
colleagues, neighbors and friends who do not yet know Jesus’ love for them.”
Prior to discerning a call to mission in 1998, Leith worked for Wright Community College in Chicago as an instructor in their work-force training department, providing English instruction for adults at their employment sites, and as an adjunct professor of English. While working at Wright, Leith also was an adjunct professor at North Park Theological Seminary and an interim pastor at Grace Evangelical Covenant Church.
After graduating with a bachelor of science in oceanography from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Leith served as an officer in the U.S. Navy.
On leaving the U.S. Navy, worked as an assistant to the pastor at the Church of Christ, Presbyterian, in Chicago, Illinois.
Leith holds a master of divinity in pastoral counseling from Trinity International University and a master’s in linguistics from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.
Carol holds a bachelor of arts in art education from the University of Maryland. During her university years, she was nurtured and discipled in her relationship with God through the ministry of the Navigators and the local church. Carol was an international trainee in Japan with the Navigators from 1979 to 1981.
Rev.
Donald & Laurie Marsden
Rev. Donald Mardsen and wife Laurie,
visited our church February 11, 2007
(pictured wearing prayer shawl & prayer scarf presented to them by
Roberta Lightner, from the Prayer Shawl Ministry of our church)
Donald & Laurie Mardsen, together with
their children,
Hannah, Christina and Jeremiah, where chosen by the World
Wide Ministries Division to move to Moscow in August 1997.
They began
their second term of service January 2001. Donald
is the founder of
the Narnia Educational Center in Moscow, and
an interdenominational
non-profit organization dedicated to
producing Russian-language resources
for children's ministry.
The principal denomination with which Donald
works is the
Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists of the Russian
Federation.
The Narnia Center also supports ministry
training centers for
Russian pastors and missionaries in Bryansk, Kirov,
Surgut and
Maiekop, Russia. Donald collaborates with the Presbyterian
Frontier Fellowship, in training leaders for evangelistic outreach
to the
non-Russian native reindeer-herding people groups of
western Siberia.
Laurie works with OPORA an
interdenominational Christian
ministry that trains church and other
professionals to confront
acute problems of alcoholism and drug addiction by
helping them
start Christian twelve-step programs for addicts and their
families. Laurie is working to develop the ARK. a drop in center
for
At Risk Kids of alcoholics and addicts.
During his first term of service, Donald
worked with the Union
of Evangelical Christian Baptists of the Russian
Federation in
coordinating and resourcing the sister church or "twinning"
project. (Donald's ministry in church twinning is now carried out
by the PC
(USA) mission personnel Al and Ellen Smith.)
Laurie's appointment
during her first term was to ministry in the
home. She also helped
supervise the Russian language program
at the Hinkson Christian Academy, and
English speaking school
serving the children of mission families in Moscow.
Prior to his appointment as a mission
co-worker, Donald was
associate pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church in
Richmond
Virginia. Donald's passion for mission work in Russia began
with his involvement in the Mission for Bible Literacy (MBL), a
group
committed to partnership with established churches in
Russia. In 1993
he traveled to Russia for the first time with the
MBL group. Through
the Third Presbyterian Church, Donald
led short-term mission teams to Russia
in the summers of 1994,
1995, 1996 and 1997. Curricula he wrote were
translated into
Russian so that children in the Russian summer camps could
study the same lessons as the children at Third Presbyterian
Church in
Richmond, Virginia.
Laurie holds a bachelor of arts in
religion from Middlebury
College, where she also studied French, German and
Spanish.
Donald's BA, in history, is from the University of Michigan.
He
received a Master of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary
and an MA
in Christian education from the Presbyterian School
of Christian Education
in Richmond, Virginia. Laurie is a
member of the Third Presbyterian
Church in Richmond,
Virginia, and Donald is a clergy member of the
Presbytery of the
James.