2019: Three UWD Scholarships Awarded in Jamaica
Sallie Greenfield of Winston-Salem, NC, has been interested in the World Mission of the Moravian Church since she can remember. Her mother was a young school teacher in the 1920’s when the call went out for a principal of a new Nicaraguan school. Despite being a young, unmarried woman, she quickly accepted the position and traveled to Nicaragua in a banana boat. Sallie explained that her mother “always said she left part of her heart in Nicaragua.” From the very beginning, Sallie heard about her mother’s one-of-a-kind experience teaching in Nicaragua and became interested in Moravian missions abroad. In this vein, she was a force in founding the Unity Women’s Desk and lives by their purpose of creating change around the globe for Moravian Women.
After her six-day experience, in February of 2019, in Jamaica visiting some of the 64 Moravian Churches and presenting scholarships to promising Jamaican young women, Sallie sat down for a phone call to talk about what she learned. She’d never been to Jamaica before this trip to present the scholarships, but she said, when she found out about this wonderful nursing scholarship through the Unity Women’s Desk, she was immediately impassioned. Sallie has a lot of love for these scholarships because “when the Unity Women’s Desk gives a Scholarship, it’s not just for one year or one semester. It’s until that young woman completes her education.”
On the day of the presentation, the recipients came up one-by one. One certificate was for nursing and the other two were for girls entering secondary school. Sallie awarded them their scholarship certificate in front of their families and many Jamaican Moravian leaders. “I hope that we can do more of that!” she exclaimed.
Sallie brimmed with joy about her experience in Jamaica, saying “the Moravian missionaries [to Jamaica] are well respected, but now, they need to send missionaries to us! They are just full of the Spirit and devoted to their churches. It was very, very exciting.”
However, she joked about Moravians liking to eat and explained that “the best thing I had, and the best I’ve ever had in my life, was pineapple.” She claims that Jamaican fresh pineapple is “to die for.” The young woman at the hotel cut and peeled her own pineapple and put it in plastic bags and so she could bring some home with her. Sallie loved her experience in Jamaica, but said she was most impressed by the Jamaican hospitality. It reinforced her belief in that sense of a Moravian brother and sisterhood to be served with such lovingkindness and genuine generosity.
Sallie says that she’s already making plans for her next trip abroad!
3/28/2019 by Sam Shaw, UWD Intern, Salem College ’20.