The Reverend Lyda Pierce is a General Board of Global Ministries
missionary serving in Honduras along with her husband, the
Reverend Paul Jeffrey. Appointed to the Christian Commission for
Development (CCD), Lyda provides theological reflection for CCD's
varied programs, and also serves as dean and professor at the
Honduran Theological Community-an extension campus of the Latin
American Biblical University in Costa Rica.

Lyda's work at the Honduran Theological Community, founded in
1998, involves training pastors and other church leaders in
Biblical interpretation, theological reflection, and other skills
necessary for them to proclaim God's liberating love within a
context of growing exclusion and poverty.

Lyda's work with CCD involves incorporating theological reflection
and pastoral training into rural development work in some of the
poorest rural communities in Honduras.

"I'm always being asked by people in the North what my average
day is like," says Lyda "I have to say I don't have one. Some
days I drop my children at school and go to the office, where I
sit at a desk and read, write, prepare, inform, correspond, and
coordinate with the coworkers. Other days may sound more
exciting, such as when I hiked a muddy mountain path carrying
twelve dozen eggs on my way to a two-day study and reflection
gathering with rural women, or when I was held hostage in a
psychiatric ward in the capital while trying to make connections
between different groups responding to the needs of victims of
domestic violence. Yet whatever the adventures of the day turn
out to be, I'm always conscious of the privilege I have to be
here in the name of Christ, walking with my brothers and sisters
toward a new heaven and a new earth."

Along with their children Lucas and Abigail, Lyda and Paul live
in the mountains outside Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
Before moving there in mid-1996, Lyda and Paul served for two
years in the western highlands of Guatemala. Before that, they
live for nine years in Nicaragua where they worked on the staff
of the Nicaraguan Council of Churches (CEPAD).

A native of Redding, California, Lyda is an ordained elder in the
Pacific Northwest Annual Conference. She served rural churches in
western Washington State before moving to Central America in
1984. She has a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies and
sociology from The Evergreen State College in Olympia,
Washington, and a Master of Divinity from Pacific School of
Religion, part of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,
California. In 2001, Lyda and her husband Paul were named
distinguished alums of Pacific School of Religion. In 2003, Lyda
received a a Doctor of Ministry degree from San Francisco
Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California.

Missionary Code # 009542-3NZ