All General Board of Global Ministries missionaries and mission volunteers have been safely removed from the troubled areas of Uvira, Bukavu and Goma in Zaire.
Missionary Niels French, site manager in Uvira, was the last person flown out of the area, in a United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) airlift to Nairobi, Kenya.
Three volunteers, Lori Baldwin of Illinois, Scott Manzur of New York, and Scott Kline of New Jersey, departed Zaire for Nairobi, Kenya two weeks ago and now have returned to the United States. Two other volunteers from the Methodist Church of Kenya, Jennifer Murungi and Johnstone Oketch, have returned home to Kenya. All five served in the Volunteers for Africa project of the General Board of Global Ministries.
The volunteer teams have been involved in projects ranging from medicine and dentistry to housing and construction in an area recently wracked by border skirmishes with neighboring Rwanda and conflicts between refugees and residents. We moved our missionaries and volunteers out of the troubled area at the recommendation of Bishop Onema Fama, Resident Bishop of the Central Zaire area. Bishop Onema remains in contact with his congregations and church workers and will advise the Board of the most effective manner in which to redeploy our personnel to continue the vital mission work in the area.
The removal of Global Ministries staff and project volunteers workers was coordinated by Missionary Lydia Templeton, Country Manager for Eastern Zaire and Dellaphine Rauch Houekpon, GBGM/UMCOR Head of Missions for Zaire.
Recently retired Bishop Forrest Stith of New York, the project manager for Volunteers for Africa, was on leave in the United States at the time of the crisis, but remained in close contact with staff assigned to the special ministry
Associate General Secretary for Mission Personnel John McCullough, who coordinated the effort from New York, has high praise for our people in the area. Rev. McCullough says, "It is comforting to know that our personnel acted with such professionalism in time of crisis. I am also very thankful for the cooperative spirit of our volunteers, all of whom demonstrate the extraordinary commitment to mission that is so important to this project ."
We look forward to returning to the area as quickly as possible to continue our vital ministry. We will provide regular briefings and updates on the situation.
Contact: Charles Cole (212) 870-3785. E-mail: ccole@gbgm-umc.org.
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