Sunday School classes, youth groups and others in local churches across the United Methodist Texas Annual Conference are learning about mission as they pack two- and five-pound plastic bags full of rice.
It's part of a famine relief project for North Korea that has drawn in other denominations and will result in a shipload full of supplies. An agreement reached July 22 secured the free use of a ship and crew from Friend Ships, an ecumenical organization based in Los Angeles.
The project's driving force has been Jesse Stokely, a member of First United Methodist Church in Houston and former owner of Stokely Foods.
"I’m focusing the next four months of my life night and day on this," he said in a telephone interview.
Since 1993, he's been involved in organizing conference shipments of food to Russia, Armenia, Latin America and Haiti. Last November, Stokely said, he was approached by F. Lloyd Rollins, an assistant general secretary at the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), about focusing on relief to North Korea and about the possibility of creating a grain bank in south Texas.
"We went out and started to talk to rice farmers and rice mills and seed growers," he added.
Stokely received commitments for 250 metric tons of rice, which is currently being bagged.
The project has expanded so much that it has spawned its own group, the Christian Alliance for Humanitarian Aid Inc. Although United Methodists have taken the lead, the alliance includes Episcopalians, Catholics and Southern Baptists, and other denominational partners are expected to join later.
Stokely called it "a great ecumenical thrust of love and cooperation."
The ship can hold 8 to 10 million pounds, and loading will begin once it has docked in Houston in September. The estimated cargo will be about 150,000 food boxes, including the bagged 250 tons of rice, and as much as 4 million pounds of fertilizer, along with medical supplies and seeds.
The ship will leave port in November or December, bound for North Korea.
"We know that the food volume in that country, until winter hits again, is OK," Rollins said. But, he explained, there is not enough fresh food in North Korea to store for the winter months. "These foods are going to get there when they most desperately need them."
Although the famine has eased, the continuing widespread food shortage has left North Korea's population weak and vulnerable to disease, according to Erich Weingartner, who serves with the U.N. World Food Programme in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Weingartner, who tracks humanitarian aid arriving from nongovernmental organizations, reported on North Korea's situation during a visit to the United States in early July. He noted that the World Food Programme had made a particular effort to feed children up to age 6, with the result that "we are not seeing the same extent of malnutrition this year."
In addition to the shipload of supplies, the Christian Alliance for Humanitarian Aid is collecting money to buy another 3 million pounds of rice, which would be shipped from a nearby Asian country. That purchase is planned in October, Rollins said.
Stokely is seeking long-term volunteers to assist with the project and sail with the ship.
"They don't have to work too hard on board, but we need some help loading and delivering," he explained.
Anyone interested in making a six- to seven-month commitment can get more information by calling the UMCOR Volunteer Line at (800) 918-3100.
July 24, 1998
Please give to UMCOR Advance #226435, North Korea Emergency. Give through your local United Methodist church or send financial contributions to: UMCOR, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Call 1-800-554-8583 to make a credit card donation. One hundred percent of your gift goes to relief efforts in North Korea. United Methodists' generous giving to the One Great Hour of Sharing, part of their ongoing contribution to mission around the world, supplements the cost of Advance gifts.
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of the United Methodist Church.
United Methodist Committee on Relief
Room 330, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115
Voice Phone: 212-870-3816; FAX: 212-749-2641
Email: umcor@gbgm-umc.org
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