 US-2s Transform Communities and in the Process, They Find Themselves Transformed |
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by Mary Beth Coudal |
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Recently, seven US-2s commissioned in 2004 shared the joys and challenges of their two years of missionary service with the New York mission office. As they have completed their assignments, they join the more than 1,300 former US-2s who continue to lead The United Methodist Church and their communities. The US-2 Program is a two-year opportunity for young people to become missionaries, deepen their faith, and learn from and work with community-based organizations. The program, more than 50 years old, is a growing mission throughout the United States through the General Board of Global Ministries. Emily Harry, from the Virginia Annual Conference, will “return to rural life,” she reported, when she goes to live and work at a Catholic Worker Farm in Northern Virginia. Her assignment as a US-2 was to advocate for workers with the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice (IWJ) in Chicago Illinois. One strategy Ms. Harry learned through the IWJ program was to educate people on fair labor practices through advocacy within church and faith-based newsletters. In particular, she remembered the time when the IWJ was in negotiations with Cintas Corp., the largest producer of uniforms in the United States, about their history of discrimination. Harry saw the power of the faith connection, when “eventually these inserts were placed in enough church bulletins that one of the mid-level managers at Cintas saw their company in their own church bulletin and started making some calls.” “This is what got management and the workers talking; it was the religious community taking a stand and pledging not to use Cintas products until a fair contract is signed. I’ve learned this past year that God will indeed make our feet like deer so we can run upon the heights,” explained Harry. Kandis Samuels, from the Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference, also worked on behalf of the disenfranchised in one of her assignments with the Hampden Family Center in Baltimore, Maryland. This Fall, she will be studying global health in graduate school at George Washington University in Washington, DC. “One day while helping with homework, I hear Sara say, ‘Ummmmmm, Ms. Kandis, I had an accident.’ As I scramble to tend to her needs, I question why I decided to become a US-2 Missionary. Changing a second grader was not what I had been commissioned to do. I was commissioned to follow Micah 6:8, not mediate between staff members or explain the relevance of algebra to a fifth grader,” laughed Ms. Samuels. “But at the end of the day, I realize that I am following Micah 6:8, I am living a life of service, and trying to do what is right. I’m learning to put my selfish needs aside and help those who are truly in need. Whether that means changing a second grader or helping someone pay their electric bill, it all amounts to a life of service.” Part of the life of service for these young missionaries is the discovery that in helping communities grow, they themselves grow. According to Elizabeth Matthews, who is from the Texas Annual Conference, and who is bound for Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, “[As a US-2] I became an adult. I had to make community and ask for friends. I learned how to grow up.” “I learned I had much more ability than I gave myself credit for,” reported Donna Wheeler who is from the Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference. She developed curriculum and worked with children at the SMART Body Program, part of the ministry of the Wilkinson Center in Dallas, Texas. She will move to South Maryland to teach elementary school. Among the seven young adult missionaries who visited the General Board of Global Ministries last week, three are returning to the work they began as US-2s. The Rev. Stephen Goldstein, mission executive, reported that it is not unusual for US-2s to return to their placement sites. Rachel Harvey from Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference assigned to First United Methodist Church in Vermillion, South Dakota will continue to work as the director of Coffee Loft, an ecumenical ministry. The others who are returning to their missionary placement sites are: Andrew Jordan from Tennessee Annual Conference, who works with the Bonner Scholars at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, North Carolina; and Amy Brown, from the North Alabama Annual Conference assigned to Central United Methodist Church in Detroit, Michigan.
Date posted: Jun 27, 2006 |
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