STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS) -- When members of the United Methodist Church in Geneva, Ill., raised $4 million for a new building a few years ago, they decided to use one percent of that money for mission elsewhere.

The $40,000 gift helped renovate a United Methodist church in Kaunas, Lithuania that had been shut down by the government years before. It is one of a number of projects sponsored by the Millennium Fund for Mission of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

During the board's Oct. 18-21 annual meeting, the Rev. Melissa Early, pastor of the Geneva church, told board directors how the project had energized her congregation and served as "a constant reminder and focal point that our church is not just about (its) building."

The work of the fund also was lauded in a dinner honoring mission pioneers.

Launched in April 1997 as a six-year project, the Millennium Fund was established to support church-related building or renovation projects in Africa, Europe and urban centers of the United States.

The Board of Global Ministries contributed $9 million in funds made from investments to jump-start the Millennium Fund and has challenged all United Methodists to match that amount. Church members also are asked to contribute volunteer time, equipment and supplies and make promotional efforts for the fund.

In inner-city Baltimore, Md., the Millennium Fund has helped the Rev. Brian Jackson return to serve the community where he grew up.

Jackson is director of the Holy Boldness Regional Center, which offers such ministries as a "youth check" counseling program for troubled children and a shelter for homeless women and their children. In one neighborhood where the unemployment rate is 94 percent United Methodists and others have organized to acquire a vacant school that they plan to use as a citywide empowerment center, he said.

Grants for other Millennium Fund projects have included $340,000 to help complete the Baltic Mission Center in Tallinn, Estonia; $195,000 to build four churches, four parsonages and four preschools in Zimbabwe; $500,000 to build a church for a growing congregation in Varna, Bulgaria; and $90,000 for buildings to serve nine new congregations in Angola. As part of its efforts to continue to raise matching funds, the Board of Global Ministries hosted a Millennium Fund Recognition Dinner during its meeting to serve as a model for similar jurisdictional or annual (regional) conference events.

The dinner included recognition of 14 United Methodists with the board's first Awards for Distinguished Mission Service.

Chris Hena, a native of Liberia and medical doctor trained in Russia, received the Anna Eklund Award, named for a Swedish deaconess who helped keep the Methodist church alive in Russia from 1908-31. Assigned to Russia in 1991, Hena became the first United Methodist missionary to serve the church there in more than 70 years.

Two men who helped make the 1968 union of the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) churches a success received the Frank Mason North Award, named for a foreign missions executive and hymnwriter of the early 1900s.

The Rev. J. Edward Carothers, 92, is a pastor, teacher and author who served with the Methodist Church Board of Missions and established the Methodist Urban Service Training program in the 1960s. The Rev. Norman W. Klump, 89, is an ecumenical leader and served as an urban ministry executive of the former EUB Church, who helped initiate its second-mile giving program for missions.

Maribeth Wilson Collins, a civic leader, philanthropist and president of the Collins Foundation, was recognized for her faithful support of mission. She received the Everell Stanton Collins Award, which is named for the late owner and manager of the Collins Pine Company. In 1940, Collins left 60 percent of his timberlands to the Methodist Board of Foreign Mission, a gift that has yielded over $100 million to fund missionary pensions.

The United Methodist bishops of Africa jointly received the Distinguished Peacemaker Award, which was accepted by Bishop Fama Onema of Central Congo. The other bishops being recognized were Bishop Emilio De Carvalho, Western Angola; Bishop Done Peter Dabale, Nigeria; Bishop J.C. Humper, Sierra Leone; Bishop Christopher Jokomo, Zimbabwe; Bishop Kainda Katembo, Southern Congo; Bishop Arthur Kulah, Liberia; Bishop Joao Somane Machado, Mozambique; Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa, East Africa; and Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo, North Katanga, Congo.

The Millennium Fund is part of the General Advance of the United Methodist Church. General contributions can be made to Advance No. 9822200-0. Gifts for U.S. urban projects should be directed to Advance No. 982701-2; for Africa, to Advance No. 011111-0 XX, and for Europe, Advance No. 000396-OR-A. Checks can be placed in local church collection plates or mailed directly to:

Advance GCFA
P.O. Box 9068, GPO
New York, NY 10087-9068.

October 22, 1999

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, New York, and Washington.