MISSION MEMO

• UMCOR Aids Victims of Hurricane Floyd
• UMCOR To Distribute Goods From US Base
• ACT Aids Refugees From East Timor
• GBGM Executives Appointed to WCC Commissions
• Deaths

UMCOR Aids Victims of Hurricane Floyd

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has committed $100,000 to help eastern North Carolina recover from Hurricane Floyd, whose heavy rains caused devastating floods in the state, swelling rivers, submerging entire towns, knocking out electric power, and closing long stretches of interstate highway. UMCOR sent 1200 five-gallon buckets with disinfectant and other cleaning materials, vacuums for removing water and mud, power washers, and generators, plus initial grants of $10,000 each to the Wilmington, New Bern, Greenville, and Elizabeth City districts. The relief agency is working on a long-term response plan with Bishop Marion M. Edwards of Raleigh, NC, and is taking part in an ecumenical relief effort in New Jersey, where the town of Bound Brook was inundated. Work teams willing to help with cleanup may call 800-849-4433, ext. 254. Individual volunteers may call the UMCOR volunteer line at 800-918-3100. Donations for flood relief can be made to UMCOR through Hurricanes '99, Advance # 982460-1.

UMCOR To Distribute Goods From US Base

Thanks to the fact that an employee of the US Department of Defense was highly impressed by the work done in Bosnia by the United Methodist Committee on Relief, UMCOR is being given more than 27,000 items worth an estimated $3 million to distribute to nations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The occasion for the gift is the closing of the US military base in the Panama Canal Zone on December 31. Tom Griner, director of United Methodist Volunteers In Mission for the Florida Conference, is coordinating the effort to distribute the goods. It was he who alerted Robert Walton and Paul Dirdak of the General Board of Global Ministries and obtained an initial UMCOR grant of $10,000 to ship the goods. A drive to raise another $25,000 is under way.

ACT Aids Refugees From East Timor

UMCOR's ecumenical partner, ACT (Action by Churches Together), has been responding to East Timorese refugees who have fled to West Timor to escape the campaign of terror waged by pro-Indonesia militias in their homeland. On September 4, the UN announced that 78.5 percent of East Timor's people had voted for independence from Indonesia. Though militia violence did not prevent the vote, it quickly followed, uprooting half of East Timor's population and killing hundreds. Some 200,000 East Timorese have fled to West Timor, where ACT is building shelters for refugee families. Another 190,000 people are believed to be displaced within East Timor. The militias have targeted church leaders for death. On September 10, the General Secretary of the Christian Church of East Timor, the Rev. Francisco de Vasconcelos Ximenes, was fatally shot. His last words were: "Please voice our voices." In another incident, two Roman Catholic nuns, two seminarians, the local head of the Catholic relief agency Caritas, two volunteers, their driver, and an Indonesian journalist were killed by militiamen. To respond to the crisis in East Timor, please give to UMCOR's International Disaster Response, Advance #982450-8, and designate your gift "East/West Timor."

GBGM Executives Appointed to WCC Commissions

Two executives of the General Board of Global Ministries have been appointed to commissions of the World Council of Churches. Associate General Secretary Deborah Bass will serve on the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, while Assistant General Secretary Lois Dauway will join the Churches' Commission on International Affairs. Both applauded the WCC's declaration of an Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence, 2001-2010.

DEATHS

Caroline R. Robinson, retired missionary with 19 years of service in southern Congo, died May 17, 1999...Edna Foss, retired missionary with 30 years of service in the Philippines, died June 29, 1999...Ruth H. Peters, retired missionary with 10 years of service in Korea, died July 9, 1999...Alex C. Queen, retired missionary with 2 years of service in India, died July 10, 1999...Edwin T. Bower, retired missionary with 37 years of service in Chile, died July 29, 1999...Alta Jane Ice, retired deaconess with 39 years of service in the United States, died July 31, 1999...Judy Montgomery, former Associate Director of the GBGM's Mission Resource Center in Atlanta, Georgia, who had served as a US-2 and a missionary in the Marshall Islands, died August 7, 1999, at the age of 54.