MISSION MEMO

History-Making Missioners of Hope
NCC To Celebrate Fiftieth Anniversary
News From the UMCOR Hotline
Korean United Methodist Killed
Missionary Deaths

History-Making Missioners of Hope

The United Methodist Church made history on July 16 at Kitwe, Zambia, when the General Board of Global Ministries held its first commissioning service outside the United States and sent into mission the largest number of African men and women ever commissioned at one time by United Methodists. The 53 new Missioners of Hope for the Children of Africa include 47 missioners from Africa and 6 from the United States. The Africans come from Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zimbabwe, the East Africa Central Conference, and the Southern Congo Annual Conference. They and 8 US missioners (2 of whom were commissioned at the GBGM's spring meeting) will serve in Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, being assigned exclusively to ministries for children. The Missioners of Hope program, with a 3- to 5-year term of service, is a response to the United Methodist Council of Bishops' "Hope for the Children of Africa" appeal.

NCC To Celebrate Fiftieth Anniversary

The National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary November 9-12 in Cleveland, Ohio. According to retired GBGM executive Betty Thompson, an award-winning journalist who serves on the NCC anniversary steering committee, the celebration can "help shape the quest for Christian unity in the new century." Thompson pointed out that "the Protestant and Orthodox churches have a far less visible role in US society than they did in the first decades of the council's life. Whether they can work together to make an impact on a vastly changed world," she continued, "may be determined at the Cleveland meeting." There, the multifaith dialogue will also include Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish panelists. The Rev. Bruce Robbins, of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, expressed a hope that the NCC would broaden its base in the future by including Roman Catholics, evangelicals, and Pentecostals.

News From the UMCOR Hotline

As thousands of refugees return to Kosovo, UMCOR staff in Pristina and in Skopje, Macedonia, are coordinating recovery efforts. UMCOR teams in Macedonia are rebuilding and reconstructing homes, rehabilitating and dismantling camps, and providing landmine-awareness training. You can aid the recovery efforts through donations to UMCOR Advance # 982450-8, Kosovo refugee crisis. You may also join in UMCOR's emergency response efforts to the flood damage in Iowa and Wisconsin by giving to Domestic Disaster Response, UMCOR Advance #901670-1.

Korean United Methodist Killed

Tragedy hit the United Methodist family on Sunday, July 4, in front of the Korean United Methodist church in Bloomington, Indiana, when an active new member of the congregation, 26- year-old Won-Joon Yoon, was shot in the back and killed. Charged with the death was 21-year- old Benjamin Smith, identified as a former member of the World Church of the Creator, which espouses White supremacy. In a two-state shooting spree over the holiday weekend, Smith targeted African Americans, Jews, and Asians, finally taking his own life. Yoon came to the United States from Seoul, South Korea; completed a master's degree in economics at the University of Southern Illinois; and moved to Bloomington five weeks before his death to begin work on a doctorate at Indiana University. The Rev. Dr. Randolph Nugent, General Secretary of the GBGM, noted that "his death, which came at the hand of someone filled with hate, is a sign to all of us that we must work harder to bring the kind of acceptance that Jesus represented in the world. Should we fail, Yoon's death is a harbinger of what yet may be to come."

DEATHS

Lois Mary Davidson, retired missionary with 20 years of service in Mexico, died December 28, 1998...Joanne Preul, retired deaconess with 28 years of service in the United States, died March 4, 1999...Mildred Sweet, retired deaconess with 35 years of service in the United States, died March 4, 1999...Barbara D. Norris, retired missionary with 21 years of service in Zaire (Congo), died April 30, 1999...Leveta K. Bentley, retired missionary with 6 years of service in Taiwan, died May 12, 1999...Anne Smeland, retired missionary with 19 years of service in Japan, died May 19, 1999...Gladys Ward, retired missionary with 44 years of service in Hong Kong, died June 2, 1999...Marjory V. Havens, retired deaconess having 16 years of service with the Baltimore Conference, died June 5, 1999...Rosie Ann Cobb, retired home missionary and deaconess with 30 years of service at Sager Brown Home and Godman School, Baldwin, LA, died June 11, 1999...Leslie Scott Cook, retired missionary with 3 years of service in Panama, died June 19, 1999.