This issue includes a special section on the 1997-98 general mission study theme, Christian Living in a Violent Society. The second half of the issue explores how the new immigration and welfare reform legislation affects the immigrant population in the United States.
All photographs are copyright © The General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church and courtesy, New World Outlook magazine.
Meeting Children's Needs in Violent Times
Diane Levin, author of Whose Calling the Shots, helps parents and teachers understand how
children perceive the violence they encounter in their environment through television and other
media. She outlines ways to help children grow up healthy in our "toxic environment."
Transforming Violence
Mark Burch, author of Simplicity, has written an article about the Alternatives to Violence Project, a program with chapters throughout the United States and Canada that is making a difference in the lives of violent prisoners--and most recently in the lives of high school students.
Volunteer counselors, who have themselves undergone change through the program, help others
transform their violent rage into productive energy.
Youth and Police in Partnership
T. Brooks Shepard has contributed an article about Boston's Youth and Police in Partnership
program developed with the help of the Rev. Wesley Williams, The United Methodist Church,
and the Cooper Community Center. In the project, Hispanic and African American youth, aged
14-17, work with police to identify problems in the community and to find solutions that address
the root causes of violence in the neighborhood.
A New Start for Battered Women in Kansas City
John Stein, conference communcator for the Missouri-West Annual Conference, writes about this Kansas
City program that helps hundreds of women and their children every year. Newhouse provides
more than shelter; it helps women break the cycle of violence that torments their lives.
From Hate To Healing: Rural Chaplains on Rough Turf
The Rural Chaplains Association has forged ahead in places where many churches fear to tread--the world of hate groups and militias. Read how this grassroots organization is training rural
pastors and lay members to inform their church and other constituencies about hate groups that
operate right within their own communities.
If Everyone Prayed the Same Prayer...
In our centerfold poster, Betsy Howard gives us her own unique vision of a world where children
find peace.
A Moment to Choose: Risking to Be with Uprooted People
In our volatile world, the problem of dispaced and uprooted people just keeps growing. Church World Service has called for the year 1997 to be a year of solidarity with uprooted people.
Strangers in Our Midst: The Good Samaritan Today
Lilia Fernandez, UMCOR's coordinator of refugee ministries, compares hospitality to strangers
with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The new welfare and immigration reform laws are
spelled out in terms of how they will affect immigrants in our communities.
People of the Golden Vision
Do you remember the Golden Vision ship that ran aground in the New York harbor in 1993 with
hundreds of undocumented people from China on board? Joan Marushkin writes about an
interfaith group in York, Pennsylvania that has never forgotten--and continues to work for the
release of prisoners who are still held without trial or due process of law.
The Roots of Our Heritage--I Was There
Last November, editors Alma Graham and Christie House went their separate ways to the same
celebration, the 50th Anniversary of the Evangelical United Brethren Church. Read about the
celebrations in Dayton, Ohio, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania in this issue.
Time to Think About the New Mission Studies Already?
You'd better believe it! Regional Schools of Christian Mission are gearing up for the spring and
summer months, and New World Outlook is gearing up for the Brazil study in its May-June 1997
issue. Here's a look at what we're preparing....
Christie R. House traveled with missionary Paul Jeffrey who serves in the Honduras, and with Barbara Pessoa, a long-time mission coordinator for the Latin America region, to visit 5 different areas of Brazil last August. We met with national church leaders, pastors, local church members, lay leaders, project coordinators, and hundreds of beautiful children to bring you up-to-date coverage on what the Methodist Church in Brazil is up to.
Mission and Missionaries... A look at the history of Methodist missionaries in Brazil and the present-day mission philosophies of the Brazilian Methodist Church. Did you know that every episcopal conference in Brazil sends its own missionaries to the two northern frontier regions of the country: the Northwest and the Northeast missionary conferences?
From the Brazilian Church... The Brazilian Council of Bishops decided upon the four projects they most wanted United States readers to hear about. You can read articles contributed directly from Brazilian writers on Boias Frias, a project to assist migrant workers in the South; Alto da Bondade, a project in Recife to provide daycare and education to a poor community; the Methodist Educational Institute of Altamira in Para, the Amazon region; and the church's work with Native Brazilians in central Brazil.
From Prize-winning photojournalist Paul Jeffrey...
Paul will be contributing a number of articles to this issue--about the indigenous population in
Mato Grosso do Sul, and about community health care projects developed through churches in
Recife and Porto Velho. He'll also provide an update on ministries and advocacy for street
children in Brazil. Look forward to an issue of his renowned photos--the beauty and the tragedy,
the pain and the hope in the people of Brazil.
It's a birthday celebration!
The ADVANCE for Christ and His Church has been generating funds
for Christian mission for half a century now and we intend to celebrate the 50th anniversary in a
big way. Visit us next month for more news on this up-and-coming issue.
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