wfn.org | Cooperative Work in Cambodia

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3416 notes).

Note 3415 by UMNS on Feb. 5, 1997 at 15:55 Eastern (2724 characters).

SEARCH: Methodist, Cambodia, evangelism, mission,
          Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news
agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville,
Tenn., New York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                       61(10-21-33-71B){3415}
          New York (212)870-3803                      Feb. 5, 1997

Methodists cooperate 
on mission in Cambodia

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- United Methodists are cooperating with
Methodists in other parts of the world to promote evangelism and
mission work in Cambodia.
     Working with United Methodists "as equal partners," according
to the Rev. S.T. Kimbrough, associate general secretary of mission
evangelism for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries,
are Methodists in Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, France and
Switzerland.
     Kimbrough and other board staff who visited Cambodia in
January, reported on the trip at a Feb. 4 briefing here.
     The denomination has long participated in ecumenical relief
work in Cambodia, donating millions of dollars to rescue a country
where an estimated two million people died in the 1970s under the
Pol Pot regime.
     Cambodia has been operating under a coalition government
since 1993. The relief work, though winding down, is continuing
through Church World Service (CWS), the relief agency of the
National Council of Churches (NCC). A new model of how to do
mission is emerging, according to the Rev. Kenneth Lutgen, chief
executive of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).
     Lutgen considers these new opportunities to build faith
communities with other Methodist partners "a watershed moment" in
mission.
     Beyond evangelism, the effort will focus on education, health
care, sanitation, leadership training and other needs, Lutgen
said.
     Part of the push has come from Cambodian refugees now living
in the United States, according to the Rev. David Wu, the board's
assistant general secretary of connectional relations. 
     He offered as an example a woman whose family was brought to
the United States under the sponsorship of the Santa Ana (Calif.)
United Methodist Church.
     A woman at the church befriended her and she wanted to know
why. "She followed this woman to the church and there she made the
connection to the name of Jesus," he reported.
     She shared her faith among other refugees and Cambodian
congregations were established. These groups then wanted to spread
the word back in Cambodia.
     Accomplishing that mission means learning how to grasp the
rich culture of a country in which 95 percent of its 11 million
inhabitants are Buddhist, said Kimbrough.
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