wfn.org | Missionaries Return to Congo

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (440
notes).

Note 435 by UMNS on Nov. 6, 1997 at 16:20 Eastern (1848 characters).

CONTACT:	Linda Bloom					623(10-21-71B){435}
		New York (212) 870-3803				  Nov. 6, 1997

Most missionaries
to return to Congo

			by United Methodist News Service

	Most of the United Methodist missionaries assigned to the Democratic Republic
of Congo will return to that country in November.
	The decision was announced Nov. 4 by the Rev. John McCullough, associate
general secretary for mission personnel, United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries.
	The missionaries had been evacuated last February because of the advancing
civil war in the former Zaire. Although some had since returned to that
African country, their work generally had been confined to the Lumbumbashi
area.
	After continuing consultation with the U.S. State Department, the United
Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) and Congo's three United
Methodist episcopal leaders -- Bishop Onema Fama, Bishop Katembo Kainda and
Bishop Ntambo Nkulu Ntanda -- board officials decided the missionaries could
return to their previous places of assignment.
	The bishops have reported that conditions in the country generally are
improved, although some sections of the northeast and Great Lakes regions
remain unstable. No missionaries are assigned to those areas.
	Missionary couples Gail and Stephen Quigg, assigned to Kananga, and Laura and
Lawrence Hills, assigned to Kilwa, have been advised not to return to their
areas yet, according to McCullough. Otherwise, missionaries can return to
rural parts of Congo, including those currently in the United States for home
assignment or medical leave.
	Mission families with young children will have the option of requesting
reassignment, he said.
	The United Methodist Church in Congo serves more than 1.5 million people, of
which about half are financially-contributing members. 
#  #  #

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