wfn.org | Work team opportunities available in Spain

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 2, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
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By United Methodist News Service				

Volunteer teams are being sought to work on projects in Spain, ranging
from repair of a church in Madrid to rehabilitation of a campsite at the
foot of the Pyrenees Mountains.

The Rev. Walter Whitehurst, director of United Methodist Volunteers in
Mission, Southern Jurisdiction Office of Coordination, is recommending
the teams travel to Spain between November and April, when airfares are
lower.

Teams will work at one of five projects established through the Spanish
Evangelical Church, a 125-year-old denomination that includes
Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Congregationalists. Spanish
Methodists merged into the denomination in 1955 and the 1996 United
Methodist General Conference established a "covenant of collaboration"
with the Spanish Evangelical Church..

It was that covenant, along with input from the Rev. Horacio Rios,
former editor of the Spanish version of The Upper Room, which led to the
development of the projects. Rios has been working as a volunteer pastor
in Spain for the past four years.

Although Spain is making great strides as part of the European Common
Market, "this church is still a small denomination (3,500 members) and
has limited resources," Whitehurst explained. "Many of their buildings
are very old and two of them are church buildings that need some repairs
that teams can do."

The church projects are in Madrid and in Reyus, in the southwest
province of Andalucia. Another project in Andalucia is a former seminary
building in Puerto de Santa Maria. There, the church wants to make two
apartments available and eventually remodel the entire building for its
ministries, he said. The denomination's current seminary is in Madrid.

The other two projects are just outside Barcelona. The Spanish
government has loaned the church two floors of a former castle for its
refugee program. Teams would stay in the castle, make repairs on the
building, relate to the refugees and a nearby church whose pastor also
directs the refugee center, according to Whitehurst.

Teams also are needed to make improvements at a campsite in the
foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains nearby.

More information about the projects is available by contacting
Whitehurst at (404) 659-5060 or by e-mail at sejumvim@compuserve.com.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/