wfn.org | MBM hopes for two Quest sites by fall 2000

[Beth Hawn]

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To:  'Worldwide Faith News'
Date: 1999-03-03 15:28
Priority: 3
Message ID: 2F7CC4747765BE11810A7611E65C8882
Conversation ID: MBM hopes for two Quest sites by fall 2000

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March 3, 1999
Mennonite Board of Missions
Beth Hawn
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

MBM hopes for two Urban Leadership Quest sites by fall 2000

BUFFALO, N.Y. (MBM) - While a pilot effort is under way here this year   
for
Mennonite Board of Missions' new Urban Leadership Quest program,   
organizers
hope to have two sites operating at full capacity by fall 2000 - one in   
Buffalo
and a second in Miami.

Already one couple is serving in a pilot of Urban Leadership Quest here.   
 Yet
next fall, Urban Leadership Quest hopes to have as many as six   
participants
who will live in a common household for 11 months as they serve with   
community
agencies and learn about ministry in an urban context.

"Our main goal is to train and send people into urban ministry," said   
Shirley
Powell, a Westside Church of the Living Word elder and director of   
Westside
Ministries, which oversees Urban Leadership Quest in Buffalo.  "We hope
they'll stay here or go somewhere else in an urban area. ... We don't   
expect
everyone to stay."

In addition, MBM also is investigating starting a second Urban Leadership
 Quest site in Miami, according to Jorge Vallejos, MBM director for   
short-term
missions.

The Miami site is being developed in collaboration with the Homestead   
(Fla.)
Mennonite Church and Miami's Amor Viviente (Living Love) congregation as
well as with Hector Urbina, MBM field staff member for Evangelism and
Church Development.

MBM's Evangelism and Church Development and Short-Term Mission
departments developed Urban Leadership Quest in consultation with urban
workers, congregations and educators. "The program is intended to provide   

people who are interested in urban ministry with an opportunity to try it   
out,
to live in the city," said John Powell, MBM director for Evangelism and   
Church
Development, who is based in Buffalo.

Urban Leadership Quest offers intergenerational participants, ages 18 and   
up,
an 11-month experience in which they will:
* Gain leadership skills through experiential learning.
* Work alongside proven leaders who serve as mentors.
* Live in community in an urban household.
* Develop a leadership style through directed reflection.
* Explore a long-term commitment to urban ministry or service in a   
particular
 setting.

Quest seeks to meet a need ignored by existing service programs: to help
urban congregations recruit and develop visionary leaders for the most   
significant
challenge facing the Christians today. In the year 2000, for the first   
time in history
more than half of the world's population will live in urban centers - a   
percentage
that is expected to grow to 80 percent in the 21st century.

Potential assignments next fall in Buffalo include working with:
* Journey's End, a refugee-resettlement ministry based at West Side   
Church
 of the Living Word.
* Jericho Road Medical Clinic, a ministry of West Side Church of the   
Living Word.
* Viv‚, a church-based organization that helps refugees seeking entry to   
Canada.
* Hispanics United for Buffalo, a neighborhood-based community   
development
 organization.
* A soup kitchen based at the Durham Memorial African Methodist Episcopal   

 Zion Church.
* New York Peace Center in conflict-mediation activities.

Miami assignments are still in development.  MBM staff are also in
conversation with other sites about potential affiliation with Urban
Leadership Quest.

For more information, contact David Paulovich at 219-294-7523,
<Quest@MBM.org> or c/o Box 370, Elkhart, IN 46515.

* * *

MBM staff