wfn.org | Millennium Fund helps re-build the church

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

Oct. 22, 1999  News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{558}

STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS) -- When members of the United Methodist Church in
Geneva, Ill., raised $4 million for a new building a few years ago, they
decided to use one percent of that money for mission elsewhere.

The $40,000 gift helped renovate a United Methodist church in Kaunas,
Lithuania that had been shut down by the government years before. It is one
of a number of projects sponsored by the Millennium Fund for Mission of the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

During the board's Oct. 18-21 annual meeting, the Rev. Melissa Early, pastor
of the Geneva church, told board directors how the project had energized her
congregation and served as "a constant reminder and focal point that our
church is not just about (its) building."

The work of the fund also was lauded in a dinner honoring mission pioneers.

Launched in April 1997 as a six-year project, the Millennium Fund was
established to support church-related building or renovation projects in
Africa, Europe and urban centers of the United States.

The Board of Global Ministries contributed $9 million in funds made from
investments to jump-start the Millennium Fund and has challenged all United
Methodists to match that amount. Church members also are asked to contribute
volunteer time, equipment and supplies and make promotional efforts for the
fund.

In inner-city Baltimore, Md., the Millennium Fund has helped the Rev. Brian
Jackson return to serve the community where he grew up.

Jackson is director of the Holy Boldness Regional Center, which offers such
ministries as a "youth check" counseling program for troubled children and a
shelter for homeless women and their children. In one neighborhood - where
the unemployment rate is 94 percent - United Methodists and others have
organized to acquire a vacant school that they plan to use as a citywide
empowerment center, he said.

Grants for other Millennium Fund projects have included $340,000 to help
complete the Baltic Mission Center in Tallinn, Estonia; $195,000 to build
four churches, four parsonages and four preschools in Zimbabwe; $500,000 to
build a church for a growing congregation in Varna, Bulgaria; and $90,000
for buildings to serve nine new congregations in Angola.

As part of its efforts to continue to raise matching funds, the Board of
Global Ministries hosted a Millennium Fund Recognition Dinner during its
meeting to serve as a model for similar jurisdictional or annual (regional)
conference events.

The dinner included recognition of 14 United Methodists with the board's
first Awards for Distinguished Mission Service.

Chris Hena, a native of Liberia and medical doctor trained in Russia,
received the Anna Eklund Award, named for a Swedish deaconess who helped
keep the Methodist church alive in Russia from 1908-31. Assigned to Russia
in 1991, Hena became the first United Methodist missionary to serve the
church there in more than 70 years.

Two men who helped make the 1968 union of the Methodist and Evangelical
United Brethren (EUB) churches a success received the Frank Mason North
Award, named for a foreign missions executive and hymnwriter of the early
1900s.

The Rev. J. Edward Carothers, 92, is a pastor, teacher and author who served
with the Methodist Church Board of Missions and established the Methodist
Urban Service Training program in the 1960s. The Rev. Norman W. Klump, 89,
is an ecumenical leader and served as an urban ministry executive of the
former EUB Church, who helped initiate its second-mile giving program for
missions.

Maribeth Wilson Collins, a civic leader, philanthropist and president of the
Collins Foundation, was recognized for her faithful support of mission. She
received the Everell Stanton Collins Award, which is named for the late
owner and manager of the Collins Pine Company. In 1940, Collins left 60
percent of his timberlands to the Methodist Board of Foreign Mission, a gift
that has yielded over $100 million to fund missionary pensions.

The United Methodist bishops of Africa jointly received the Distinguished
Peacemaker Award, which was accepted by Bishop Fama Onema of Central Congo.
The other bishops being recognized were Bishop Emilio De Carvalho, Western
Angola; Bishop Done Peter Dabale, Nigeria; Bishop J.C. Humper, Sierra Leone;
Bishop Christopher Jokomo, Zimbabwe; Bishop Kainda Katembo, Southern Congo;
Bishop Arthur Kulah, Liberia; Bishop Joao Somane Machado, Mozambique; Bishop
J. Alfred Ndoricimpa, East Africa; and Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo, North
Katanga, Congo.

The Millennium Fund is part of the General Advance of the United Methodist
Church. General contributions can be made to Advance No. 9822200-0. Gifts
for U.S. urban projects should be directed to Advance No. 982701-2; for
Africa, to Advance No. 011111-0 XX, and for Europe, Advance No. 000396-OR-A.
Checks can be placed in local church collection plates or mailed directly to
Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068.

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