wfn.org | ABC/USA MISSIONARIES NAMED

[RICH_SCHRAMM.parti@ecunet.org (RICH SCHRAMM)]

To: wfn-editors@wfn.org

AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS SERVICE 
Office of Communication  
American Baptist Churches USA 
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851 
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 
Web: www.abc-usa.org
Richard W. Schramm, Director 
 E-mail: richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

NATIONAL MINISTRIES APPOINTS ADDITIONAL 
NEW LIFE MISSIONARIES

  As part of the ongoing commitment of American Baptist 
Churches to NEW LIFE 2010, National Ministries has deployed 
three additional NEW LIFE missionaries.  
 The Rev. Julio LaPorte, who serves the Haitian 
American Baptist community, began as a NEW LIFE missionary 
in January.
 National Ministries has called the Rev. Desmond 
Hoffmeister, a key shaper of the reconciliation process 
between black and white Baptists in South Africa, to serve 
as a NEW LIFE missionary.  Hoffmeister will focus on 
reconciliation and justice ministries in support of the 
overall goals of NEW LIFE 2010.  He played a significant 
role in peacemaking and setting up infrastructure and 
programs to assist the poor in South Africa to gain access 
to resources.  Hoffmeister, the Drexler scholar-in-residence 
and a student at the American Baptist Seminary of the West, 
will share his story and his experiences of reconciliation.
 The Rev. Robert Smith, associate pastor at Shiloh 
Baptist Church, Anchorage, Alaska, also has been called to 
serve as a NEW LIFE missionary, with American Baptist 
churches in Alaska.  Smith will oversee the ongoing 
development of NEW LIFE 2010 in Alaska, particularly in the 
areas of new church planting and evangelism.  He will 
continue his ministry at Shiloh as well.
 In addition a new partnership between the American 
Baptist Churches of Oregon, the American Baptist Churches of 
the Northwest and National Ministries will provide support 
for a NEW LIFE missionary in the U.S. Northwest.  The 
Slavic-American Partnership Project will focus on evangelism 
and new church planting in the growing regional Slavic 
population and on general ministries with Slavic immigrants.
 In announcing these appointments National Ministries 
Executive Director Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III said:  
"These NEW LIFE missionaries and mission initiatives are 
concrete ways American Baptists are answering God's call to 
be faithful in the new millennium.  Please join me in 
praying for this exciting, new home mission work."
 The NEW LIFE 2010 emphasis focuses American Baptists 
on planting 1,010 new churches, reaching 1,000,010 new 
believers and vitalizing a multitude of caring ministries by 
the year 2010.  For more information call 1-800-ABC-
3USA/ext.2407.

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