wfn.org | ABCUSA Work in Mississippi Strengthened

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.org>]

American Baptist News Service (5/7/02)--In an action that strengthens
American Baptist home mission economic development work in one of the
nation's most impoverished areas, two National Ministries mission partners
now are serving in the area of northern, rural Mississippi known as the
Mississippi Delta.

Larry Haynes, an American Baptist home missionary who served as National
Ministries' director of Economic Justice and executive director of
Tallahatchie Development League in Tutwiler, has become founder and
president of the Mid America Development Foundation (MADF).  The development
of affordable housing throughout the region will be MADF's primary mission
and ministry.

Concurrently Deltra Young has been named interim executive director for
Tallahatchie Development League (TDL), a Neighborhood Christian Center
related to National Ministries.  TDL serves Tallahatchie County by providing
emergency assistance, food and shelter and enrichment programs for children
and youth.  In partnership with National Ministries and other agencies TDL
has constructed more than 200 housing unites for low-income families in
rural Mississippi since 1999.  A single-family down payment assistance
project will allow eight families with low to moderate incomes to own their
homes within two years.

The expanded ministry has been developed partly as a caring ministry out of
the denominational NEW LIFE 2010 emphasis.  In making the announcement, the
Rev. Hictor Cortez, National Ministries' associate director for Biblical
Justice, said, "God has led us to do this.  We believe there will be a
greater potential for meeting the economic and human needs of the people in
the region with this new strategy, that we will be able to leverage dollars
to impact whole communities with a tangible witness for Christ."

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (610)768-2077; fax:
(610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org; richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

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