wfn.org | United Methodists join Amity teachers in China

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 22, 2002       News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-33-71B{306}

NEW YORK (UMNS) - Six United Methodists are among a group of 14 English
teachers leaving Aug. 1 for two years of service with the Amity Teachers
Program in China.

Church World Service, the humanitarian aid agency of the National Council of
Churches, coordinates the recruitment of Amity teachers on behalf of U.S.
churches. Sponsored by their member denominations and the United Board for
Christian Higher Education in Asia, the new volunteers will join 21 teachers
already working with Amity in China.

Volunteers serve at Chinese universities and colleges, instructing
prospective teachers in English as a second language. The Rev. John
McCullough, a United Methodist pastor and the CWS executive director, called
them ambassadors of "the goodwill of the people of the United States toward
the people of China."

Established in 1985 by Chinese Christians, the Amity Foundation also prints
Bibles and works on issues of rural development and social welfare.

The United Methodist volunteer teachers and their places of assignment are
Donna Brown of Austin, Texas, who previously had worked with Amity, to
Jiangsu English Teaching Training Center in Huaian City, Jiangsu; Priscilla
Jenkins of Mountaintop, Pa., to Jiangsu center; William Davis of
Albuquerque, N.M., to Shandong Institute of Education in Jinan, Shandong;
Russ Elliott of Naperville, Ill., to Yancheng Teachers College in Jiangsu;
Danielle Panza of Fort Wayne, Ind., to Jiujiang Teachers College, Jiangxi;
and Florence Perez of Eden, Texas, also to the Shandong Institute.
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United Methodist News Service
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