wfn.org | Macedonian intern assists World Methodist Council

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 23, 2002   News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-71BP{311}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this report.

By United Methodist News Service

A United Methodist from Macedonia is learning more about the history of her
faith as she works on a database at the World Methodist Council's museum in
Lake Junaluska, N.C.

Twenty-year-old Magdalena Petreska, who will be a junior at High Point
(N.C.) University in the fall, serves as a summer intern at the council's
headquarters. By using her computer skills, as well as being a part-time
hostess at the World Methodist Museum, she has discovered "much more
information" about the early Methodist church than what she had learned at
confirmation.

She is the daughter of the Rev. Kitan Petreska, a pastor who has served in
Skopje, Macedonia's capital, for the past 11 years and a few years ago
opened a second United Methodist church about 15 miles from the city center.
His active parishioners include Boris Trajkovski, Macedonia's president, who
will receive the World Methodist Peace Award in September.

"People became more aware of the Methodist church after he became
president," Petreska notes about Trajkovski.

But it hasn't always been that way. Many Macedonians, she says, had no idea
that Methodism was a religion, and those who did join the church were
subject to harassment under the communist regime that ruled before the
country gained independence in 1991.

Although she was too young to remember details, "I know that my dad was
taken to the police and questioned many, many times," she recalls. "I know
it was a difficult time for him." But she and her family "would always pray,
and my dad would always come back. That strengthened my faith in God."
  
With independence, United Methodists have become more visible, and learning
about the church is easier for people, Petreska says. Currently, Macedonia
has 13 churches.

Petreska came to the United States when her older brother, Samuel, who was
already attending college here, found a family in Waverly, Va., willing to
host her for her last two years of high school. "It was difficult, but I
found it exciting because it was something new," she explains. "I like
meeting new people."

When she graduated, High Point University offered her a four-year
scholarship. Her brother also is working there. "It's really nice to have
some family around," Petreska says.

More family members are in the region. Her father, who is pursuing a
doctorate at Asbury College, recently received a pastoral appointment in
Virginia, where he is serving three churches. Her mother, Kate, and younger
brother, Vladimir, 14, have accompanied him.

At High Point, Petreska is majoring in international business and computer
information systems, with a double minor in German and economics.
Eventually, she plans to return to her country. She has dreams of working in
Macedonia's developing economy and perhaps helping establish an Internet
presence for the country's United Methodists. 

"Maybe," she says, "with the education I get, I can make a difference
there." 

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United Methodist News Service
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