wfn.org | United Methodist missionaries return to Haiti

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

April 15, 2004	News media contact: Linda Bloom7(646) 369-37597New York 7
E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL-AA-HIS-RM-I{174}

By Elliott Wright*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - A United Methodist missionary is back in Haiti to resume a
ministry interrupted last February by political upheaval and civil war.
	
Charles Maddox of Louisville, Ky., arrived in Port-au-Prince on April 12. His
wife, Patty Maddox, will join him in late April. She was in the United States
when her husband departed from the island nation in February because of
increasing violence there.

A United Methodist missionary based in Honduras, the Rev. Paul Jeffrey, also
will travel to Haiti for a short-term assignment with an ecumenical
organization, Action by Churches Together. Jeffrey, a journalist and
photographer, will gather data and report on the aftermath of the recent
conflict, in which Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced into
exile.

Charles and Patty Maddox, who previously served in Ghana, work in Haiti with
the Methodist Guest House. The house serves as the local base for many of the
dozens of United Methodist Volunteer in Mission teams that visit the island
nation each year.  Teams were withdrawn and suspended when the fighting
became intense two months ago.	More than 700 people serve on volunteer teams
to Haiti each year.

The Maddoxes will consult with local Methodist leaders in assessing the
factors that will determine when volunteer teams can safely return. The
International Red Cross reported April 12 that serious security issues
continue.

In the hills on the north side of Port-au-Prince, the guest house and its
indigenous staff were not physically affected by the fighting in February.
The house is a joint project of the Methodist Church of Haiti, the United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries, and the Caribbean Council of Churches.

Church World Service has distributed a shipment of food and medicines in
Haiti. Don Tatlock, the agency's international disaster liaison, reported
hearing accounts from church pastors of recent violence, although abuses were
lessening. He noted that the country remained "very fragile" and needed
financial assistance for emergency relief, recovery and development
activities.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief continues to provide assistance to
Haiti. Donations to the United Methodist Committee on Relief, earmarked for
Advance No. 418325, Haiti civil emergency, can be dropped in church
collection plates or mailed directly to the agency at 475 Riverside Dr., Room
330, New York, NY 10115. Credit-card donations can be made by calling (800)
554-8583.

Church bulletin inserts on the crisis in Haiti can be downloaded from
http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor, the agency's Web site.

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*Wright is the information officer for the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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