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[UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 291-United Methodist mission executive dies in Nepal


From NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>
Date Tue, 16 May 2006 16:41:49 -0500

United Methodist mission executive dies in Nepal

May. 16, 2006 News media contact: Linda Bloom * (646) 3693759* New York {291}

By Elliott Wright*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - Mark Allen Masters, an executive with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, died suddenly May 14 of a heart attack while visiting missionaries in Nepal.

Masters, 48, had served as the board's regional executive for mission personnel in Europe, North Africa, Middle East, and South and Central Asia since late 2004. He was a former missionary in Africa and the Solomon Islands. His wife, the Rev. Kathleen Masters, also works for the mission board.

"Mark died in the course of doing what he loved most, serving Jesus Christ through the mission of the church," said the Rev. Edith Gleaves, head of the board's mission personnel unit. "He was loving and kind and had a wonderful rapport with the 50 missionaries in his region. Mark Masters was a faithful and creative disciple of Christ."

Masters died at Tansen Mission Hospital where he was visiting Dr. Elma Jocson, a missionary surgeon who had just returned from a short leave. His trip was part of a regular visit to mission sites in Asia.

When he reported not feeling well, physicians sent Masters to rest at a guesthouse, and quickly followed with a visit. He died shortly thereafter. "He was surrounded by a caring Christian community," Gleaves said.

"Mark Masters quite literally gave his life for the mission of God's love in the world," said the Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive of the international mission board. "All of his education and experience was organized around doing a better and better job in Christian witness. Peace and economic development were high on his list of priorities. He spoke of mission as a combination of spiritual, physical and social services and hoped that this theology was visible in his own life. It was."

Masters, who would have turned 49 on July 12, had called his wife to wish her a happy birthday the night before he died.

Tansen Hospital is more than 200 miles southwest of Kathmandu, the capital of the mountainous country of Nepal. It is part of the United Mission to Nepal, a medical ministry in which the United Methodist Church has participated for half a century.

The church has five missionaries in Nepal - a pastor, two physicians, an educator and an administrator. Another missionary pastor, the Rev. Karuna Bhujel, was killed about a year ago when a truck struck her motorbike.

A native of Tennessee, Masters was a graduate of Martin Methodist College and American University, from which he received a master's degree in development management. Both are United Methodist-related schools. At the time of his death, he was a candidate for a doctoral degree in community research and action at Vanderbilt University.

Early in his career, he worked with Catholic Relief Services in Somalia and the Peace Corps in Ecuador. The Masters, who have two children, served as missionaries for the Board of Global Ministries in the Solomon Islands, Uganda and Zambia.

Matthew, the youngest Masters child, was set to graduate from high school a few days following his father's death. Christian, the oldest, was working on a summer cruise ship at the time.

Masters' body was to be cremated in Nepal and the ashes returned for burial in Memphis where his mother lives. The funeral will take place at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, the family church, where Mark Masters' father was once pastor and where he and his wife were married. A memorial service will be held later in New York.

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

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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