wfn.org | Amity Teacher

[owner-umethnews@ecunet.org]

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (241
notes).

Note 240 by UMNS on July 25, 1997 at 15:22 Eastern (2304 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                             428(10-71B){240}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    July 25, 1997

Florida graduate joins
new group of Amity teachers

                    by United Methodist News Service

     A new college graduate is hoping her two-year assignment
teaching English in China will lead to a career in mission work.
     Julie Petrie, 21, a member of St. Luke's United Methodist
Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., left for China July 25 as one of
10 new teachers for the Amity Foundation.
     They will join 54 other teachers from nine countries
currently working for the foundation, which is the social-services
arm of the China Christian Council. The U.S. teachers are
recruited through the National Council of Churches (NCC).
     Petrie graduated from Florida State University in Tallahassee
last spring after majoring in Asian studies and cultural
anthropology.
     Two years earlier, she had participated in an NCC-sponsored
summer program in China for six weeks. "You work with Chinese
students on their English, but in sort of a group setting," she
explained. The group also traveled and visited Chinese churches.
"That trip, in itself, pretty much hooked me on the idea of
wanting to go back."
     Petrie's other long-time Asian influence has come through the
work of her mother, Vanessa, with the United Methodist-related
Southeast Asian Christian Ministries in St. Petersburg.
     Her Amity assignment is at Gannan Teacher's College in
Ganchou, a city in the southern province of Jiangxi. She said most
of her students soon will be teaching English themselves, which
she finds appealing. "It just doesn't stop with 30 students that
you happen to teach, it multiplies itself," she said.
     She also looks forward to joining a local Chinese church and
getting to know her fellow Christians there.
     After her tenure with Amity, Petrie would like to continue
her full-time mission service, either in southeast asia or
elsewhere. "With anthropology, you kind of get interested in a lot
of places," she added.
                              #  #  #

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 To make suggestions or give your comments, send a note to 
 umns@ecunet.org or Susan_Peek@ecunet.org

 To unsubscribe, send the single word "unsubscribe" (no quotes)
 in a mail message to umethnews-request@ecunet.org

-----------------------------------------------------------------------