wfn.org | Mission Response Begins In Louisiana

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
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Note 563 by UMNS on Jan. 22, 1998 at 17:34 Eastern (4026 characters).

CONTACT: Linda Green					36(10-71B){563}
	    Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470	Jan. 22, 1998

Mission In Motion mobilizes 
to move across Louisiana

by Bobbie Armstrong*

BATON ROUGE, La. (UMNS) -— A tractor-trailer will put the mission efforts of
Louisiana Methodists into motion in February when it begins a nine-month
journey across the state, collecting relief supplies for disaster-stricken
areas.
A 40-foot, 18-wheel tractor-trailer bearing the United Methodist Church's
Cross and Flame logo and the words "Mission In Motion" will roll down the
state's highways. Its mission: to meet the challenge of keeping the United
Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Depot at the Sager-Brown facility in
Baldwin stocked with supplies for shipment anywhere in the world.
Each month, the rolling collection trailer will travel to a different United
Methodist district, rest in a designated church parking lot for a week, accept
relief supplies from United Methodist churches and other faith traditions in
the area and then move on. At the end of each month, the trailer will return
to the Sager-Brown depot and be unloaded before moving to the next location.
Dave Freneaux, a member of Blackwater United Methodist Church in Baker, will
coordinate the Louisiana Annual Conference mission initiative through the
state's 582 United Methodist congregations.
He said Mission In Motion has three purposes:
· to minister in Jesus' name to the immediate physical needs of the hurting;
· to involve United Methodists in hands-on mission work; and
· to promote increased and continued participation in missions through UMCOR
and Sager-Brown.
	The idea for a tractor-trailer collecting supplies was born following
Louisiana Bishop Dan Solomon's visit to the 48,000-square-foot depot in 1996.
He saw empty shelves and wanted to find a way to fill them. Solomon is also
the president of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, the church
agency that governs UMCOR.
	The UMCOR Depot at Sager-Brown accepts and re-packages relief items such as
food, medicine, and building supplies for shipment to disaster sites around
the world. 
	"What Mission In Motion gives Louisiana United Methodists is a close-up and
personal opportunity to meet a human need, show compassion and help others,"
Solomon said. "This project allows every United Methodist in Louisiana to make
a choice to be in mission, to enliven herself or himself and her or his
church," he said.
	The opportunities to get involved in Mission In Motion are many, Freneaux
says. Aside from just donating items, people will be needed to publicize the
arrival of the trailer at each location, transport donations from churches to
the trailer, box items, load the trailer and then unload the goods at
Sager-Brown. Drivers with rigs will be needed to move the trailer to each
location.
	The most vital outcome of this initiative, Freneaux said, will be to inspire
more Louisiana United Methodists to regularly provide hands-on support at the
UMCOR Depot at Sager-Brown, where the need is continuous.
"As the host conference for this vital cog in the wheel that connects the
United Methodist Church to those in need around the world, this is an
opportunity we can all share in," he said.  
The Mission In Motion effort will be launched and dedicated Jan. 25 at
Blackwater United Methodist Church in Baker. Following a week at the
Blackwater church, the trailer will move to Ingleside United Methodist Church,
Baton Rouge, and then on to Gonzales United Methodist. It will go to the North
Shore area in March and the New Orleans area in April.
Following the pilot run in Louisiana and after other plans are worked out,
Mission In Motion will be offered to surrounding United Methodist Conferences,
and it has the potential to go nationwide.
For more information about Mission in Motion, contact Freneaux at
(504)373-9422.
# # #
*Armstrong is editor of the Louisiana United Methodist Review, the newspaper
of the Louisiana Annual Conference.

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