wfn.org | AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS FOR MAY 28, 1999 (2ND)

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AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS FOR MAY 28, 1999

AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS SERVICE 
Office of Communication  
American Baptist Churches USA 
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851 
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 
Web: www.abc-usa.org
Richard W. Schramm, Director 
 E-mail: richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

UPDATE: May 28, 1999

CITY RESIDENTS IN DES MOINES INVITED TO JOIN 
AMERICAN BAPTISTS DURING BIENNIAL MEETING 
IN PRAYER WALK FOR VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE
 American Baptists in Des Moines next month for their 
Biennial Meeting will walk to a "prayer fence" at Veterans 
Memorial Auditorium in remembrance of recent victims of 
violence.  The event will start from the lobby of the Des 
Moines Marriott Hotel at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 24.  City 
residents are invited to join in a brief prayer at the 
Marriott and then participate in the walk to the prayer 
fence.
 Placed at the west entrance to Veterans Auditorium 
during the third week of June as a memorial, the fence will 
be a location where American Baptists as well as city 
residents can pray and leave memorials to victims of 
violence in their lives, in the nation and around the world.  
Prayers and remembrances will reinforce the theme, "Linked 
together for peace."  American Baptists will remember in 
particular those killed and injured in the Littleton, Colo., 
school shootings and lift up the Bible teaching that "Christ 
is our peace" (Ephesians 2:14). 
 American Baptists recently have raised concerns about 
the current culture of violence in the U.S and in the world.  
Guided by a policy statement on violence adopted by the 
American Baptist General Board, a denominational response to 
violence has been developed and is underway.  Programming by 
National Ministries at the Biennial Meeting includes 
addresses by the Rev. Eugene Rivers, co-founder of Boston’s 
anti-violence TenPoint Coalition, and Dr. Walter Wink, 
author on nonviolence.  A workshop titled "Youth Making 
Peace," teaching conflict resolution with high risk and 
troubled youth, also has been scheduled.
 Other American Baptists responses to violence include 
special issues of The Christian Citizen, a National 
Ministries publication, and the planning of a conference 
this fall in Westborough, Mass., which will feature 
presentations by church leaders on working across racial and 
generational barriers to reduce youth violence.
 "We are calling on American Baptists and on all 
Christian believers to act to stop violence now," said Dr. 
Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III, executive director of 
National Ministries for American Baptist Churches.  
"American Baptists are focusing on changing the direction of 
a generation at risk by preaching the hope of Jesus Christ 
in word and deed."

EMERGENCY FUNDS SENT BY NATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE OFFICE
FOR TORNADO-DAMAGED CHURCH IN CENTRAL REGION
by Fran Homer, Associate Director, Home Mission 
Communication Center, National Ministries
 In the aftermath of tornadoes that caused massive 
destruction across Kansas and Oklahoma, the Direct Human 
Services Office of National Ministries, American Baptist 
Churches USA, in conjunction with the American Baptist World 
Relief Office, released $5,000 in disaster response funds on 
May 6 to the American Baptist Churches of the Central 
Region.
 The funds are for the West Haysville (Kans.) Baptist 
Church, which sustained extensive damage to its building 
when the wall of a house was blown through the sanctuary 
roof, creating a 20-by-20-foot hole and flooding the 
sanctuary.  An additional $5,000 has been sent to 
support ongoing recovery efforts in the area.
 The town of Haysville near Wichita in hard-hit 
Sedgewich County was almost completely leveled as the storm 
cut a swath one-half mile wide and five miles long.  Twenty-
seven businesses and more than 150 residences were 
destroyed.  Three families who were members of West 
Haysville were among those who lost everything.
 "We immediately contacted the staff of the American 
Baptist regions that were affected by the tornadoes to 
determine what the needs were," said Kenneth George, 
director of Direct Human Services.  "American Baptist 
churches in Oklahoma (included in the American Baptist 
Churches of the South region) were spared."
 In spite of the structural damage the West Haysville 
church responded to a request to house an American Red Cross 
shelter.
 "Within a half hour the mayor contacted us, asking if 
we would host the Red Cross and make our food program 
available to the now-homeless," said the Rev. Robert Osenga, 
pastor of West Haysville Baptist Church. 
 About 50 people were housed overnight, according to 
Osenga, and more than 2,000 people were fed.  From May 3 to 
May 6 the Red Cross distributed food and other items from 
the church's education building.  Osenga is president of the 
Haysville Ministerial Association, which is working with an 
Interfaith Task Force to organize continuing disaster relief 
efforts.
 "We have been astounded at the outpouring of goods and 
labor," Osenga said in a telephone interview, noting that 50 
American Baptist men from the Central Region arrived as a 
group to help with clean-up efforts.  "We really are made in 
the image of God," he continued, "and all of God's goodness 
is demonstrated during disasters when people help each 
other."
 During a conference call George received an updated 
report from the Church World Service Emergency Response 
Office, which has issued an appeal for $250,000 to assist 
the ecumenical recovery efforts in Kansas and Oklahoma.
 American Baptists wishing to contribute to tornado 
recovery may do so through One Great Hour of Sharing, 
marking contributions on line 7 of the Monthly Report of 
Mission Support "Kansas/Oklahoma Tornado Relief."  Those 
interested in volunteering may call National Ministries 
Volunteers In Mission Office at 800-ABC-3USA, ext. 2449. 

LUCY WIATT, FORMER MISSIONARY IN BURMA, DIES
 Lucy Frances Wiatt, former American Baptist missionary 
to Burma (now Myanmar), died May 6 in Alhambra, Calif.  She 
was 93. 
 She was appointed by the American Baptist Foreign 
Mission Society in 1926 to assist her father, Dr. W. E. 
Wiatt, first field secretary of the Burma mission.  She 
later became secretary to the president of Judson College in 
Rangoon.
 Under appointment of the Woman's American Baptist 
Foreign Mission Society, Wiatt later taught at the English 
Girls' High School in Moulmein and served as headmistress of 
the girls' school in Mandalay.  During World War II that 
school became a haven for refugees being evacuated from 
lower Burma.  
 Eventually forced to evacuate the country, she spent a 
year teaching English at the University of Nanking.
 In 1946 she returned to Burma as associate mission 
secretary to help re-establish the Rangoon office and plan 
the rehabilitation of the Baptist program.
 After returning to the U.S. in 1962, and unable to 
resume her ministries in Burma because of the political 
climate, she became associate secretary of the Overseas 
Division of the Foreign Mission Society in Valley Forge.   
She retired in May 1968, and in recent years had been active 
in many ministries at Atherton Baptist Homes.
 
ALLAN STUART, FORMER MISSIONARY IN ZAIRE, DIES
 Allan R. Stuart, former American Baptist missionary in 
Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), died May 8 in 
Grimsby, England.  He was 76. 
 Stuart and his wife, Dr. Carrie Sprague Stuart, served 
in Kimpese, Zaire, from 1958 until Carrie's failing health 
forced their return to the United States.  Following her 
death in 1981 he returned to Kimpese in 1982 to serve as the 
business manager for the Evangelical Center of Cooperation.  
In 1984 he became assistant treasurer of what is now the 
Western Congo Baptist Community, supervising all purchasing 
services, reports and property. 
 He retired in 1987. 

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