wfn.org | United Methodists celebrate 60 new missionaries

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Oct. 17, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-35-71B{477}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #478.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church's mission agency has
commissioned 60 new missionaries, the largest group to be initiated into
service at one time.

With the new recruits, the denomination's Board of Global Ministries now has
2,180 missionaries serving in 60 countries. That total is an increase of 287
since April, according to Edith Gleaves, top executive for the board's
mission personnel unit, and it represents 21 different categories of mission
service.

The 60 missionaries participating in the Oct. 10 worship service of
commitment and celebration were from nine different countries and numerous
annual (regional) conferences.

Ten deaconesses - laywomen committed to lifelong ministry - were
commissioned into mission service. Listed with their annual conferences,
they were: Gail Davis, Missouri East; Hallique L. Dawson, Louisiana; Holly
Kendall, Kentucky; Elizabeth Nichols, Tennessee; Shelly Owen,
Baltimore-Washington; Wendy Putka, West Ohio; Susan Putnam, Virginia; Jeanne
R. Smith, West Ohio; Diane Stanton-Rich, Western North Carolina; and Geneva
B. Williams, South Carolina.

Recognized as deaconesses were Aurora Bote Manimoi, California-Pacific, and
Nora B. Marker, California-Nevada. Both were commissioned earlier in the
Philippines.

Commissioned as Korean-American mission pastors were the Rev. Paul J.
Cheong, California-Pacific; the Rev. TaeJoon Cho, California-Nevada; the
Rev. Paul Kwangho Chyung, Greater New Jersey; the Rev. Seung Jae Chyung,
Baltimore-Washington; the Rev. Suzy Yen Ham-Son, Kentucky; the Rev. Peter
Youngkil Kim, Northern Illinois; the Rev. Sang-Soo Kim, New York; the Rev.
Duk Kyu Kwon, Northern Illinois; the Rev. Ui Chang Kyong, Holston; the Rev.
Myong Ku Lee, Western Pennsylvania; the Rev. KeyOne Yu, New York; the Rev.
Chung Soo Park, Texas; the Rev. Kwang Chul Shin, Korean Methodist Church;
the Rev. MinSeok Yan, New York; the Rev. Malyong Yi, California-Pacific; and
the Rev. CheolHo Yoon, North Georgia.

New missionaries assigned directly by the Board of Global Ministries were
the Rev. Koh Sing Ling, from the Methodist Church of Taiwan; Glen E. Allen,
Desert Southwest; the Rev. Sony Augustin, New York; Carol Duffield, West
Virginia; the Rev. Carol Lakota Eastin, Illinois Great Rivers; Albert E.
Fisher, North Texas; the Rev. Diana Brown Holbert, North Texas; and the Rev.
Virgil "Butch" Huffman, North Carolina.

Also, Rick Jost, Dakotas; Shawn Jucht, North Texas; Kevin and M. Klamm,
Oklahoma; Leslie Putnam Klamm, Oklahoma; Carol Kreamer, Missouri East; the
Rev. Douglas M. Lindsay, Peninsula-Delaware; James Malick, West Virginia;
Mary Elizabeth Pearce, North Texas; Diane Presley, North Texas; the Rev.
Larry W. Stoess, Kentucky; Constance H. Tarrance, South Carolina; Sally
Vonner, North Texas; and the Rev. Roger L. Woods, North Texas.

Commissioned as a missionary for the National Plan for Hispanic Ministries
was the Rev. Javier Q. Escalera, North Texas. Commissioned as church and
community workers were Ricky D. Gassaway, Oklahoma Indian Missionary
Conference; Jeanie Leeper, Missouri West; Julie Hager Love, Kentucky; the
Rev. Sharon S. Michael, Virginia; and Lynette Duggins Thomas, South
Carolina.

Commissioned for a pilot group of regional missionaries were Catherine
Mudime Akale, from Cameroon; Marthe Dansokho, from Senegal; Esperance Kazamb
Mujinga Kayombo, a deaconess and native of the Democratic Republic of Congo;
Shimba Ndala Mulunda, also a Congo native; Elmira Ilyamide Sellu, from
Sierra Leone; Rosangela Soares de Oliveira, a native of Brazil; and John
Yambasu, Africa.

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