US-2 program helps put faith into action
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A UMNS Web-only photo from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries Kandis Samuels helps a student with her homework at the Hampden Family Center in Baltimore.
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Kandis
Samuels, a US-2 missionary with the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries, helps a student with her homework at the Hampden Family
Center in Baltimore. The US-2 program offers leadership development for
young adults, 20-30 years old, through peace and justice ministries at
U.S. based community organizations. A UMNS Web-only photo from the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Photo #w06102. Accompanies
UMNS story #389. 6/26/06. |
June 26, 2006
By Linda Bloom*
NEW YORK (UMNS) — For Emily Harris, social activism has often been a part
of her involvement with the United Methodist Church.
So it wasn’t a stretch when she joined the US-2 program of the denomination’s
Board of Global Ministries to explore the calling she felt.
“It always made sense to put my faith in action for economic justice,” she
said.
Harris, from the church’s Virginia Conference, is one of seven US-2s
who have just finished their two-year term of missionary service. They shared
some of their experiences during a June 22 briefing at the board’s New
York headquarters.
The US-2 program offers leadership development through peace and justice ministries
at U.S.-based community organizations. It is open to young adults aged 20 to
30 years.
Harris was assigned to the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice
in Chicago. The organization’s goal is to “educate, organize and
mobilize the religious community in the U.S. on issues and campaigns that will
improve wages, benefits and working conditions for workers, especially low-wage
workers,” according to the Web site. Rachel Harvey plans for return to South Dakota
for a year, where she has served as the director of Coffee Loft, an ecumenical
ministry
for the University of
South Dakota community sponsored by Vermillion First United Methodist Church.
Programs there have included “hookers for Jesus” -- a knitting
and crocheting group composed mostly of young men.
The US-2 experience has led Harvey to be more
assertive. “I’m
a lot more confident in myself,” she said.
Amy Brown, who worked for the N.O.A.H. Project,
a resource center for the homeless sponsored by Central United Methodist
Church and
Family Service, Inc.,
in Detroit, wasn’t often able to follow up on her clients. “A lot
of people we don’t always see again,” she explained.
But Brown, from the North Alabama Conference,
did take a life lesson from Robert, a man who used the center’s phones to call employment agencies.
Although he was “scammed” by a phony agency that never paid him
for his work – money he was counting on for a security deposit on an
apartment – Robert was not bitter over the experience, she recalled.
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A UMNS Web-only photo from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries At the Wilkinson Center in Dallas, Donna Wheeler teaches nutrition and exercise to combat childhood obesity.
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Donna
Wheeler, a US-2 missionary with the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries teachers nutrition and exercise to combat childhood obesity
at the Wilkinson Center in Dallas. The US-2 program offers leadership
development for young adults, 20-30 years old, through peace and justice
ministries at U.S. based community organizations. A UMNS Web-only photo
from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Photo #w06103.
Accompanies UMNS story #389. 6/26/06. |
Children’s health was a focus for Donna Wheeler of the Central Pennsylvania
Conference, who has a degree in elementary education. She coordinated the SMART
Body Program, a collaboration of the Wilkinson Center, based at Munger Place
United Methodist Church in Dallas; Texas A&M University and Cooper Aerobics
Center. The focus was on nutrition, exercise and reducing childhood obesity.
In addition, Wheeler assisted with a job preparation
program for ex-convicts and found she had a “gift” for helping them with their resumes.
One woman got a contract job with the USDA. “She credited her success
to the program,” she said.
Her success with these programs also told her
something about herself, according to Wheeler. “I learned I had much
more ability than I gave myself credit for.”
Utah is one of the few states that still charges
sale tax on food, reported Elizabeth Matthews of the Texas Conference, who
spent her
two-year term at
Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The ecumenical ministry is
the largest emergency food pantry in the state and is housed in a historic
building owned by the Women’s Division, United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries.
The decision of the state legislature to remove half of that tax, after years
of lobbying by Crossroads and other groups, was a success she will remember,
she said.
Kandis Samuels of the Delaware-Peninsula Conference
found it “challenging” to
run an after-school program with the Hampden Family Center in Baltimore by
herself, but learned she could do it.
Samuels, who will be attending graduate school
at George Washington University, also likes to talk about what it meant to
be a missionary. “I felt it
was an opportunity to educate people,” she said.
At Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, N.C., Andrew
Jordan has worked in a program “that provides scholarships for students who otherwise wouldn’t
be able to go to college in exchange for doing community service.” One
of the “most memorable” groups on the receiving end of that community
service has been Second Parenthood, a program for grandparents who are raising
their grandchildren.
Jordan, from the Tennessee Conference, said he is being hired full-time at
Pfeiffer to continue in the same position.
The 2005-2007 US-2 missionary class of 8 currently is half-way through its
term. Another 8 young adults will be commissioned on July 30 for the 2006-2008
class.
The application deadline for future US-2 classes is Feb. 1 each year. Information
and application forms are available at http://new.gbgm-mc.org/about/us/mp/missionaries/us2/,
on the Board of Global Ministries Web site.
US-2s are not asked to raise monetary support during their time as missionaries,
but United Methodists can support the program through the Advance for Christ
and His Church. Checks may be written to Advance GCFA and earmarked for US-2 Program, No.
982874, and dropped in church collection plates or mailed directly
to Advance GCFA,
P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068. Credit card donations may be
made by calling (888) 252-6174. Online donations can be made at http://secure.gbgm-umc.org/donations/ on
the board’s Web site. *Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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