United Methodists commission 16 young adults for missions
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A UMNS photo by Mary Beth Coudal Amy Spaur is commissioned as a mission intern and missionary of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
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Amy
Spaur of Iowa is commissioned as a mission intern and missionary of the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries at a June ceremony in New
York. Spaur will be serving at CEPALC, or Centro Popular Para America
Latina de Comunicacion, in Colombia. Mission interns serve for three
years-half abroad and half in the United States. A UMNS photo by Mary
Beth Coudal, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Photo #05-476.
Accompanies UMNS story #380. 7/6/05 |
July 6, 2005
By Mary Beth Coudal*
NEW YORK (UMNS) — Sixteen young people
have been commissioned to missionary service with the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries.
The late June commissioning of mission interns was the first since 2000,
according to the Rev. Edith Gleaves, who heads the board’s mission
personnel unit. “This shows our ongoing and firm commitment to the
mission intern program as well as the US-2 program,” she said.
The mission interns and US-2s, between the ages of 20 and 30, are
college graduates or have equivalent life experience. All are connected
to the United Methodist Church through their local church or campus
ministries.
US-2s serve for two years and work in United Methodist-related centers
around the United States. This class of eight is the 53rd class of US-2
missionaries commissioned.
Members of the 2005 class are Elizabeth Clark, East Ohio Annual
Conference, serving at Bethlehem Center Inc., Jackson, Miss.; Mary
Gladstone, Detroit Annual Conference, serving at the Deaf Shalom Zone of
Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf in Baltimore; Joshua Gray,
West Ohio Annual Conference, serving at Samaritan House in Atlanta; and
Breanne MacFarland, Virginia Annual Conference, serving at Nome
Community Center in Alaska
Also, Laura McDowell, West Ohio, serving at the denomination’s Board of
Church and Society in Washington; Laura Ralston, Illinois Great Rivers
Annual Conference, serving at Saranam: Central United Methodist Church’s
Family Transition Assistance, Albuquerque, N.M.; Sarah Reynolds,
Virginia, serving at A Healing Cooperative, a ministry of Ukiah United
Methodist Church, Ukiah, Calif.; and Tiffany Stanley, South Carolina
Annual Conference, serving at Warren Village, Denver, Rocky Mountain
Annual Conference
Mission interns serve for three years, with half of that time spent
overseas and the other half spent in a U.S. church-related community
center.
Members of the 2005 class are Jill Conway, West Ohio, serving with
GROOTS, a grassroots network of women in Kenya; T. Ryan Clayburn,
Oklahoma Annual Conference, serving with the World Student Christian
Federation Middle East in Lebanon; Alexandria Jones, New York Annual
Conference, serving with the National Council of Churches in the
Philippines; and Stephanie Kellner, Virginia, serving at IXCAVAA
(meaning ‘this good earth’) Development and Indigenous Information
Association in Costa Rica.
Also, Angela Miller, Iowa Annual Conference, serving at Forthspring
Inter Community Group in Northern Ireland; Crickett Nicovich,
Mississippi Annual Conference, serving at SHADE, a faith-based nonprofit
organization for displaced people in South Africa; Amy Spaur, Iowa,
serving at CEPALC, or Centro Popular Para America Latina de
Comunicacion, Colombia; and Ashley Wilkinson, Alabama-West Florida
Annual Conference, serving at Wi’am Palestinian Resolution Center in
Palestine.
*Coudal is a staff writer for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
US-2 Program
Mission Intern Program
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