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United Methodist missionaries return to Haiti

 


United Methodist missionaries return to Haiti

April 15, 2004

By Elliott Wright*

LINK: Click to open full size version of image
UMNS Photo by David Morton

Charles and Patty Maddox were forced to evacuate as violence escalated in Haiti in February.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - A United Methodist missionary is back in Haiti to resume a ministry interrupted last February by political upheaval and civil war.

Charles Maddox of Louisville, Ky., arrived in Port-au-Prince on April 12. His wife, Patty Maddox, will join him in late April. She was in the United States when her husband departed from the island nation in February because of increasing violence there.

A United Methodist missionary based in Honduras, the Rev. Paul Jeffrey, also will travel to Haiti for a short-term assignment with an ecumenical organization, Action by Churches Together. Jeffrey, a journalist and photographer, will gather data and report on the aftermath of the recent conflict, in which Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced into exile.

Charles and Patty Maddox, who previously served in Ghana, work in Haiti with the Methodist Guest House. The house serves as the local base for many of the dozens of United Methodist Volunteer in Mission teams that visit the island nation each year. Teams were withdrawn and suspended when the fighting became intense two months ago. More than 700 people serve on volunteer teams to Haiti each year.

The Maddoxes will consult with local Methodist leaders in assessing the factors that will determine when volunteer teams can safely return. The International Red Cross reported April 12 that serious security issues continue.

LINK: Click to open full size version of image
UMNS photo by the Rev. David Morton

This Haitian child benefits from the Haiti Hot Lunch Program, sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

In the hills on the north side of Port-au-Prince, the guest house and its indigenous staff were not physically affected by the fighting in February. The house is a joint project of the Methodist Church of Haiti, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, and the Caribbean Council of Churches.

Church World Service has distributed a shipment of food and medicines in Haiti. Don Tatlock, the agency's international disaster liaison, reported hearing accounts from church pastors of recent violence, although abuses were lessening. He noted that the country remained "very fragile" and needed financial assistance for emergency relief, recovery and development activities.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief continues to provide assistance to Haiti. Donations to the United Methodist Committee on Relief, earmarked for Advance No. 418325, Haiti civil emergency, can be dropped in church collection plates or mailed directly to the agency at 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Credit-card donations can be made by calling (800) 554-8583.

Church bulletin inserts on the crisis in Haiti can be downloaded from http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor, the agency's Web site.

*Wright is the information officer for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. News media can contact Linda Bloom at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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