| Mission School best education there is BY ERIK ALSGAARD UMCONNECTION STAFF Amy Meek of Frostburg is no stranger at the Baltimore-Washington Conference School of Christian Mission. She has attended 44 of them. Her mother, Martha Meek, has only attended 36. July 19-22 found them back again for the 2002 School of Christian Mission, jointly sponsored by the conference United Methodist Women and the Board of Christian Presence in Gods World. I do this to get educated, said Amy Meek, to learn what the church is doing, what the UMW is doing. The school gives you a world vision rather than a narrow, local church vision. Martha Meek served as a missionary in Japan in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. Ask her why she attends and she replies, To get the best education there is. The 2002 School of Christian Mission was held at the Clarion Hotel in Hagerstown. Meeting under the theme Gods Mission: Faith in Action, nearly 300 students  spent time in classroom settings and plenary sessions studying the Book of James, restorative justice and Mexico. According to the dean of the school, the Rev. Monroe Wright, pastor of Mt. Zion UMC in Myersville, the Baltimore-Washington school is one of the largest in the country. At its heart, the school is about missions. This school has a wonderful array of resources, said Wright. It brings together knowledge and people, he said, some who have been missionaries in other countries, others who have traveled as Volunteers in Mission and are experts in their fields. This is a wonderful training event for people to take stuff back home, he said.  Running at the same time as the school was a youth school. Approxi-mately 30 young people attended.
I get a great sense of hope watching the youth, said the Rev. Tony Love, pastor of Zion UMC in Lexington Park and dean of the youth school. When you see youth come, and watch their commitment to mission. ... We do have a lot of kids that do good, and there is a foundation of youth concerned about their neighbor. For Love, in his second year as dean of the youth school, that experience is his reward. The youth school, he said, had room for 50 students. We would love to expand on that. Sharon Jeffries, 25, traveled to Hagerstown from Connecticut to be a youth counselor. She was part of the first youth program when she was in high school and returns each summer, giving up vacation time at work to be with the teens. Its an awesome program, she said, noting that the youth study the biblical materials and the country study. This is my home; this is where my roots are. Every year theres something more to learn, said Lola Fleet, of Mt. Winans UMC in Baltimore, who is active in local, district, and conference UMW activities. When you stop learning, youre dead. | 
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