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By Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff

This summer unprecedented numbers of United Methodists are working as short-term missionaries, throughout the nation and world, said Sandy Ferguson, director of justice ministries for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

In 2006, Ferguson reported, 'the conference sent 2,705 participants into the mission field to provide 15,720 days of Christ-driven labor.'

Within the conference and denomination, the number of people serving as Volunteers in Mission is growing, Ferguson said.

A recent General Board of Global Ministries report indicates that churchwide the number of participants in United Methodist Volunteers in Mission climbed from just under 20,000 in 1992 to almost 111,000 in 2006.

These volunteers served on 7,410 construction teams and 264 medical teams - 2,074 of which took part in hurricane relief.

'This is an incredible growth of voluntary mission service,' said the Rev. Clinton Rabb, an executive with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. 'The growth and the appeal come from the grassroots nature of the volunteer movement.'

The conference recently appointed a new Volunteers in Mission coordinator. The Rev. Jeffrey Odom, pastor of the Bixlers-Miller Charge in Manchester, can be reached at or (410) 239-3640.

The Rev. Dick Stetler of St. Matthew?s UMC in Bowie will serve as the conference?s new disaster relief coordinator and the Rev. Michael Johnson of Landsdowne UMC in Baltimore has been named the conference?s global ministries secretary.

Opportunities to participate in Volunteer in Mission trips are announced weekly in the conference?s electronic newsletter, the e-connection, and are listed on the conference and Northeastern Jurisdiction Web sites. For more information, see http://www.gbgm-umc.org/bwvim.

Elliott Wright contributed to this report.