| NEWS Dental help wanted In a recent meeting with Baltimore-Washington Conference leaders, Bishop Herbert Skeete issued a call for medical and dental professionals to work in mission in Zimbabwe. According to Skeete, there are three United Methodist hospitals in the country. Each has a doctor, two of whom are United Methodists. Skeet, with the help of the General Board of Global Ministries, is also working to bring a surgeon to the hospitals. Each hospital also has a dental clinic, and dentists and dental hygienists are desperately needed. For more information, contact the Rev. Donald Stewart, director of connectional ministries at (800) 492-2525, Ext. 435, or
. United for Children Children can be sponsored through United for Children at a cost of $28 a month. One-time gifts are also appreciated. Specific gifts can also be chosen from a list of items, starting at $2 for a fruit tree, up to $1,800 for a vehicle. For more information call Tom or Becki Price, of Oakdale Emory UMC, at (301) 774-4666 or write to United for Children, 3425 Emory Church Road, Olney, MD 20832. | Zimbabwe-BWC ties affirmed by Melissa LauberUMConnection Staff  The U.S. State Department calls Zimbabwe a country in the midst of political, economic and humanitarian crises with an economy in precipitous decline.
United Methodists call it a mission field. Today in Zimbabwe, 300 people will die of AIDS. Three hundred more will die tomorrow. And the next day, and the next, and so it goes. In Zimbabwe, more than 2.2 million, or one in every four, people are infected with HIV/AIDS; more than 700,000 children are AIDS orphans. Pastors spend whole days conducting funerals. United Methodists mourn and then minister to the generation of AIDS orphans being left behind to scratch out a life in a country facing food shortages, a 70 percent unemployment rate, an increasingly valueless dollar,  press censorship, a severe lack of gasoline and a brain drain that is drawing the best and brightest out of the country, said Bishop Herbert F. Skeete, Zimbabwes interim bishop. At the recent Council of Bishops meeting in Arlington, Va., Bishop Felton Edwin May encouraged the church to begin to seriously minister to the human tragedy and the depths of hardship plaguing Africa. In his report as chairman of a denominational task force developing a holistic strategy for Africa, Bishop May quoted Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who said that poverty, disease and war continue to result in the crucifixion of our people. Bishop May called upon United Methodists to understand that life is hanging in the balance and to begin to work to make it possible for healing and new life to take root in Africa. Following Bishop Mays remarks, the Council of Bishops unanimously voted to ask the 2004 General Conference to establish a coordinating committee and assign a bishop to focus on aid to Africa during 2005-08. To fund this ministry, churches are being asked to commit to giving 100 percent to apportioned funds. If they would have done so in the years 2001 to 2004, an additional $61 million would be available for mission in Africa, Bishop May said. At the grassroots level, the people of the Baltimore-Washington Conference have entered into partnership with United Methodists in Zimbabwe. In the past two years, United for Children, a conference Advance Special, gave more than $100,000 to assist the children of Zimbabwe. Many of the conferences nine districts also conducted a variety of fundraisers to raise $100,000 for churches, orphanages and schools. The Baltimore-Harford District, for example, is sending $10,000 to help in the expansion of churches and parsonages in Zimbabwe. The Washington-Columbia District contributed $5,000. Washington-East has designated $5,000 to be sent to Zimbabwe. The Baltimore West District recently sent a check for $30,000 to Mabelreign UMC in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Washington West District has sent $90,454 to aid scholarship programs, construct a sports complex at Africa University in Mutare and help rebuild St. Johns Chikanga UMC on the Mutare District. The Annapolis District has raised $4,087 to build a community development center in the Maranga District. Crofton UMC also sent $3,287 to the Murewa Orphan Trust. Recently, officials from the Surviving Child Orphan Trust in Murewa, which cares for 612 orphans, thanked Crofton UMC for their contributions, which enabled them to buy shoes, blankets and food for the orphans and complete the building of a duplex house. They also thanked United for Children, the Baltimore-Washington Conference child-sponsorship program, for making the orphans dreams come true by donating a truck and a van. Money given by United for Children also purchased food and jerseys for the children. You have really saved dying souls, the orphan trustee officials wrote in acknowledgement. United for Children enables individuals and churches in the United States to sponsor children and support a wide variety of ministries in Zimbabwe. The people of Zimbabwe know how to do ministry and they have a real heart for children. We put a few dollars in their hands, and what they can do is incredible, said Tom Price, who coordinates the program along with his wife, Becki. It will take a miracle, Price said. We are, of course, always open to that miracle. |
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