Masters' Newsletter
May 2003
Warm and wonderful greetings to all of you!!! If ever there was a need for the hope of resurrection, I believe it is now! Since our Christmas holiday news reached you, much change has continued, so we’ll get right to the news.
First, let us clarify our itineration/visitation situation. We are very aware that many of you expected to see us before now, and are wondering about our plans. It now seems as if our time in the United States will mimic our extended stay in Africa characterized by multiple assignments in diverse locations. Our initial intent to begin extensive itineration following our return from Uganda/Congo/Zambia in the summer of 2001 abruptly ended in the autumn of that year when the leadership of GBGM asked Mark and me to redirect and revitalize the training program for mission personnel. This involved an unplanned move to the Mission Resource Center in Atlanta from January through August of 2002, when Mark and Matthew moved into our home in Nashville to begin Ph.D. studies (Mark) and high school (Matthew). Kathleen remained in Atlanta to continue supervision of the missionary training program, culminating in the commissioning of twenty-two missionaries, deaconesses and church and community workers at the Autumn Board of Global Ministries meeting in New York. In December 2002, the training facilities in Atlanta were closed down and Kathleen rejoined the family in Nashville intending to coordinate training events from home with occasional travel responsibilities.
Since then, Kathleen has been involved in organizing and facilitating end of term events for thirteen W.T. Handy Young Adult Missioners, twelve Mission Interns and thirteen US-2Æs. Additionally, orientation has been provided for the Annual Conference Committees of Mission Personnel, and a mid-term training event has been conducted for eight US-2Æs who will continue in their positions of service and justice for the next year. These trainings have been held in Atlanta, Birmingham, and New York. In addition, Kathleen was asked in March of this year to assume administrative responsibility for all North American mission personnel. This requires at least two weeks residence each month in New York City at the Board of Global Ministries. You can see that the financial constraints at the Board have created more (and very different) work for us. Not only have these commitments precluded our visiting covenant congregations, they have fostered a new definition for marriage and family. Please pray for our continued energy as we attempt to meet unplanned work responsibilities as well as to schedule church visitations on an intermittent basis due to our very fragmented calendars.
Mark remains on study leave from the Board of Global Ministries and has just completed the first year of his doctoral studies in Community Research and Action at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. Mark has been able to do quite well academically, though the bane of his existence - Multivariate Statistics - remains unresolved with an incomplete grade. This summer he has been awarded a grant by the Frist Foundation to conduct a community health assessment for an inner-city neighborhood center that is very diverse and multi-cultural. He is pleased to be able to combine his community development skills with recently acquired research methodologies. Mark will also travel in July to Cornell University to present a paper on community assessment to the International Community Development Society based on the development wheel methodology we developed during our assignments in the Solomon Islands, Uganda and Zambia. This summer he will be also be visiting a few covenant congregations to share the work we are doing.
Matthew has done exceptionally well, both academically and athletically, at Overton High School, in Nashville. He continues to surprise us, especially in the area of forensics and debate, receiving several ribbons in inter-scholastic competition in extemporaneous speaking. His biggest challenge this spring was to add the pole vault to his track & field repertoire to supplement his participation in distance running events. His efforts were rewarded as he placed third in the city in pole vault for junior varsity. Now that he is fifteen, Matthew will take drivers education this summer and will begin driving his parents around for a while as part of the learner’s permit process. It is so hard to believe the infant that traveled with us to the Solomon Islands for our first mission assignment is now beginning to drive!
Christian was spectacular in the Memphis Opera production of Verdi’s Masked Ball. There is something very rewarding about seeing your rugby playing young adult on stage in tights and a wig! He has just completed his junior year at Rhodes College in Memphis majoring in English with a minor in philosophy. We continue to be impressed with his writing ability as three of his poems have just been published in the Southwestern Review - one of the top ten college arts publications in the United States. Each of the poems draw upon his international experience, two with a Solomon Island context and one from Zambia. He has also been elected to serve as the captain of the rugby team in the Fall - nothing like a liberal education! Christian has joined the family in Nashville for the summer and is working odd jobs for a temporary agency doing everything from data entry to delivering and installing washing machines - no telling what stories and poems will come from these diverse activities.
Although we returned to the States (in part) to be together as a family, we seem to spend much more time separated than together. However, we eagerly anticipate the Masters family reunion this summer at Navarre Beach in Florida. This will be the first time in eight years that all of us have been together in one place at one time. Our family has grown by two new nephews in the past year. Being back in the US for an extended period of time has facilitated planning for this event and we rejoice for the opportunity to acknowledge the importance of family ties in a fragmented world.
Please continue to pray for the General Board of Global Ministries in this time of financial strain. There will be no recruiting, orientation, or commissioning of new missionaries at least through 2003. Eighteen of our colleagues have not had their contracts renewed; executives who have retired or resigned are being replaced, temporarily, with mission personnel. Every day those responsible for the mission of the church make painful decisions that impact ministries of peace, justice and reconciliation that are sorely needed in the world. Now more than ever, the covenant and Advance programs are needed to continue efforts we have begun as United Methodists throughout the world. If you, as a congregation, are asking whether it is necessary to continue mission support while we are in the U. S., let us respond with a resounding: “Absolutely”. There has never been a more important time for you to pay your apportionments, your UMW Pledge to Mission, and your second mile commitments. Your continued support will enable us to continue your work into the twenty-first century, a work of service and mercy and love. Your support will challenge us to carry on when the road is rough, and the travel endless. Please know your World Service dollars, and second mile giving are enabling good, Christ-centered work to be done in your name, even when financial constraints are changing the content and process of mission. God continues to call us to work wherever we find ourselves.
Mark, Kathleen, Christian and Matthew