St. Luke's United Methodist Church - Masters Family Mission

As we come to an end of a very busy and productive year we praise God for your continuing support and encouragement. 2005 proved to be a time of adjustment for our family and in our work. We have refined even further our areas of responsibility and oversight for the Board of Global Ministries. Mark now focuses the lion’s share of his time on the executive tasks for more than 50 missionaries serving in Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Southern Asia (ENAMESA). Kathleen spearheads missionary training activities for the Board while seeking to reconfigure training activities to meet the changing needs and criteria for mission service in the age of internet access and distance learning. We split executive responsibilities for the Young Adult programs, with Kathleen supervising those on domestic placement (15 US-2s) and Mark overseeing those on international assignment (8 Mission Interns). We continue struggling to come to grips with our “tag-team” relationship dividing our time between family responsibilities in Nashville and work responsibilities in New York, around the country, and overseas. We try to spend at least a week together each month – overlapping in either New York or Nashville. Thankfully, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with Matthew graduating and heading off to college in 2006, thereby helping to ease our itineraries and enabling more time together in the New York office.

On the home front, Matthew is juggling a heavy pre-college academic load in his senior year of high school with hopes to attend either Oxford College (Emory University) or Millsaps College with a major in biochemistry or microbiology. He is working part-time at Game Stop (a teenage boy’s dream job!) amidst rugby practice and dating. Christian has moved back home after breaking off marriage plans. He supports himself with various activities in the hospitality/restaurant industry while pursuing his passion for the theater. We have thoroughly enjoyed viewing his community theater performances this year in Pirates of Penzance, Li’l Abner, Johnny Belinda and A Christmas Carol. He has a role in Mr. Roberts scheduled for opening in late January. (You can link to theater reviews and synopses at http://pull-tight.com/.) Kathleen has just returned from some time with her family in Portland, Oregon and helping her mother transition to an assisted-living facility there. It is so nice to be in the States with opportunities to build family ties through personal interaction and family celebrations.

Although many of you began your relationship with us while we were serving in a more “traditional” international missionary placement, we rejoice in God’s call for us to use our gifts and graces for support, training and supervision of mission personnel from a base here in the United States. In many ways, our work touches the lives of many more people than we would ever have dreamed possible. As we continue in the season of peace, hope and joy in celebration of the Christ child, we wanted to share some of the events and persons that have touched our lives (and we theirs) in the past year as an indication of the way your love and support flows through us and out into a broken world:

Mark’s struggle to provide and support and nurture for the Rev. Devi Bhujel and this three school-age children following the death of their mother, Karuna, in a tragic road accident in Nepal. We rejoice that the churches being planted in that country continue to grow and a new church building has been dedicated in memory of Karuna’s missionary efforts with women and children.
Kathleen’s work with the Deaconess and Church and Community Worker Programs has developed into programs focused on economic and social justice. These precommissioning events prepare and enable servant leaders throughout the United States.
Mark’s travel to provide encouragement to 4 missionaries serving in Israel/Palestine and the chance to observe the injustices being forced upon the Christian community in the Holy Land through the separation barrier, travel restrictions and the loss of economic opportunity. We rejoice in the continuing hope of a just peace as exemplified by Alex and Brenda Awad, Sandra Olewine and Janet Lahr Lewis.
Kathleen’s attendance at two exceptional seminars this year; a Mediation/Conflict Transformation in January and Intercultural Communications Seminar in December. Both these experiences will support her efforts in preparing others for service throughout the world, to be facilitators of resolution and transformation while appreciating and adapting to different cultures.
Mark’s participation with the mission community, Episcopal authorities, and emerging indigenous leaders in Russia, Lithuania, and Austria to engage in visioning, prioritization, and planning for new missionary placements in 2006.
Kathleen’s supervision of fifteen US-2s serving throughout the U.S. Each has blessed their community as they each have been blessed. To learn of their challenges and accomplishments large and small is encouraging. In 2006 we will be able to recruit twelve young adults for this two-year commitment. If you know of any bright and shining persons, please contact the Young Adult Program Missionary in Residence, Lauren Green, at 212-870-3660, or visit the program page on the web: http://sbgm-umc.org/who_we_are/mp/us2.cfm. We would be excited to receive someone from our “home” churches.
Mark’s commitment to provide training and support for young adult Mission Interns demonstrating the courage and commitment to engage in peace and justice ministries in conflict zones in Belfast (Miller), Beirut (Clayburn), Bethlehem (Wilkinson), Columbia (Spaur), Costa Rica (Kellner), Nairobi (Conway), Cape Town (Nicovich), and Manila (Jones).
Kathleen’s continuing challenges to make training events productive and creative for all who attend. We have such diverse communities who serve and when we meet the challenges collaboratively and consensually we are all blessed. The most recent standard missionary training found us in community with four missionaries who will serve in the National Plan for Latino/Hispanic Ministries in the U.S. Two pastors from Mexico (Rivera and Rios), one from Brazil (Goncalves), and a laywoman from Oregon (Harkness) continually fuelled our days and evenings with enthusiasm and devotion. Seven persons were commissioned for service internationally; a Ghanaian agronomist (Adevu) who works throughout West Africa, a Caribbean woman (Boyd) who blesses women throughout the islands, a probationary elder from North Carolina (Bryant) who will be serving in Russia, a volunteer coordinator from Florida (Davidson) and financial controller from Kansas (Raasch) who will work in Honduras, and a Laotian/American couple (Vangs) who will return for service in Laos.
Mark’s efforts in support of missionaries reaching out to provide a church home and physical, emotional and spiritual comfort to refugees, undocumented “guest” workers, and other foreign-language migrants in Tunis (Kayij), Milan (Markays), Berlin (Modayil), Hamburg (Dwyers), Munich (Erb-Kanzleiter), Copenhagen (Kyeremeh), Moscow (Calhoun) and Switzerland (Monteiros).

Our lives have become intertwined with the work, mission and ministry of these and many more servants of Christ by our efforts to train, supervise, and support them in their work around the world. Through these missionaries, we feel that our work and your support for us are multiplied hundreds of times over. We are truly blessed and hope you experience much of our joy that comes from being a facilitator and enabler of others in Christian service. Should you wish to learn more about any of the individuals reference above – or the work of the GBGM Mission Personnel Unit – please go online to http://gbgm-umc.org/who_we_are/mp/ and link to missionary biographies or any of the specialized programs we support.

Many have asked whether we would return to an international placement. Our response arises out of prayerful consideration and repeated efforts to be true to God’s call and not our own sense of where we should be. At this time, we are committed through 2008 in our current (and evolving) capacities. After 18 years of missionary service in widely diverse settings, we can only be certain that God will continue to surprise us and be gracious to us. Our commitment is to a life of mission service and the location of that service in secondary. We remain open to new opportunities overseas – or closer to home. We have faith that God opens doors, and pray that we will be continually blessed with the gift of discernment to know where our skills are most needed and best utilized. Our God has offered us infinite blessings, particularly when we put our lives in God’s hands and not our own. Please pray for us to have the wisdom to discern God’s will for us and enable us to continue to be joyful disciples with you!

Agape,
Mark and Kathleen