Board commissions 14 UM missionaries

 

Southwest Texan stays
at post reaching out
to youths in Chile

United Methodist News Service
STAMFORD, Conn.—Fourteen new United Methodist missionaries—including one from Southwest Texas—each received a loaf of bread for the journey from 14 retiring missionaries.
The 14 were commissioned to serve in 10 different countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America during the Oct. 9-12 General Board of Global Ministries meeting.
The new missionaries include pastors, educators, health professionals and an agronomist. They are assigned to Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Mozambique, Senegal, Thailand and Zambia.
Becky Harrell, Southwest Texas Conference, is continuing as coordinator of Methodist Extension to Andean Youth, Iquique, Chile, a post she held for several years as a volunteer in mission.
Two others of the group, the Rev. Sherri Tabaka-Morrissey and her husband, the Rev. Michael W. Morrissey Jr., of the Kentucky Conference, are the first United Methodist missionaries assigned to Thailand.
The couple is to serve as pastor and teacher at God’s Purpose Church, a congregation in the city of Chon Buri, an hour outside of Bangkok, Thailand’s capital. The independent congregation and the United Methodist mission agency have been forging ties during the past three years.
Other new missionaries are:
> The Rev. Kimberly Brown-Whale and the Rev. Richard Brown-Whale, Baltimore-Washington Conference, who are returning to missionary service. They are assigned to the Senegal Mission and will be based in Dakar.
> John and Suzanne Nunn Funk, North Alabama Conference, who will be working at the Colorado Technical Agricultural High School in Rio Colorado, Bolivia.
> Sun Lae Kim, Greater New Jersey Conference, who is assigned to congregational development work at the United Methodist Mission, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
> The Rev. Dennis Lipke and Dale Lipke, Virginia Conference, who are going to the Cambine Mission, Mozambique.
> Irene Mparutsa, Zimbabwe West Conference, who will serve as coordinator for community health, agriculture and microenterprise in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
> Tshala Mwengo, South Congo Conference, who is assigned as director of the Mujila Falls Agricultural Project in Mwinilunga, Zambia.
> Hee Jin Park, California Pacific Conference, who is coordinator of evangelism and church growth at the United Methodist Center in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
> Farayi Tiriwepi, Zimbabwe West Conference, who is area financial executive in the Central Congo Area, Democratic Republic of Congo, based in Kinshasa.