Panel suggests naming center for bishop

Special Easter offering
to support proposed
VIM training facility
A proposed Volunteers-in-Mission training center northwest of San Antonio could honor Bishop Joel N. Martinez.
A 10-member planning task force, chaired by the Rev. Warren G. Hornung of First UMC, Kerrville, has recommended that the planned training facility and disaster-response warehouse in Fair Oaks Ranch be named for Martinez. He is to retire as leader of the San Antonio Episcopal Area in August 2008.
The Council on Finance and Administration has approved a special one-time offering at Easter to help support the proposed 14,200-square-foot facility adjacent to Spring Creek UMC.
Southwest Texas Conference congregations were sent materials last week to describe the proposed facility and help promote the special April 8 offering. Those resources included a three-minute video presentation, a sample church newsletter article, a worship bulletin insert master and special offering envelopes.
The conferencewide offering is one part of a larger fundraising strategy, Martinez told pastors in a Dec. 1 letter about the Easter offering. The conference is seeking grants from various foundations as well. Offering participation shows those foundations that local congregations support the project.
Martinez, a longtime advocate of mission outreach, has supported the idea of a disaster-response warehouse and mission training center in Southwest Texas since early in his tenure as San Antonio Episcopal Area bishop, which began in 2000.
Martinez has been president of the United Methodist mission board since 2000. He served on the mission board staff in New York City from 1975 to 1981.
The proposed facility, to be located just off Interstate 10 northwest of San Antonio, is to provide a site for regular VIM leadership and team training. In addition, the structure is to house a basic inventory of disaster-response supplies, such as flood buckets, health kits and home-repair items.
Training at the center is to equip mission volunteers to serve people in need better, members of the planning task force said. The disaster-response supplies are to enable the conference to respond within 24 hours to a natural disaster in Texas.
Since 1998 Southwest Texas has experienced two regional floods, several hurricanes and a number of tornadoes. The conference needed several weeks to mount its response to those events.