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GIL HANKE

General Secretary/ Chief Executive Officer For many individuals, mission is an essential part of their walk with Christ.

I learned about missions as a child, listening to Methodist missionaries who visited our church with slides of their work halfway around the world. I have also learned of missions from the work performed in inner cities that dealt with hunger, health, education and hopelessness.

Missions can be the repair of homes, and lives after fires, tornados, floods and hurricanes. Sometimes we get to do the mission work, and at other times we get to help finance the mission work completed by others. I have sat in an African clinic and listened to a physician explain, “Some of those ‘Nothing but Nets’ you bought, are shipped to me here in Mozambique. I grew up here, I am familiar with all the villages around us for miles. Each week we identify those patients who come to us due to mosquito-borne diseases, and when we find a community with several new patients we get to work. We go to that village with the nets you gifted us and teach everyone how to use them, and the next months no new patients come to us from that area with that diagnosis.”

I was glad I had bought some nets; but at that moment, I wished I had bought many more.

This issue brings a sampling of mission organizations that this denomination supports in a variety of ways. All these can be hands on; they can also receive funds or both. All the projects that are listed this issue are endorsed or in the process of being endorsed by the commission. We created this endorsement process so that we can recommend a variety of organizations to local churches without reservation. That process was delayed last fall, due to the pandemic, but will be completed in 2021.

I can recommend each of these mission opportunities to you and to the members of your church.

In addition to these, your annual conference has mission projects that you can learn about; most will be listed on the conference website. It can be collecting school supplies, support for feeding and housing the homeless in your community, and disaster relief. Some require training and certification; others only require willing hands and hearts. Some are in a neighboring county; others in another country.

The mission work I have done has been transformational for me and for the teams. Some trips have used my professional skills as a speech/language pathologist; others have used skills from other experiences, and others taught me skills on site. Sometimes I have been a leader, other times I have enjoyed being a follower.

All these experiences have several things in common. In every case we were able to make a difference. In every case that I can remember, we unknowingly had the right people, with the right skills and could find the materials to do what needed to be done. In every case, God shows up.

1000 17TH AVE. SOUTH NASHVILLE, TN 37212 615.340.7145

PUBLISHER

Gil Hanke EDITOR Rich Peck CREATIVE DIRECTOR Troy Dossett, UMCom ASSOCIATE EDITORS Rick Vance Steven Scheid PROOF READER Martha Davis

UMMen is published four times a year: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. This magazine includes articles from individuals who hold diverse opinions. We hope all articles are thought provoking; they are not necessarily the opinions of the General Commission on United Methodist Men. Articles without bylines are written by commission staff.