UNITED METHODIST MEN
Men called to missions By Gil Hanke
Many of you support the commission by being EMS donors (a gift $45 per year, thank you very much!). The “M” stands missions. We are called to be in missions and that work takes hundreds of forms. Some men and women participate in missions that reach beyond their annual conferences and connect folks around the world. Some mission teams require people with specific skills, but there is always room for helpers and learners. Many folks put mission teams together following extraordinary events such as fires, storms or earthquakes. For example, I participated in a team of family and friends who responded to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Other mission projects opportunities have more of a regional pull, like helping and supporting the Lydia Patterson School in El Paso, which is linked to the South Central Jurisdiction. Many projects in the Western Jurisdiction serve indigenous populations. I have a colleague in Germany who participates in mission projects in African nations.
Gil Hanke is the top staff executive of the General Commission on UM Men.
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To see the range of U.S. and international disasterrecovery and mission projects, go here.
My first ‘yes’ Some of you who know me, are aware that I have been blessed to work in multiple projects in the U.S., Haiti, Costa Rica, and Siberia. BUT, I wasted a lot of time saying “no.” I had lots of reasons to decline, but Sam, a pastor and friend, continued to invite me in less-than-subtle ways. Team leaders seem to have a sense (perhaps, a notion from God) about who would work well on a team. Unlikely as this might seem, I was moved to say “yes” to Sam’s consistent invitations during an annual conference worship service. I went to Sam after that service and said, “Just put me on a team.”
On a team to Haiti Two months later, I received an abbreviated phone message: “Gil, this is Sam; Haiti; October; call me.” It turned out that there were two teams going to that island nation; one would do some construction work, the other would work at an Episcopal hospital. Since I had been a medic during my invited service in the Army, and as a speech-language pathologist who worked some in a hospital setting, I suggested I could work at the hospital, but I said, “I’ll work wherever you need me.”
