2 Florida United Methodist Review Online

Conference raises half of school goal

By Michael Wacht

LAKELAND — Churches, groups and individuals in the Florida Conference gave more than half the total needed to build the Bishop Cornelius L. and Dorothye Henderson Secondary School in Muxungue, Mozambique, Africa, at the Dare to Share Jesus 2001 Florida Annual Conference Event here.

Bishop Timothy Whitaker announced May 31 that $133,844.13 was collected during the previous night’s celebration featuring the Council of Bishops’ Initiative on Children and Poverty and Hope for the Children of Africa. Gifts and donations made prior to the conference brought the total amount given to the school to $188,281.23.

“I am grateful for the generosity of the people here at annual conference and the congregations that accepted this offering,” Whitaker said. “We have made tremendous strides…and are on our way to achieving our goal of $250,000.”

Whitaker encouraged delegates to return to their churches, pray about the school and encourage their members to be generous to the initiative.

The children and staff of the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home gave $3,500 toward the offering. The Florida Conference United Methodist Men donated $1,000.

Dorothye Henderson, the widow of Bishop Henderson, recalled their visit to Africa as part of a cultural awareness tour in 1998 and how both of them were brought to tears by the plight of the children, especially those in Mozambique. She said the principal of a school there fainted when the two of them presented her with pencils and composition books given by the Florida Conference.

“I am so overwhelmed and so appreciative to the Florida Annual Conference for remembering my husband in such a way,” she said.