| Bishop's wife shares ministry with spouses
By Michael Wacht
LAKELAND — For the past three years, the
United Methodist Bishops’ Spouses Association has had a covenant
relationship with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to
serve as mission interpreters in the annual conferences where they
live. In that time, two episcopal wives have taken on the ministry of
visiting a mission area and sharing the story in their conference.
Melba Whitaker, wife of Florida Conference
Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker, will become the third this September. But
Whitaker is not going alone. She is taking a team of seven Florida
Conference clergy spouses with her Sept. 17-30 on a trip that’s as
much about building support for UMCOR as it is about building
relationships and ministry among the spouses.
“I thought, ‘This is a wonderful opportunity
for clergy spouses to have a ministry of their own and to highlight
them and their unique gifts,’ ” Whitaker said. “They stay in the
conference, but bishops’ spouses come and go…”
The covenant between the spouses and UMCOR is
intended to build support for the denominations’ annual One Great
Hour of Sharing offering, which funds UMCOR’s administration and
ongoing ministries, according to Whitaker.
“We do great on disaster response,” she
said. “Florida is tops in responding to 9/11…but conferences
around the world are weak on giving to One Great Hour of Sharing. A
lot of churches just don’t take it up.”
Whitaker is the first bishop’s spouse to
extend this ministry to clergy spouses.
The ministry Whitaker’s team will focus on is
the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP). The project began in
the community of Jamkhed in India. A team of doctors who visited there
saw a need for community health care. Children were urinating near
their houses, and the community’s well was close to its sewage,
Whitaker said. The doctors trained local women in basic health care,
family health and village sanitation. When the men in the village saw
the difference the women were making, they wanted to contribute. They
were taught good farming techniques.
“Their whole way of life improved,” Whitaker
said. “Babies lived…children thrived.”
Soon, the villagers were studying basic economic
practices and starting their own businesses to sell local goods and
wares.
“UMCOR saw this ministry and started
contributing to it,” Whitaker said. “Now they have gone all over
the world…it’s spreading like wildfire.”
CRHP programs are now in Africa and Central and
South America.
The Florida team will visit the CRHP site in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, a new site in Vitoria de Conquista, and the Esperito
Santo State Children’s Project in Vitoria, a school that has grown
out of the health project. In addition to observing and learning, the
team will deliver school and medical supplies and help in any way it
can.
Whitaker is excited about the diversity of the
team. Although it is all women, she is pleased that it includes wives
of both elders and local pastors. Team members also have diverse
career backgrounds including chemical engineering, travel industry and
health care.
“Even though we only have one nurse going with
us, there’s things the rest of us can do…basic things,” Whitaker
said. “Anything to help.”
The trip will cost each person between $2,000
and $2,500, which includes flights within Brazil to the different
locations, according to Whitaker. Each team member is responsible for
raising her own funds. Whitaker hopes conference churches will
contribute, especially for those team members who come from churches
that may not be able to raise the full amount.
When they return, each team member is required
to be available to talk to churches and groups about UMCOR and One
Great Hour of Sharing. Whitaker hopes they will be busy during the
Lenten season, since the special Sunday offering is collected on the
fourth Sunday of Lent, according to the 2000 United Methodist Book of
Discipline.
This is not the last trip Whitaker plans to
lead. She is working on a trip to Guatemala, but has not yet set the
dates, and is planning a summer trip especially for spouses who work
as school teachers.
How to Help
Anyone wishing to contribute to a team member
may do so by contacting that person’s church. Church names and phone
numbers are listed. Church addresses are available in the Florida
Annual Conference Journal, which is available for download at http://www.flumc.org/journal2001/.
- Jeannene Riddle – Bethel United Methodist
Church; 850-576-1454
- Ginny Pearcy – First United Methodist
Church, Deltona; 386-574-1016
- Dee Beam – St. John’s United Methodist
Church; 813-935-2664
- Irina Brightly – Boca Grande United
Methodist Church; 941-964-0738
- Candy Smiley – Plantation United Methodist
Church; 954-581-6684
- Kathy Moore – Mayo Circuit; 386-362-2891
- Crystal Barham – First United Methodist
Church, Pinellas Park; 727-544-3472
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