Missionaries and Projects
Supported by Clarks Mills UMC

The Abbotts are currently residing in Madrid, Spain, where Mark works at the seminary which was recently legally recognized by the government. They have been given rights in the entire Spanish speaking world to their program, which is supplied by the Open Theological College in England. Mark is a native of Lubbock, Texas, and Diane is from Hamburg, New York. Andy was born in 1986 in the U.S., Caroline was born in 1989 in Spain, and Christopher was born in 1992 in Mexico. Diane enjoys playing the harp.

Red Bird Mission Workcamp is an ongoing mission project of our church. Every two years a group of our people goes to Red Bird to work on projects such as building a porch, installing gutters on the community's store warehouse, fixing things and painting. What a wonderful way to spend a vacation -- serving God by helping his flock, working alongside your Clarks Mills friends, and seeing beautiful Kentucky in July!

Ken & Joyce Layton (1999 photo) The Laytons live in State College, Pennsylvania, where Ken ministers to international students as one of The Navigators. Joyce is the sister of one of our members, which is one of the reasons we support them.

The purpose of The Navigators is to introduce the international students to Jesus Christ, bring them to church for the first time in their lives, invite them to special programs and help them move into new housing. Ken helps these students in their study of the scriptures. He reported in his June newsletter that Mainland Chinese are one of the largest number of international students studying at Penn State from 116 different countries represented there. (There are about 40,000 Mainland Chinese students studying in the United States.)

Our newest missionary is currently serving as a teacher in Central Asia, but we will not put his name or picture on this web page because we might jeopardize his position or even his life.

Lakeview Area Helping Hands, Inc., is a non-profit organization in Mercer County, PA, designed to provide information and assistance to members of the Lakeview and Commodore Perry School Districts, as well as some other areas defined by the Board of Directors. It was formed by the Lakeview Area United Methodist Co-operative Parish and is now supported by many area churches of all denominations, as well as by the Western PA Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The Center maintains programs in the areas of financial counseling, crisis intervention, food distribution, activities for teens, studying for GED, to name a few. There is a boutique where clothing and other items are sold at very low prices. The Federal government has greatly reduced its support of agencies such as Helping Hands, and financial aid is very much needed. Our missions fund helps with this support.

UMCOR is the United Methodist organization which responds to disasters all over the world, and in recent years they have been especially busy right here in the United States. Since UMCOR receives no World Service/apportionment dollars, the One Great Hour of Sharing offering supports the program costs and allows the church to respond immediately to disasters -- before funds from churches begin to flow in.

To ensure that adequate funds are available for emergency response, our gifts to ongoing UMCOR Advance projects are critical. Through Advance giving, people around the world can continue to count on United Methodists to be there with relief in the wake of disasters and with support in the long-term effort to eradicate poverty. We send support money to UMCOR's Emergency Relief Fund. This is undesignated money that can be used for emergency relief wherever it is most needed. It can be used to supplement those Advance projects which are not fully funded.

The Methodist Church in India conducts a program to train over 300 preachers who serve in the rural areas and to provide needed equipment, supplies, study materials, food, travel, etc. Most of these local preachers are high school graduates or below, who have not had an in-depth theological training and were recruited to meet a growing membership in the church. The program director believes that this course is of tremendous importance to the preachers and that it has greatly strengthened their pastoral ministry.