Covenant Relationships

Covenant Relationships: ‘A promise of faith’

by Melissa Lauber, UMConnection Staff

Approximately one-quarter of the churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference have a Covenant Relationship with a missionary. This low percentage surprises Gloria Hawkins of Trinity UMC in Prince Frederick because she recognizes the benefits a church can gain in such a relationship.

The Covenant Relationship Program, started in 1974 by the General Board of Global Ministries, enlists local churches to support individual missionaries by paying either $3, $4 or $5 per member, or $2,500 per congregation, each year.

When the missionaries itinerate home, they visit the churches with whom they have Covenant Relationships.

The average annual estimated cost of supporting one missionary is $45,000.

But the relationship is about far more than money, said Hawkins. Members of a church keep in touch with “their” missionary through letters, tapes, pictures and packages so that everyone involved feels like family. Prayers are also exchanged.

Missionaries report that the personal relationships that evolve are more important than the monetary support, said Hawkins.

Christians know that God provides for all their needs, she said. A Covenant Relationship is about much more than writing a check or inserting a line item in the church budget. It is, she concluded, a promise of faith.

EBENEZER UMC HAS 2 COVENANT RELATIONSHIPS WITH 2 MISSIONARIES: SUZANNE PORTER & MIGUEL M AIRENA

Suzanne Porter is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, and from 2001-2006 worked in a medical facility and with a community development program in Central Asia . The focus of that program is the delivery of medical care, training assistant nurses and improving the health of the people living in remote and underserved mountain villages.

A pediatric nurse practitioner by training, Suzanne’s responsibilities were providing primary health care to children, supervision of the nurses in the hospital and training new nurse assistants to work in the clinic and the hospital. For part of the time she was project leader to the 68 national staff and 7 expatriate staff.

Beginning in January 2007 Suzanne’s assignment will be to Liberia , Africa at the Ganta Medical Complex ( www.gbgm-umc.org/health/Ganta ) to work mostly in the school of nursing. About her new assignment she says, “It is hard to leave the people I have worked with over the past five years but I see God’s plan for my time here both for the contributions I made to the project and in the growth my personal relationship with Him. The verse that speaks to me about this is from Ester 4:14 where Mordicai says to her ‘perhaps you have come…for just a time as this’. So, while I am sad I also leave with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction and take with me to Liberia the valuable experience I gained while serving in Central Asia.”

Born in Syracuse , New York , Suzanne earned a BA degree in 1973 from SUNY (State University of New York) at Potsdam ; a BSN degree in 1985 and an MSN degree in 1990, both from the University of Maryland at Baltimore . Prior to working in the mission field she worked at the Johns Hopkins Hospital ‘s Adolescent Clinic where her responsibility was for the primary health care of teenage mothers and their infants. Other nursing experience includes the Johns Hospital Pediatric Emergency Room and the Pediatric ICU of the University of Maryland Hospital.

A member of Reisterstown United Methodist Church in Reisterstown , Maryland , Suzanne has one adult daughter, Becky.

Suzanne Porter is available for Covenant Relationship support in Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, West Virginia Annual Conference.

Make an online donation to: Suzanne Porter .

Additional Information:

• Missionary Code: 13929Z ( track gifts )
• Last update: 8-06

Miguel Mairena is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church serving in Nicaragua since 1997. Along with his wife, Nan McCurdy also a GBGM missionary Miguel works with the Women and Community Association in San Francisco Libre, a county in the northwestern section of Nicaragua that was especially devastated by Hurricane Mitch.

Miguel facilitates reconstruction work for the Women and Community Association, including the construction of 400 houses and the installation of a major potable water system complete with household latrines. Most of the funding for this work was provided by UMCOR. More recently Miguel has facilitated the construciton of a women’s clinic and rehab of the W&C offices as well as three rural schools.

He also counsels local men in the areas of reproductive responsibility and the prevention of intrafamily violence. A popular theologian, Miguel weaves religious reflections into his personal encounters while going about his daily development work.

Coming from a large, impoverished Nicaraguan farming family, Miguel had few opportunities to study until he was 20 years old. Growing up on an island in Lake Nicaragua he learned farming, fishing, and boat skills, and worked during his teens as a mechanic and boat driver. Most of his studies were accomplished during the years of the Sandinista revolution; he then worked in community and agricultural development projects serving farmers and war veterans through the Nazarene church, World Vision and two different ecumenical centers.

Miguel has six children, two who still live with he and Nan – Daniel, age 18 and Nora, age 15.

Project Advance number – 01325-6RA – Popular Defenders, SFL

Miguel Mairena is available for Covenant Relationship support in Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, Peninsula/Delaware Annual Conference.

Make an online donation to: Miguel Mairena .

Additional Information:

• Missionary Code: 12877Z ( track gifts )
• Last update: 8-06