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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
June 2001 |
Operation Classroom report:
Planting trees of knowledge, nurturing trees of life
By Mary Sue Best
Envisioning a dream of long-term commitment and wide-spread involvement, those who developed Operation Classroom helped Hoosier United Methodists create an image: planting trees of knowledge in West Africa, with better trained teachers, motivated students and grateful parents to support them. Both clergy and laity became enablers by building a network of the concerned, based on the early ideas of John Shettle, Bob Bowman and Bishop Leroy Hodapp.
Schools flourished with books, supplies, furniture and workers from the States. But a nagging feeling that we could do more set O.C. branching-out into improved medical care, counseling programs and counselor training for those suffering from war-related trauma.
For many, uncertainty became a way of life, with changes and reconstruction. Even as buildings fell, supplies looted, libraries burned, more help came from the outside and more work teams traveled to rebuild structures and receive spiritual blessings from the encounters.
From networking came the idea of consultations to aid the bishops in their planning and keep all those involved better informed, including churches, hospitals and conferences. These consultations are now semi-annual gatherings.
At the April 28 and 29 consultation in Chicago this year, representatives from eight annual conferences, three areas of the General Board of Global Ministries and five missionaries participated.
With O.C. now international, consultations stretch across the globe. Those participating in 1991 included 30 from the United States, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, Liberia and Sierra Leone. O.C. has also established relationships with the German Mission secretary and the British Methodist Relief Committee. And the operation is now partnering with the Swedish United Methodist Church to establish a greatly needed counseling program in Sierra Leone, similar to the one in Liberia.
In addition to the consultations, the network includes resourcing local churches from 32 states last year (not including Indiana), and 23 states plus Japan in 2001. These churches and individuals have supported O.C. programs through supplies or gifts. In 2001, to date, 40 individuals or churches outside Indiana have ordered 788 New Testaments for the YES (student supplies) and ET (refugee) kits.
O.C. continues to be a major communications link with both West African countries. O.C. leaders usually know the schedules of both countries while they are in the states and handle the faxes and other communiqués for them.
O.C. continues to lift up the needs of these two countries, not only to Indiana, but to other conferences in the US and Europe. And it continues to work closely with the General Board of Global Ministries. O.C. leaders continue to follow the call of Paul, "Come over and help us," as O.C. Coordinator Joe Wagner reminds us.
Thus, this ever-evolving mission program continues to cherish letters of support, photos of smiling children, prayers of individuals and congregations, hugs and outstretched hands - even when uncertainties arise, conditions fluctuate and political instabilities continue to be a concern.
Last updated on 01/14/2004For additional information about O.C., contact Rev. Joe and Carolyn Wagner at 765/324/2556 or send e-mail to ocmission@compuserve.com.