Global Mission Dollars:
Where do they go?

For 2004, the Global Mission Committee has been allotted $10,000 from the church budget. In the next two issues there will be descriptions of how those funds are being spent, with some detail about each gift. This is the first part.

India: In January this year, Dr. Don Elliott applied to the committee for $1,000. Don makes regular 2-week trips to Wanless Hospital in Miraj, India to do surgery. The hospital, in western India not far from Mumbai (or Bombay), is known to many Presbyterians as the beneficiary of Medical Benevolence Foundation assistance. He has done cardiac surgery on many children there, and this year he took a nurse to assist him. He, as before, has returned with stories and pictures. This year in addition, Don worked to improve the lot of some of the many "sex workers" in Miraj, poor women of low caste who have very little future.
Ukraine is the site of another project, ongoing for about ten years and spearheaded by Dr. Jack and Carol Reeves. It is called "Nadiya", meaning "hope" in the Ukrainian language. Ukraine, an independent nation since 1991, was formerly part of the Soviet Union and its health care system has suffered badly from being organized on the model of the USSR. Family practice medicine and nursing has, until recently, been unknown. "Nadiya" has worked with Ukrainian physicians and nurses to establish family medicine clinics in L'viv, Komsomolsk, Odessa and Kiev, the capital. Recently an initiative began to establish a much-needed safe house for battered women and their children in L'viv and $1,000 of Global Mission money has been allotted for this work.
Mexico: Many at Montview know IPODERAC as the site of three work trips in the past three years. The idea started in 1996 as a result of the need for a home for abandoned street boys from the nearby city of Puebla. To keep the home operating, a goat farm which produces milk which in turn is used in cheese and soap, is part of the complex. Montview's Jim Polsfut has taken a major interest in this project, has been there many times, and has led two of the work trips. (Katie Robb led the third.) The boys attend school in the nearby town of Atlixco. Any boy who successfully completes high school is given funds to attend college if he so desires, and to date three or four have done so. Montview's contribution of $1,000 will be used for college scholarships for these boys.

Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF): This organization is part of the International Health Ministries of the national Presbyterian church. Run by its own Board of Trustees, it funds medical missions around the world. Montview's Dr. Fred Grover, Sr. served a number of years as a trustee. Recently MBF affiliated with Project C.U.R.E. a charitable organization which secures hospital supplies and equipment and sends them to needy hospitals throughout the world. Montview was fortunate in 1999 when we were looking for a recipient of our Centennial Fund global mission dollars; MBF knew that Patan Hospital in Nepal needed funds for a new children's wing. A donor had been found for half the $350,000 cost, but another $175,000 was needed, and Montview supplied it. That was the beginning of our association with Patan Hospital. MBF also supports medical missionaries, hospitals and health clinics in many different countries. This year we have given $1,000 in unrestricted support to MBF. - Amy Hecht