[Oe List ...] Fwd: United Methodist Executives missing in Haiti

[Ruth Landmann]

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>More troubling news from Haiti. Earthquakes are no respecters of people...
>
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>Missing Mission Executive Seen Entering Destroyed Hotel
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>A UMNS Report
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>By Linda Bloom*
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>January 14, 2010-Three missing United Methodist 
>mission executives were seen entering the Hotel 
>Montana in Port-au-Prince shortly before the 
>Jan. 12 earthquake rocked the capital, 
>destroying the hotel.
>
>Even as hopes for their survival dimmed, 
>officials with the United Methodist Board of 
>Global Ministries were still holding out hope 
>Jan. 14 that Sam Dixon, top executive of the 
>United Methodist Committee on Relief; Clinton 
>Rabb, head of Mission Volunteers; and Jim 
>Gulley, an UMCOR consultant, are somehow still 
>alive.
>
>"We have a recent e-mail that some survivors 
>were rescued from the Montana," said Bishop Joel 
>Martínez, the board's interim top executive. 
>"Apparently, rescue operations are continuing."
>
>The Rev. Tom Hazelwood, an UMCOR executive, said 
>a car had dropped the three men at the Hotel 
>Montana. "The driver reported he had driven 
>about five minutes (afterward) when he was 
>stopped by the earthquake," he added.
>
>The president of the Methodist Church in Haiti 
>had been invited to accompany them to the hotel 
>but did not go because he had another meeting, 
>he said.
>
>Another United Methodist, Sarla Chand, vice 
>president of international programs for IMA 
>World Health, also had a scheduled meeting at 
>the Hotel Montana the day of the earthquake. 
>Chand is a former staff member of the Board of 
>Global Ministries.
>
>Douglas Bright, a spokesman for IMA World 
>Health, said on Jan. 14 they still had not heard 
>from Chand or her colleagues, Rick Santos, the 
>agency's president, and Ann Varghese, program 
>officer for Haiti.
>
>"They were scheduled to be at a meeting of the 
>Hotel Montana with people from the University of 
>Notre Dame the afternoon of the quake," he said. 
>"The meeting broke up just prior to the 
>earthquake."
>
>The Notre Dame participants were located and are 
>reported to be safe, Bright said, but IMAWorld 
>Health cannot confirm the whereabouts of its 
>staff, which was staying at the nearby Prince 
>Hotel.
>
>IMAWorld Health, a specialist in providing 
>essential health care services and medical 
>supplies to people in need, has a close 
>relationship with The United Methodist Church. 
>Dixon sits on the organization's board of 
>directors.
>
>Dixon and Gulley had been in Haiti since Jan. 10 
>or 11, but Rabb had just arrived the day of the 
>earthquake, coming from Cuba. The trio was 
>staying at the Methodist guesthouse outside 
>Port- au-Prince.
>
>"All of their luggage is at the guesthouse," 
>Hazelwood said. "Sam even left his suit coat at 
>the guesthouse."
>
>He noted that all were seasoned travelers who 
>had been in dangerous situations before. "If 
>there was a way they could have protected 
>themselves, they probably did," he said. "My 
>hope is they could be safe somewhere under that 
>rubble or at least alive."
>
>*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
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>	<javascript:bookmarksite('UMCOR - Missing 
>Mission Executive Seen Entering Destroyed 
>Hotel', 
>'http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/newsroom/releases/archives2010/missingmissionexecutive/')> 
> 
>		<javascript:;> 
>	<javascript:;> 
> 
> 
>	<http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/newsroom/releases/archives2010/missingmissionexecutive/index.cfm?&fs=1> 
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>
>The Rev. Sam Dixon, head of the United Methodist 
>Committee on Relief, addresses directors of the 
>denomination's Board of Global Ministries in 
>October 2008.
>Cassandra Heller
>
>
>Clinton Rabb, head of Mission Volunteers for the 
>United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
>Courtesy GBGM
>
>
>Jim Gulley, a consultant with the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
>Courtesy GBGM
>
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