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

Fri Jan 15 17:09:51 CST 2010

Has any one heard anything today about these three? Some Americans have been
pulled from the Montana Hotel but I have not heard about these men. Thank
you, Ruth, for sending this along. Ann Shafer

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Ruth Landmann
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 8:31 PM
To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Oe List ...] Fwd: United Methodist Executives missing in Haiti

More troubling news from Haiti. Earthquakes are no respecters of people...

Missing Mission Executive Seen Entering Destroyed Hotel

A UMNS Report

By Linda Bloom*

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.

<javascript:bookmarksite('UMCOR%20-%20Missing%20Mission%20Executive%20Seen%2
0Entering%20Destroyed%20Hotel',%20'http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/newsroom/re
leases/archives2010/missingmissionexecutive/')>
<javascript:;>                                  <javascript:;>
<http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/newsroom/releases/archives2010/missingmission
executive/index.cfm?&fs=1>

 Sam Dixon
<http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/media/newspics/dixonsamspeaks247.jpg> 
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
<http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/media/newspics/raabclintshawl247.jpg> 
Clinton Rabb, head of Mission Volunteers for the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries.
Courtesy GBGM

 Jim Gulley <http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/media/newspics/gulleyjim247.jpg> 
Jim Gulley, a consultant with the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
Courtesy GBGM

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