Report from the Mission Training Conference in the Diocese of East Carolina
November 16, 2013
By Dr. Richard Taft
Posted November 21, 2013
An album of photographs from this event is available online here. Publications from the playground project described below are available here: Brochure | Booklet | Poster (printed poster size: 11.25″ X 17.75″)
The logo design of the Companion Diocese Committee of the Diocese of East Carolina.
“The time has come for significant new initiatives in encouraging all dioceses to develop companion relationships across provincial borders as part of the process of developing the cross-cultural nature of communion.”
Thirty-three attendees from eleven parishes throughout the Diocese of East Carolina met on November 16th in Pine Knoll Shores, NC, at Trinity Center, the camp and conference center of the Diocese of East Carolina, to learn and share information about mission team trips to the Dominican Republic. A common theme prominent throughout each speaker’s presentation was that serving on a mission team builds relationships with others, and this is where we can find Christ.
Speakers included: Karen Carroll, an Episcopal missionary who lives in Santo Domingo and serves on the staff of the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic to coordinate all in-country logistics for mission teams; Bill Kunkle, Executive Director of the Dominican Development Group, who spoke on how this organization is coordinating the work of companion dioceses and mission teams to support the rapid growth of The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of the Dominican Republic; Rebecca Gibson and her daughter Rosa of Christ Church in Winchester, Virginia, who spoke about Vacation Bible School mission teams; and Richard Taft of St Paul’s, Greenville, who presented the planning process for medical mission teams. Carol Milam, from the Church of the Servant, Wilmington, presented a new and exciting diocesan-wide $28,000 playground project for the Professor Laura Morrow Episcopal Elementary school in Jimani, a town in the Dominican Republic on the border with Haiti. A construction team is already scheduled to go there in February 2015 to install the playground equipment and basketball court on a site next to the already-existing Episcopal school. And they have already raised over $14,000 towards this goal since August!
Richard Taft and the committee are developing mission teams now for 2014 and 2015. If you are interested, please email Dr. Taft at (richardtaft@suddenlink.net).
Dr. Richard Taft opening the DR mission training conference. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
Bill Kunkle, Executive Director of the Dominican Development Group, speaking on the work of this organization. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
Rebecca Gibson, speaking on Vacation Bible School programs. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
Rosa Gibson, speaking on Vacation Bible School programs. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
Dr. Richard Taft, speaking on medical mission teams. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
Karen Carroll, speaking on mission team coordination. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
A slide from Bill Kunkle's presentation on construction teams, showing a church under construction in Mosaví in 2000. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
Carol Milam, holding a brochure on the diocesan-wide playground construction project for a school in Jimani. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.
The group photograph of the workshop attendees. Click this image to see more photographs from this event.