International - Central United Methodist Church of Decatur, AL

Tim Crawford is an Associate In Mission Service (AIMS) of the General Board of Global Ministries serving as Development Manager at Red Bird Mission. His responsibilities include interpreting the ministries of Red Bird Mission through production of electronic and print media, giving guided tours to visitor groups, and making presentations to organizations and churches.

Having served full time as a United Methodist Missionary since 1980, Tim understands that telling the story is vital to the mission personnel serving as well as those in local churches supporting missions.

Tim says, “I have seen so many lives changed because of our mission outreach of the United Methodist Church over the years that I never grow weary of telling others of the good that we are doing all the time in true Wesleyan fashion. My experiences also inspire me to look for new stories each day of the impact Red Bird Mission is having on thousands of people in southeastern Kentucky.”

Tim served nine years assigned to the countries of Mozambique and Angola in Africa and served for 20 years at Henderson Settlement in southeast Kentucky, first as farm manager and agricultural programs supervisor and later as executive director. His Volunteers In Mission experiences include international service in Belize, Panama, Brazil, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Latvia, and national service in Alabama, West Virginia and Mississippi.

Timothy Crawford is available for Covenant Relationship support in Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference, Florida Annual Conference, North Alabama Annual Conference, South Carolina Annual Conference .

Christmas Greetings from our new missionaries to Malawi

Greetings Friends,
Teddy, Lily and I are so grateful for your support for our work in Malawi. As I’m sure you can imagine, it has been a big year for us Crums. Your prayers and encouragement have definitely been felt by us. Lily has taken right to eating mangos. And the sight of bricks-- molded, fired and ready to build a new church-- has become common to us, as well. Lily finds friends everywhere. And Teddy and I are finding that our study of Chichewa is already giving us a richer understanding of what we are seeing and hearing.

I really, really wanted to send you a lovely e-card with our Christmas greetings to you. But after working a full day on it (only to be reminded over and over that we are definitely in Africa, today, with an internet as slow as molasses and a power cut or two), I decided to just send you this note and a picture collage that I made.

We pray that you have a joyful Christmas. And we look forward to telling you more about our work here, in Malawi, in 2012.

If you haven’t seen it already, we hope you’ll read our newsletter at: http://findingwarmhearts.wordpress.com/newsletters/
Sincerely,
Teddy, Sylvia and Lily Crum

Allen Rowe, Japan Missionary

Central’s missionary, Allen Rowe, has been serving through Okinawa Christian School International in Okinawa, Japan, as an English teacher for five years.
Hello Central Methodist members!
This has been a very full year with the earthquake/tsunami in the Sendai region, my responsibilities as senior class advisor, and several active Bible study groups (in addition to ones run by sports teams or high school students). Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support!
-Allen Rowe

East Asia trip transforms lives

My trip to East Asia this summer was awesome! It was a great experience in which God really used me to change lives. He also changed my life through my going. Whether it was working with students on campus or fellowship with the team I went with, I saw God’s work being done and God being glorified.

The first few weeks of the summer, I was taking a class every morning at a campus, then going out on campus to try and meet students. I would go and engage students hoping they would be interested in talking, and then as the conversation went along, ask them about their faith and share mine.

It was amazing how every time I shared, it wasn’t my knowledge or power working, but the Holy Spirit’s. It was hard at times, and every student wasn’t a success; but I had to realize that only God can move a person’s heart to accept him. Overall, students were really accepting of my faith. God is really moving in a land that has been dark spiritually in the past.

I grew and learned a lot about who God is while I was in Asia. By growing with my fellow team members through our worship and small groups, I learned a lot about God’s word. Sharing my faith with people who had never heard it before and had questions I had never heard before challenged me to know my faith fully. God chose this as a time to help me grow in my faith.

The orphanage I worked at was also awesome. The most amazing thing was seeing God’s love for his children who don’t receive much love from others. At the orphanage, most of the kids had some kind of handicap, and none could speak English. I had to really step out of my comfort zone since I could not talk to them, and could only show them love through my actions.

I can’t thank you enough for all the support and prayers I received from Central as a church. I would have never been able to do this without the prayer and support. This way, I wasn’t the only one doing God’s work; everyone at Central was furthering his kingdom.

Meet our Missionary, Tim Crawford

Christmas Greetings from our new missionaries to Malawi

Allen Rowe, Japan Missionary

East Asia trip transforms lives