Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 21, 1994                   TAG: 9404210166
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALEM METHODIST CHURCH'S MISSION INVOLVES RUSSIA

In cooperation with the Board of Global Ministries, the national mission arm of the United Methodist Church, the congregation will send Margy Murray, chairman of its mission group, to two cities, Stavropol and Pyatkgorsk, for three weeks. Murray, who will be consecrated for her mission May 8, will travel with a group from the Court Street United Methodist Church of Lynchburg. Its pastor, the Rev. Jerry John, is a former Roanoker. John has twice addressed the Salem congregation.

The Rev. Michael Derflinger, pastor of Locust Grove, said members of the parish have raised some funds for Murray's trip. She will be gone three weeks and will work in establishing two new congregations. The pastor noted that Methodists worked in Russia along with Eastern Orthodox Christians before the communist revolution, but later were banished for many years. Today, the church is regaining influence in some communities.

A second project will involve Locust Grove members when eight Russian children and their interpreter spend three weeks in Salem homes beginning June 27. The Russian children will be part of a group expected to be greeted by President Bill Clinton, Derflinger said.

The pastor said the youngsters became orphans as a result of an environmental disaster and need the physical and emotional care available outside their homeland, even if only for a short time. A Sunday school class at Locust Grove is undertaking to raise some of the $300 estimated to be needed for each child on the visit. The children are being sent under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council Club Federation of Russia.