Red Bird Mission experiencing financial shortfall

A UMNS Report By Kathy L. Gilbert*

A significant decline in contributions has created a crisis that may result in the closing of the school at Red Bird Mission, according to the mission's executive director.

Red Bird is one of four mission institutions of the United Methodist Red Bird Missionary Conference. The conference is in an isolated area in the heart of Appalachia, a geographic region that stretches along the Appalachian mountain range from Mississippi to southern New York. Red Bird Mission School in Beverly, Ky., has been in existence since 1921.

For the past three years the mission has been operating with a deficit, using reserves to meet the shortfall, said the Rev. Fred Haggard. The mission includes a clinic, retail operations, community outreach and a work camp.

"The cost of education takes the biggest percent of our budget," he explained, adding that the other parts of the mission are able to raise funds through their ministries but the school has no real way to raise money.

This year, the budget shortfall is $500,000. "We jumped from having a pretty bad situation to a near critical situation," Haggard said.

The mission has enough money to operate through 2007, but if no more funds are received decisions will have to be made about what to cut. "It could mean a loss of the school," he said. "Most likely it would mean cutting out part of it, probably the high school since that is the most expensive part."

Haggard noted that students and parents are upset about the possibility of closing the school.

"Red Bird School is not just a place for educational advancement, but spiritual advancement," said Jonathan Sizemore, a senior at the school. "For the past six years, I have attended chapel and devotional sessions. It has been a true blessing from God to be able to start out the academic day with a praise song, words of encouragement from the speakers and a prayer."

Denominational attention to recent disasters, such as the South Asian tsunami and Gulf Coast hurricanes, has resulted in a drop in donations to the mission, according to Haggard.

"One of the reasons we have had a decline in people coming to our work camps is because lots of groups say they sent teams to Mississippi and couldn't get enough together to come to Red Bird," he added.

He also believes the attitude of United Methodists toward mission work is changing. "Seems the more exotic and the further out they (mission projects) are, the more they want to go. People go and spend a lot of money on these mission events and they come home and feel like they have done their mission work."

Declining membership and the aging of members also are factors in declining giving to missions like Red Bird, in Haggard's opinion.

"I think we offer to this community a very unique education that is Christian and small school based," Haggard said. "In my mind it is the best thing we are doing as far as changing the future -- changing the way people in this community live."

Donations to Red Bird Mission can be made through the Advance #773978. Checks can be dropped in church offering plates or mailed directly to UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087. Write "UMCOR Advance #773978 Red Bird Mission" on the memo line of the check.

Credit card donations can be made at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/ online or by calling, toll free, (800) 554-8583. For more information about the conference, call (605) 598-5915 or send mail to Red Bird Missionary Conference, 54 Queendale Center, Beverly, KY 40913-9607.

The Website address is http://www.redbirdconference.org.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.