McCones join World Reach

Harvey and Sharon McCone have joined the Birmingham-based international missions organization World Reach.
   
Harvey will serve as the group’s international director of medical missions and physical relief.
Sharon will concentrate on mobilizing health-care students, women’s groups and health-care professional organizations for medical missions.
   
Prior to joining World Reach, Harvey served with Baptist Health System as corporate director of Hispanic Outreach. 
   
The McCones, who are members of Green Valley Baptist Church in Hoover, are best known in Alabama for work with Fundabrez, a medical missions project in Maracaibo, Venezuela.
   
Harvey served as executive director of the organization and Sharon worked alongside him as a registered dietician.
   
They held these positions from 1999 to 2003 while serving as missionaries of the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board.
   
The McCones hosted 25 missions trips during that time, which resulted in more than 5,000 decisions for Christ made in local churches.
   
They also worked closely with several Alabama Baptist churches that partnered with Fundabrez in a mobile clinic project that provided medical and dental services to people in the poorer areas of the city.
   
In addition, they worked closely with Alabama Baptists involved in evangelism efforts in Maracaibo as part of the partnership between Alabama Baptists and Venezuela Baptists.
   
In his new role, Harvey will help mobilize short-term medical missions trips and develop partnerships between churches or associations and medical missions organizations.
   
He will also help establish medical programs and enhance existing programs with missions clinics and hospitals. World Reach is a 22-year-old international missions organization now working in Latin America, East Africa and Europe.
   
The medical work is intended to add a third arm to the organization, which has concentrated on establishing indigenous churches and training national pastors. (TAB)