Trisha Manns is a missionary (Church and Community Worker) with the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, serving as a youth and young adult coordinator at the Central District Parish Youth and Young Adult Ministry, Little Rock, Arkansas.
“I like calling myself a missionary because it’s important for folks to know that you can be in mission within the United States,” she shared, “and as a Black woman, it’s important to have representation in the work of being a missionary.”
As a church and community worker, Trisha works with churches and communities to build mutually beneficial partnerships and/or strengthen the relationships established between the local church and the community.
“I will be working with, at this moment, six local churches in the Central District to create youth and young adult programs in the hopes that we increase the attendance of young folks in their congregations and to meet the needs of youth in the community,” she said.
A former Mission Advocate for young adult mission service and Global Mission Fellow, Trisha served at the National Council of Churches in Seoul, Korea, a major ecumenical organization with a range of social ministries. On the council’s Justice and Peace team, she assisted with programs and communications focused on reconciliation and reunification in South Korea and North Korea.
Trisha is from Atlanta, where she is a member of Impact Church, a multicultural gathering of people committed to sharing Christ’s love with the world. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, and has worked as a teacher, a tutor and an AmeriCorps member.
Trisha added that they are also aiming to engage with Black youth and respond to the specific needs in Black Communities. “Because the six partner churches are small in size, this is a new role in the Arkansas Conference to have one coordinator in service to each of the local Churches,” she said. Trisha will serve in this role for at least three years but is able to be in this role with the Conference for up to nine years.
Learn more about Trisha and her amazing work by visiting https://umcmission.org/missionary-bio/3022241/.