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The Rev. Sam Dixon, 60, remembered for a life of service Linda Bloom, Jan 22, 2010
Sam Dixon
Linda Bloom United Methodist News Service
RALEIGH, N.C.—Hundreds of worshippers this morning celebrated the life of the Rev. Sam Dixon, the leader of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, who was on a mission of mercy when he died in the rubble of the Haitian earthquake.
Friends and family, United Methodists from agency leaders and bishops to missionaries in the field, gathered at Edenton Street United Methodist Church to remember a life given in service to others.
“You could not be in his presence and not have a sense of his passion for his faith and for his work,” said Bishop Gregory Palmer, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops.
Bishop Joel Martinez, interim top executive of the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), said Dixon didn’t take himself seriously, but took his mission seriously.
“Sam would be on the road, somewhere today, probably in Haiti, if he hadn’t been there at the beginning,” Bishop Martinez said.
Dixon, 60, had served as the United Methodist Committee on Relief’s top executive since 2007.
A world traveler for the business of mission, Dixon went to Haiti to discuss projects to improve life in the impoverished island nation. When he walked into the lobby of the Hotel Montana on Jan. 12—just moments before the earthquake would bring the building crashing down around him—he was anticipating a working dinner with five colleagues.
Instead, he was trapped for several days in the rubble of the hotel, pinned under a concrete slab. Rescuers eventually found the group, and four colleagues were saved. They worked to free him, but it was too late. Dixon’s death was announced on Jan. 16. A fellow Global Ministries staff member, the Rev. Clinton Rabb, was pulled out but died later from his injuries.
‘In God’s hands’
Thomas Kemper, a United Methodist from Germany, whose election to lead GBGM was announced shortly before Dixon’s death, expressed his sorrow Jan. 21 on the board’s “tribute blog.” But he advised those in mourning to “leave the image of entrapment for one in which we see Sam and Clint in a good and secure place--in God's hands, and covered by his love.”
Condolences for the loss of both men have poured in from around the world. Among those offering words of tribute were representatives of the Mennonite Central Committee, the Council of Methodist Educational Institutions of Brazil, the Vietnamese National Caucus, and the Methodist churches in Bolivia, Latvia, Britain and Honduras.
A North Carolina native, Dixon served for 24 years as a pastor before joining the Board of Global Ministries’ staff in 1998 as a staff executive in the UMCOR non-governmental organization. He became executive director of the United Methodist Development Fund in 2001, then was elected to lead the board’s unit on evangelization and church growth two years later. In that role, he also supervised programs in mission education and relations with mission partners.
Vocation and passion
Elizabeth “Brooke” Conklin, a director of GBGM, remembered Dixon’s certainty as he spoke during a meeting last summer about what propelled him to devote his life to the church.
“Sam spoke that he knew without a doubt that God had called him to be doing exactly what he was doing,” she said. “His life, his work, his ministry, his vocation, his passion—all was about responding to God. He knew he was right where he should be and serving where he was supposed to be serving.”
Dixon and his wife, the former Cindy Leapley, are the parents of four grown children, Christy, Amy, Josh and Molly. He also is survived by his mother, three sisters and two grandchildren.
Sam Dixon
‘In God’s hands’
