Photo: Larry Malone with Aeta jungle survival expert.

Methodist men in Korea and United Methodist men in the Philippines are planning to establish Stop Hunger Now facilities in their countries to benefit hungry people in Asia.

 Larry Malone, president of the World Methodist Council men's affiliate (the World Fellowship of Methodist and Uniting Church Men) is spearheading the effort to get Wesleyan men around the world to fund, package and deliver the plastic packets of dry food in emergency situations.

Malone, who also serves as a staff member of the General Commission on United Methodist Men, told 2,000 men attending a January lay leadership conference in Gyeongju, Korea about the international effort, and he spoke to a March meeting of United Methodist Men in the Philippines.

While Malone was in the Philippines, he made a visit to Subic Bay where 38 years ago –– as a Navy pilot in the Vietnam War –– he was trained in jungle survival techniques. He was trained by men of an indigenous tribe, and as luck would have it, he met one of the  tribesmen who was also there in 1972.

“I also looked out over the bay where I saw two of my pilot friends crash and die,” he said. "The place held some fond memories and some very bad ones.”

Malone views the establishment of staging facilities for Stop Hunger Now in the two Asian nations as a major step in uniting all Wesleyan men in hunger-relief efforts around the world.