RELIGION / JOHN DART : Methodist Volunteers on a 2-Year Mission to Help the Poor in the Valley : Social service: Two young women from Virginia and West Virginia are the church’s first missionaries in 42 years to serve the area.

If recent studies and experience haven’t pierced the placid suburban image of the San Fernando Valley, consider this: The Methodists have sent a pair of missionaries to work among the poor in the Valley for two years.

Cecile E. Gunn, 21, and Laurie Jean McCormick, 25, who come from Virginia and West Virginia respectively, were among 40 young adults sent on U.S. missionary stints in August by the women’s division of the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries.

Two other young adults were assigned, as expected, to Koreatown and South-Central Los Angeles to aid church efforts to heal wounds from the Spring, 1992, riots.

But the San Fernando Valley also was given its first-ever missionaries in the 42-year history of the Methodists’ US-2 program, which requires the volunteers to live on modest budgets close to the income level of the people they are helping.

Gunn, who is living with McCormick near the corner of Roscoe and Balboa, said some friends humored her when she told them she was assigned to the Valley: “Right, San Fernando Valley. How plush!”

As noted by a UCLA study released this week, however, the myth of comfortable suburban life is contradicted by data showing that big sections of the East Valley have incomes below the city’s average and the non-Latino white population has dropped from 75% to 57% in the last decade.

The growing social needs have been obvious to local church leaders, including United Methodists who had already begun to expand small-scale ministries at First United Methodist Church of Pacoima, El Mesias United Methodist Church in Pacoima and Sepulveda United Methodist Church.

An opportunity for further help came last year when the United Methodists, the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination, decided to solicit an extra $5 million from its 8.7 million members for its new Los Angeles Shalom Project, incorporating the Hebrew word for “peace.” The designated collection day is nearly here: Sunday, Oct. 31. About $1.7 million of the $5-million goal will go toward work in the Valley.

To help carry out the programs, the Rev. Brandon Cho, district superintendent of the Chatsworth-based Santa Barbara District, asked for help from the 42-year-old US-2 program.

A sampling of particular needs at the three churches, according to Cho:

* Pacoima First, 12550 Van Nuys Blvd., the only predominantly African-American United Methodist congregation in the Valley, plans a male mentoring program connecting role-model adults with young people, a free tutorial program for schoolchildren, a drug awareness program and training in applying for jobs.

* El Mesias, 9989 Laurel Canyon Blvd., the only Spanish-speaking United Methodist congregation in the Valley to date, plans a child care and education center, tutorial classes in English as a second-language and job training.

* Sepulveda, 15435 Rayen St., serving a mixture of less-advantaged ethnic groups, operates a thrift store, a food bank and free meals three mornings a week. Church leaders plan to create a nearby community service center in cooperation with other community agencies and hope to add a separate Spanish worship service.

Cho described the projects as a “three-legged stool, each one in harmony with the other” because some projects will benefit all three churches. One project is to expand food banks at each church.

“When we respond to the needs of people, they are drawn to our churches,” Cho said. “Attendance and membership are growing.”

For example, Cho said, “at El Mesias we had only five or six youths for many years, but today it is close to 30 youths.”

The young missionaries said they want to link the three church youth groups.

“The concept of the Shalom Project is to bring a broken community to wholeness,” McCormick said. “We want to help break down barriers of class and prejudice. By meeting other people, you also break down fear that leads to violence.”

Even as they moved into a mid-Valley apartment this week, McCormick and Gunn were working on the organizing end of the projects, making the necessary contacts with volunteer help.

The women are recent college graduates. Gunn graduated this year from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Lynchburg, Va., and McCormick earned a master’s degree in journalism last year at Pat Robertson-founded Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.

“I was working as a reporter at my hometown paper in Buckhannon, West Virginia, when I heard a still, small voice calling me to be a missionary,” McCormick said. “My editor said, ‘I can’t believe our little Laurie is going to L.A.’--like I was little Miss Bo Peep or something.”

McCormick wanted to serve in a place where she could use her skills in Spanish. Gunn wanted a West Coast metropolitan area.

Gunn said she was surprised at the spread-out character of Los Angeles. “I thought crime would be much more obvious, but it is not,” she said, admitting also that she misses the Blue Ridge Mountains back home.

Although they receive only a $200 monthly stipend beyond their basic, church-funded needs, Gunn said she feels fortunate to be engaged in meaningful ministries.

“The idea of not coming to established, ongoing programs but to create something new is exciting,” McCormick said. “I feel like the plowman, breaking new ground.”