de Leon Camarce, Helen

Helen de Leon Camarce is a missionary of the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church currently serving as treasurer in the Cambodia and Southeast Asia Mission Initiative. She has been a GBGM missionary for 23 years.

The Cambodia Mission, which is inter-Methodist, and the United Methodist Southeast Asia Mission are fast growing. Each involves missionaries and expanding church and community development, including women, youth and children outreach and building projects. The growth is projected to continue well into the future, necessitating a regional treasurer to provide leadership in fund management and to equip local Methodists to assume financial responsibilities.

Prior to her current assignment, Helen was Global Ministries’ regional mission auditor for Asia, and earlier served for 10 years as the agency’s area financial executive based in the Philippines.

Helen always conveyed in her training modules that “every blessing that we receive, big or small, belongs to God and we should be good stewards.”

Aside from her work in fund management, leadership and training in coordination with the local Methodist Church in Cambodia and Southeast Asia Mission, she also serves as the coordinator of Women’s Program particularly women’s livelihood, women’s empowerment and young women’s scholarship.

She believes in the hardship and struggles of being a woman in the culture in Southeast Asian countries. But giving women the education, knowledge and skills to participate in the family and the community’s development empowers them to have confidence and value themselves as a daughter, a wife, a mother and a member of the community.

Originating from Manila, Philippines, Helen has been an active member of the Philippine Central Conference and a leader of the Women’s Society of Christian Service (WSCS) of the UMC in the Philippines.

Helen is a member of the Parañaque Central United Methodist Church in Parañaque City, Philippines. She lost her husband in 2019 in Cambodia. Her three children, Jielen, Jamel, and Amiel, and three grandchildren are in the Philippines.

She has two sisters in New Jersey and a brother in Seattle, Washington.