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UMVIM Update: September

September Focus: The Republic of South Sudan

south sudan

 

 

“God is calling our church to do miracles. South Sudan is nothing but a series of miracles going on.”

Bishop James E. Swanson, Sr., 2010 Holston Annual Conference.

 

In the summer of 2010, Steve and Diantha Hodges of the Holston Conference announced that they would become Individual Volunteers in Southern Sudan. Since 1987, they have been traveling the world serving as volunteers in South Korea, North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee and now, South Sudan. Diantha works to improve village health-especially the health of pregnant women and new babies, focusing on sanitation, clean water and literacy. Steve works in developing sustainable agriculture and micro-enterprise.

 

On June 23, 2011, Rev. Fred and Libby Dearing also departed to South Sudan from the Holston Conference to serve. Fred is serving as District Superintendent and Libby is advocating for the effort to build a United Methodist children’s home in Yei.

 

Saturday, July 9, 2011, the world watched as the Republic of South Sudan officially gained their independence: a series of miracles coming to fruition. Fred, Libby, Steve and Diantha were able to sit in the bleachers in Yei’s Freedom Square to celebrate with not only Christian denominations, but also local Muslims. This unification lead Diantha to write, “I hope and pray the peaceful, joyful spirit of those co-existing celebrations on Independence Day can be continued permanently into the complex process of becoming one nation of many tribes working together.” Libby wrote, “By the end of the day we were exhausted but so thrilled to have been a part of a truly historic event. It has made us appreciate the founding of our nation and realize what our ancestors went through to give us the freedom we enjoy today.”

 

United Methodist Volunteers in Mission teams have been traveling and are continuing to travel to South Sudan to serve with the Dearings and the Hodges. If you are interested in leading a team, please contact our office at  sejinfo@umvim.org.

 

 

Here is a link to Steve and Diantha Hodges’ blog.

 

 

If you would like to give to their mission, please give to Advance #982465 and under “Special Designation,” choose their name.

 

 

Click here to go to UMVIM, SEJ’s YouTube page to view videos that UMVIM, SEJ’s Executive Director, Paulette West shot while recently in South Sudan. The first seven videos are all from South Sudan.

 

In picture above: Sudanese and Holston United Methodists bless the bore hole at Kirikwa I UMC site, funded by United Methodists from Holston Conference. In this photo: Diantha Hodges, Kirikwa Subchief Johannes Wata, Kirikwa I UMC Pastor Moses, Rev. Phyllis Hankins, Former Sudan District Superintendent Boo Hankins, Pastor Isaac Sebit

Costa Rica – Rice and Beans Ministry

A message from Fred Curry of Rice and Beans Ministries in Costa Rica:

Please help us share the vision and please pray with us for this ministry.

Every single day children are going hungry. Every single day parents are losing jobs and they are unable to find new ones due to the economic crisis. At Rice and Beans Ministries, we are passionate about serving these children and their families while empowering the local churches to get involved as well.

Last year in December, we were able to feed over 2000 families. Our goal this year is to collect enough resources to help 10,000 families in Costa Rica , El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua  with food for a week during the month of December.

We have churches from several denominations in these countries that have committed to help us reach the desperate and needy. In El Salvador, we will be working with the Salvadorian Mission Projects and the Iglesia Metodista. In Nicaragua, we will be working with the Iglesia Metodista. In Honduras, we will be working with Alan Martinez and Brian Mejia with Non-denominational Christian Churches.  In Costa Rica, we will be working with many different churches as our presence there is full time.

Every family will receive a personal visit to their home and they will have the opportunity to pray with our teams. The food bags consist of: 5 lbs of rice, 5 lbs of dry beans, 2 lbs of corn meal and a bag of milk that will make 2 gallons. The cost of each of these food bags is $10.00 each.

Why December? Most children are out of school in December and in most of the families that we are working with , during the year the only meal the younger children receive is at school.

We hope that if we can help them with a week’s worth of food that might be enough to sustain them until school resumes.

What can you do?

We need teams, individuals and families to help us distribute food bags in December.

Cost: Due to the high cost of airfare during this time, we are going to charge 350.00 plus 75 at the end of the week for exit tax and transportation plus the airfare.

We are trying to collect these funds by December 1st if possible but we will accept them all the way up to Christmas.

I will have information packets for interested churches by October 1st for this ministry.

We are also collecting resources for school uniforms for the new year.

Cost: $80.00 for the uniform and a few school supplies.

We have the opportunity help 1000 plus children with uniforms in Costa Rica alone

On Christmas Day, we are going to feed the Families in Loma de Sol , Buenos Aires ,Costa Rica. The families live in homes of mostly plastic and wood slate. We are going to cook the meal and take it to the families as well as small gifts for the children.

There are approximately 92 families and each family has 4 to 12 children plus grandparents in each home. This is an area that has 2 small wood frame make shift churches started because of Rice and Beans Ministries. We need volunteers for this day as well.

If you can, bring your family to help give a little for Christ in December or if you cannot make it to Costa Rica, please help get your church involved to support these families during this time of need.

UPDATE:

We have had a great response from people wanting to serve!

We have openings for 15 people December 3rd-10th to help us deliver food.

We also have 6 spots left to help serve meals on Christmas day and deliver food bags during the week.

Blessings,

Fred Curry

www.riceandbeansministries.com

 

Hurricane Irene Update

There are multiple requests from the Southeastern Jurisdiction- For more information, click through to read the entire post.
 
Virginia: Conference ERT teams are still on standby across the Conference and equipment has been strategically pre-positioned in support of the ERT’s and possibly UMVIM support later. The latest update reports that the majority of the power to the Commonwealth will be restored by Friday. We will continue sending information as we receive it from the Virginia Conference.
 
North Carolina:

Due to the continued critical need, volunteers, regardless of previous disaster experience or length of availability are needed in Eastern North Carolina and will be deployed as soon as possible as per the following guidelines.

Volunteers with no previous training or related experience training can be utilized under the following guidelines:

·         First, volunteers should be “Disaster Sensitive.”

·         The Team Leader must have received UMCOR-approved Early Response Training.  Expired credentials will be accepted

·         Team Members or Individuals need not possess any previous ERT training

Anyone wishing to serve as a volunteer, regardless of experience or location, is asked to register with the North Carolina Conference Disaster Response Call Center.  Team Leaders are asked to register for their respective team.

TO REGISTER TO VOLUNTEER:

Choose one of the following:

1.       Visit www.nccumvim.org and register your availability to serve as an individual or as a team.

2.       Contact the NC Disaster Response Call Center directly at (888) 440-9167 or via email at disasterresponse@nccumc.org.

You will be asked to provide the appropriate contact and supplemental information to allow the staff to match your skills with the requests for help in the most efficient manner possible.

 

Bahamas: Our office received updates from Abe McIntyre and Cameron King with the following requests- please check out their blog to help!

From Abe: “Many of you have already donated Home Depot e-Gift Cards
(Recipient Email: MethodistHabitat@gmail.com) which are wonderful!
You can also Donate Funds on-line. We will use these desperately needed funds to efficiently purchase and ship immediately needed materials to families that have to secure their roofs as well as purchase fuel for our airplanes that will be delivering the supplies!”
 
Northeastern Jurisdiction of UMVIM: For updates for the Northeastern United states, please check out their website: http://www.gbgm-umc.org/umvim-nej/