Society Of St. Andrew Needs Your Help Hosting Potato Drops In May!

Society of St. Andrew needs help with bagging and distributing 150 tractor-trailer loads (approximately 6 million pounds) of donated sweet potatoes during the next 3 weeks. We are very excited about this opportunity to feed the hungry in our communities, but this quantity far exceeds our current budget and distribution channels! We hope to partner with church groups and community organizations to do Potato Drops across the Carolinas.

Please review the time, space, and resource requirements listed below. If you can meet the requirements independently or in partnership with other churches and organizations, contact Anna MacDonald Dobbs at 919-683-3011 or: sosanc@endhunger.org to coordinate a Potato Drop.

• Your location must be an open, flat space large enough to accommodate the 18-wheeler, your volunteer work force, and the coming and going of agency vehicles.
• It takes 100 or more volunteers 4-5 hours to bag a 40,000-pound truckload of potatoes. Additional time is needed to oversee distribution and cleanup. Local grocery stores may be able to donate bags and boxes.
• Society of St. Andrew can help you coordinate with food banks, pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other hunger-relief agencies to distribute bagged potatoes.
• You will need volunteers with trucks to deliver to agencies that cannot pick up the potatoes. A pickup truck can hold 800-1,000 pounds.
• Potato Drop sponsors are asked to help with the cost of freight, which is based on mileage (typically $1000 or less). The value of the donated sweet potatoes is $14,000-15,000 per load!
• Please keep in mind that Society of St. Andrew receives potatoes because they are not in perfect condition and there will be waste. You will need to have a way to dispose of the bad potatoeseither a dumpster or a truck to haul them to a dump or livestock farm.

Please let us know if you would like to participate in a Potato Drop and cannot meet all of the requirements. We may be able to coordinate multiple groups to distribute large loads in your area. Thank you for your responding to our need and the needs in your community!

Note from Outreach Team Coordinator:

Mary and Herbert Zigbuo are long term missionaries who have served Jesus and God’s people with passion, love, sacrifice, and courage.  Mary is now working here in North Carolina.  Herbert is now retired and is battling cancer.   In this current struggle, Herbert lives with courage, grace, and humor, the way he has always served God and those whom Jesus calls “the least of these.”  These servants of God are blessings to us all.  - Steve

Dear Friends,

In March, I was humbled to be part of a celebration of courage, hope and love!   The Fellowship Hall was filled with family, invited guests, volunteers, and friends!  The hall appeared like a scene of what I perceived the kingdom of God to resemble!    A diverse group of people from all walks of life sat around tables making small talk.   Symbols of Christ-like acceptance and support were demonstrated by pats on backs, hugs, embraces, laughter! Walking around the hall greeting people, Miss Bertie* held fast to baby boy Ti ‘Reem* as he sought to play with her glasses!   Talking came easy!  “My bad”, a young man said to an elderly gentleman as they conversed.  Then the young man quickly added “Oh, I mean…” but was interrupted by the elderly gentleman.  “I know what you meant” he said with a quick smile and a wink.  He was actually proud of his new attitude of comprehension and acceptance of what he used to negatively refer to as “street talk”!

A love beyond what the world teaches us was present in that Fellowship Hall!  A love where judgment is suppressed and acceptance is encouraged….. a love Paul spoke of in Romans 12:10: “Love one another with brotherly affection, giving precedence and showing honor to one another”.   That’s the kind of love United Methodist Church supported Anson County Circles of Hope portrays.

During the celebration, eleven persons were honored for their completion of an 18-week ‘Getting Ahead’ class that includes a comprehensive curriculum in which participants investigate the causes of poverty in their communities and Read more »

Children in AGAPE Christian Education

Conference contractor JP McGuire is leading a construction mission work team to Armenia July 28 – Aug. 12.  Construction experience is not necessary for this trip, just a willingness to be God’s servant in hands-on building ministry.  There is a particular need for persons with good computer skills.  The cost of the trip is projected at $3500 – all inclusive.

We have multiple openings on the team.  You will be blessed and you will be a blessing.

For more information on this team, go to Armenia team.

ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING – March 18, 2012

LIFE-CHANGING MINISTRY—A RESPONSE TO GOD’S LOVE

Join United Methodists everywhere by participating in this special offering that supports our United Methodist Committee on Relief’s (UMCOR) vital work.  Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) lay the foundation for our UMCOR to live into God’s mercy and compassion for suffering people everywhere.   Be assured that when catastrophes cause suffering, your church, impelled by Jesus’ love and compassion, will be in the lead to ease the pain.

This offering is one of six special offerings per year across the whole of the United Methodist Church.  OGHS is the one offering each year to assist UMCOR in providing its infrastructure for ministry.  This assures that for all other giving, 100% of the offering goes to the ministry needs and not to “keeping on the lights.”   OGHS will also provide the initial funding to respond to disasters and other desperate needs before the Advance giving for the specific need can be brought on-line.  This is an incredibly important offering.

Please go to One Great Hour of Sharing to learn more information and to download or order materials for your bulletin and envelopes for the offering.

Your gift may save a life.  Your gift will honor Jesus.

Child at AGAPE Orphanage receives Christmas gift through your generosity. this Christmas season, let us who are warm, sheltered, clothed, and fed, remember there are brothers and sisters in the world who are not. In Armenia, the oldest of Christian nations, many struggle for life. Through your action, they will not be alone. Through your action, in the midst of despair, they will know hope.

Following this Christmas season, let us who are warm, sheltered, clothed, and fed, remember there are  brothers and sisters in the world who are not.  In Armenia, the oldest of Christian nations, many struggle for life.  Through your action, they will not be alone.  Through your action, in the midst of despair, they will know hope.

January in the NC Conference is Project AGAPE month.  Project AGAPE is a joint ministry with the Western NC Conference, proclaiming the name of Jesus in an area that suffered the devastation of a generation of communist rule and state-sponsored atheism, a war with Azerbaijan, and a place where thousands of refugees continue in a struggle to survive.

Please prayerfully consider supporting our brothers and sisters with an AGAPE offering.  If you cannot do it in January, please consider any other day that works for you.  Your gift could make the difference between life and death, spiritually and physically.   Jesus births God’s light into our existence, so that we may birth the same light into the lives of others.  Please help.

To download the AGAPE bulletin insert, please click:  AGAPE Brochure – AGAPE SUNDAY

To learn more Read more »

What is 10-Fold? What’s The Advance? 10-Fold is a movement to raise awareness of projects of the General Board of Global Ministries around the world, supported through The Advance—the designated-giving arm of The United Methodist Church. This message of doing something (advocating, raising awareness, or giving) and watching it expand “10-Fold,” comes with the guarantee that 100 percent of all money raised through The Advance goes directly to the project you support or donate to. Join us daily, October 10-19.

By clicking on the site each day, you register your interest in a program, triggering $1 of support on your behalf, given by one of our sponsors: http://www.10-fold.org/ the project you support or donate to.  If you miss a day, don’t worry, you can go back to that day and still partner with the ministry by learning about and supporting the ministry with your donation.  Remember, you are the key partner in mission.  Only by your participation will these vital ministries occur.  Jesus calls us to journey with him in the transformation of the world.  10 Fold is a facet of that journey.  Please join us in touching the lives of the least, in bringing hope into despair, in proclaiming the saving grace and life of Jesus Christ!   10 Fold – Advancing the realm of God.    

Mission Seed Funds are now available.  There is a small amount of funding for 2011.  Funds must be expended within the 2011 calendar year.  Applications are due November 1, 2011.  Funds will be disbursed by November 15.

Seed Fund Applications for the 2012 funding cycle are due November 1, 2011.  Funds will be disbursed by March 31, 2012.

Applications and budget reports can be found at Mission Seed Funds.

Final Reports and Budget Reports are due for recipients of 2011 Mission Seed Funds no later than January 31, 2012.  (Any recipient not submitting a required report will not be eligible for future funding until required reports are received.)

Items to be collected at Annual Conference 2011 – follow this link!

The people of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church have a long history with the people of Liberia.  It was in 1833 that Rev. Melville Cox, a NC Conference clergy member, landed in Africa as the first United Methodist missionary to Africa and began to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.    At Annual Conference 2011, you will have the opportunity to join with our many United Methodists family of North Carolina who have gone before us as we collect and ship desperately needed health, education, and empowering items to Liberia.   Bring your items and look for the Love for Liberia signs.    Here is a listing of items being collected.

Refugee settlement - the result of war. Photo - Steve Taylor/NCCUMC

Each year people all over the world recognize World Refugee Day. World Refugee Day encourages us to prayerfully reflect on the lives of refugees, and raise awareness in our communities and congregations about refugee resettlement.

UMCOR, together with congregations and the Church World Service resettlement network across the country, has developed a series of World Refugee Day materials that can be accessed online and downloaded. There is a church bulletin insert for use on Sunday June 19, the day before World Refugee Day. Additionally, you can arrange to make an announcement about World Refugee Day during worship or another church gathering. Your church may also consider planning a worship service around the theme of refugees. You can download the poster and other materials here.

We need YOUR HELP to get the word out about these materials so please forward this email to your networks, colleagues, pastors and friends. We hope that you will make every effort to lift up this important day at your worship service on Sunday June 19^th.

Do you have an idea for raising awareness in your congregation about refugees? Is there a way that UMCOR might be able to help? Please don’t hesitate to contact us at UMCORRefugee@gbgm-umc.org or 212-870-3888. The more we hear from you, the better!

ZOE Ministry has a handful of slots open on two upcoming mission trips to Rwanda:

The trips will cost approximately $3,200 and will introduce missioners to ZOE’s remarkable orphan empowerment project.  This project equips orphans to live self-reliant, faith-filled lives within three years, thus breaking the cycles of poverty and dependency.

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