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.

Every 45 seconds, a child in Africa dies of malaria. Millions of lives, needlessly lost each year. A continent. Entire nations…slipping away. Slipping through life’s precious net. Unless you hear the buzzing inside you.  Just Imagine …

It’s time we all join hands with Africa | On a personal mission to heal | Imagine no malaria | Then make it real. | Over a million lives, we’re gonna save | But only if you get involved today. | The bednets have been cast | But people can’t slip through | Listen to the buzz inside of you.  Be part of the Dream … be part of the Solution … be part of the work of Jesus! 

10-Fold!

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.

Feedback is a Mission Letter from me, Victor Doolakeh Taryor. I am serving as Global Health Missionary in my own country of Liberia. My official assignment with the Liberia Conference is called Hospital Administrator. In this capacity, I have the oversight responsibility of conducting the day to day running of the Ganta United Methodist Hospital located in Ganta, north central Liberia. Ganta lies deep in the interior of Liberia, about some 130 miles from the nation’s political capital of Monrovia.  Read More Feedback from Liberia

10-Fold April – Healthcare Initiatives in Africa

”My work with Health and Welfare has taught me not to underestimate the resilience of women and men however adverse their condition may be.” —Dr. Cherian Thomas, Director of Health Ministries for UMCOR.

Help spread the word to your districts and congregations that the next 10-Fold online event on April 10th will focus on United Methodist Church healthcare initiatives in Africa.

Main Woman's Ward at Ganta United Methodist Hosital

In many parts of the world, getting to healthcare when it is needed is not always possible. This is a challenge that The United Methodist Church has stepped in to meet. In Africa, UMC missionaries are working with communities to build hospitals and train volunteers to spread information about good health. Being proactive is the best way to prevent the need for hospital care.

UMCOR programs, sponsored by the General Board of Global Ministries and supported by dollars raised through The Advance, are helping to make healthcare attainable, accessible, and sustainable in the US and around the world.

Here are the details you can use in church announcements:

On Sunday, April 10th, throughout the day, Dr. Cherian Thomas, Director of Health Ministries for UMCOR, and missionaries stationed in Africa will provide an inside look at the work being done to promote good health in communities that don’t have easy access to medical care. There will be a live update at 12:00 p.m. ET, with an opportunity to ask questions. You can also chat throughout the day with others who are interested in these projects.

To participate in this online event, go to www.10-fold.org/live.

Don’t forget, while visiting 10-Fold.org, with one simple click of the mouse it is Read more »

A UMNS Report By Linda Bloom*

The United Methodist Church, which has had a long-time relationship with Christians in Japan, has been monitoring events following the catastrophic March 11 earthquake and tsunami — and subsequent nuclear threat — in Japan. Here is some basic information regarding the church’s response and relationships there:

How can individuals contribute to relief efforts?

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is working with the United Church of Christ in Japan and GlobalMedic to bring immediate relief to the affected communities. The name of UMCOR’s emergency appeal has been changed from Pacific Emergency to Japan Emergency, UMCOR Advance #3021317 and donations can be made here.

For more information, including damage to churches, team response possibilities, and possible future actions, please read the complete article here.

This Lent, SPSARV, the Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence, offers a 2011 devotional, Hope for the Transformation from Addiction to Abundance for the friends, families, and beloved children of God who are challenged by the disease of alcoholism and addiction. Produced by the SPSARV team in partnership with Global Ministries’ Mission Communications, this downloadable, free resource is bound to challenge, inspire, and comfort readers.

The 30-page devotional is organized around the themes of hope, health, healing, and wholeness. Each of the 16 featured meditations offers a Bible passage, a story, and questions to reflect upon. The authors share diverse personal, professional, and Christian perspectives on hope in response to the scourge of alcoholism and substance abuse, diseases that strike every stratum of society.

For more information on this free resource, please see:  Hope is Here!

As a part of the Love for Liberia missional emphasis, a volunteer- in- mission work team from across the NC Annual Conference will be going to Liberia this summer, with the estimated dates of July 24 – August 5.  Dates might change a day or two depending on availability of transportation.   Passports are required.  The work will be multi-varied and will allow participants to have a range of experiences helping the people at Ganta Station in Nimba County, Liberia.  Participants will have the opportunity to help Liberian teachers conduct a summer day camp enrichment program for both the junior and senior high divisions.  This camp will concentrate on math, English, general science, biology, chemistry, and physics.  We hope to offer teacher training as well.

Another aspect of the team’s work will be medical.  The Ganta Read more »

Change a Child’s Life – Methodist Home for Children Sunday – February 13

Every day, Methodist Home for Children transforms the lives of children in need. It is our singular mission to create order where there was chaos, to create hope where there was despair.

A critical source of support for our work is the annual MHC Sunday collection, taken in United Methodist churches this year on February 13.  We rely on the unwavering generosity of churches and friends to meet the growing needs of children in our care—always in service to God. In giving to this Rainbow Covenant Advance of the NC Conference (#S-03500), 100% of your gift will go directly to the ministry.

And this is what God’s work looks like on a daily basis at Methodist Home for Children: Read more »