Young Adults Invited to Apply for Mission Program

Young adults may now apply for the 2013 class of Mission Interns and US-2s. Feb. 15 is the deadline to submit application materials for these long-term mission assignments through the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries.

Mission Interns will now commit to 25 months of service that include 20 months of international service, followed by two and a half months of integration and interpretation in their home country.  US-2s will continue to commit to two years of service in the United States.

Young adults are encouraged prayerfully to consider applying for these programs if they:

• are between the ages of 20 and 30,
• have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent life experience,
• feel called to address the root causes of injustice,
• are open to new settings and new perspectives,
• want hands-on experience living in Christian community, and
• feel called to serve with, not to or for others.

Organizations interested in being a placement site are encouraged to apply before March 24.

For more information and an application, please email the young adult mission service office. Please share this information with any young people whom you think might be interested.

The full press release includes program details and is available on the Global Ministries website www.umcmission.org.

UMCOR Missionary Mozart Adevu works with village women in sustainable agriculture and community development project.

10-Fold Emphasis for Week Five:  Fair Trade

The emphasis for 10-Fold for this week is on Fair Trade.   Our United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) connects consumers with Fair Trade-certified companies and other socially responsible businesses.  When you choose to buy Fair Trade items, you support farmers and artisans who are paid fair wages which enable them to feed their families, send their children to school, gain access to healthcare, and much more.

UMCOR works directly with farmers through its Sustainable Agriculture and Development Program.  One of the missionaries supported by several churches in our Conference, Mozart Adevu, is stationed in Accra, Ghana.  He serves as the regional director in Africa for this program which enables farmers to learn new agricultural techniques and to market the items that they grow.

UMCOR also partners with Equal Exchange International who helps various cooperatives around the world to market their items throughout the world.  To purchase items directly through this organization, go to the Equal Exchange Interfaith Store. 

10-Fold has been a five week emphasis on a variety of outreach ministries which are supported by the General Board of Global Ministries of the UMC.  When you visit 10-Fold you can trigger a US $1 donation to the week’s project by simply clicking on the Be Counted button and then registering with your email address.  These matching funds are possible because of 10-Fold’s sponsors.

10-Fold Week Four – Missionaries – You can join us! 

You are the key to Mission in Missionary.  Repeat this again … YOU are the key to Mission in Missionary. 

The United Methodist Church supports about 300 commissioned missionaries who witness and serve in more than 60 countries throughout the world.  Missionaries work as congregational and leadership developers, agriculturalists, health care coordinators, teachers, regional coordinators for UMCOR, and doctors.

Individuals and churches can partner with a missionary and provide financial, emotional, and spiritual support.    A number of local churches in the North Carolina Annual Conference already support missionaries like Gary Locklear, who is involved in ministry to Native Americans in North and South Carolina; Melba McCallum, who works among the poor in the Gateway District; Frido Kinkolenge, a native of DR Congo who is in ministry in Liberia among persons affected by that country’s civil wars; Victor Taryor, who is the administrator of Ganta Hospital in Liberia;  Mary Zigbuo, working with impoverished rural communities in North Carolina;  Nara Melkoyan, serving Project AGAPE in Armenia; and other missionaries. 

Some Conference churches covenant to support Wil Bailey in his ministry in Costa Rica or Brian Dubberly and his ministry in El Salvador.  For a full listing of missionaries that receive some type of support from our Conference, go to Our Missionaries supported through the NC Conference. 

Your church can begin a Covenant Relationship by establishing a financial goal of $5 per member of your church per year.  Individuals can Covenant with a missionary for $500 per year.

This partnership is much more than a financial commitment. It is a dynamic relationship where the church and missionary pray for one another and communicate regularly. When you Covenant with one missionary, you are supporting the entire United Methodist missionary community on their behalf and in their name.

To get more information about how funding works for our missionaries, go to Missionary Covenants.  All of the missionaries of the Church have bios about themselves and their particular ministries.  In addition to forming a covenant relationship with a missionary, individuals and Churches may support the projects of these missionaries through the ADVANCE.  Those projects are enumerated on the missionaries biographical page.

When missionaries itinerate in our Conference, local churches may be interested in having that person visit.  The Conference Mission Secretary, Bill Haddock, will alert local churches when those missionaries are in our geographical area and can help to arrange that visit.

Please be part of our 10-Fold journey.  You … YOU … you connected through Jesus, connected in the love of Christ, connected through the hands and feet of our missionaries, YOU make the difference!

In its third week, 10-fold.org concentrates on Mission Initiatives of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church.  Mission Initiatives primarily involves the starting of new churches in places where the United Methodist Church is new to the population.  Nearly 400 new churches are being planted in new places through Global Ministries’ mission initiatives in Cambodia, Cameroon, Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), Honduras, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Mongolia, Russia, Senegal, and Southeast Asia (Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam).

Local churches can be a part of this movement by supporting and learning from these vibrant congregations through a church-to-church partnership with the In Mission Together program.

The In Mission Together program facilitates church planting abroad by developing partnerships with local congregations in the US. A partnership covenant is created between the two churches, which fosters mutuality and respect for each other. This is important because both will be transformed and energized by this faith-building experience.

• The average age for a pastor in a Mission Initiative is just 35 years old.
• Church planting efforts have been initiated in over 25 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
• All 50 US states are represented in the In Mission Together church-to-church partnership program, which connects US churches with new church plants in Mission Initiatives around the world.

Visit 10-Fold.org and register your interest. You’ll be able to help secure tangible support for each project. With one click, you can trigger a US $1 donation, up to US $10,000 for each project.

Be counted and be a part of a movement that multiplies God’s work, 10-Fold!

This week’s emphasis on 10-Fold from the General Board of Global Ministries of the UMC centers on UMCOR and Disaster Relief. You will find a special emphasis on the UMCOR Sager-Brown Depot in Baldwin, LA. This depot helps our local churches to distribute around $4 million worth of supplies to many parts of our country and beyond in times of disaster response and recovery. When you visit the web page, you will find numerous links to resources for your disaster response ministry in your local church. Visit 10-Fold.org and register your interest. You’ll be able to help secure tangible support for each project. With one click, you can trigger a US $1 donation, up to US $10,000 for each project.

Be counted and be a part of a movement that multiplies God’s work, 10-Fold!

10-Fold is a 5 week effort during the month of October 2012 to help remind us of the broad outreach of our denomination as we seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World.

Mark your calendar and spread the word! Beginning October 1st and throughout the entire month, there will be an important event called 10-Fold that will mobilize passionate people to stand up and be counted for causes they believe in. Each week will feature a different United Methodist ministry supported by the General Board of Global Ministries and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).

Here is the schedule of projects that will be featured at 10-Fold.org:

Week 1: Disaster Relief through UMCOR.  This week will remind us of how the UMC is responding to disasters around the world.

Youth & young adults make a difference … Do It Now!

Week 2: Young People in Mission.  Young adult missionaries will tell their stories in exciting and challenging mission work.

Week 3:  Mission Initiatives.  This week will explain how we can partner with churches that are being planted in places where the UMC is new to the population.

Week 4:  Missionaries.  This week will concentrate on missionaries who are employed by the Church in over 60 countries.

Week 5:  Fair Trade.  This week will remind us how we can support just and sustainable economies by choosing to buy Fair Trade items.

Through streaming video, Tweetups, and other media, you will learn about these amazing ministries that are changing people’s lives.

Visit 10-Fold.org and register your interest. You’ll be able to help secure tangible support for each project. With one click, you can trigger a US $1 donation, up to US $10,000 for each project.

Be counted and be a part of a movement that multiplies God’s work, 10-Fold!

Today, through 10-Fold, we journey with our Missionaries serving in the U.S.  One serves here with us in the North Carolina Conference.    Read more of his story below, but before you do, please register at 10-Fold.  Today’s sponsor will donate $1 on your behalf toward the wondrous ministries of our U.S. based missionaries.

Gary Locklear is a General Board of Global Ministries Church & Community Worker and Home Missioner.  Gary is assigned to the Rockingham District Native American Cooperative Ministry in Robeson County North Carolina. Robeson County is one of the poorest counties in the US. Gary works with the thirteen Native American churches in the North Carolina Conference.

His primary responsibility is in the broad area of mission, living into the life of Jesus through Native American interpretation and communicating the story of the ministry.  Gary host’s numerous work teams during the year providing renovation to homes and churches in the community around Robeson and adjoining counties.   In such ministry, the lives of participants are transformed into a greater likeness of Christ, as they reflect on these acts of love and compassion, as they reach out and touch their neighbor, and as they discover Jesus reaching back to them.  It is disciple-making in the fullest sense.  And of course, Read more »

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!

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.