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 »

Aly Stanley is serving as a short-term Mission Volunteer with Project AGAPE, Armenia.  Initially, she is teaching English with college aged students and later, will serve with the Agape Children’s Home in Nagorno Karabagh.  You can follow her blog at:  Aly in Armenia.   She would love to hear from you as she shares the love of Jesus in this, the oldest of Christian nations.

You too can be part of this incredible ministry through a Mission Work Team scheduled for  July 28 – August 12.

Children dance at the AGAPE Children's home. Some children at the home have living parents who bring their children to the home because the parents are so impoverished that they cannot feed their own children.

And as always, you can join with your gifts, where with every donation, 100% of your gift is used in the ministry.

Contributions may be made through your local church or mailed to:

NC Conference, PO Box 60053, Charlotte, NC 28260.

Make check payable to:

NC Conference designated as Project AGAPE

Project AGAPE can be found in Lane #4 – World Missions in the Rainbow Covenant/Advance Service Commitment Booklet.   Advance #S – 00004.

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 »

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.    

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

Opportunities to serve the Lord in Thailand!

We know that where there is a need for a servant of God, that there also a person that God is calling to meet that need. We believe this and we are praying that God will use His wonderful and mysterious ways to match the right people with the right ministries.

There are three opportunities to serve in Thailand that we are praying for at this time. One is short-term and the other are long-term.

First, the short-term opportunity. If you would like to Read more »

Mozart training trainers at Farmers Field School - building an infrastructure of sustainable agriculture in Liberia.

The Role of UMCOR’s Sustainable Agriculture and Development Program in promoting the “miracle tree.”  - Moringa in Sierra Leone – Flowing from Work in Liberia – January 2011 — Mozart Adevu

Dear Friends,

Happy and Prosperous New Year!

I bring you New Year greetings from my family, friends and communities in Africa, especially those you have impacted over the last years. We thank you for your support and giving over the last years. I hope my stories inspire you and give you great testimonies of how your support has helped changed lives in Africa.

“Imagine a tree in your backyard that will meet all your nutritional needs, take care of you medicinally, and purify your water for you. This tree actually exists. For centuries, the natives of northern India and many parts of Africa have known of the many benefits of Moringa oleifera.  Its uses are as unique as the names it is Read more »

Frido teaching in Feed My Lambs ministry.

And the Prophet Isaiah 40:31 adds “…but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (NIV)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the soon coming King Jesus, even as we gather here in this medium that has become a ground of meeting of our partnership in this ministry to the less fortunate children and youth in Liberia; bringing you greetings from Betty my wife, Josiane my daughter, my staff and all the children and youths, we are saddened with a war in Darfur, in the eastern DRC where boys and girls are victims of atrocities; saddened of religious conflict which may tear apart Nigeria; saddened of people in the Sudan who have gone days – maybe weeks — without a meal…

These are images we must Read more »

Not-so-high-tech Sterilizer

Newsletter from Mary Zigbuo — Blessings of hope and peace to you during this Advent Season.

I recently attended a service in my childhood church and among many reflective and thought provoking remarks; the pastor said “Only God can use something that looks like nothing, to do extraordinary things”.  I thought about the pastor’s remarks and pondered how very difficult it is to see beyond challenging physical realities and circumstances.   Over the years of my missionary service I witnessed projects and ministries with out-dated and crumbling infrastructure; “shacks” used as school buildings; rocks and pieces of logs serving as school desks and chairs; a very large pressure cooker over a bed of fired charcoal creatively used as a hospital sterilizer……!  But there’s an image I will never forget! During a tour of the Ganta United Methodist Hospital in Liberia, where there is very limited electricity, I witnessed a pre-mature infant in critical need of an incubator lying Read more »

Victor serves some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

Victor Taryor, United Methodist Missionary and Administrator of Ganta Missionary Hospital, Liberia, is in the North Carolina Conference for several days.  He is available for your congregation and small groups on Tuesday, December 7th and Friday, December 10th.

If you would like Victor to speak with your group, please contact Brenda Booth at brendabooth@nc.rr.com or call 910-818-1064.

Since 2006, Victor Taryor has served through the Global Health program in his home country of Liberia.  Also a registered nurse, Victor oversees the daily operation of the hospital while communicating with hospital staff to insure the hospital is providing the best possible care to each patient.  Victor describes his ministry at this podcast.

Growing up in a poor subsistence farming family, attending school was difficult and challenging for Victor. With the help of Read more »