UMVIM (United Methodist Volunteers in Mission)
I had the opportunity to meet some of the district UMVIM representatives at the meeting held Saturday, Dec.13 at St. Matthew’s UMC in Madison. It was a time of sharing, learning and planning … One thing became obviously clear and that is that this world is becoming increasingly complicated, but thank goodness we have people in places who are always ready to help. At this meeting I met D.J. Walker of Travel Pro of Mississippi who is very adept at helping Mississippi volunteer teams traveling overseas; she mentioned the ever changing nature of immigration requirements from all countries throughout the world as well as the ever changing requirements of the Homeland Security at airports as well as the new baggage and other restrictions created by the airlines themselves.
Robert Sharp of Disaster Response reported that to date there have been over 155,000 volunteers come work with the Mississippi UMCOR Disaster Response group down on the Coast; Robert coordinates the work and the logistics of the three camps and warehouses located there as well as the work of the volunteers; did you know that Pennsylvania is the leading state, followed by Indiana, sending volunteers for hurricane recovery. If you would like to partner on building a home call the Disaster Response Team at 866-435-7091 or email (whole house sponsorships are $51,000 – the house is built on the hurricane impacted lot). If you would like to make a donation of any amount please make your check payable to Mississippi United Methodist Disaster Response, Inc., and forward to 1400 Leggett Drive, Biloxi, MS 39530. If you would like a copy of he volunteer recruitment package which contains a four-minute DVD and PowerPoint presentation, posters, broadcast and print advertising materials, please call them at the same number.
Foreign Missions, anyone?
If you or your church are interested in taking volunteer teams in mission you may want to contact the following individuals who can provide you all kinds of information about doing Methodist mission at the particular countries listed by their names …
o For Nicaragua Covenant: David Newton
o For Russian Initiative: Danny Dabbs
o For Mexico missions: Rayford Woodrick
o For Beans and Rice missions (Costa Rica) Marie & Fred Curry
o For Chabadza Covenant to Zimbabwe: Michelle Shrader
o For Liberia, Africa: Nelda Thomas
Please be aware that David Newton listed as the Nicaragua contact is also the Mississippi Conference UMVIM Coordinator and he can give you additional advice about insurance through the United Methodist Church; even if you and your team already have insurance you may want to call him anyway to let him know you are going and he can find prayer partners to pray for your team while they are out of the country.
If you have any questions please call me.
Merry Christmas!!!
Jorge.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Joy Down In My Heart
Have you sung the song “Joy to the world the Lord is come” this season? What about the children’s classic, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart”? In Luke 2:10 we read “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.”
This week our Advent focus is Joy. It is a word that we hear and use a lot during the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Stop and think for a moment. What is joy? How do you define this word to your congregation, your family, and your neighbors? Where, in your own life, do you derive your joy? Does your joy come from a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, a Christmas bonus check that arrives unexpectedly, or a gift that sits underneath the tree with your name on it?
Or, does your joy come from somewhere deep in your heart and soul? The eternal joy of the Lord is the gift of faith that we experience each and every moment of our lives when we claim for ourselves Jesus Christ as our Savior. The joy of our Lord is not external and temporal. It cannot be measured by our bank accounts, the size of our homes, or even the number of gifts we receive and share this year. The joy of the Lord is internal and eternal!
The 2008 Family Advent Calendar leads us through the last days of Advent with some creative devotions and activities around the word “joy”. I would recommend these to you and to your family. This week as you prepare for the final days in Advent, Christmas Eve Services, and Christmas day celebrations how will you proclaim the true joy of the Lord that the angel first shared with the shepherds long ago?
Enjoy these days of anticipation, excitement, and waiting!
For the joy of the Lord is ours!
Merry Christmas!
Rev. Michelle Foster
This week our Advent focus is Joy. It is a word that we hear and use a lot during the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Stop and think for a moment. What is joy? How do you define this word to your congregation, your family, and your neighbors? Where, in your own life, do you derive your joy? Does your joy come from a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, a Christmas bonus check that arrives unexpectedly, or a gift that sits underneath the tree with your name on it?
Or, does your joy come from somewhere deep in your heart and soul? The eternal joy of the Lord is the gift of faith that we experience each and every moment of our lives when we claim for ourselves Jesus Christ as our Savior. The joy of our Lord is not external and temporal. It cannot be measured by our bank accounts, the size of our homes, or even the number of gifts we receive and share this year. The joy of the Lord is internal and eternal!
The 2008 Family Advent Calendar leads us through the last days of Advent with some creative devotions and activities around the word “joy”. I would recommend these to you and to your family. This week as you prepare for the final days in Advent, Christmas Eve Services, and Christmas day celebrations how will you proclaim the true joy of the Lord that the angel first shared with the shepherds long ago?
Enjoy these days of anticipation, excitement, and waiting!
For the joy of the Lord is ours!
Merry Christmas!
Rev. Michelle Foster
Your Help is Needed
Last week as I went into the post office I witnessed something, I had never seen before.
A man was half way in the garbage can. After he came out of it he began to eat half of a sandwich he had found. My daughter and I looked and wonder how could this happen in America.
Jalisa, my daughter, reached in the back seat and gave me some food to share with him. I later thought about the food I left out overnight, the leftovers we threw away, the $102.00 for football tickets plus food and travel and so many others experiences. I realize that God has truly blessed my family and to those who have received much, much is required.
We, as Mississippi United Methodists, have been highly favored by God. I ask you as a part of that blessed community to join me in supporting the struggling community at Africa University. Most of the African American churches apportionment for Africa University is less than twenty dollars. Middlebrook UMC, where I serve as pastor, is a small membership church but we have given our thirty-six dollars to Africa University. The third verse of the African American national anthem is,”..., may we forever stand, true to our God, true to our native land.”
This Christmas let us give a gift in our apportionments to our, native land.
A man was half way in the garbage can. After he came out of it he began to eat half of a sandwich he had found. My daughter and I looked and wonder how could this happen in America.
Jalisa, my daughter, reached in the back seat and gave me some food to share with him. I later thought about the food I left out overnight, the leftovers we threw away, the $102.00 for football tickets plus food and travel and so many others experiences. I realize that God has truly blessed my family and to those who have received much, much is required.
We, as Mississippi United Methodists, have been highly favored by God. I ask you as a part of that blessed community to join me in supporting the struggling community at Africa University. Most of the African American churches apportionment for Africa University is less than twenty dollars. Middlebrook UMC, where I serve as pastor, is a small membership church but we have given our thirty-six dollars to Africa University. The third verse of the African American national anthem is,”..., may we forever stand, true to our God, true to our native land.”
This Christmas let us give a gift in our apportionments to our, native land.
What's Love Got to do With It?
The truth is, love has everything to do with it! If it were not for love there would not be Christmas. “For God so LOVED the world, that he gave His only beloved Son so that anyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” The gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ, was given to us out of God’s love for us.
In this Advent season of waiting and expectation, how are we anticipating this love that comes to us from God above? How are our words and actions motivated by this godly love that has been given unconditionally and freely to us? In what ways do we go out of our way, stop in all of our busyness, and change our course of direction in order to give love to those who are hungry, naked, homeless, in prison, and on the fringes of society?
What’s love got to do with it? You are encouraged to use the daily devotions and activities found within the 2008 Family Advent Calendar offered by the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church to explore this question and its multitude of answers.
Monday, December 8, 2008
More Diverse People
This past week (December 4-7) a training event took place in Mississippi that provided training to pastors and lay missioners who want to be more involved and intentional in helping get started small communities of faith/churches and community programs geared specifically towards Hispanic people currently living within our conference.
Over a long weekend at a camp retreat 18 folks were involved in an intensive 30 hour program designed to teach pastors and lay missioners basic ministry skills in how to carry on mission and outreach with Hispanic people in our communities. Language, cultural, leadership, worship and other specific subjects dealing with ministry in this environment were explored .
People participating in this bi-lingual training event represented 7 nationalities and some of these folks also reported having spoken 5 native indigenous tongues as their first languages (not counting English or Spanish). This is a witness to the great diversity of backgrounds and cultures with whom anyone dealing with this population will be confronted (education and economic diversity notwithstanding).
Both the pastors and new lay missioners were greatly pleased with the things learned as were the GBGM-trained workshop leaders and conference representative. These highly motivated people expressed not just great commitment and passion, but also the desire to do God’s will.
Remember … In mission and Outreach Pray, Give and Do!!! Sunday, December 14 will be a special offering day for the Children’s Home at your church. Please Give … Generously!!!
Call me, Jorge.
Over a long weekend at a camp retreat 18 folks were involved in an intensive 30 hour program designed to teach pastors and lay missioners basic ministry skills in how to carry on mission and outreach with Hispanic people in our communities. Language, cultural, leadership, worship and other specific subjects dealing with ministry in this environment were explored .
People participating in this bi-lingual training event represented 7 nationalities and some of these folks also reported having spoken 5 native indigenous tongues as their first languages (not counting English or Spanish). This is a witness to the great diversity of backgrounds and cultures with whom anyone dealing with this population will be confronted (education and economic diversity notwithstanding).
Both the pastors and new lay missioners were greatly pleased with the things learned as were the GBGM-trained workshop leaders and conference representative. These highly motivated people expressed not just great commitment and passion, but also the desire to do God’s will.
Remember … In mission and Outreach Pray, Give and Do!!! Sunday, December 14 will be a special offering day for the Children’s Home at your church. Please Give … Generously!!!
Call me, Jorge.
Hopeful or Hopeless
An article I read this week included these words, “one way to appreciate the hope of Christmas is to envision a world devoid of Christmas, a world with no Christ, no hope – just hopelessness.” As I read this, my mind began to imagine what our world would be like without Christ, without church, and without Christmas. In those moments, I tasted hopelessness and despair.
As we move into the second week of Advent, our calendar focus will turn towards hope and the excited anticipation that the season of Advent brings to us. As Christians, we celebrate and proclaim hope each day because Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem! He grew up among us, redeemed the world and showed us what God is like. God is essentially a God of Hope, a God who makes all things new. Therefore, the excitement and expectation that children of all ages feel at Christmas is altogether appropriate. When we imagine for a moment a world without Christ, it causes us to decorate our homes, give presents, and sing carols in such a way that celebrates the hope of Christmas with passion and joy! Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again – this is the kind of hope that we cannot live without!
As you consider our hope-full and hope filled world, I invite you to use the Family Advent Calendar to discover some ways that you and your church may partner with Moore Community House and Methodist Children’s Homes in offering hope to children and families throughout our state. This week you also find ways to share and explore, in Bible study and song, what hope means for us today.
Need a copy of the Family Advent Calendar? Go Here...
As we move into the second week of Advent, our calendar focus will turn towards hope and the excited anticipation that the season of Advent brings to us. As Christians, we celebrate and proclaim hope each day because Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem! He grew up among us, redeemed the world and showed us what God is like. God is essentially a God of Hope, a God who makes all things new. Therefore, the excitement and expectation that children of all ages feel at Christmas is altogether appropriate. When we imagine for a moment a world without Christ, it causes us to decorate our homes, give presents, and sing carols in such a way that celebrates the hope of Christmas with passion and joy! Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again – this is the kind of hope that we cannot live without!
As you consider our hope-full and hope filled world, I invite you to use the Family Advent Calendar to discover some ways that you and your church may partner with Moore Community House and Methodist Children’s Homes in offering hope to children and families throughout our state. This week you also find ways to share and explore, in Bible study and song, what hope means for us today.
Need a copy of the Family Advent Calendar? Go Here...
Monday, December 1, 2008
Fundamentals of Mission & Outreach
Whose Mission Work is it?
Mission and outreach are fundamental to the health of a congregation. They provide the foundation for all the rest of the church’s work in making disciples, building up the church, alleviating suffering, and promoting justice, freedom, and peace.
Central to any mission and outreach effort is the recognition that we all are participants in a work that begins with God, belongs to God, and is being fulfilled by God now and unto the end of time. So while we may be God’s hands and feet, it is God who empowers and sustains the work and the workers.
Who is our neighbor?
Jesus taught us in the parable of the Good Samaritan that anyone in need becomes our neighbor; Jesus’ call for us is to share our material and spiritual bounty with those who are spiritually or materially needy, whether they are next door or across the globe.
What about leadership?
Leadership is an essential element in the success of any group, including the missions and outreach group at the church, however, not everyone is gifted to be a leader. But, while we may not be called to be leaders, some of us can take responsibility for the selection of leaders, and everyone in the church is responsible with supporting the leaders and keeping them accountable.
Experts on the subject of leadership have identified 4 characteristics of good leadership: vision, character (or integrity), empowerment and passion. In our Christian context a dimension of the mission and outreach ministry is that it must have servant centered leadership which is rooted in love. It is not surprising to observe that all leadership characteristics modeled by Jesus to his disciples are recorded in the gospels and should be the model of leadership which we all need to follow so that our praying, giving, and doing are effective.
Call me and we’ll talk mission and outreach at your church.
Jorge.
Mission and outreach are fundamental to the health of a congregation. They provide the foundation for all the rest of the church’s work in making disciples, building up the church, alleviating suffering, and promoting justice, freedom, and peace.
Central to any mission and outreach effort is the recognition that we all are participants in a work that begins with God, belongs to God, and is being fulfilled by God now and unto the end of time. So while we may be God’s hands and feet, it is God who empowers and sustains the work and the workers.
Who is our neighbor?
Jesus taught us in the parable of the Good Samaritan that anyone in need becomes our neighbor; Jesus’ call for us is to share our material and spiritual bounty with those who are spiritually or materially needy, whether they are next door or across the globe.
What about leadership?
Leadership is an essential element in the success of any group, including the missions and outreach group at the church, however, not everyone is gifted to be a leader. But, while we may not be called to be leaders, some of us can take responsibility for the selection of leaders, and everyone in the church is responsible with supporting the leaders and keeping them accountable.
Experts on the subject of leadership have identified 4 characteristics of good leadership: vision, character (or integrity), empowerment and passion. In our Christian context a dimension of the mission and outreach ministry is that it must have servant centered leadership which is rooted in love. It is not surprising to observe that all leadership characteristics modeled by Jesus to his disciples are recorded in the gospels and should be the model of leadership which we all need to follow so that our praying, giving, and doing are effective.
- His vision was and is redemption for a lost, needy, and wayward people.
- His character was and is mission-driven and people-centered; he was and is a teacher and a friend. He was, is, and always will be God; yet he modeled servant-hood. He was and is forgiving. His character was tested but he was always the same; he acted with integrity.
- Jesus empowered his disciples with the power of the Holy Spirit to make more disciples and equipped them to perform miracles of healing and compassion.
- Jesus taught, ministered, and served with passion. He displayed righteous anger toward the money changers, washed his companions’ feet, fed the hungry and healed the sick.
Call me and we’ll talk mission and outreach at your church.
Jorge.
FAITH
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
How would you define faith? How do you live out your faith in your home? Your office? Your community? How does faith prepare you for the season of Christmas?
Utilizing the 2008 Family Advent Calendar developed by the Office of Connectional Ministries of the Mississippi Conference, our devotional time this week focuses on faith - the faith of the shepherds long ago, the evidence of faith in our own lives, the faithful journey of Abraham and Sarah, and the ministries of faith that are evidenced in the work of the Good Shepherd Center, Edwards Street Fellowship Center and Wesley House.
Yesterday we began our journey through the season of Advent. As we walk forward toward Bethlehem to welcome the babe in the manger, I invite you to find ways to share this calendar with others in your congregation. It can be used as a tool to explore the sacred meanings of the chosen Advent words in your worship services, bible studies, personal devotions, and Sunday school classes in the days and weeks to come. It is my hope that these words will help aid us in living in the Advent season even as we anticipate and prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Downloadable and printable copies are available on the conference website at 2008 Advent Calendar.
How would you define faith? How do you live out your faith in your home? Your office? Your community? How does faith prepare you for the season of Christmas?
Utilizing the 2008 Family Advent Calendar developed by the Office of Connectional Ministries of the Mississippi Conference, our devotional time this week focuses on faith - the faith of the shepherds long ago, the evidence of faith in our own lives, the faithful journey of Abraham and Sarah, and the ministries of faith that are evidenced in the work of the Good Shepherd Center, Edwards Street Fellowship Center and Wesley House.
Yesterday we began our journey through the season of Advent. As we walk forward toward Bethlehem to welcome the babe in the manger, I invite you to find ways to share this calendar with others in your congregation. It can be used as a tool to explore the sacred meanings of the chosen Advent words in your worship services, bible studies, personal devotions, and Sunday school classes in the days and weeks to come. It is my hope that these words will help aid us in living in the Advent season even as we anticipate and prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Downloadable and printable copies are available on the conference website at 2008 Advent Calendar.
Blessings to you as you walk by faith into a new season of our church year!
Babies, Disciples, and Advent
Yesterday we had the perfect celebration of Advent at Forrest Hill UMC. We baptized little Matthew. It had been a long time since we had shared in an Infant Baptism. The family stood proudly by and covenanted to provide him with a faith filled home and the congregation promised that they would do the same. Big brother Ethan stood there proudly beaming. It was so powerful. Why?
We are becoming the
Let the children come unto us.
Please join me in prayer about this…but more than that, become the answer to those prayers!
Let us lead them to Christ. That, my friends is true Christmas!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
