News

Ministry still happens despite recession

The recession continues to affect giving to The United Methodist Church at a time when the denomination is experiencing its largest percentage decline in membership since 1974. United Methodist churches in the 63 annual conferences of the U.S. contributed 84 percent of what the denomination budgeted to support ministries around the world in 2009. The total apportioned was $150.3 million; $126.3 million was collected. Pros Tumonong, treasurer of the West Michigan Conference, reports that...

Take time for soul changing prayer

No matter the season on the church calendar - Advent, Lent, Easter, Pentecost -- or all of the times in between, prayer is the gasoline that fuels Christians. Ten ways to improve your prayer life         Hint: Listen Carefully Five ways for helping your child talk to God         Rule 1: Make time each day Revive prayer ministries         Churches share success stories The Lord's...

Chile faces long road to recovery

In Chillán, 40 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter, the Rev. Osvaldo Herreros herded his family beneath a doorway in the parsonage as the ground shook. “This was a three-minute earthquake that felt like three hours,” said Herreros, who was at home with his wife, his mother and a 4-year-old grandson in Chillán. “We are used to earthquakes which we experience often, but this one was very intense and too long.” His parsonage behind the sanctuary...

Grants Available to make your church more accessible

The conference Disabilities Committee has a small amount of money available to help you make your church more accessible to persons with handicapping conditions.  Want to build a ramp, put in an elevator, or make a bathroom more accessible?  How about hearing help for those facing hearing loss, or large print hymnals for those with visual problems?  If you have a project and would benefit from a small grant toward that project, we can help.  Grant request forms are available...

Disabilities Committee needs your help at annual conference

We provide transportation for those with handicapping conditions between dorms, dining halls and conference site. We have rented golf carts in the past, but they are expensive and are not the most effective means of transportation.  We can avoid this cost and do a better job of transportation with your help!   We need cars and mini vans with drivers to provide transportation.  Would you be willing to let us use your vehicle, drive a vehicle, or...

UMCOR prepares for response to victims of Chile earthquake

United Methodists were scrambling to respond to a massive earthquake that struck Chile early on Feb. 27 and prompted tsunami warnings across the Pacific region. The magnitude 8.8 earthquake, which hit about 60 miles northwest of the town of Chillán, left nearly 150 people dead, according to news reports, including at least three people swept into a large wave on an island 400 miles off the coast of Chile. Santiago, the capital, is 200 miles northeast of the epicenter. President...

Clean Water a top priority in Haiti

For agencies providing earthquake relief in Haiti, clean water is a top priority. Lilla Marigza shows  the teams who are teaching Haitians to turn dirty rivers and puddles into clean drinking water. Click here for access to video on Haiti water relief. The video script follows... You see them all over Haiti, women and children with buckets looking for water. Even before the earthquake, clean water was in short supply. But as people have been displaced, it’s harder than ever to...

UM giving tops $12 million for Haiti

One month after a 7.0 earthquake tore through Haiti, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is digging in its heels for a long-term recovery effort in the Caribbean nation. Since the January 12 disaster, UMCOR has carried out an initial assessment of damages and needs, developed a five-year work plan, and shored up strategic partnerships with the United Nations, NGOs and the Methodist Church in Haiti. The organization has leased office space and hired staff to run the field office...

Michigan Area Reporter is in your mail

The first edition of the Michigan Area Reporter, the official newspaper of the Detroit and West Michigan Conferences, was mailed Feb. 16 to the churches and clergy of the Michigan Area. Each church will receive three complimentary copies of the publication, while each clergy member will also receive a complimentary copy. The Michigan Area Reporter, an edition of the United Methodist Reporter, will publish monthly. Section A of the publication will feature news and features...

Sharing HAPI-ness in Haiti

Artisans have been expressing gratitude in spite of their horrific experiences. They are grateful to be alive. They are grateful to God for giving them strength. They are grateful for the gift of hope. We can follow their example by keeping a gratitude journal! On the very paper that symbolizes their rebuilding, you can write down ways you too are grateful! -- From the Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI) website HAPI is a co-op of about 50 local women between the ages of 20...

Youth Service Fund has new logo

The Youth Service Fund, a unique youth-led ministry of the United Methodist Church, is using a newly designed logo to lead its charge into a new decade of raising money to support youth projects around the world. Overseen by Young People's Ministries, a division of The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, YSF is completely led by youth. They contribute the money and decide what projects receive the money, and the projects supported are youth-designed, youth-led and...

Step Up To Health Plan

Looking for an exciting and rewarding way to increase your lung capacity? Improve your staminia? Lower your health costs?  Try this on for size.    West Michigan Conference Board of Pension and Health Benefits   Wellness Program: StepUp to Health Details are contained in this downloadable file . (Click Here)                             Visit the on line version of the...

Red Bird School may close its doors

BEVERLY, Ky. (UMNS)—Red Bird Mission School may close its doors at the end of the school year. "We've been struggling for a couple of years," said Tonya Asher, school secretary. "We're praying and hoping things will work out."  An SOS (Save Our Schools) Committee and others are trying raise the money to keep the 89-year-old school in the Appalachian mountains in southeastern Kentucky afloat. Asher's children are the fourth generation in her family to attend the...

UMVIM TEAM Leadership Trainings

WEST OHIO - Feb 27, 2010: Columbus Conference Center. 2 more spring UMVIM Team Leadership trainings being scheduled.  One in Central Ohio and one in Maumee Watershed District.  Contact: Dee Stickley-Miner .    IOWA - March14, 2010. Contact: Kathy Olson Martin, 1501 Morningside Avenue, Sioux City, IA 51106, 712-274-5148. INDIANA - Mar 20, 2010: Bloomington St. Marks UMC.  Also April 10, 2010: UMVIM Team Leadership training Mexico UMC. ...

POLAND Team

You are invited to join a group of experienced Volunteer in Mission team members as we travel to Kielce, Poland.  The project is to assist Kielce United Methodist Church conduct a week long day camp with a Native American theme in the rural village of Zaborze. June 24 and return July 7.  $2500. Please contact Ron Fontenot, 618-628-8262.   ...

WISCONSIN Team

  Click for 2010 Summer Brochure of Trips. Camps in Wisconsin, Montana or disaster work in Iowa     ...

Haitian church members distribute UMCOR food and water tablets

“Good brothers and sisters, thank you so much for this food.” Louis and Madame Felix, 74 and 76, were the first to receive a white plastic bag containing 18 pounds of rice, three pounds of beans, a quart of cooking oil and a one-pound bag of salt from the United Methodist Committee on Relief Jan. 29. “We were married here and baptized here,” said Mr. Felix, standing in the yard of Mellier Methodist Church. The church and school were both destroyed in the Jan. 12...

Young adults ready to get outside the church to share time and energy

A United Methodist News feature by Joey Butler When the original “Star Wars” trilogy was re-released to theaters in the late 1990s, I took my cousin, 10 years my junior, to experience those films on the big screen.  I told her how, when I was a little kid, I made my dad take me to see “Star Wars” eight times, and “The Empire Strikes Back” six times. Puzzled, she asked, “Why did you go to the theater that many times?” “Because,”...

UMC Global Pension Initiative sets $25 million challenge goal

For the Rev. Charles Horace, a retired Liberian pastor, life without a pension was a daily struggle. He recalls weeks in which he would “just live on water” for two or three days.   But through the Liberia pension fund, Horace now receives a quarterly pension benefit made possible by gifts to the Central Conference Pension Initiative (CCPI). “If I were not a United Methodist pastor, who would have thought about me?” said Horace to an audience of the Grand Bassa...

Michigan UMs active in Haiti Recovery

United Methodists from across Michigan have been in ministry in Haiti for many years. So when the earthquake struck on January 12, there were people there from congregations across the West Michigan and Detroit Conferences. Also, Michigan's response to emergency relief and recovery was immediate because of networks and relationships already established. Here are some of the stories of how Michigan United Methodists are putting their faith into action in Haiti... Grand Rapids Medical Team...