UMW 2017 Ubuntu Journeys Announced!

Please pray about joining other United Methodist Women in building strong missional bridges between Methodist Christian women on (or more!) of the following Journeys:

Ubuntu Journey, Colombia

Dates: April 20-27, 2017

Anticipated Cost: $2,200.00

Theme: Empowering and Dignifying Women through Faith, Love and Hope

Bible Text: Ephesians 2:14-15  “For it is He who is our peace….made both groups one by tearing down the wall…creating one new humanity…thereby making peace.”

For more information, contact Team Leader, Paula Morgan at: impmorg@hotmail.com

Ubuntu Journey, Mozambique

Dates: July 18-26, 2017

Anticipated Cost: $TBA

Theme: Women of Faith and Determination 

Bible Text: Exodus 3:7-10 (NRSV). “ I have heard their cry… indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them and to bring them up out of that land to a good, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

For more information, contact Team Leader, Sandy Binotto  at: Yashe4jc@hotmail.com

Ubuntu Journey, Portugal   

Dates: September, 10-18, 2017

Anticipated Cost: $TBA

Theme:  To Love and To Serve Together

Bible Text: Revelation 22:2 “…through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life…”

For more information, contact Team Leader, Marcia Florkey at: mlbflorkey@gmail.com

For information on any of the 2017 Ubuntu Journeys, you may also email: Ubuntu@unitedmethodistwomen.org 

Please note that these trips are not associated with UMVIM, SEJ. 

{Priority Projects} Tanzania

There are many opportunities in Tanzania for you or your team to serve. Please contact the UMVIM, SEJ office at 205-453-9480 or sejinfo@umvim.org for additional information.

Umba Kalangwa - Global Ministries Missionary 

Types of Ongoing Mission Opportunities

Construction: Church, School, Clinic/Hospital

Medical Setting: Clinic, Labratory

Education: Teaching in Schools - primary, Leadership training for pastors

Priority Projects

• United Methodist Church Construction in Morogoro - construction of a church and evangelistic center (Advance #15059N)
• Susannah Wesley Training Center in Morogoro - Training women in skills and enabling them to be self-sufficient and educating children (Advance #3020705)
• Wesley Primary School in Morogoro - Building classrooms and providing vulnerable children with an education (Advance #3020704)
• Morogoro United Methodist Preschools in Morogoro, Mangae, Mbabala, Dodoma - Building classrooms and developing educational materials to improve educational instruction (Advance #15048N)
• Morogoro Pastors' Training Center  in Morogoro - Teaching skills to local pastors, enabling them to serve new congregations and communities (Advance #3020710)
• Reaching Out Ministry  in Morogoro - Supporting and growing small churches in rural areas to spread Christian teachings (Advance #150530)

Elizabeth Soard - Global Ministries Missionary

Types of Ongoing Mission Opportunities

Construction: Church, Parsonage, School, Boreholes

Medical Setting: Clinic

Medical Personnel Needed: Physician, Physician Assistant, Nurse, Pharmacist

Medical Specialist Needed: Pediatrician (copy of medical license required)

May Be Brought with Team: Medicines, Medical Supplies

Education: Teaching in Schools - preschool and primary, Teaching in Churches - children, youth, young adults and adults, Mission Bible School - children and youth, Church Leadership Training for Laity and Pastors

Priority Projects in Magu, Tanzania

• Secondary School Construction - The church is working towards finishing a secondary school to serve vulnerable families who are struggling to fund secondary education for their children, something that is not free in Tanzania. Walls are already completed with work left to be done on roofing, plaster, and finishing.
• Church Construction - The Methodist Church in Tanzania is in need of assistance in creating homes for their churches to meet in and church construction on several churches in Magu.
• Medical Clinic/Community Health Seminars - The church at Magu has a fully functional, new medical clinic. The clinic is fully licensed and the doctor operating the clinic is retired from government service with many years of experience. The clinic would welcome medical teams to help with the never ending case load as well as helping lead public health seminars.
• Church Seminars - Magu is the headquarters of the Methodist Church in Tanzania. It is a strong church that can benefit from any number of trainings and conference for youth, adults, women and men's' groups, and pastors.

 Mutwale Ntambo Wa Mushidi- Global Ministries Missionary

Types of Ongoing Mission Opportunities

Construction: Church, School, Children's Home/Orphanage, Latrines

Other: Lodging

Eric & Liz Soard: Building Meaningful Relationships in Tanzania

In 2015, we are highlighting UMC missionaries who have been commissioned from the Southeastern Jurisdiction to serve around the world. Many of these missionaries accept volunteers to help with the important and necessary ministries they have established or are in partnership with. Contact UMVIM, SEJ for more information on how to serve!   Building Meaningful Relationships in Tanzania Eric and Elizabeth Soard are a young couple on the forefront of the United Methodist effort in Africa. Together since college at Lambuth University, they felt a calling to Africa, and began their time on the continent as volunteers in a country that would eventually become their second home: Tanzania. Presently, they are commissioned UMC Missionaries in the Lake Zone near Lake Victoria, where they are church planters and discipleship trainers. Along for the journey are their 3 sons, Derrick, Kaleb, and Micah. The Local Community The Soards have many roles and responsibilities in the Lake Zone, including laying the foundation for the first UMC University in Tanzania. For the last three years, they have concentrated their efforts on building up the local church body, and have established 10 new churches so far. "Our focus is on building the local community of Christ, to mobilize them to engage with each other and the community around them" says Eric. "We want them to be able to the answer the questions, 'Would your community notice if you weren't here?' and furthermore, 'Would your church members miss this part of their lives if you weren't here?'" Through intentional discipleship and leadership training, the Soards are ultimately leading these congregations to be self-leading, self-replicating, and self-sustaining. UMVIM Teams and Building Relationships While the Lord has equipped the Soards for their work in Tanzania, they cannot do it alone. The churches belong to the local congregations, but UMVIM teams are needed to help where they lack the resources to cross the finish line. Over the last couple years, they have asked the members of their local congregations what they would consider the most valuable part of having volunteers serving alongside them. They answered, "knowing people are praying for us, taking the time to offer their knowledge to us, and building relationships with us." A mission journey to Tanzania with the Soards might be filled with bumpy roads and a lot of dust, but it serves as the background to the warmth and hospitality you will experience while there. So many teams opt to stay in the comfortable cities and more developed areas of the country, but the extra effort you spend getting to this part of Tanzania will be rewarded with meeting the wonderful people, sharing meals with them, and being given the opportunity to sit down and talk to them about the place they call home. "The work is important," says Eric, "but it's secondary to the relationships."

Earlier this summer, UMVIM, SEJ Executive Director Paulette West traveled to Tanzania to personally visit with the Soards to become more familiar with their mission, and to help establish sister-to-sister church partnerships here in the SEJ. (Click the video above for a recap of her time there!) If you are interested in learning more about serving short-term in Tanzania, or what a meaningful partnership with the Soards could look like for your church, please contact Paulette West at paulette_west@umvim.org or Eric Soard atsoard.eric@gmail.com. You can also follow the Soards' journey on their blog, ingodslife.blogspot.com.

Mission Volunteer Opportunities

If you are being called to serve in mission service beyond a week or ten days, the Mission Volunteer Program sponsored by Global Ministries provides opportunities for individuals and couples to serve from two months to two years in a variety of ministries around the world. Here are some examples:

In Honduras there are ministries that need volunteers to serve as youth leaders, to coordinate team projects, and to minister to children with disabilities.

In Africa, a volunteer is needed at the Malawi United Methodist Church Conference Offices. The position is for an international financial management consultant. This is a partnership with the Church of the Resurrection. The main responsibility is to develop and implement a financial accounting management system.

Our missionary in Chile is seeking a volunteer to serve as a gardener and groundskeeper.

The McCurdey School in Espanola, New Mexico has ongoing needs for directors.

In Haiti there is a need for a couple to serve as volunteers-in-mission team coordinators.

To respond to these volunteer requests and others, become a Mission Volunteer. Apply now at www.missionvolunteers.org in time for our October 21-24 training event. For more information, please contact Malcolm Frazier at mfrazier@umcmission.org or call 212 870-3659.

{Guest Blogger} Introducing Moyo

By Ben Rawlins, Moyo Staff 

When it comes to spirituality and justice, many Christians view these two parts of life and faith as opposed. I’m a contemplative, one person claims. Another says, I’m an activist. But why must we view these two beautiful and necessary aspects of the Christian life as antithetical?

At Moyo, we’re trying to re-imagine the Christian call to spirituality and justice, following in the footsteps of organizations like UMVIM that believe in strong theological thinking as the cornerstone of mission work. Moyo is an interactive website that provides experiences for visitors to confront issues of global importance, engage these issues spiritually, and discover ways to act on them in the world. Through the experience on the website, visitors can begin to integrate the “being” and “doing” of life.

 

On the website, a visitor engages with the issues through a Guided Path. The Guided Path starts with an Encounter, allowing the visitor to learn more about the issue. Then, the visitor moves to a Reflection, which provides a reflective type of experience. Lastly, the visitor moves to an Action. The Action shows different ways of engaging the issue in the world. The Guided Path offers experiences with a variety of creative content – videos, photographs, prose, and poetry. The website also has The Feed, which is a blog-like feature. On The Feed, we’ll offer diverse perspectives on current events and global issues. All together, these experiences are a tool for visitors to see contemplation and action in new ways and engage in the world with spiritually infused, justice-oriented action.

Without a doubt, UMVIM’s mission aligns with the experiences that Moyo provides. Like UMVIM, we want to see “Christian love in action” and start conversations that move people of faith to combine their spirituality with justice action. 

Our website has just recently become live, and we’re launching our first two topics: Water &Restoration of Life and Disaster & Human Dignity. Both of these topics reflect work that UMVIM does all over the world. On Moyo, we feature UMVIM on an Action as a suggested way to volunteer for disaster relief. 

How can you become involved? First, we would love for you to visit the website – feel free to send feedback to us or share with people who you believe might be interested in the mission of Moyo. We’re also looking for contributors to submit creative content to the website! Please share your voice and experiences to Moyo. You can check out our Submission Website for more information on how to do so or you can email the Moyo Team.

As stated above, Moyo is a tool that can provide new ways of thinking about spirituality and justice. We are so grateful that we can partner with groups like UMVIM who complement our mission in such important ways. Moyo is a community – we’re glad you can be a part of it. 

Questions? Contact Jenn Bryant (jbryant@umcdiscipleship.org) or Ben Rawlins (brawlins@umcdiscipleship.org)

Why We Train Short-Term Mission Team Leaders

Every day, UMVIM helps to expand the work of missionaries across the world. Have you considered being part of a trained UMVIM team, or have you been praying about how to empower our ministry that exists to empower you? Read on to learn more about why we connect and equip the dozens of short-term volunteers who depart each week to serve with UMC missionaries and their vital ministries across the country and the world.

UMVIM Prays and Surrounds Missionaries With God's Love

Before the devastation of the Ebola crisis, missionaries Nancy and Kip Robinson were serving the people of Sierra Leone. Nancy trained pastors, evangelists and lay leaders, while Kip oversaw the numerous building efforts of the Sierra Leone Annual Conference, including wells, schools, and hospitals. Though stateside for the time being, the Robinsons will return to Sierra Leone, where people will need medical professionals, teachers will need salaries, and the children orphaned by Ebola will need families. Can you provide funds to help train team leaders to serve alongside the Robinsons?

UMVIM Teams Help Missionaries With Crucial Repairs and Rebuilds 

In Chile, missionary John Elmore works at the El Vergel Agricultural School, a Methodist boarding school that teaches horticulture and animal husbandry to the local youth. Thanks to UMVIM teams, John will be able to install new heating systems and accomplish general upkeep. Additionally, John is in charge of rebuilding Angol Methodist Church, which was badly damaged in a 2010 earthquake that devastated this beautiful country. Can your church send a team to help repair the school and the church?

UMVIM Helps Missionaries Reach More People 

In Panama, with the assistance of two nurses who shared their knowledge of community-based health, missionary Rhett Thompson was able to implement a curriculum that has trained more than two dozen indigenous Ngabe about key public health practices such as first aid, sanitation, disease prevention and sexual and reproductive health. Many of the graduates from this program, in turn, teach these essential skills in their own communities. What can you share to help keep public health education in Panama moving forward? 

These are just four missionaries who have dedicated their lives to UMC ministries across the world, and we are proud to have UMVIM teams serving alongside them. Want one more suggestion for contributing? Sign up for UMVIM Team Leader Training so that you are ready to go. The needs are there. Please help the ministry of UMVIM and the communities we serve.
  

With your gift to support UMVIM, SEJ, you empower thousands of volunteers and help to transform lives through God's love and grace.   

Please consider generously giving to Advance #901875 by clicking here, or mailing a check to 100 Centerview Drive, Suite 210, Birmingham, AL 35216.

Thank you for the continued prayers and support that keep our ministry strong.

Grace and peace,

Paulette West

Executive Director

(Mission Highlight} Kip and Nancy Robinson: Before and After Ebola in Sierra Leone

If you are familiar with the efforts of the United Methodist Church on the continent of Africa, you might already know Kip and Nancy Robinson. In June of 2013, the Robinsons were commissioned by the General Board of Global Ministries to serve as career missionaries in Sierra Leone. At the time, many people outside of the continent had barely heard of this little country in West Africa, and certainly the word “Ebola” was still relegated to Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone.

Less than a year into their placement, a piece of correspondence from the Robinsons came across our desks here at UMVIM. They talked about how they were no longer shaking hands or hugging, but rather crossing their arms over their chests and bowing as a greeting. A few weeks after that, we had a follow-up email informing us that all of the teams scheduled to visit had been cancelled.

We certainly don’t have to tell you the rest. The Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia has dominated the headlines the latter part of 2014. These tiny countries that together only comprise less than 2% of the entire continent of Africa are now household names, although few know anything about them besides the horrors that this virus has left in its wake.

But “before Ebola” the Robinsons spent their their time in Sierra Leone serving its wonderful people. Nancy trains pastors, evangelists and lay leaders in many areas, including theology, worship, stewardship, preaching, and children’s and women’s ministry. As the Conference Engineer, Kip oversees the numerous building efforts of the Sierra Leone Annual Conference, including wells, schools, and hospitals. He also coordinates UMVIM teams, totaling around 2 dozen annually.

In fact, the United Methodist Church has been working in Sierra Leone for over 150 years, operating a wide network of schools, hospitals and health facilities, and West Africa University is still on schedule to break ground this year.

The Robinsons have continued to be in touch with their friends in-country. They say that even in the chaos, devastation, and stigmatization that the last few months have brought, the church remains strong. A UM church in the capital of Freetown donated $2500 to the effort and presented it to the First Lady of Sierra Leone...who herself is a United Methodist! Sierra Leone Annual Conference Bishop Yambasu and other UMC leaders around him are out in the country, preaching the Good News, encouraging the sick and heartbroken, and teaching preventative measures.

Eventually, Ebola will be a thing of the past, although ever-present reminders will remain for generations to come. The grief will continue for quite some time, but the church will continue its relentless effort to build up this small but strong country as they recover. The Robinsons have communicated to us that medical professionals will be needed, schools will reopen and its teacher will need salaries, and Ebola orphans will need families. When they return to Sierra Leone later this year, they will continue in the same capacity they have been serving, but Nancy will also become the Dean of Students and Registrar at the new university.

As this country that the Robinsons love so dearly has been catapulted into the international spotlight, and as GBGM has kept them stateside for the time being, they are seizing this opportunity to tell the story of the good works happening in Sierra Leone–and what it means to be a global church–to anyone they can. They have spent the last 4 months on the road, talking to clubs and congregations, and would love to talk to yours. Before they are called to return to Freetown, perhaps you feel led to invite them to speak to your group. To contact the Robinsons, please email them at crobinson@umcmission.org or nrobinson@umcmission.org.

Please join us in continued prayer for Kip and Nancy. We are so grateful for their humble hearts and that they answered the call to serve the people of Sierra Leone. Please also pray with us for the countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia: their leaders, citizens, healthcare workers, missionaries, and churches. At this time, UMVIM, SEJ does not have any active short-term mission opportunities in these countries, nor are we offering health insurance to anyone traveling for mission purposes.** However, when travel restrictions are lifted and active cases of Ebola cease to exist, we look forward to being part of the recovery effort in the ways we know how: through the training and equipping of teams and their leaders, and connecting those with a calling into viable projects where they can serve in educational and empowering capacities. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or further information.



**Effective May 15, 2015: With the return of our Global Ministries missionaries to Liberia and Sierra Leone, we have reinstated our insurance policies to teams that travel there to serve. We are thankful for the missionaries that continued to serve during the Ebola crisis and will remember all of those affected in our prayers.

Words: Malinda Kay Nichols | Photos: Courtesy of Kip and Nancy Robinson