Nome, Alaska, February 13, 2012--Nome usually has long, cold winters, and Christopher Steppe, a United Methodist young adult missionary in the Alaskan city, thought he had packed enough heavy gear when he headed there from his native Virginia last September: plenty of hoodies, thermals, scarves, gloves, and even a heavier coat than he would have used back home. Not enough, and especially not when unusually early snowfall blanketed the subarctic region on the Bering Sea.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Communities | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | Natural disasters | United Methodist Church | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development | United States |
Date posted: Feb 17, 2012

Today's youth are often confronted at every turn with peer pressure to take drugs and engage in destructive behaviors. The latest podcast from the United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence's "Speak About It!" series features a substance-abuse ministry in the North Carolina Annual Conference's Rockingham District that is empowering youth through positive activities and programs to stay away from behaviors that may lead to drug use.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Communities | Health | Poverty | Youth | Urban | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | United States |
Date posted: Feb 13, 2012

Tola Seng lives in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia in Southeast Asia. As a child, she experienced the aftermath of a harsh and violent regime that killed much of Cambodia's population. "Twenty-four years ago," Seng says, "I was born to a single mother in a refugee camp on the Thai border. By God's grace, my mother was able to raise my sisters and me on her own. Yet, watching her struggle to support us, I wanted to grow up faster so I could find a job and help her."
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Children | Communities | Conflict | Evangelism | Global connections | Missionaries | United Methodist Church | Violence | Volunteers | War | Women | Youth | Focus on Congregational Development | Cambodia | Laos | Vietnam |
Date posted: Jan 30, 2012

Jamila Hunter from Brooklyn, New York, served with Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, for the first of her two years as a US-2. US-2s are missionaries between the ages of 20 and 30 who teach, learn from, pray with, and advocate for people in communities seeking transformation and justice in the United States.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Communities | Education | Missionaries | Prison | United Methodist Church | Youth | Older adults | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | United States |
Date posted: Jan 20, 2012

Thery's family was living in extreme poverty and could no longer care properly for their young daughter. They found a home for Thery at Cambodia Light Children's Orphanage and the affiliated Methodist school. Teachers recognized that she was a gifted dancer and nurtured her passion. Today she is 19 years old and attending the Royal University of Fine Arts. She continues to live at the orphanage and teaches dance to the children. The children's dance performances help raise funds to support the orphanage.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Poverty | Women | Youth | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Cambodia |
Date posted: Dec 20, 2011

The Reverend Paul Shew from the West Ohio Annual Conference has been planting seeds of hope and promise for more than ten years in Japan. "I cannot imagine a place with more opportunity for student ministry than in Japan. We are in a unique position to point young people to a loving God through word and deed." Serving as a long-term mission volunteer through Global Ministries in Japan, Shew is a professor and university chaplain at Aoyama Gakuin, in Tokyo.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Christian love | Communities | Education | Emergencies | Environment | Evangelism | Global connections | International affairs | John Wesley | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | Natural disasters | Volunteers | Tsunami | Focus on Congregational Development | Japan |
Date posted: Nov 30, 2011

I have two small children--a five-year-old daughter and a son, age two. When my daughter was only a few months old, I joined the Henderson Settlement's Maternal Infant Health Outreach program (MIHOW). I usually visit the settlement once a month to get diapers, wipes, and other baby things. It means a lot to have a helping hand these days. I don't think the outreach workers realize just how much they help others and how greatly appreciated they are.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Children | Communities | Education | Family | Poverty | Women | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | United States |
Date posted: Oct 27, 2011

New York, NY, October 12, 2011--A dynamic Korean American church in one of earth's most ethnically diverse neighborhoods was the setting where ten new United Methodist missionaries were sent into the world on October 11.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Education | Evangelization | Family | Global connections | International affairs | Missionaries | Prayers | United Methodist Church | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development | Congo DR | Italy | Kazakhstan | Korea | Mongolia | Palestine | Uganda | Ukraine |
Date posted: Oct 12, 2011

Among the ten new missionaries to be commissioned at the First United Methodist Church in Queens on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, four of the new missionaries--Fresie and Rukang Chikomb, and Eumin and Prumeh Kim--are married couples. Serving as a family with children poses special challenges and opportunities for missionaries.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Education | Family | Global connections | International affairs | Missionaries | Prayers | United Methodist Church | Focus on Leadership Development | Congo DR | Kazakhstan | Korea |
Date posted: Oct 11, 2011

Mark Stransky brought a tape measure as a symbol of transformation and hope. As the director of housing at Crossroads in Marion, Virginia, Stransky said that volunteers and community members find grace while repairing houses together. "What the tape measure doesn't measure is the hearts of the people serving on the projects," Stransky said.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Communities | Education | Evangelism | Health | Immigration | Justice | Missionaries | Refugees | Focus on Leadership Development | Focus on Global Health | Mexico | United States |
Date posted: Sep 22, 2011

A delegation from The United Methodist Church met with the Foreign Minister and other leaders of Côte d'Ivoire to explore areas of common interest as the West African country recovers from a post-electoral crisis earlier this year. Bishop Weaver of New England led the delegation and later said he was encouraged by the meeting and emphasized the role of the church as a global organization.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Conflict | Education | Family | Global connections | Health | Poverty | Refugees | Violence | War | Water | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Cote d´Ivoire |
Date posted: Sep 22, 2011

"Jesus learned new things when he went to the border," said Rev. Edgar Avitia, who led the worship in Florida for US-based missionaries of The United Methodist Church. Jesus' continuing education and migration to the border of Tyre and Sidon in Matthew 15:21-28 spoke truth to missionary Jim Perdue, who attended the missionaries meeting on the heels of the immigration task force meeting at the Church Center of the United Nations (CCUN) in New York from September 16 to 18, 2011.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Advocacy | Children | Family | Human rights | Immigration | Justice | Missionaries | Poverty | Race | Social Principles | United Methodist Church | Youth | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Guinea | Mexico | Philippines |
Date posted: Sep 20, 2011

On a recent visit to Susanna Wesley House in Baltimore, Maryland, three of the house's nine housing units were found to be empty. This was a positive sign. It meant that three families had recently made a successful transition from supportive housing to their own residences in the community.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Children | Christian love | Communities | Education | John Wesley | United Methodist Church | Welfare | Wesley | Women | Methodism | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | United States |
Date posted: Sep 13, 2011

This coming Saturday will mark 10 years of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The reactions that followed this event radically changed our world and the context of Mission. As we take time together to reflect and pray we are mindful of other instances of violence, including the recent shootings in Norway and all the places and people in the world who suffer violence in this very hour.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Conflict | GBGM events | Global connections | Health | Human rights | Hunger | International affairs | Peace | Poverty | Prayers | Violence | War | Statements | Focus on Congregational Development | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | United States | Afghanistan | Iraq | Norway |
Date posted: Sep 09, 2011

Increasing public awareness about expanded access to recovery services for substance use and mental disorders in the landmark US health care plan is the focus of this year's National Recovery Month, observed during the month of September.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Education | Family | Health | Welfare | Youth | Focus on Global Health |
Date posted: Aug 31, 2011

Coming from many rural villages in the same district of Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan, members of the district shura, or council of community leaders, gathered for a meeting. Together, they considered a handwritten list of 14 urgent concerns in their communities--including drought in remote mountain villages, flooding that destroyed crops near the river, a lack of jobs, and insecurity stemming from armed conflict in their area.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Children | Communities | Education | Human rights | Rural | Women | Youth | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Afghanistan |
Date posted: Aug 19, 2011

Rose, a 14-year-old orphan in the DR Congo, never had the opportunity to attend school. When her parents died, she went to live with her widowed grandmother. When her grandmother proved unable to support her, Rose had to marry young.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Bioethics | Children | Conflict | Education | Family | Health | War | Women | Youth | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Congo DR |
Date posted: Aug 18, 2011

As part of the Healthy Families, Healthy Planet initiative, maternal health advocates from the Global South visit the United States to share their experiences with United Methodists and government policymakers. Their purpose is to urge congregations to support increased funding for international family planning.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Bioethics | Children | Communities | Ethics | Family | Health | Human rights | Missionaries | Welfare | Women | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Sierra Leone |
Date posted: Aug 05, 2011

Even as you read these words, the people of Southern Sudan are opening their eyes to a new reality: independence. This July, we welcome them as citizens of the world's newest nation and as partners in the pursuit of global peace and development. On July 9, 2011, the independent government of Southern Sudan is to be formally constituted. Earlier this year, the Southern electorate voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Republic of the Sudan.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Children | Communities | Conflict | Education | Human rights | Peace | Poverty | Refugees | United Methodist Church | Violence | War | Focus on Congregational Development | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Sudan |
Date posted: Jul 22, 2011

July 8, 2011--This week, three US-2s completed their work as young adult missionaries in the United States and shared with staff and one another the highlights and lowlights of their last two years. Under the leadership of Elizabeth Lee, church executive at Global Ministries, the three debriefed July 5-9 in New York at the United Methodist missionary agency, sharing meals, laughter, and tears.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Missionaries | United Methodist Church | Volunteers | Women | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development |
Date posted: Jul 12, 2011

Gaza is like a prison in many ways, surrounded by high walls on three sides. Gun towers oversee the free-fire stretch of scorched earth and rubble, warning anyone--including farmers who once tilled the land--against getting close. On the fourth side, the west, the Mediterranean inexorably draws the eye to the horizon; but it, too, is forbidden.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Children | Civil rights | Conflict | Emergencies | Health | Human rights | Hunger | Peace | Poverty | Violence | War | Women | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Israel | Palestine |
Date posted: Jul 07, 2011

NEW YORK CITY, June 23, 2011--The United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV) will hold a two-day retreat designed for clergy who have been adversely affected by growing up in an alcohol, drug, or other dysfunctional family setting.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Health | Women | Youth | Men | Older adults | Focus on Global Health |
Date posted: Jul 01, 2011

Near the end of the 20th century, a decade of planning, summits, and conferences involving member governments of the United Nations culminated in the UN Millennium Document. This document, adopted by UN member nations at the 2000 Millennium Summit, serves as a multinational commitment to reduce extreme poverty around the world.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Children | Education | Global connections | Health | Human rights | Hunger | International affairs | Justice | Women | Partners/partnerships | Focus on Ministry with the Poor |
Date posted: Jun 23, 2011

Ever wonder what esperanza, hope, looks like? Go to San Francisco Libre, Nicaragua, on Lake Managua. That's what Arlene Andrews, Stuart Andrews, Katherine Hepfer, Rick Hepfer, Miriam Freeman, and Rita Rhodes did from May 14 to 21, 2011. They were the team from several United Methodist churches in Columbia, South Carolina.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Communities | Family | Hunger | Poverty | Volunteers | Women | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Nicaragua |
Date posted: Jun 10, 2011

Late in the afternoon of Tuesday, January 12, 2010, having just finished eating their usual dinner of beans and rice, the young patients at Grace Children's Hospital returned to the main area of the inpatient ward. There, the infants rested in their cribs, their bellies full of milk, while the older children gathered in front of the television set. It was 4:53 p.m., and winter darkness had begun to fall on the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Children | Communities | Health | Natural disasters | Poverty | Volunteers | Partners/partnerships | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Haiti |
Date posted: May 24, 2011