Every now and then I come across an attention-grabbing story in the bound volumes of World Outlook or The Missionary Voice--both predecessors of New World Outlook magazine. Such a story helps me understand that history is never quite what I supposed it was. Martha Drummer's story was captured in World Outlook in 1952 by Florence Hooper, a mission secretary who had been responsible for sending Miss Drummer her monthly pension.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Civil rights | Education | Global connections | Health | Human rights | Missionaries | United Methodist Church | Women | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Angola |
Date posted: Mar 08, 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

The United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV) released a new podcast for the "Speak About It!" series on Grace Place Recovery Ministries, a ministry of a downtown church located in the heart of a southern California beach community that transformed itself to become a place of healing and wholeness for hundreds of people in recovery.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Health | Focus on Global Health |
Date posted: Jan 11, 2012

There are so many reasons people drink too much over the holidays--stress, economic worries, emotional family reunions, holiday parties, or simply the depression or loneliness that sets in during long winter months. This Christmas and New Year's, turn to the downloadable book of devotions from SPSARV (United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence) to relieve the stress of the holiday season, a time when many individuals, families, and church members become aware of the disease of addiction and pray for recovery.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Christmas | Health | Prayers | Focus on Global Health |
Date posted: Dec 20, 2011

With alcohol use a persistent problem on many US college campuses, the United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV) released an informative podcast for its "Speak About It!" series on Spartanburg Methodist College's alcohol education and awareness program to curb underage drinking on campus.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Education | Health | Youth | Focus on Global Health | United States |
Date posted: Dec 15, 2011

Methodist Cambodian youth, aged 16-24, gathered from around their country last week in Phnom Penh for their 2012 strategic planning at the Wesley Bible Center. Irene Mparutsa, a Global Ministries missionary and a nurse from Zimbabwe, took the opportunity to facilitate a discussion about HIV/AIDS with the 35 young people. While the rate of HIV infection is declining in Cambodia, there is a need to teach prevention as well as reduce stigma for those who are HIV-positive.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: AIDS/HIV | Health | Mission opportunities | Poverty | Prayers | United Methodist Church | Youth | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Cambodia |
Date posted: Dec 01, 2011

The assembly hall at the Asian Rural Institute in Tochigi, Japan, was filled with a spirit of celebration as graduating students anticipated bringing the fruits of their labor back to their home countries. In a commencement message to the 2011 class on November 19, 2011, Thomas Kemper, the head of Global Ministries, said:
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Agriculture | Christian love | Communities | Donations | Emergencies | Environment | Global connections | Health | International affairs | Natural disasters | Poverty | Prayers | Rural | Welfare | Statements | Tsunami | Focus on Congregational Development | Focus on Leadership Development | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Japan |
Date posted: Nov 23, 2011

Thousands of individuals and churches are expected to engage in mission through 10-Fold, a ten-day online gathering. Beginning on October 10, 2011, the event will offer opportunities to learn about powerful ministries of The United Methodist Church.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Agriculture | Donations | Education | Health | Missionaries | Natural disasters | Youth | Focus on Congregational Development | Focus on Leadership Development | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Africa | Congo DR | Germany | Honduras | Philippines |
Date posted: Oct 06, 2011

Is your church thinking of reaching out to people in new ways? Or is your substance-abuse ministry looking to partner with people in United Methodist churches? Do you want to accompany and care for people who are struggling to overcome a chemical dependency, such as alcoholism? Is your church in ministry with people who are homeless, drug abusers, family members of substance abusers, or people in recovery?
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Education | Finance | Grants | Health | Violence | Focus on Global Health |
Date posted: Oct 03, 2011

Walk together in God's mission with our scholars. Give to your utmost ability. As we invest in their education and leadership, churches and communities shall help transform the world. By God's grace and sitting around the Lord's Table We bear witness to multiple ministries everywhere.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Ecumenical | Finance | Health | Poverty | Focus on Leadership Development | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Brazil | Liberia | Philippines | United States |
Date posted: Sep 28, 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

In the late 1970s, millions of people starved in Cambodian refugee camps. Among the hungry were present-day United Methodist missionaries Marilyn and Joseph Chan. In the camps, they witnessed and experienced Christian love and converted to Christianity. The couple went on to study theology in the US and returned to Cambodia to work with Christian and global aid networks as teachers and theologians, offering to help in health and agriculture in rural communities.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Agriculture | Health | Missionaries | Poverty | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Cambodia |
Date posted: Sep 19, 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

August 2011 "[The Charitable Pharmacy] shows me that God works miracles. It's given me spiritual hope." --Charles Littleton, Charitable Pharmacy Patient Have you ever been part of a miracle? I have…three days a week for the past year and a half. Working at the Charitable Pharmacy of Central Ohio has allowed me to experience the unexplained and unexpected blessings God offers to us all…but that we often overlook in our busy lives.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Christian love | Evangelism | Health | Rural | United Methodist Church | Focus on Global Health |
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

I first met Dan Terry in 2004 in Afghanistan. One day he offered to help me get to a meeting on the other side of Kabul--by bicycle. We took a "shortcut" up to a steep ridge, following a rocky path where we had to push or carry our bicycles. At the top, while I caught my breath and admired the view, we encountered a family of returned refugees. This steep ridge--far from roads, water, and the city proper--was the only place this family could find to live.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Christian love | Communities | Conflict | Education | Global connections | Health | International affairs | Missionaries | Peace | Poverty | Refugees | Rural | Social Principles | Violence | War | Methodism | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Afghanistan |
Date posted: Aug 24, 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

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

New York, NY, May 25, 2011--Steps are under way to strengthen and coordinate the United Methodist Church's aviation ministries in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). One goal is the purchase of a larger aircraft to replace one of the small planes now in service.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Emergencies | Evangelism | Health | Missionaries | Natural disasters | Poverty | United Methodist Church | Volunteers | Welfare | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Congo DR | South Africa |
Date posted: May 26, 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

Melissa Crutchfield, assistant general secretary for International Disaster Response at the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), and Thomas Dwyer, executive director of UMCOR NGO, answered some of the more difficult questions and concerns about earthquake relief in Haiti during an information session in January.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Donations | Economy | Emergencies | GBGM programs | Health | Hunger | Mission opportunities | Natural disasters | Poverty | UMCOR | Volunteers | Water | Welfare | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Haiti |
Date posted: May 12, 2011

The Children's Fund for Christian Mission is a creative way to harness children's natural enthusiasm for learning about and caring for one another and the world. Teachers, teens, parents, pastors, and kids in United Methodist churches can use the online resources to connect with children and issues around the world.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Education | Family | Health | Human rights | Hunger | Mission opportunities | Natural disasters | Poverty | United Methodist Church | Welfare | Youth | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Haiti | Kenya | United States |
Date posted: May 09, 2011