Dear Friends, Please join me in praying for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria. In recent weeks, Christians have been targeted and killed by Boko Haram, a religious extremist group in northern Nigeria. Hundreds more have fled the region in fear. Societal, religious, and economic imbalance is creating a volatile climate, despite calls for peaceful resolutions.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Christian love | Communities | Conflict | Global connections | Hate | Peace | Prayers | United Methodist Church | Violence | War | Statements | Focus on Congregational Development | Nigeria |
Date posted: Jan 18, 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

Dear Friends, On behalf of the General Board of Global Ministries, thank you for all you do to share God's love and light throughout the world. Through our work, together we are building a path that Isaiah prophesized--a radical path to liberation, peace, and justice. A path that is possible because of the birth of a small and helpless child. The light of the world lies in the hands of someone as powerless as a newborn baby.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Advent | Christmas | Emergencies | Justice | Missionaries | Natural disasters | Peace | Prayers | United Methodist Church | Women | Statements | Tsunami | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Cote d´Ivoire | Japan | Liberia |
Date posted: Dec 16, 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

Advent is the season in the Christian year when we hear and participate in the time of waiting for the birth of the Messiah. We look with thankfulness and hope for the second coming of Christ. We hear the voice of God in Scripture. We hear the voices of God's people around the earth as we pray together for the joy and peace of Christ's love to warm the hearts and lives of all humankind.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Advent | Christmas | Evangelism | Music | Prayers | United Methodist Church | Focus on Congregational Development |
Date posted: Nov 07, 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

The global mission agency of The United Methodist Church joins the voices of other Methodists and of the global ecumenical community in expressing grave concern over the Fijian government's recent restrictions placed on the Fiji Methodist Church.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Civil rights | Evangelism | Ethics | Global connections | Human rights | International affairs | Justice | Prayers | United Methodist Church | Focus on Congregational Development | Fiji |
Date posted: Sep 15, 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

Stamford, Connecticut, April 11, 2011--In the week leading up to Holy Week, directors of the General Board of Global Ministries were challenged to share in Christ's passion. Bishop Bruce Ough of the West Ohio Annual Conference, who also presides over the worldwide mission agency of The United Methodist Church, opened the spring board meeting by urging directors to submit to God's will.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Bible | Christian love | Communities | Easter | Emergencies | Evangelism | GBGM events | GBGM news | International affairs | Jesus Christ | John Wesley | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | Prayers | United Methodist Church | Wesley | Focus on Congregational Development |
Date posted: Apr 12, 2011

New York, NY, March 22, 2011--Despite extensive earthquake damage, a rural mission training center in Japan plans to welcome its new class as soon as possible, perhaps only a month late.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Education | Environment | Missionaries | Natural disasters | Prayers | Refugees | Rural | UMCOR | United Methodist Church | Tsunami | Focus on Leadership Development | Japan |
Date posted: Mar 22, 2011

Our hearts grieve with those who grieve, Our lips pray with those who pray and lament, Our spirits and lives are connected with the people of Japan, and those living around the "Ring of Fire."
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Christian love | Emergencies | Global connections | Natural disasters | Prayers | UMCOR | Welfare | Tsunami | Focus on Congregational Development | Japan |
Date posted: Mar 17, 2011

New York, NY, March 17, 2011--What do missionaries do when their world shakes and crumbles? They continue in mission as best they can.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Christian love | Communities | Emergencies | Global connections | Hunger | Missionaries | Natural disasters | Prayers | UMCOR | United Methodist Church | Tsunami | Focus on Congregational Development | Japan |
Date posted: Mar 17, 2011

The situation in Japan at present is not conducive to relief volunteers coming in from other countries. Neither UMCOR nor the General Board of Global Ministries facilitates volunteers in disaster zones unless they are requested by local partners or government agencies. No such requests have been received to date from Japan.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Emergencies | Environment | Natural disasters | Prayers | UMCOR | Volunteers | Partners/partnerships | Action alerts | Focus on Congregational Development | Japan |
Date posted: Mar 15, 2011

New York , NY, March 14, 2011--The United Methodist Church's mission agency expressed deep concern for the people of Japan and its own personnel and partners in that country in the wake of the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Emergencies | Global connections | Missionaries | Natural disasters | Prayers | UMCOR | Japan |
Date posted: Mar 11, 2011

Jesus is almost always on the road in the New Testament Gospels, first traveling around Galilee, preaching, healing, and teaching his disciples the lessons of faith; then in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he makes a prolonged journey to Jerusalem.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Bible | Christian love | Ethics | Jesus Christ | Lent | Prayers | Focus on Congregational Development |
Date posted: Mar 09, 2011

San Jose, Costa Rica, March 7, 2011--An annual Lenten Prayer Calendar invites prayers for students at the Universidad Biblica Latinamerica (Latin American Biblical University) in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Education | Global connections | Lent | Loans | Prayers | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development | Caribbean Islands | Central America | Costa Rica | Latin America | South America |
Date posted: Mar 07, 2011

This Lent, SPSARV, the Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence, offers a 2011 devotional, Hope for the Transformation from Addiction to Abundance for the friends, families, and beloved children of God who are challenged by the disease of alcoholism and addiction.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Advocacy | Christian love | Education | Family | Health | Lent | Mission opportunities | Prayers | Welfare | Focus on Global Health |
Date posted: Feb 25, 2011

Global Ministries celebrates Black History Month and Valentine's Day on February 14, 2011 by offering a performance that will go straight to the heart. Poet Andrea Michelle will perform "Palpitation: Heartbeats in Rhyme."

New York, NY, December 14, 2010--The government of the Philippines has dropped criminal charges against 43 health workers arrested last February and jailed for months on allegations of being Communist rebels possessing illegal weapons and explosives. The "Morong 43" had won widespread support from civil rights and religious groups, including the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Advocacy | Civil rights | Global connections | Human rights | Justice | Prayers | Prison | United Methodist Church | Focus on Leadership Development | Philippines |
Date posted: Dec 14, 2010

Maybe you're like me and you consider Labor Day weekend simply the last blast of summer-- back-to-school thoughts, picnics, and family fun. But I've come to realize the holiday has a deeper meaning. Labor Day is a legacy of 19th century American workers who fought for and won legal guarantees to fairness and justice in our workplaces.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Civil rights | Economy | Finance | Globalization | Human rights | Justice | Poverty | Prayers | Welfare | Statements | Focus on Ministry with the Poor |
Date posted: Aug 27, 2010

New York, NY, August 10, 2010--Dan Terry, killed along with nine other medical and relief workers in Afghanistan on August 6, was remembered as a peacemaker in a service of prayer and thanksgiving for his life at the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Christian love | Conflict | Global connections | Hate | Human rights | Poverty | Prayers | Rural | Welfare | Focus on Global Health | Afghanistan |
Date posted: Aug 10, 2010