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

By allowing the Spirit to move in creative ways, the Methodist Church in Cuba is dancing, singing, and spreading scriptural holiness over the land. Since 1999, the church has grown from 8,000 to 36,000 members. Bishop Ricardo Pereira encourages congregations to live out their Wesleyan theology in ways that are uniquely Cuban.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Communities | Evangelism | Global connections | John Wesley | Mission opportunities | United Methodist Church | Wesley | Focus on Congregational Development | Cuba |
Date posted: Mar 06, 2012

Budapest, Hungary, March 1, 2012--The United Methodist Church in Hungary has regained official state recognition, after having been removed from the list of "privileged" religious groups by Parliament in the summer of 2011.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Civil rights | Evangelism | Global connections | Human rights | International affairs | Justice | United Methodist Church | Focus on Congregational Development | Hungary |
Date posted: Mar 02, 2012

The face of missionaries has changed, with nearly 50 percent of United Methodist missionaries coming from places outside the United States. "We now have missionaries who are coming from everywhere and going everywhere," said Thomas Kemper, who leads the denomination's mission agency.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Evangelization | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | United Methodist Church | Youth | Partners/partnerships | Methodism | Focus on Leadership Development | Congo DR | Kenya | Mongolia |
Date posted: Mar 01, 2012

Missionary service in the 21st century follows the New Testament's mission mandate to move outward from Judea into all parts of the world. Strongly influenced by the 19th century Protestant mission initiative that originated in Europe and North America, missionary service--especially in the Methodist tradition--combined spiritual piety with social ministry. In the 19th century, parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America were considered to be suitable areas for mission.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Evangelization | GBGM events | International affairs | John Wesley | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | United Methodist Church | Partners/partnerships | Focus on Leadership Development |
Date posted: Mar 01, 2012

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

February 9, 2012, New York, NY--For the second year in a row, top leaders from the General Board of Global Ministries met with representatives of the Methodist Church of Great Britain to continue conversations with a goal of being more effective partners in mission. The two-day meeting took place in London at the British Methodist headquarters. The United Methodist group was led by Thomas Kemper, general secretary, who said it had been a useful meeting and "showed the growing collaboration between the UMC and British Church in its international mission work."
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Global connections | International affairs | Mission opportunities | United Methodist Church | Wesley | Focus on Congregational Development | United Kingdom | United States |
Date posted: Feb 09, 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

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

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