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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 16, 2011--Change the world? "Our UMW connection changes the world every day," said Paula Coleman, United Methodist Women president at Mentor United Methodist Church in Mentor, Ohio. Last weekend Mentor United Methodist Women inspired more than 200 people from all ages in the community and the church to this denomination- wide movement.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Advocacy | Communities | Evangelism | United Methodist Church | Women | Focus on Congregational Development |
Date posted: May 16, 2011

If you ask those who have worked in Haiti about the country's character, you'll probably get an answer close to the one that Melissa Crutchfield, of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, recently gave me. "Haiti," she said, "is a country where endurance, strength, and faith are in great supply. Haitians are resilient, tough, and they have a fighting spirit."
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Economy | Health | Hunger | Mission opportunities | Natural disasters | Poverty | United Methodist Church | Women | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Haiti |
Date posted: May 02, 2011

The Holy Spirit is definitely moving in Cameroon to gather God's church in this nation. The last two years, 2009 and 2010, have been very rewarding for The United Methodist Church in Cameroon. In spite of all the hardships and challenges caused by the world financial crisis that began in 2008, many good things have happened in this young mission.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Health | Natural disasters | Women | Focus on Congregational Development | Focus on Leadership Development | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Focus on Global Health | Cameroon |
Date posted: Apr 29, 2011

In 1939 when Hu Zhongyi was just three months old, he suffered disfigurement in an accident at the Jinyi Maternity Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China. Dr. Marian Manly, a Methodist missionary working there, took the infant Hu under her care. For the next seven years Dr.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Children | Christian love | Health | Missionaries | UMCOR | Women | Youth | Focus on Global Health | China |
Date posted: Apr 28, 2011

Stamford, CT, April 11, 2011--The chief executive of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries has no doubts that his agency and United Methodist Women will remain "missionally connected" if a proposal for a structural separation is finalized.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: GBGM events | GBGM news | Mission opportunities | Resolutions of the UMC | United Methodist Church | Women | Partners/partnerships | Mission updates | Statements | Focus on Ministry with the Poor |
Date posted: Apr 11, 2011

Eight and a half years have passed since I came to Mongolia. It was not abilities or skills or special gifts that brought me here, to this north Asian country between Russia and China. It was a calling born out of the knowledge of who I am in Christ--a sinner saved by grace.
Source: New World Outlook
More about: Children | Communities | Education | Global connections | Poverty | Women | Focus on Congregational Development | Mongolia |
Date posted: Apr 06, 2011

New York, NY, March 25, 2011--A Tokyo mission facility related to United Methodist Women provided short-term housing for evacuees from the hardest hit earthquake and tsunami zones in Japan.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Emergencies | John Wesley | Natural disasters | Refugees | United Methodist Church | Women | Focus on Leadership Development | Japan |
Date posted: Mar 25, 2011

March, Women's History Month, is full of special days, such as the World Day of Prayer, Ash Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day, the first day of Spring, and this weekend, Ecumenical Advocacy Days.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Advocacy | Children | Education | Ethics | Family | Health | Human rights | Justice | Missionaries | Poverty | Welfare | Women | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Sierra Leone |
Date posted: Mar 24, 2011

Vivita Barenite, 24, and Gunta Grina, 23, are pastors of a United Methodist congregation in Kuldiga, Latvia--a town of approximately 20,000 citizens. Gunta started when the former pastor, Inese Budnika, took a maternity leave two years ago. Vivita joined her as co-pastor a year later.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Education | John Wesley | United Methodist Church | Women | Focus on Leadership Development | Latvia |
Date posted: Mar 09, 2011