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

Under a hot and humid December sky, 800 Filipino protesters were marching. Some farmed rice paddies for a living, some fished, and some scraped by in the big cities. Others represented churches, nongovernmental organizations, and political parties. Children and old women walked side by side. But one protestor was conspicuously different from the rest. Not only did he stand head and shoulders above his companions--he had white skin and auburn hair.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Civil rights | Communities | Human rights | International affairs | Justice | Mission opportunities | Poverty | Youth | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | Philippines |
Date posted: Feb 29, 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

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

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

Consider becoming a US-2 or Mission Intern. If you are between the ages of 20 to 30 and feel called to address the root causes of injustice so that the gospel is lived out alongside communities and organizations seeking peace and systemic transformation, apply to become a United Methodist US-2 or Mission Intern.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Evangelism | Global connections | International affairs | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | Volunteers | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development |
Date posted: Dec 08, 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

In Christian lingo, "to discern" means to perceive God's call or spiritual direction. This week, a class of seven young adult US missionaries, US-2s, are meeting in New York to be in community and to discern their call to work for justice one year into their two-year missionary service.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Mission opportunities | Missionaries | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development | United States |
Date posted: Oct 28, 2011

"In the Tongan language there is no word for cousin, because you are either sister or brother," said Rev. Sione (Loni) Veikoso. On Thursday, October 13, 2011, 35 sisters and brothers of Rev. Loni from the Asian and Pacific Islander network of The United Methodist Church met in the upper Manhattan office of Global Ministries to discuss how to enlarge the Church for all people.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Global connections | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | United Methodist Church | Youth | Focus on Congregational Development | Asia and the Pacific Islands |
Date posted: Oct 18, 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

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

In addition to standard business meetings, the Global Ministries fall board meeting will include opportunities for worship, building new relationships, and actively exploring new ways to facilitate mission. For the first time, directors will meet at the agency's New York City offices. The semi-annual meeting is scheduled to take place October 10-13, 2011.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Evangelization | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | United Methodist Church | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development | Kazakhstan |
Date posted: Oct 06, 2011

After more than three weeks of training, ten United Methodists will be commissioned and sent to missionary assignments around the world. Global Ministries executive Judy Chung says that the training helps prepare the individuals for the mission field while building a foundation of support.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Evangelization | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | United Methodist Church | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development | Congo DR | Italy | Kazakhstan | Palestine | Uganda | Ukraine |
Date posted: Oct 04, 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

Labor Day is not an excuse to buy items on sale at department stores. Labor is a legacy of 19th-century US workers who fought for and won legal guarantees for workers, such as the garment workers who made (and make) the clothes sold in the sales racks at department stores.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Advocacy | Civil rights | Ethics | Human rights | Justice | Mission opportunities | Social Principles | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | United States |
Date posted: Sep 02, 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

New York, NY, August 18, 2011--With celebratory singing and dancing, 25 candidates processed down the aisle of the Interchurch Center chapel in New York City to be commissioned as US-2s and Mission Interns by the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Christian love | Evangelization | Global connections | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | United Methodist Church | Youth | Focus on Leadership Development | Colombia | Germany | Haiti | Hong Kong | Mongolia | Nicaragua | Palestine | Philippines | Switzerland | Ukraine | United States |
Date posted: Aug 22, 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

While at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC, Stephanie Kimec befriended two men in her neighborhood who were homeless. On her way to the car or Metro, "There'd be times when I would hear my name shouted and get a great big hug," Ms. Kimec remembered.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Christian love | Immigration | Poverty | United Methodist Church | Youth | Focus on Ministry with the Poor |
Date posted: Aug 17, 2011

William Wilson, Jr., 23, likes to pack light. For his journey from Southern New Jersey to Stony Point, New York, he carried a small duffel bag. He also packed "trust, faith, and flexibility," his guiding principles for the upcoming journey as a young adult missionary.
Source: GBGM Mission News
More about: Justice | Mission opportunities | Missionaries | Poverty | Youth | Urban | Focus on Leadership Development | Focus on Ministry with the Poor | United States |
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