Your gifts to UMCOR's "Middle East Emergency," Advance #601740-2 are urgently needed. UMCOR has received requests for assistance in establishing a clinic in Bethlehem and further assistance at Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem. UMCOR has already sent a grant to provide medical supplies for the hospital, but with the continuing violence and economic crisis among the Palestinians, further assistance is needed. Please give generously so UMCOR can continue to respond.

   Volunteer teams are needed in the Bahamas from now until the beginning of next fall to rebuild and repair homes damaged by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Skilled and non-skilled construction volunteers are needed. Volunteers are also needed in Florida, especially those skilled in mobile home repair. For further information call the Volunteer Line at (800) 918-3100.

Florida Conference disaster response workers have distributed flood buckets and continue to distribute food to migrant workers who have no employment due to flooded fields. Your gifts to UMCOR's Domestic Disaster Response #901670-1 will help provide continued assistance with food and rebuilding from the recent flooding.

   Disaster Response workers in the Dakotas conference have been in contact with communities affected by tornadoes November 1. Though UMCOR will not be needed for repair work, UMCOR coordinators have provided resources for area pastors to work with children who were traumatized by the storm.

   The UMCOR Depot urgently needs kits of all kinds, especially health kits. Please give a gift to a brother or sister in another country by assembling kits and shipping them to the Depot. For instructions call the Depot at (800) 814-8765, or visit the UMCOR website at: http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/kits.html For other suggestions on alternative Christmas celebrations, order the resource "Whose Birthday Is It Anyway?" from the Service Center, (800) 305-9857.

Gifts may be made through local United Methodist churches, or by calling 1-800-554-8583. Credit card donations are accepted. (Read more about how you can help UMCOR's emergency responses.)

   Please pray for all who suffer from violence, natural disasters, hunger, and poverty.