UMCOR has sent a 40 foot container from the UMCOR Depot in Louisiana to Mozambique. Included are supplies for survivors of the floods earlier this year: blankets, layettes, school and health kits, bedding paks, and health related supplies. Another container of material resources will be shipped to Mozambique after Thanksgiving. Your gifts to UMCOR's Advance #982730-7 "Contain Your Joy" help cover the expenses of shipping resources around the world.

   UMCOR will continue to respond to the crises caused by the violence in Israel and Palestine. Plans are being developed to provide further assistance to health clinics and hospitals and to help rebuild Palestinian homes that have been heavily damaged or destroyed by the shelling. You can join in this response by giving to UMCOR's "Middle East Emergency," Advance #601740-2.

   As we enter the holiday season, you can give a gift to someone in another part of the world by assembling and shipping kits to the UMCOR Depot. Health kits are especially needed. UMCOR will pay shipping costs to the Depot for all resources mailed before December 31, 2000. To find out more, call (800) 554-8583. For instructions on assembling kits, call the Depot at (800) 814-8765, or visit the UMCOR website at: http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/kits.html

   Please encourage your congregation to support UMCOR's International Disaster Response, Advance #982450-8 before the end of the year. Funds from this Advance enable UMCOR to respond to disasters such as the recent typhoon in the Philippines and flooding in Haiti. The requests for assistance far exceed the available funds, yet even small UMCOR grants can make a difference in relief and recovery efforts.

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.)

   Have a blessed Thanksgiving and please pray for all who suffer from violence, natural disasters, hunger, and poverty.