News

Weather Continues Toll in U.S. Heartland

OKLAHOMA CITY (UMNS) — Greg Forrester, top executive for domestic disaster response for the United Methodist Committee on Relief, arrived in Oklahoma on Sunday to meet with church officials there on tornado recovery efforts. The trip was scheduled after the massive May 20 tornado that claimed 24 lives and caused widespread damage in Moore, Okla., and adjacent areas, and followed another round of deadly twisters. Read full story Read Bishop Hayes' call to prayer ...

Weather Continues Toll Across Middle America

DES MOINES, Iowa (UMNS) — "Many of the people who are cleaning out their basements know full well that when it rains hard tonight they are going to have water in them again," writes the Rev. Catie Newman, the Northwest District Disaster Response Coordinator for the Iowa Annual (regional) Conference, as weather continues to take its toll in the U.S. heartland. Read story here. Dealing with Disaster  ...

Nevada City UMC Holds Gospel Music Festival

The Nevada City UMC recently held its first annual gospel music festival. The festival featured area gospel artists, including Inheritance, Karen Westbrooks and Zamar, The Gospel Motivators, The Bethel AME Choir, Scott Hickman, and Grass Valley's Paige Anderson and The Fearless Kin. Southern-style food was served. The event partnered with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and proceeds will help to provide fresh water for villages in...

UMCOR at Work in Moore, Okla.

NEW YORK (UMNS) — As recovery begins in Moore, Okla., the United Methodist Committee on Relief explains what it has been able to do so far and what is needed. Support U.S. disaster relief How to volunteer Dealing with disaster  ...

Oklahoma Conference Asks Collaborative Response

OKLAHOMA CITY (UMNS) —"I know you are seeing and hearing news reports about the devastation and want to assist. … Do not self-deploy. Best practices in times of crises call for a collaborative response, so people who can help are directed to where that help and those skills are most needed and will be most effective," wrote the Rev. Richard Norman, disaster response coordinator for the Oklahoma Conference. The confirmed death toll was at 51 with hundreds injured after a...

UMCOR Relief Supplies Needed

NEW YORK (UMNS) — The United Methodist Committee on Relief, the denomination's disaster response agency, has urgent need for relief supplies. UMCOR Sager Brown in Baldwin, La., and UMCOR West in Salt Lake City, Utah, are running very low in their inventory of layette, sewing and bedding kits particularly, but other relief supplies are needed as well. Learn how to assemble kits Church bulletin inserts  ...

Bishop Hayes Invites Grief and Prayer

OKLAHOMA CITY (UMNS) — "What I would like to say to the United Methodist community and beyond is that we grieve with those who have lost life and property not only in Moore and Newcastle but also on Sunday in Shawnee," Oklahoma Area Bishop Robert E. Hayes Jr. told United Methodist News Service. "These storms have devastated our state and have inflicted tremendous loss on our people … and just affected lives in ways we can only imagine." Read full story...

Disaster Response: How You Can Help

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — As communities in Oklahoma, Texas and other U.S. states reel from the devastation of tornadoes, remember that The United Methodist Church has a system in place for responding. Here are a few of the places to check for information and find out how you can be part of United Methodist relief efforts: UMNS Facebook page United Methodist Committee on Relief Facebook pages or websites for individual conferences. Find a conference Facebook pages...

How to Give in Response to Disasters

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Church is well situated to respond to disasters because of its churches in almost every county and community across the United States and the worldwide Methodist connection with annual conferences, central conferences and autonomous partner churches on five continents. Here is how giving works Cash donations encouraged over clothing, other items Volunteers urged to be patient  ...

Oklahoma Tornado Recovery

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:   Psalm 55 verse 22 says to "cast your burden upon the Lord, and God will sustain you; God will never allow the righteous to be shaken." Like you, I have been watching the devastation caused by tornadoes to our brothers and sisters in Oklahoma. At this time, more than 20 people have been found dead including several children.   The faithful United Methodists of the California-Nevada Annual Conference have always...

After Moore Tornado, Volunteers Urged to Be Patient

Concerned individuals who want to help in relief operations in Moore, Oklahoma, are urged to pray and not self-deploy to the affected area, in order to give first-responders time to complete their tasks of rescue and securing the area after especially violent storms yesterday afternoon.   Greg Forrester, executive in charge of US Disaster Response for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), joined the Oklahoma Conference in urging concerned persons to stay out of the way of...

United Methodists Pledge China Earthquake Relief

SHANGHAI (UMNS) — A United Methodist delegation visiting Christians in China said the denomination, through its United Methodist Committee on Relief, will assist in providing relief to the earthquake survivors in southwest Sichuan Province.   The current toll of the April 20th earthquake, centered in Ya'an, is 188 people reported dead, 25 missing and 11,460 injured. As the delegation met April 22 with officials and staff of the China Christian Council, Thomas Kemper, top executive...

UMCOR Responds to Texas Emergency

NEW YORK (UMNS) — After a powerful explosion on April 17 at a fertilizer factory in West, Texas, flattened homes and caused dozens of casualties, the United Methodist Committee on Relief approved an emergency grant to the Central Texas Annual (regional) Conference to assist in relief efforts.   UMCOR also requests people help by donating blood at a local center or by assembling cleaning buckets, which will soon be in great need, and health kits. These relief kits can be shipped to...

One Great Hour of Sharing (UMCOR)

For more than 50 years, United Methodist congregations have been taking part in a special One Great Hour of Sharing offering, laying the foundation for UMCOR's ministry of relief and hope. The One Great Hour of Sharing is Sunday, March 10.   Donations UMCOR receives through this offering, along with other undesignated gifts made throughout the year, cover their costs of doing business. They make it possible for UMCOR to use 100% of all other contributions on the projects their donors...

New Grant Helps Battle Diseases of Poverty

Nashville, Tenn.: The United Methodist Church's efforts to battle malaria and HIV in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will get a boost, thanks to a $1.3 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Using a comprehensive global health approach, the funding will be used to implement a program to reduce death and suffering from both malaria and HIV, two diseases that affect millions of people in the DRC and account for billions of dollars in lost...

One Great Hour of Sharing is March 10

Changing the world, one life at a time. One Great Hour of Sharing is just weeks away, so now is the time to order your free offering resources. This year One Great Hour of Sharing will be celebrated on Sunday, March 10.   Use the links below to promote this year's offering, which supports the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) so that it may respond immediately and effectively to emergencies around the world. Order materials Give online now When you...

Typhoon Lessons Learned in Philippines

By Paul Jeffrey* MINDANAO, Philippines (UMNS)—Although hundreds of people died as Typhoon Bopha raged over the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Dec. 4, lessons learned during Typhoon Washi, which ravaged the region a year earlier, helped hundreds to survive the disaster this time around.   A variety of faith-based organizations, including the United Methodist Committee on Relief, have focused on disaster risk reduction during the past year.   "A year...

Early Response Teams Invited to Serve in Greater New Jersey Area in Wake of Superstorm Sandy

By Greg Forrester, UMVIM NEJ Coordinator (Nov. 12, 2012) Greater New Jersey is ready to receive Early Response Teams (ERTs). The door is open; the invitation is extended to all ERTs.   Groups must be self-sustaining. Churches will provide housing, but teams must do their own meals and be ready for flexible conditions.   Only self-starters should respond, as this will be a door-to-door cleanup in some of the areas. Eight churches have been identified as host sites.   To...

UMC National Advertising Offers Message of Hope

NASHVILLE, Tenn.: In the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, United Methodist Communications (UMCom) is spreading a message of hope from The United Methodist Church to those living in affected areas, through national and regional advertising. The ad also provides information about how those not directly affected can be a part of the rebuilding efforts by donating to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). Full-page color ads are appearing in several major...

Neighbors Help Neighbors in New York City

By Linda Unger* November 9, 2012 (GBGM)—As big flakes of icy wet snow fell on streets still muddy from last week's storm surge, Peter Vasquenz carried another black trash bag to the curb outside his mother's home on Staten Island. In it were pieces of ripped flooring and soggy drywall from the modest house that is decades old. "I grew up in this house," Vasquenz, a Brooklyn firefighter, said. "My mother grew up here."   He said that when Hurricane Sandy roared...