Costa Rica, Carillos:
2/9/11-2/20/11. Twelve-day Costa Rican UMVIM trip to help children and families gain the basic resources necessary for a healthy life. Ministry based in the Central Valley of Costa Rica and includes excellent accommodations. Spend five days on building projects and one day being the hands and hearts of Christ working with poverty stricken children at a feeding center in Los Guidos. Two-night excursion to Monte Verde; see a volcano, a cloud-rain forest, explore local shops and cuisine. Cost $1525, air travel from Chicago included. Deposit of $250 due 10/1/10. Balance due 11/1/10. For more information or to register contact Deb Bollig at Mauston UMC (Wisconsin Conference) 608-847-5964.
Haiti, Jeremie: 10/12/10-10/20/2010. Contact: Pat Grainger. A team from southern Michigan (Detroit Conference) will be working in Jeremie. We will be working at the Jean Wesly school and staying with Rev. Jean Lesly Dorcely, Jeremie Circuit superintendent. Team leaders are Pat Grainger and Keith Thomas. Curtis Bartz is our Haiti Michigan Coordinator.
Haiti, project TBA:12/27/10 - 1/3/2011. E'glise Methodist d'Haiti Earthquake Recovery. Team leader and contact: Karissa Ouren, Lake Harriet UMC, Minnesota Conference.
Nicaragua, Managua: 6/11/11-6/19/11. An UMVIM team will be working with the Fundacion El Samaritano, a ministry that our West Ohio UMVIM teams began working with annually in 1997. There may be some construction work. There will be interaction with students at two Christian schools and certainly ministry to women and children in public hospitals through giving of layettes, health kits and toys. We will visit community families and also do a number of Bible schools using hand puppets at various locations including at some Methodist Evangelical Churches of Nicaragua. Cost ~$1200. For more information and/or an application form contact team leader Jack Reif, 513-831-5550.
If are interested in serving as a United Methodist Volunteer in Mission (short-term mission volunteer) and/or leading an UMVIM team then this training is for you! Receive materials about insurance, cultural sensitivity, what to bring, how to pack, etc. that will make your mission trip a rewarding one for your team and those you serve. There will be a brief session during the training highlighting areas such as Haiti, Mexico, & Pakistan.
SOUTHEAST JURISDICTION - TEAMS NEEDED IN TENNESSEE
There is immediate need of both Early Response Teams to respond to the new flooding last week and Rebuild teams to address the growing list of active construction projects.Wayne, Wilson, Sumner, Macon, Jackson, Putnam, and Overton counties saw the most flood damage from recent storms. St. Mark's UMC has been working with Marvin Champion in Wayne county with a dozen homes flooded, several of them severally.
Friendship UMC quickly made flood buckets from our storage unit there available, in partnership with Cookeville 1st UMC who was mobilized as a Red Cross Shelter. Russ Cain is recruiting callers in the Cookeville District to help follow up on 50 potentially flood homes. They are working on assessments and collecting reports from other areas. It is unlikely this event will be large enough to warrant FEMA assistance, so even small numbers of survivors will mean enormous long term needs.While they have 40+ teams scheduled later in Sept. and Oct., they have a growing list of projects needing construction teams over the next couple of weeks and only a handful of teams. If you are close by and can put together a team, even if it is small and can only work a weekend, please contact Jason Brock ASAP at DisasterResponse@tnumc.com or 615-695-2765.
September Haiti Team Slots Open Up
Due to two unexpected last minute UMVIM team cancellations for the September 21-30 time period, the Haiti Response Project is in urgent need of at least one UMVIM team to fill these slots in order to continue work on priority projects. If you are able to help field or find a team to go to Haiti on this short notice, please let me right away. While a ten member team would be ideal, a smaller team is okay (at least five persons). Contact Susan Meister, US-Haiti Volunteer Coordinator
Medical Teams requested in Haiti
Haiti, Mizak: Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI), Advance Special #3020490, is seeking an UMVIM Medical Outreach team for October or November 2010 and again for the same time period in 2011. Responsibilities would include clinic days and home visits to community shut-ins. Work alongside Haitian health care workers and nurse. Project funds would be used by team to purchase and deliver medications and medical treatments in Haiti. If interested, please contact Valerie Mossman-Celestin, 616-446-9558.
STORIES FROM HAITI: NEWS FROM PHIL BANDY ON HIS TRIP TO HAITI
So Why Football?
The small group of visitors that had traveled to Haiti in May, 2010 were witness to the
aftermath of the quake there. I was there. We traveled to the village of Mellier, right
over the epi-center, where we spent a week living in tents among the locals clearing
rubble. There were kids everywhere. They were interested in us, but more interested in their football. It was a shabby thing with all but one of the white panels gone and sported a funny set of threads that made it hairy. The older boys were playing with it in the empty lot under the Mango trees next door. The younger kids played soccer nearby using a rounded chunk of concrete. Time for the balls we brought!
The first ball we pumped up and handed over disappeared - we never saw it “in play”.
But the second one we gave out did not disappear. Our interpreter spelled out the ball
was for everyone but had to be brought back when done. We quickly pumped up 2 more balls and put them in use too. What a site to see a match of just the girls and another with Jst the little kids and another with the older boys on three different lots at the same time. A the balls came back that day and every day after that. We turned these 3 balls and 4 ore new ones over to the school teacher when we left (school met weekdays under the trees,the older kids meet in the Unicef tent).
Other visitors have noted the importance of soccer in Haiti:
Blog: UMCOR Blog
Post: Be there. Be hope. The Football Factor
Link: http://mediagbgmumcorg.blogspot.com/2010/07/be-there-be-hope-footballfactor.html
I am headed back to Haiti September 1, 2010 taking 9 fellow California volunteers who each are to return with their own team of 10 people next year. We are the Volunteers in Mission of the United Methodist Church. We have had over 100 teams to date like mine visit Haiti with a projected number of 900 teams over the next 5 years.
We travel from all over the US and the world to rebuild schools.
My team carried soccer balls there in our suitcases and passed out just a few balls.
Another 6 teams of volunteers followed us back to the same village since then and I
suspect they too brought a few balls. With over a thousand kids in that village, that still leaves a lot of kids without a ball of their own when we move on to the next village. We will travel to over 50 villages in our plan. If only one ball per volunteer gets passed out, that is 9,000 balls that go directly into the hands of the kids (about 1 in 50 kids that we will meet).
I can imagine that each of these balls will create a smile at a time when it is very much
needed. I suspect each ball will each be a focus of friends playing together for years to
come. I hope each kid may remember at some point that somebody came there to say
they cared about them and gave them this ball as a symbol of that. I hope that they kick each and every one of those balls until all the panels fall off.
I cannot imagine a better use of some rubber and leather.
Philip Bandy
Interim Director Volunteers in Mission
California-Nevada Conference
United Methodist Church
P.O. Box 980250
1276 Halyard Drive, West Sacramento, CA 95798-0250
Office: (916) 374-1582
Mobile: (925) 808-8138
Fax: (916) 372-5544
http://www.cnumcvim.org/
TEAMS TO HAITI FROM THE WJ - WESTERN JURISDICTION
Phil Bandy, will be leading a team to Haiti Sept. 1, 2010. Please keep him and the team in prayer. Phil is the UMVIM Conference Coordinator for Cal-Nevada Conference.
Brenda St. Clair will be leading a team to Haiti in January 2011. Brenda is the UMVIM Conference Coordinator for Oregon-Idaho Conference.
