FUTURE TEAMS & INDIVIDUAL VOLUNTEER NEWS

Photo: Children in Mexico, courtesy umcor.org.

FUTURE TEAMS

Individual Volunteer to Hope School – Bethlehem, Palestine: March through June, Yvonne Turner of Grass Valley - Sierra Pines UMC will be serving as a teacher at the Hope School in Bethlehem.

Medical Team to Guatemala: March 6 - 16
Roland Nyegaard leads a large team of medical professionals to Guatemala. He will serve with Gay Goss, Richard Anderson, Jon Chan, Marianne Hallum, Lynn Hansen, Patricia Logan, Seang Seng of Modesto - First UMC, Nancy Fisher of Centenary UMC, James Hoyt of Calvary Chapel, Shari Lowe of Raiseda - 7th Day Adventist, Julia Parish of San Francisco - St. Mary the Virgin, Cynthia Barton of Ripon Grace, Kelly Brown, Jim Brown, Elizabeth Dixon, William Dixon, Susan Hoyt, Elise Palitz, John Pfeffer, Carol Shakespeare, Jennifer Zimmerman and William WIlson.

Hurricane Recovery Team to Dulac, Louisiana: March 13 - 19
Darlene Luster picks up the leadership torch from Richard Drath and leads a team back to Dulac, Louisiana. She will serve with Nancy Wong, David Roundtree, Sue Roberts, Jay Earl, Marilyn Hewitt, Elizabeth Morse, Katy Simon, Jim Roberts, Becky Earl, Jeff Spalin and Katie Salo of Reno - First UMC, Michael Clymer, Richard Schendel, Georgia Clymer, Susan Doctor, Patrick Leamy, Mary Law, Nicole Schober, Brenton King and Joyce Garcia of Reno - St. Paul's UMC, Kathy Fraker of Fallon - Epworth UMC, Sherri Rice and Patty Bengtsor.

Los Gatos UMC / International Team to Colonet, Mexico: March 20 - 26
Pete Taylor leads a Los Gatos UMC Team back to Colonet to continue their partnership there. He will serve with Marna Taylor, Nicholas Taylor, Eric Hardt, Alex Hardt, Karen Sanders, Alex Noe, Ray Owen, Michael Baldwin, Andrew Neish, Brian Stansbury and Maurice VanGalder of Los Gatos UMC.

Multi-Church / Hurricane Recovery Team to Slidell, Louisiana: March 27 – April 3
Joe Hoffman leads teams of volunteers from four congregations. Jerry Adams, Warren Adams, Debbie Dillon-Adams, Sally Flores, Aeredin Harris, Cameron Hobbs, Haley Hobbs, Shannon James, Barbie Swain, Carl Swain and Kristen Swain of the Pioneer UMC and the Auburn Community Parish (made up of Dutch Flat UMC, Colfax UMC and Placer Hills Community UMCs).

FLOOD RELIEF IN MEXICO; ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING MARCH 14; UMVIM TRAININGS; HAITI UPDATE

Photo: UMVIM Volunteers at work. To see where you can be trained to become and UMVIM Team Leader please see below....

MEXICO: FLOOD RELIEF

After torrential rains left some 5,000 people homeless, 17 dead and more than 100 missing in Baja California, Mexico, last month, UMCOR is supplying relief aid to the survivors.

Personnel from three churches of the Iglesia Metodista de México located along the coast near San Quintín Valley will survey survivors in their areas and assess needs for food and clean water.

With UMCOR funding, the churches will be able to supply packages of beans, rice oil or shortening, flour, and other items to affected communities.
Your support will help UMCOR help the survivors of international disasters like this one. Please give to International Disaster Response, UMCOR Advance #982450.

ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING MARCH 14- SUPPORT UMCOR

Over a period of four years, millions of square meters of land in Mozambique, in southeast Africa, were cleared of landmines with the direct support of UMCOR and other partners. Now, UMCOR is turning its efforts to Angola, to help the people there.

More than 40 years of internal strife and conflict have made Angola one of the worst landmine-affected countries in the world. Landmines endanger the lives of the civilian population, deter socio-economic growth and impede the delivery of humanitarian and development assistance.

UMCOR is there, with our partners, to increase the capacity of humanitarian de-miners within Angola and, so, improve the possibilities for rebuilding the country and the lives of its citizens.

When you give to One Great Hour of Sharing, you help cover UMCOR’s cost of doing business and allow us to keep our promise that 100 percent of every other contribution you make to a specific UMCOR project, like the one in Angola, will be spent on that project and not on administrative costs.

One Great Hour of Sharing is March 14.

Order your free offering envelopes or posters by calling 888-346-3862. Check the UMCOR website for worship materials and a video presentation in support of this important offering. Gifts to this fund can be made all year long. Please give now.
UMCOR provides emergency relief in many areas of the world. To find out more about UMCOR's ministries, please visit umcor.org. You can donate to any project by placing a contribution in the offering plate at a local United Methodist church; by sending a check to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068; or by calling 1-800-554-8583, where credit card donations are accepted. You can also give online by clicking on any of the "Give Now" links. UMCOR is exempt from tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States and qualifies for the maximum charitable contribution deduction by donors.

And, please pray for those who are hungry, displaced, sick or in poverty because of these and other natural and human-made disasters, and for the workers who minister to them.

UMVIM TRAININGS IN COLORADO

We will be having UMVIM team leader training in the RMC as follows:

Cheyenne WY…@Grace UMC….Feb. 28th 2-5pm.

Durango CO@ First UMC March 6th 1:30pm to 4:30pm.

March 13 - FUMC Loveland, CO

March 27 - Casper UMC

Please contact Betsy Keyack at bkeyack@att.net.

HAITI UPDATE

Since the January 12 earthquake, UMCOR has carried out an initial assessment of damages and needs, developed a five-year work plan, and shored up strategic partnerships with the United Nations, NGOs and the Methodist Church in Haiti.
The UMCOR work plan anticipates three phases of recovery: emergency, recovery and rehabilitation. Currently operating in the emergency phase -- from the time of the earthquake through April and including the start of the rainy season in March – UMCOR is addressing the most immediate needs of access to food, clean water and sanitation, temporary shelter and emotional and spiritual support.

This week’s highlights include:
While UMCOR has been working in Haiti since before the earthquake, this week, UMCOR re-opened the Haiti field office. UMCOR’s Kate Paik and Larry Powell have been in Port-au-Prince coordinating with the Methodist Church in Haiti and preparing the UMCOR Haiti field office.

Staff Recruitment:
--Anthony Jones was hired as an Emergency Response Consultant and has deployed to Haiti.--

Azim Akhtar was hired as the Operations Coordinator and will deploy to Haiti in the coming weeks.--Key local staff have been hired.--Positions are posted for: Head of Mission, Finance Director, Emergency Shelter Coordinator, and Income Generation Coordinator.

Kate Paik commented on the three days of remembrance in Haiti, Feb 12-14 which was "to stop and reflect on the past month of survival. Many were dressed in white and spent the three days, usually from 6 am until 1 or 2 pm, at church singing and praying. It [was] a time to gather their strength from God to go on still once more."

With recent reports indicating that 75 percent of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, will need to be rebuilt; volunteers soon will be needed to go to Haiti.

Volunteer teams are beginning to mobilize by filling out the registration form.

Through Justice for our Neighbors clinics across the country, UMCOR is helping Haitian immigrants register for the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) the US government has offered. A workshop was held in New York City on Wednesday to educate people about how to apply.

In addition to health kits, this week, volunteers began assembling and shipping layette kits and birthing kits to address the basic needs of babies born in displaced persons camps in Haiti.