October 27, 2009
Iowa Conference News
Thank you from a Builders Call Church
Bloomfield (Des Moines) UMC is under construction! Our much needed addition is finally being built. The graders and backhoes are doing their work. Our foundation has been poured and the expanded parking lot is being graded. We are hoping for a warm fall so that the framing can be done and construction can continue through the winter. This is all new for us and we are filled with hope and excitement about what this new space will mean for our ministry. A great deal of that hope came from everyone who contributed to the spring Builder’s Call. Several weeks ago Bloomfield received a check for more than $36,000 from the Builder’s Call. These funds were gathered from United Methodists all across Iowa. The people of Bloomfield have faithfully committed their financial support to this project, but it simply was not enough. Your gift made the difference! Soon we will have Sunday school rooms and accessible bathrooms, new classrooms, a fellowship hall and an office. We are very grateful for your financial support and for your belief in what God is doing at Bloomfield. Thank you for your generosity! You are changing lives on the south side of Des Moines. We will keep you posted on our progress!
The People of Bloomfield United Methodist Church
To view photos of the process, click here.
SAVE THE DATE: April 17-18, 2010
to attend the next Missional Movement event with Jim Griffith-Assessor, Trainer and Coach for New and Turnaround Churches. Jim was with us last March and those who attended came away with new insights and strategies for their outreach ministries. This year’s event is entitled “How to Get More Members (Moving Members to Missionaries).” Registration is limited to 20 churches so you may want to register soon. Please contact Scott Hibben at scott.hibben@iaumc.org or follow the instructions on the flyer posted on the Events Calendar at http://www.iaumc.org/events/detail/983. We look forward to seeing you in April!
Women at the Well Prison Congregation Featured on WHO-TV
WHO TV channel 13 from Des Moines has taped a feature on the Women at the Well prison congregation. The piece is going to air at 6 pm on Nov 18th. This will portray a positive message that you won’t want to miss!
Does Your Church Need to Refinance an Existing Loan?
The Iowa United Methodist Church Building Fund Trust makes loans to local churches for the purposes of building new buildings, renovation or additions to existing facilities, repairs, purchasing land or even buying a parsonage. The Trust also has refinancing options for high-interest loans.
Rates currently starting at 5.47% as of October 26, 2009
Please contact us for more information:
Iowa United Methodist Church Building Fund Trust
churchloan@iaumc.org
2301 Rittenhouse Street
Des Moines, IA 50321
515-974-8927
TRAX Training
The next TRAX training has just been scheduled, and registration is now open for the CALL module on Saturday, November 21 at St. Mark's UMC in Iowa City.
What's TRAX? It's our Iowa Conference modular training program for volunteers and professionals in youth ministry, started in the winter of 2009, and it's an affordable way to train everyone in your church who is doing youth ministry!
More details and registration forms are available at http://www.maketyme.org. Here's what to expect from this module:
Call - Understanding Your Call & Your Spiritual Gifts
Are you really called to youth ministry?
What does it mean to be called by God?
Are you a good match for youth ministry? Are you ready?
Do I have to do this youth ministry thing alone?
These are some of the questions you'll explore in this training module.
During three 90-minute sessions, you'll learn more about:
- Your spiritual gifts for ministry.
- The difference between being a "youth worker" versus the "youth director."
- How to build a youth ministry team...and why it's so important to have a team in the first place.
- How to utilize the people resources around you to build a ministry WITH youth and adults.
- The nuts and bolts of developing a youth ministry team.
- Developing a youth ministry plan – especially recruiting, organizing and planning.
- Providing a safe space for youth ministry.
- And more!
The session is interactive and contains plenty of handouts. You or your team will leave inspired, empowered, and encouraged to minister using the creative gifts God has given you!
This training will be led by Sheryll Untiedt and Tim Gossett. Hope you or your volunteers can join us! Please spread the word to others in your church or district, too.
The Iowa United Methodist Foundation is offering the Current Investment Rates* Effective: From 10/26/09
Fixed Rate Fund
Available for Churches and Agencies minimum deposit $2,500
3 Months 1.29%
6 Months 1.62%
1 Year 2.94%
2 Year 3.03%
3 Year 3.46%
4 Year 3.68%
5 Year 4.01%
Iowa United Methodist Church Building Fund Trust
Available for Individuals, Churches and Agencies minimum deposit $1,000
(Please contact us for an offering circular or visit our website www.iumcbft.org)
1 Year 3.25%
Please contact us for more information:
Iowa United Methodist Foundation
2301 Rittenhouse Street
Des Moines, IA 50321
515-974-8927
* Please note rates may change without notice
Oakville, IA trying to get 11 families back in homes by Christmas. Teams needed!
Tayna Lantz is the rebuild/volunteer coordinator in Oakville, IA. Oakville has decided to rebuild. They are buying homes, rehabbing them and selling them back to flood survivors who want to come back to Oakville. They desperately need volunteers! If you can get me groups of 10, 2 of them skilled and 8 willing to learn, that would be wonderful. We have accommodations and lunch is served weekdays at the community center". Tanya went on to tell me that they are trying very hard to get 11 families in homes by Christmas!
Cedar Rapids needs volunteers too! We are currently working on 32 homes. Some of them are minor repairs, most of them are major rehabbing.
To volunteer call 1-877-393-1607 or go to www.iaumc.org/volunteer.
United Methodist and Other News
Alabama Rural Ministry is a home repair and day camp ministry that holds summer camps for groups to do missions in rural communities in the Black Belt Region of Alabama. We host junior high, high school, college, and adult groups from all over the United States for week long or extended weekend trips. ARM strives to provide a place for individuals to fellowship with one another, build meaningful relationships with people in the community they are working in, grow in their faith, and truly serve God’s people. While serving at ARM, we pray that your team will not only experience the joys of helping a family with repairs or teaching children Bible stories, but we also pray that your team will gain an understanding of Christ’s call to serve and experience the joy that comes
through your service.
For more information, click on the document at the top of this page.
Village Wells Proposal – Iowa Nigeria Project
In March 2010 the United Methodist Church of Iowa will begin an ambitious well digging program in the Gwaten Conference of Taraba State, Nigeria. This will be done under the umbrella of the Wilmot Wells Program started by the late Ron Wilmot of Akron, Iowa. With the guidance of a local engineer who has over 700 wells to his credit, the Iowa-Nigeria Project in its’ twentieth year will support the repair of twenty three existing wells and the digging of twenty three new wells, one of each in all twenty three districts of the Gwaten Conference. The completion of this dream will depend on people like you and congregations like yours.
Mr Tanko Kefas is an engineer and veteran well digging expert who will be supplying the expertise and several skilled men to direct the operations. He also works for the government of Nigeria doing water restoration work so the equipment, slip forms, and blasting certificates for this type of work are already in place.
Wells in Taraba State can be from 20 to 80 feet deep and should be dug during the “dry season” to assure the availability of water all year around. That is why we will be going in March 2010 for four weeks. Tanko requires each village to supply all sand and gravel products plus the unskilled labor for the construction or repair of their wells. Harvest season is in January and February so labor will not be available until March. The last project I witnessed had the women carry all the materials to the sight and the men mixing concrete and building the forms. Men, women, and even older children work on these projects that benefit the whole community.
Mr Kefas has one request from you, to provide the cost of the cement that holds the whole thing together. Depending on the depth of the well, it can cost $1000 to $1500 for a new well, less to repair the broken casing or damaged upper protective rim of an existing well.
That is why this letter is coming to you. We, the Iowa Nigeria Project, would like your church to consider supporting a well project for $500, $1000, or $1500 or any amount possible. If your Mission Committee or someone in your congregation would like to sponsor a new well or help repair a damaged one, we would love to hear from you. We hope to assign each contribution to a specific village well, report back to you the location (by GPS), names of the local church leaders, and pictures of your project(s).
The second way to help is by letting, “Your Presence be Your Present”. You can become a missionary and see where your money is being spent and report back to your own congregation on how our donations are used to forward the outreach of the United Methodist Church.
My wife and I will be leaving around March 3 and return around April 1st. For $3000 you can visit a strange land, reach out to people you will never forget, sweat inside mosquito netting, lose a little weight, and learn to appreciate all that God has given to you. So, if you are skeptical like I was, send yourself to see the power of money in supporting hard work to supply water in a poor rural area.
We will be at the Ingathering in Cherokee on November 7 with more information and a short presentation about this mission work. Please feel free to contact us now or at that time with any questions you or your congregation may have. The coordinator for this effort is Beverly Nolte, 1-515-266-4186. bnmedical@aol.com
CONTRIBUTIONS--United Methodist Conference Treasurer,
designation: INP (Iowa Nigeria Project), #230 Village Wells
Dr Warren & Verna Thompson, PO Box 324, Akron, Iowa 51001, 712-568-2872 warna@acsnet.com
mid-week update is a ministry of the Communications Ministry Team
of the Iowa Annual Conference
