March 23, 2010
Iowa Conference News
Calling Health Care Professionals
To join a small medical team traveling to Nigeria August 9 – 25, 2010, health care professionals of all specialties are needed. The group will work with the UMC Rural Health Program at Zing, Nigeria where the hospital and Eye Centre are located. At Zing the medical team will offer in-service seminars. Team members will travel out to rural, remote dispensaries to hold clinics. Volunteers will assist Dr. Avar in performing eye surgeries. The group will live in the UM Guesthouse in Zing. Two Iowa team leaders will travel with the group. The approximate cost of the trip is $3,100 including airfare from Iowa, Nigeria visa, insurance, in-Nigeria flight, meals and transportation while there. Contact Beverly Nolte, 515 266 4186 or e-mail: bnmedical@aol.com for application form and further information. Sign-up deadline is April 30. Prayerfully consider your participation to help the Great Physician in Nigeria! Your skills are needed!
Worldmaking Worship Event May 7-8: Stories
This Good News Story we tell, how does it get "told" at your local church? Is it mostly a drama or is it comedy? What characters get emphasized? How are people invited to participate?
Registrations are now being accepted for the first of six Worldmaking Worship events for the Iowa Conference. This first one is May 7-8 at Shalom Retreat Center in Dubuque. The theme is "Stories:" how we inhabit God's Story and how in worship we invite the world into it.
Directed by worship leaders Richard and Trish Bruxvoort-Colligan, the series is designed with an emphasis in holistic, multi-sensory and experiential worship, liturgy as spiritual formation, and using the arts and artists of the community.
Six Worldmaking Worship events over the next two years will be held at three different locations across the state to be accessible to all. Worship teams are encouraged to attend together.
Register now for the first event May 7-8 at the Shalom Center in Dubuque.
Complete information at www.WorldmakingWorship.com
Thank You Note
Click here to read this week’s Thank You Note from the Camping Ministry at Lake Okoboji.
Freed-Up Financial Living Course Facilitator’s Training
On Saturday, April 10th, Good$ense Ministries’ Freed-Up Financial Living curriculum will be offered for those wishing to serve as facilitators for the course in their church or community. This is a resource that will equip you in offering your people a Biblical approach to earning, giving, spending and debt.
Kevin Gowdy from the Iowa United Methodist Foundation will provide the training. He received his training in December of 2009 from the Willow Creek Association’s Good$ense Ministry Team.
You will be trained to lead this six-week course through personal involvement with the process and walking through the DVD and course book lessons.
The class will be held at First United Methodist Church of Cedar Falls, IA, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Foundation is charging only for the materials (which includes the six session DVD teaching tool and a participant’s guide) and the lunch. The cost is $45. For each additional participant from your church or parish the cost is $20 for the lunch and participant’s guide.
Register by e-mailing foundationadmin@iaumc.org . Just put “Freed-Up” in the subject line and in the e-mail include your name, address, church and e-mail. If registering more than one person from your church or parish, you may add everyone’s name in one e-mail. You’ll receive pre-course materials with your confirmation and instructions on payment options.
Registrations must be in by April 3, 2010.
The Freed-Up course that you will be learning to facilitate, has helped thousands of people in discovering effective tools and developing skills that help control personal finances. After completing the course, participants walk away with:
- A clear understanding of biblical financial principles
- Simple steps to apply those principles in day-to-day decision making
- A personalized spending plan in hand, knowledge on how to implement it and motivation to follow through
Red Bird Mission Trip
We are going to Red Bird Mission to work, Oct. 31, 2010 - Nov. 6th. The cost is $280.00 for the week. It covers all food & housing and project supplies. You need to find your own transportation there. I need to know by May 15th. and have 1/2 of money to send in ($140.00). Contact Madeline Finck by phone 641-333-2575 or mjfinck@frontiernet.net for more information.
RX Consultation May 7-9, 2010
You are invited to our next educational and inspirational consultation for medical UMVIM teams, to be held at Walnut Hills UMC in Urbandale. For more information and to register, click here.
Local Disaster Planning Guide is now available online
This guide is designed to assist you in preparing a disaster plan for your local church. When a church knows in advance how they will protect church property and care for their people in the event of a disaster, they are better prepared to minister to their community.
Click here for the 2010 Local Disaster Planning Guide
Iowa Volunteers Witness UMCOR Supplies Leaving Dock
Two sea containers were loaded this morning holding approximately 24,000 health kits at the loading dock at UMCOR Sager Brown in Baldwin, Louisiana. They will be unloaded in Haiti next Friday, March 26. More than 400,000 kits have been received and are being processed at this time.
The infrastructure in Haiti makes it very difficult to store and distribute supplies, but UMCOR is working with other faith-based organizations to give aid to those in need. It was a joyful occasion to stand on the loading dock, bless the contents of the container, and watch it pull away. Probably some Iowa kits were loaded and more shipments are expected to be made soon. It is awesome to see the outpouring of love that has been sent to Sager Brown for this disaster. We are blessed to be part of it!
Charley and Shirley Kunzman
Long Time Volunteers serving at UMCOR Sager Brown
Does Your Church Need a New Loan or to Refinance an Existing One?
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 6.05% for new loans as of March 22, 2010
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
United Methodist and Other News
They’re almost gone! Here’s your last chance to purchase
the 2010 Official United Methodist Calendars.
Get your calendar at budget-friendly prices!
http://secure.umcom.org/store/catalog/2010-calendars%2C45.htm?tr=y&auid=6064913
Native American Ministries Sunday (April 18, 2010)
Without help from Native American Ministries Sunday, Ray deZafra never would have found his way to the Third Sunday Native American Fellowship. For the first time in his life, the Potawatomi Indian feels that he belongs, not just to a tribe, but also to a community of Christians. The offering on this Special Sunday educates Native American seminarians, plants Native American churches and cultivates Native American outreach to seekers like Ray.
Call (888) 346-3862 today to order envelopes and other resources so your congregation can participate in this churchwide offering. They will be sent at no cost to your church! Find more at umcgiving.org/specialsundays.
Change the World Weekend
April 24-25 is an opportunity for United Methodists the world over to prove with their lives what they believe in their hearts – that, by following Christ, the world can truly be transformed. Through the outbound ministries our congregations already offer, we can extend both a hand of help and a hand of hospitality to bring new people into service and a faith community.
Visit www.rethinkchurch.org/changetheworld, and find new resources for April 24-25 – Change the World weekend. One of the most important is a prayer resource developed by General Board of Discipleship Worship Resources team. Included are an opening prayer, a litany and a prayer of sending forth. Plan to use at least one of these on the weekend of April 18 or during Change the World weekend.
Lectionary-based sermon starters, worship graphics and bulletin covers are also available online.
Haiti Update from UMCOR
UMCOR is implementing a five-year work plan that contemplates three phases of assistance to Haiti: emergency, recovery and rehabilitation.
This week’s highlights include:
- 23,520 Health Kits were transported via free shipping to Catholic partners in Haiti
- UMCOR has hired for a Head of Mission for the office in Haiti and has hired a Haiti Desk Officer to work in the New York City headquarters office. The position for Haiti Church Liaison is posted. Local staff in Haiti now include:
- 2 Drivers
- 1 Office Manager
- 1 Administrative Assistant
- 1 Logistics Assistant
- 1 Program Officer
- Anthony Jones, Emergency Consultant for UMCOR Haiti continues to attend UN cluster meetings to strategically map out UMCOR’s work in partnership with other organizations.
- Azim Akhtar, Opertations Coordinator for UMCOR Haiti arrived into Santa Domingo, DR on March 14 and has been coordinating related operational logistics and will soon be going into Haiti to provide overall operational leadership for UMCOR Haiti.
- UMCOR Health met with a dozen longtime partners in the field of health in Haiti to begin to address the need for a long-term health strategy in post-earthquake Haiti. The priorities they identified include the development of a comprehensive, integrated health strategy in which the represented agencies, US-based Methodist hospitals, United Methodist volunteers and UMCOR would participate.
- UMVIM Jurisdictional Coordinators met with UMCOR following a successful reconnaissance trip to Haiti. They proposed an ambitious three-year proposal to facilitate the work of volunteer teams for projects identified as priority by the Methodist Church in Haiti.
- Layette kits and birthing kits, equipped for mothers and infants, are in great demand as Haitians begin to rebuild their lives. Please consider assembling layette kits and birthing kits to address the basic needs of babies born in displaced persons camps in Haiti. Contact your conference or district office to find out if a designated drop-off point has been established for a cost effective way to transport your supplies to either of the two UMCOR depots.
mid-week update is a ministry of the Communications Ministry Team
of the Iowa Annual Conference
