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This is the final installment of a series of Faith In Action reports on how churches, ministries, and people from the Iowa United Methodist Church are making a difference and changing lives following the derecho disaster in August 2020.  On August 10, 2020, a derecho damaged an area nearly 800 miles wide throughout the Midwest, with the highest winds recorded at over 140 miles per hour in and around the Cedar Rapids area.  Barns and sheds had been torn open and exposed to the elements. Silos ...

This is the sixth in a series of Faith In Action reports on how churches, ministries, and people from the Iowa United Methodist Church are making a difference and changing lives following the derecho disaster in August 2020.  A typical year of confirmation turned upside down for Lovely Lane United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids after quarantine and the derecho on August 10. That didn’t stop Rev. Scott Meador from completing the year with a celebration.   “We started back in the fall of 2019 ...

This is the fifth in a series of Faith In Action reports on how churches, ministries, and people from the Iowa United Methodist Church are making a difference and changing lives following the derecho disaster in August 2020.  Bishop Laurie Haller and Assistant to the Bishop, Rev. Dr. Harlan Gillespie visited Salem UMC in Van Horne, Iowa on Friday, August 28 on their tour of derecho damaged churches. Rev. Leonard “Doc” Ranson and the Trustees chair, gave them a tour of the church’s beautiful ...

This is the fourth in a series of Faith In Action reports on how churches, ministries, and people from the Iowa United Methodist Church are making a difference and changing lives following the derecho disaster in August 2020.  The derecho storm that tore through Iowa on August 10 became the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that members and volunteers at Shueyville United Methodist Church could come together and work in their community. “The derecho was oddly what we needed," said ...

This is the third in a series of Faith In Action reports on how churches, ministries, and people from the Iowa United Methodist Church are making a difference and changing lives following the derecho disaster in August 2020.  The Matthew 25 Hub building in Cedar Rapids Iowa sustained major damage from the derecho disaster that blew through the region on August 10, 2020. The roof was badly damaged, and the inside experienced major water damage, estimating at least 3 months until the building ...

This is the second in a series of Faith In Action reports on how churches, ministries, and people from the Iowa United Methodist Church are making a difference and changing lives following the derecho disaster in August 2020.  See a gallery of images from Christ Community United Methodist Church.   On August 10, 2020, a derecho damaged an area nearly 800 miles wide throughout the Midwest with the highest winds recorded at over 140 miles per hour in the Cedar Rapids area. Christ Community United...

This is the first in a series of Faith In Action reports on how churches, ministries, and people from the Iowa United Methodist Church are making a difference and changing lives following the derecho disaster in August 2020.  It is estimated that the city of Cedar Rapids lost 50 percent of its tree canopy as a result of the August 10, 2020 derecho. The derecho, with wind gusts of over 140 mph, devasted much of the city and surrounding areas. Since day one of the disaster, the Iowa United ...

First UMC in Iowa City responded to the COVID-19 situation by forming a partnership with their neighborhood. Working with Horace Mann School Principal, Julie Robertson, the church provided rent assistance, food gift cards, and quarantine care packages to families in the neighborhood connected to the school.  “I spoke about this project in our Livestream worship and many families have responded with donations to help with this ministry,” said Rev. Dr. Barrie Tritle.  One person who is an ...

In May 2020, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Silver Creek UMC near Galva, Iowa sought to bring a little joy into the lives of their community by encouraging youth to decorate their sidewalks by passing out the sidewalk chalk.  They were able to collect around $70 dollars and a couple of 24 packs of chalk. They delivered the chalk to homes in the community, left baggies on the front step, or for those in the country in their mailboxes.  “We also handed them out to kids that were out ...

Press release from Collegiate United Methodist Church and Wesley Foundation AMES, IA Collegiate United Methodist Church and Wesley Foundation is excited to announce that, due to the generosity of its members and the wider community, $48,950 was raised last month to help pay down the school meal debt at Ames Community School District (ACSD). The church donated the $48,950 to ACSD to help fight food insecurity in Ames and support all students in the district. An estimated 575 Ames families’ ...

United Methodist Women have been in mission for children, youth and women for over 150 years. Many individuals think of being in mission as building schools, feeding the homeless, or providing quality daycare in the United States or other nations. The very tangible things that can be felt and seen; a product at the end of the day. These are important mission projects but there is more to mission than just the tangible.   United Methodist Women understand that many times there are systemic ...

When the youth group at Hampton United Methodist Church realized that there was a need in their community for items that couldn’t be purchased with food stamps, they decided to do something about it.   That was back in 2013, and the Hampton Clean Up Closet has been in operation ever since.   It all started with a mission trip, and the youth decided that they could do something to help people in poverty in their own community. The adults in the church quickly helped them find ways to make it ...

The Storm Lake United Methodist Church is now in its fourth year with BLESS, a special program that provides school supplies for children in the area. An acronym for Bless and Love Everyone School Supplies, the program has been a blessing indeed for everyone it has touched. Listening to the Lord It all started when Storm Lake member Sarah Low found out that parents were coming to the church asking for help purchasing school supplies, but there were no funds available to purchase them. As an ...

By: Linda Rowe Bloomfield, Iowa For those who have traveled to Nigeria in the past as part of the Iowa Nigeria Partnership (INP), and all those who have contributed in any way, here is the latest update. We are now part of the In Mission Together program and are continuing with some of the ministry Iowa started.   My fourteenth trip to Nigeria since 2005 was very eventful as always. I traveled with Dorothy Halvorsen from the Great Plains Conference and Kathryn Witte, the coordinator for The ...

Disaster Response in Glenwood and Pacific Junction from Iowa Annual Conference on Vimeo. Updated May 24, 2019 "This to me has been what it means to be the church and to be part of the connection," said Pastor Kimberly Bowles. "The calls from clergy across the conference saying, 'What do you need? What can we do? How can we help?" It's everything that I believe the church should be. To see your neighbor in need and say, 'What can I do?.'" Pastor Kimberly Bowles isn’t surprised at the way the ...

Virginia Lynn, 93, has lived in Hamburg, Iowa, her entire life and not once experienced the floodwaters that have hit the town. Until now.   Lynn moved to the Park Washington Plaza apartments in July from the home she raised her family in after her husband passed away last January.   “I kept telling everybody I was so blessed because after I lost my husband my kids took me to visit, I sold my house and then I moved,” she said. “It’s just mind-boggling to me. I have literally lost everything. It’...