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United Methodist Church ... making a difference 501 Hampton Lane (Beltway Exit 27B & Dulaney Valley Road) email: towsonumc@towsonumc.org Towson, Maryland 21286 410-823-6511 Elevator is available to access all 3 floors! .
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Towson United Methodist Church is a Global Mission Partner As a fire exists for burning, so the Church exists for Mission. The purpose of the Mission Work Area of the Towson United Methodist Church is to provide coordination, education, publicity, budget advocacy, and support for Christian outreach ... locally, nationally, and globally.
When leaving the church parking lot, look for the signs that read, "You are now entering the Mission field."
Towson UMC's Volunteers-In-Mission have returned from Martinsville, Indiana where they repaired flood damage. Team members are: Jim Andrew, Susan Brown, David Cooney, Robin Cooney, Ginny Foster, Margot Gerding, Kaitlin Hamilton, Natalie Headley, Steve Headley, Beth Walters, Ken Waters, Bruce Wehrle, and Bertha the Bus (transporting the team). View their BLOG site by clicking here. Pictures and comments can be seen at their BLOG site.
BRING FRESH FRUIT Fresh fruit is collected the first Sunday of every month before each worship service in the main lobby. The children in grades 4 & 5 will be making ham & cheese sandwiches and packing lunches. All of these donations will be taken to Manna House Monday morning. Thank you!
3rd Friday of every month September through May Women, men, & youth, a rewarding mission activity, one where you are sure to receive as much spiritual nourishment as you provide to others, needs you! We travel to the SETON HILL STATION, 700 N. Eutaw St. in Baltimore City, to host a PIZZA PARTY & engage in CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP with the residents at this highly successful substance addiction rehab program for men, which is based on personal responsibility & self-motivation to change one's life. Our main role is to help them understand that they are loved & accepted; serving up the pizza is secondary. Some of us carpool from church at 4:45 PM; others meet us there at 5:15. We pitch in for the costs. To sign up or for more information, contact Barry Steel, 410-592-6861 or (email Barry)
Last Thursday of every month Emergency Food Pantry, 6:00 PM for one hour in the main lobby of our church. Call Dwight Kines to volunteer for 2 hours (half hour before to set up and half hour after to clean up), 410-828-0792.
PATHWAYS Tutoring Providing Avenues Toward Hope With Academic Youth Services Tuesdays from 4:00 - 6:00 (during the academic years) in Fellowship Hall www.towsonumc.org/pathways.htm
10% of Undesignated Memorial Funds to our church is spent on outreach projects approved by our Mission Work Area.
SECOND TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH — Mission Work Area meets, 7:00 pm Mission Work Area Meeting. Are you interested in learning more? Come to the MWA meeting. For more information, contact Carole Dean at 410-494-0231 or email, c211d@aol.com.
CARPENTER’S KITCHEN Dates to put on your calendar We will be cooking dinner and serving the less fortunate at Mt. Vernon Place UM Church Saturdays in 2009: August 22 October 24 We will be cooking dinner and serving the less fortunate at Mt. Vernon Place United Methodist Church. Contact Linda Diehl (410-522-1966) if you are able to volunteer. Thanks.
NEWS FROM THE MISSIONARIES WE SUPPORT
I wanted to thank all of you from the TUMC congregation who have supported me financially and through prayer. I am happy to announce that I have raised about $7,000 to fund the cost of my trip. I will have until November 2009 to fundraise the remaining $6,800. I would like to invite you to join me in this mission opportunity by making a contribution to my fund. I will be in the foyer between services SUNDAY, MAY 17 to answer any questions. If you are interested in supporting me, please take one of the brightly colored envelopes in the foyer on the Information Table. The envelope includes a more detailed update on my journey thus far, as well as information on making a donation. Thank you so much for what you have already done; you will remain in my prayers! Love and blessings, Kelly P. S. As a reminder, I will be leaving May 31, 2009 (so soon!) to do mission work in 11 different countries. I will be returning to America in April 2010. I will be traveling in Central America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. We will be working in schools, orphanages, churches, hospitals, and other organizations to help those in need. ---We will be monitoring Kelly’s travels throughout the world and communicating via internet. You can get updates by visiting the website: kellyrampmeyer.theworldrace.org
Suzanne Porter, a resident of Reisterstown, Maryland, has been appointed to Ganta, Liberia, Africa. She arrived at her post in February, 2007. Towson United Methodist Church financially supports Sue through the General Board of Global Ministries.
Sue wrote in April, 2007: When I first got here I spent about two weeks in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. The Liberian Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church is located in Monrovia, so I met the staff at the offices and the present bishop, Bishop John Innis. Everyone made me feel welcome. The UMC operates many important programs throughout the country that extend into the remote areas locally referred to as the ‘bush.’ The church has schools, churches, agriculture projects and adult literacy and training programs that help many people. I was able to quickly learn about the UMC in Liberia because the Annual Conference was held in Ganta, the village where I live, about three weeks after I arrived here! I’ll be mostly working at The Winifred J. Harley School of Nursing, which is part of the Health Sciences College, which is part of the United Methodist University in Monrovia. Ganta is in Nimba County in northeast Liberia. It is partly cleared tropical forest so even though now it is the ‘dry’ season, it is like living in a terrarium! I think of the cold I lived in while in Central Asia to see if I can’t feel a little cooler but … it doesn’t work that way! Briefly, my lovely little house has electricity intermittently and running water sometimes, but it certainly is not as primitive as my living conditions in Central Asia! The School of Nursing (SoN) is located on a larger Ganta UM Mission Station where a church, hospital, outpatient clinic, eye clinic, grade to high school, and community development program are located. The SoN graduated its first diploma nurses in 1963. It has a history of producing excellent nurses who can be found in various places throughout the country — teaching in other academic nursing institutions, in influential positions in the national government and in local hospital and community health programs. They run outpatient clinics in the ‘bush’ so the people living in those remote areas have health care. We just finished registration for the spring semester. We’ll have 100 students. It really is too many for the facility but over the next few years we will work at lowering that number. I will be teaching Pediatric Nursing to the 3rd year students and a combined course of Operating Room Nursing, Emergency/First Aid and Intravenous Therapy to the second year students.
PERSON-IN-MISSION -- DOCTOR AT THE GANTA UNITED METHODIST MISSION STATION The Rev. Herbert Seilami Zigbuo along with his wife Rev. Mary Randall Zigbuo are missionaries with the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church through our Baltimore/Washington Conference. He currently serves as Coordinator for the United Methodist Church of Liberia's Vocational Training Program, a program that seeks to provide vocational training opportunities for young adults in selected United Methodist high schools and/or programs throughout that country. Up until April 2008, Herbert’s primary role was to administer the affairs of the Ganta United Methodist Mission Station, which includes an elementary through senior high school, a hospital and leprosarium, a nursing school, and an agricultural program. Mary served with the Ganta United Methodist Mission Station as hospital administrator, and was also responsible for developing a continuing education program for United Methodist Church. Ganta United Methodist Mission Station was established in the 1920s as a church effort to provide medical and educational opportunities to people in northeastern Liberia. Over the years, what started out as a primary school (grades 1-8) and a health post has grown to include: an elementary through senior high level school, a school of nursing, a pre-natal clinic, a primary health care program, eye and dental clinics, a malnourished children's feeding unit, an outpatient day clinic, a 75 bed hospital unit, and a community outreach agricultural program. Ganta Mission Station serves as a beacon of hope for this part of Liberia where there are very limited health care and educational opportunities.
from Dr. David Persons, an educational missionary from Colorado, in the Southern Congo Annual Conference.
While at General Conference, David
Persons, our missionary and Dean of the Faculte Methodiste de Theologie in
Mulungwishi, Dem. Rep of the Congo, visited with one of his former students,
Danny Kapend. Danny’s father was a Methodist pastor and District Superintendent
in Congo in the southern area. He died a number of years ago of kidney failure.
Five years ago a scholarship was given to Danny to attend the new Information
Technology School at Mulungwishi. Danny was part of the first graduating class
in the School of IT of the Katanga Methodist University. “We were very pleased
with his academic work. Bishop Katembo worked it out for him to go to Lon Morris
College, a Methodist related Junior College in Texas. After a year, Danny
transferred to McMurry University (a Methodist U) in Abilene, TX. He is now in
his senior year in Computer Science. An internal competition was held in the
computer department and Danny won. He is considered one of their best students.
All
"The northern pat of our Katanga Province has been particularly devastated by the war. Villages in this area have suffered from all sides. They have been burned out and pillaged by the government troops because they have been suspected to have collaborated with the rebels. On the other side, when the rebels come, they think that the people have collaborated with the government and then destroy what is left of the village. A group known as the Mai Mai was formed as a sort of local militia in order to protect the villagers. They in turn become violent and involved with witchcraft to the extent that they became more deadly than the other two. It is into this sort of situation that a number of our students have gone to minister. Umba Ndolo Kebele, one of our women graduates, was sent with her children to Kibamba in the Kinkonja District. Her husband, a Catholic professor, remained in Kamina where he was teaching. The Mai Mai come to her village specifically to find her and kill her. God was gracious in protecting her. She hid in a back room of the house with her children and they were not able to find her. AS they were looking for her, she was able to slip out of the house with the children and climb a tree where they spent the night. Unable to find her, the Mai Mai left pillaging the village. Umba was rescued the next day and rejoined her husband in Kamina where she is now the pastor of the Umpafu congregation. Pastor Makobo Young and Beatrice were sent to Kamungu, inthe Kabongo District. This area had been particularly hit by all sides. At the beginning of their ministry, most of the parishioners were hiding and living in the bush, afraid to be in the village. As the war subsided, they began to return. A number of past choir members had joined the Mai Mai and been involved in the atrocities. Slowly God's spirit and Beatrice have been a light in the darkness helping to heal the wounds of many who have suffered in this war. What a loving God we serve, who brings His Love, His Mercy, and His Reconciliation to whoever seeks Him! How wonderful to have pastors willing to go into the hardest areas to bring God's Love! Now, there are songs of forgiveness, thanksgiving, and praise coming from this, His family.
Praise the Lord with us, for His faithfulness. How wonderful to see Him use young men and women in sharing His Kingdom! Thank you for your part and sharing in their lives. You have never met them but you have faithfully given and prayed through the years. Rejoice and give thanks to the Lord.
Dr. J. Jeffrey Hoover is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church assigned since 1979 to the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire. Dr. Hoover is a professor at Katanga Methodist University, both in the theological college as professor of church history and in the School of Information Technology. Jeff also serves as chief librarian, overseeing a computerization and recataloguing project, and has served as founding dean of the School of Information Technology and as a vice-dean for the theological college. "The Democratic Republic of Congo continues to move slowly through the election process negotiated a couple years ago to put an end to the civil war that began in 1998. Dates have slipped again, but only by a couple of months this time. We have gotten through the creation of a government of national unity since August 2003, the registration of voters (for the first free election since 1965), and the referendum on the new constitution last December. Last week the enrollment of candidates for the parliamentary and presidential elections took place. There are now 33 candidates for president, including several women. We thought things were bad in the United States when a president was elected with just under half of the votes; one could conceivably have the frontrunner in Congo garnering less than 3%. While that is an unlikely nightmare, it could easily happen that the leading two candidates might have only small blocks of support within the country and not be as acceptable to the largest share of the population. The top two vote-winners go into a runoff, currently slated for September. Keep DRC in your prayers, as these are uncharted waters for most Congolese, and even the UN and international partners who are trying to steer the country through a peaceful transition have never handled elections in such a challenging environment. "Another item for your prayers and action list: TESOL is looking for teachers for next year. We might also be needing someone to help with office work and other administrative details. While these will be basically volunteer positions, TESOL would provide housing, a living stipend, visa fees, and maybe airfare. We plan to work through the UMVIM individual volunteers program. Are you interested? Do you know someone who is? It is not essential that the person have a teaching certificate. WE have been very content with the work of recent college graduates -- talented, enthusiastic, and flexible -- as well as with older people who worked with young folks earlier in their careers. Contact us for further details. If a commitment for a full academic year is not possible, let us know how long you would be available and perhaps something could be worked out. E-mail: JEHoover@mwangaza.cd or telephone 243-81-084-1558."
St. Petersburg, Russia This United Methodist Church is a new congregation in recently liberated Russia. Through the Mission Work Area, our church sends $2,000 a year to them via our General Board of Global Ministries. Rev. Irina Margulis and members of Aspiration just completed participation in the leadership seminar held in St. Petersburg for pastors and laity, conducted by a group of pastors from the United States. (This is the seminar for which we gave an additional $500 in support). In early April, Irina and a church member visited a shelter for the street children and they took washed clothes to them. For Easter, they decided to gather by 3-4 people to read the Gospel of Luke and pray together. On March 3, they held a youth club meeting — the theme of which was "How to Change the World." This summer they will visit the orphanage in Luga to help restore rooms. If you would like to learn more about this small and very active congregation, contact Libby Rogers, member of the MWA, at 410-931-1683 or email Libby by clicking here. |
SERVING PIZZA & OUR
FAITH
MEET
& SUPPORT KELLY
NEWS
FROM OUR MISSIONARY IN GANTA, LIBERIA
NEWS
AND HAPPENINGS FROM MULUNGWISHI
NEWS
FROM LUBUMBASHI
ASPIRATION UNITED METHODIST
CHURCH