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UNITED METHODIST VOLUNTEERS IN MISSION (UMVIM)

Mission News

More news about missions can be found by joining the East Ohio United Methodist Volunteers in Mission Facebook group.

August 13, 2020

Providing School Supplies and Hope to Families in Need
As the season begins to change from summer to fall, the Bucyrus UMC hosts a Back-to-School Clothing and Supplies Carnival. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the vital ministry continued this year – but it looked just a little bit different.

Read the full article.

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August 5, 2020

Church Forges Connection with Schools through Student Meals Ministry
During the pandemic Edison Memorial UMC has continued its four-year ministry of partnering with the Salvation Army and the Second Harvest Food Bank to provide meals to students in need in the local school district. Rex and Judy Stanforth have been overseeing this outreach since its inception.

Read the full article.

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July 23, 2020

Summer Missions Update from Canfield UMC
We were ready! The youth group at Canfield UMC was ready to take part in their UMVIM journey to Wilmington, NC. However, just like many youth groups across the conference, we had to cancel our journey for our safety and to do no harm to others.

Although we have a couple families who are in quarantine for health reasons, the rest of the youth families still felt called to serve. We put an announcement out to our congregation asking if anybody needed outside work done on their home. We had an older congregant reach out to us for some much-needed yard work. She asked us to weed and mulch. She was recently widowed and had not had the time to do the work herself.

With our VBS no longer on the table, I decided to pull from an older VBS program to create virtual Summer Discipleship opportunities for our younger kids in the congregation. With masks, and social distancing in place the youth recorded two different sessions that will be shared on YouTube and Facebook.

I called our local food pantries inquire about volunteer work; however new volunteers were not being accepted. Around the same time, I saw a plea from Rev. Ashley Steele from Urban Mission asking for volunteers in the food warehouse. We were able to go help pack bags that the National Guard handed out to 410 people in the community. We were able to travel out of town by having each family travel in their own car, with no exceptions.

Each day we participated in daily devotions and pray time. We were also able to take time to go on a virtual mission trip to The Resurrection Community Center in Mexico under their Director, Letty Damian. We will facilitate a school supply drive to send to those who need materials in Mexico. Though our plans changed, we were still able to help others. There is always a way to serve others, even if it is not in person. Prayer, research, planning and communication will create a path for serving others.

Families from Canfield UMC help pack bags of food that was distributed to 410 families on Wednesday, July 15, 2020.

- Submitted by Stefanie Williams of Canfield UMC. If you have a mission project you’d like to tell us about, contact Kathy Dickriede, Director of Missions and Community Engagement.

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July 16, 2020

Daring to be Davids: Akron’s Park UMC Builds a Hospital In Zimbabwe
Park UMC – located in the poverty-stricken Kenmore neighborhood of Akron – followed God’s call to help Onias and Diana Magwe, both healthcare professionals, to build a small hospital in Gweru so that others like Onias' father would not die from a lack of basic medical care. Instead of crying out: “Lord, we ONLY have five loaves and two fish,” the church and the couple trusted God’s amazing provident hands to supply what was needed. Onias, Diana, and the congregation had witnessed over and over again the miracles God will do when loaves, fishes, and hearts are given freely to His care!

Read the full article.

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April 30, 2020

UMVIM Team Leader Training
East Ohio has hosted two online UMVIM Team Leader trainings this spring. They both went well and if there’s enough interest we can host another! This FREE online training is limited to 10 participants. If you’d like to lead folks on a journey into the mission field locally, nationally, or internationally, this training is for you! UMVIM will be back to traveling again and the needs will be great. Some of the things we cover in the training are:

• How to build relationships, awareness and advocate with other like-minded people
• East Ohio Conference best practices and resources for mission planning
• How to promote, tell the mission story, recruit, and fundraise 
• What are UMVIM mission locations across the connection of the UMC?
• How to empower others through your leadership

Let’s be a community ready to get back to the ministry of presence and mission in Cambodia, Liberia, Cuba, Haiti, Ukraine, Mexico, and to the work of rebuilding Puerto Rico and other long-term recovery projects! The world needs you and me to be the hands, feet and heart of Jesus.

Contact Kathy Dickriede, East Ohio UMVIM Coordinator if you would like to be a part of a future Zoom UMVIM Team Leader Training.

Virtual Mission Journeys
While we are not traveling to many of our partner mission sites, there is a way to be connected to our partners by creating a virtual mission experience. Kathy Dickriede, East Ohio UMVIM coordinator, attended a terrific UMVIM webinar called Going on a Virtual Mission.
Additional resources from the webinar are also available.

East Ohio UMVIM is here to help you and your team have a transformative mission experience! We hope the information presented helps in your mission outreach and planning not only during these uncertain days of pandemic, but also for future teams and outreach. Let’s continue to be God’s agents of transformation in the world!

Mask Making Mission
The world needs masks! Whether you live in Ohio, Cambodia, or Liberia, masks are needed and recommended by health experts to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. As a Conference, we have been focused on the scripture of John 15:1-17 and “bearing fruit that lasts” for 4 years. In 2020, the focus is on being connected. As people connected by faith, we know that what one person does impacts another. As people connected by faith, we need to love one another and strive to keep each other safe. Therefore, we are calling you to put your faith into action by wearing a mask or face covering when you’re in public. Congregations and communities can also help in the making and distribution of protective cloth face masks for outreach centers, nursing homes, community centers, mission sites, food pantries, and more. These are not meant to be PPE quality but rather what is sometimes called "cough etiquette.”

Here’s how to get involved:
We need people to be coordinators in districts areas or communities in East Ohio. Let me know if you are willing to help be a resource to folks in your area for locations, pick-up of supplies, and/or completed masks. If you would like to send masks locally or internationally, let me know how and where. Then we can find you partners for this mission.

We are hoping those who sew will commit to at least 10 masks per week for 4 weeks. Once you have made a couple, this should be only a few hours per week time commitment. We will assess the continued need at the end of 4 weeks to see if we will continue the outreach project, modify, or stop it.

If you don’t sew, do you have 100% cotton fabric and elastic that you can donate? We will be more than happy to pick it up from you and get it to sewers. Another way to help would be to cut fabric to the appropriate size for our sewing volunteers.

If you have a mask pattern you have been using, please feel free to continue with that pattern. However, if you need a pattern, below are a couple of links to tutorials for mask making:

How to Sew a Face Mask with Fabric Ties // TUTORIAL
How to Sew a Face Mask
Kaiser Permanente Fabric Face Mask Instructions (sewing machine needed):
University Hospital in Cleveland (uses a pattern that does not use interfacing. If that works better for the supplies you have on hand, please review those instructions at this website)
Easy 3-minute mask tutorial with pocket

For a more fitted mask, that is closer to PPE requirements this website has a few videos with instructions and general information. I think the second one is the best. The third gives you some supply options.

If you are willing to volunteer, have questions or need to have materials or masks picked up from your home, please contact Kathy Dickriede or call (330) 492-3972 ext. 102.

If you can’t help with the production of the masks, we welcome, appreciate, and need your prayers.