Missions

Missions

Mississippi Rebuild Team-
Click here for messages from the team 2009!
NUMC will be sending a team to Mississippi again this year for the Hurricane Katrina rebuild project, from April 18 to 24, at Camp Love in Gulfport, Mississippi.
This will be a joint Mission trip, combining the Santa Ana and Santa Barbara Districts, as were the three previous trips. Lack of funding and closure of many of the works camps means we are being restricted to 30 volunteers, whereas, in the past, we were allowed 50.
Anyone interested in volunteering or who is willing to help with financial support, your gifts and talents will be extremely appreciated. With the economic situation, Federal funding dimished, and with other disasters, like Haiti, there is a strong chance this could be our last trip to Mississippi.
If you have questions or need more information, please contact Louie Atteberry or the church office.
Donations can be sent to: Santa Barbara District UMC, Mississippi Rebuild 2009, 10824 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Chatsworth, CA 91211-1350.

Arson Rebuild Team
Update soon on the 2010 project!

Arson Rebuild project is on for Summer 2009
Once again NUMC will be sending a team to the Arson Rebuild project, a project that we have supported since 2000. This project is aimed at helping churches damaged by fire, either through arson or accident get back on their feet.
Our Arson Rebuild Project for this year is the Bethelpore Baptist Church in Phenix, Alabama. The church was destroyed by arson in January of 2007. The following is excerpted from a Reuters article gives the details, along with a report of the arrest of the suspects in this fire.

"On Jan. 3, at 4:15 a.m., the Lee County Sheriff's Department responded to the Greater Bethelpore Baptist Church, located at 5757 Lee Road 179, Salem, Ala., for the report of a church fire. After an investigation was conducted by ATF, the Alabama State Fire Marshall's Office, and the Lee County Sheriff's Department, arson was suspected due to the presence of accelerants and
multiple points of origin. The investigators also discovered several areas of
vandalism to a graveyard next to the church."

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS189728+07-Jan-2008+PRN20080107

Our week will be August 15-22 and the cost of the trip is estimated at $800 per person. In addition to the usual expenses we now have to cover the cost of our ground transportation for the trip. The conference no long is able to provide funding for the project. We will be flying in to Atlanta, Georgia where we will pick up our ground transportation and drive to Phenix, about 2 hours southwest where we will be staying in a local United Methodist Church not far from the work site.
If you would like to join this years team or if you would like to donate to this very worthy project, please contact Ric Wilson at 818 886-9376 or through the church office.

Arson Rebuild Mission Trip - pictures and updates

Philippines Work Team
A team is leaving April 24th, 2008 to go to the Lambakin United Methodist Church in the Philippines and help with construction of their new church. We need everyone’s help, even if you cannot physically go with us. We need to take $2,000 for building materials and supplies. Plus, the following items would be greatly appreciated: used cell phones, children’s chewable vitamins, triple antibiotic ointment, pain relievers (children’s and adult’s), toothpaste and bandages. For further information, please contact the Serrano’s or Easterly’s.

More information about the Lambakin UMC work team and mission!

GYTTE- Give Ye Them To Eat
was founded in 1977 as a social outreach project of the Methodist Church of Mexico to combat hunger and poverty in the rural sector. The purpose of the "Give Ye Them to Eat" program (GYTTE) is to strengthen the capabilities of marginalized people and communities to meet their basic needs, and to determine and sustain a just and integrated development process. Participatory methods and development tools are used to create conditions in which change can take place from within the communities. GYTTE uses people-centered approaches to development. more

Check out the latest newsletter from GYTTE (Give Ye Them To Eat). Updated Fall 2009

North Valley Caring Services
http://www.nvcsinc.org/

A visit to our Sister Church in Budapest, Hungary
Budapest's Grand Synagogue- also known as the Dohany Synagogue, Budapest’s grand Jewish temple was completed in 1859. It contains 2964 seats, making it the second largest synagogue in the world after New York City’s Temple Emanu-El. The grand organ contains about 5,000 pipes and is still in use. The Synagogue was heavily damaged during World War II and was restored in the 1990’s, after the Communists left. The restoration was done with financial support from Tony Curtis, an American actor of Hungarian-Jewish ancestry. During World War II, many Jews took refuge there and could not even leave to bury their dead. Therefore, there are many individual graves and mass graves on the grounds. The tree of life sculpture, built at the site of mass graves, is a monument which resembles a weeping willow tree. The names of the dead can be found on the tree’s leaves. It also pays tribute to many non-Jews who helped save Hungarian Jews from extermination. Their names can be found on four large marble plaques.
We will tour this beautiful and remarkable site when we visit our partner church, The Methodist Church in
Budapest/pest. For more information, contact Gordon Short.

Mission to Rwanda - March 14-26th, 2008
more information