VIM puts safety first with training

Participants practice chainsaw safety skills. They are Richard Norman, Ed Bevers, Kent Carbaugh, Mike Sheehan, trainer Joe Glenn, Curtis Cromwell, and Scott Stone. Some disaster response volunteers were puzzled. Did they really need three days to learn about chainsaw safety? In the "Storm Damage CleanUp Course," six Oklahoma volunteers came to value that time commitment. Trainer Joe Glenn, a...

Booked for travel

Photo by Amelia Ballew Mike Brown and Evelyn Phyffer of OKC-Crown Heights UMC are surrounded by boxes filled with books, ready for shipment to Ganta United Methodist School, Liberia, for a new library. The book drive began in November, and the donations filled several rooms at Crown Heights. Total: 12,000 books and 1,000 periodicals, in 271 boxes. Phyffer said donors were creative in procuring materials. One church member visited the...

Bolivian folk musicians trumpet Christ's cause

Pastor Robert Rose greets a member of Anyi, a folk-music group from Bolivia, when their tour stopped at his church, OKC-Chapel Hill UMC. By Aloise McCullough A concert-and-dinner series in March met with mild success in raising money for...

How can we help?

By Richard Norman, Disaster Response Coordinator       At New Light UMC in Lawton, Steven Clay of Carnegie UMC maneuvers carefully while trimming a tree damaged by the late January ice storm. ...

When the Body is broken

VIM’s Kristin Terrell-Wilkes, left, and Mary Alice Young sort health kits for Haiti. "We thank you. You have kept us in your prayers, and we are grateful. You have sent donations through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). You have expressed selfless interest in volunteering to come to Haiti to help ... "Teams of Volunteers In Mission (VIM) will be integral in...

Tulsa-based Engineers In Action get UMCOR funds

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has announced a grant of $9,600 to Tulsa-based Engineers In Action (EIA). The engineers group was formed out of the partnership between the Evangelical Methodist Church of Bolivia and the Oklahoma Conference. David Stephenson leads the Bolivia-Oklahoma ministry committee and is pastor at Skiatook UMC. Rev. Stephenson said, "11 Bolivian children die every hour from a...

VIM transfers oversight of Manos Juntas to Mexican Methodists

On Dec. 2, a covenant ceremony transferred oversight of the Oklahoma Conference Volunteers In Mission (VIM) ministry in Rio Bravo, Mexico, to the Eastern Conference of The Mexico Methodist Church. A delegation of Oklahoma leaders traveled to Rio Bravo to watch two bishops sign the historic ministry agreement involving Manos Juntas Mexico. Oklahoma’s Bishop Robert Hayes Jr. and Bishop Raul Garcia of...

Volunteers In Mission realigns staff, structures

Did you know? National missions--57. Total volunteers--450. Seven of the missions were in partnership with the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference. International missions--88. Total...

Ministry through music - VIM team performs in Poland

Annell Thompson is seated at the drum set, center, and Claremore-First Pastor Ray Crawford is at far left in a Roman Catholic church at Miedzyrzecz, Poland. The large banner proclaims "Let us care for life," Thompson said. By Aloise...

VIM recruiting teams for Nicaragua

Oklahoma Volunteers In Mission (VIMs) are preparing to expand their ministry into Nicaragua. Larry Calderon of Nicaragua visited Oklahoma on May 4-6 and spoke about the witness of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Nicaragua. Calderon has been the VIM coordinator for the Church in Nicaragua for four months. He said the Church in Nicaragua typically welcomes three to five VIM teams each year from the United States. The denomination is 20 years old. In its first decade, the Church consisted of...

'Many times I had pictured myself returning'

Editor’s note: Rev. George Gilland, a Vietnam War veteran and pastor at Yukon-First church, took part in the VIM Vietnam mission. By George Gilland I know that people who experience physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma are inexorably tied to the time and place of that trauma. As a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, I am tied or joined to Vietnam and her people. The question has to do with the nature of this tie,...

Please help our people find Christ

  (photo on the right) Larry Blackburn of Oklahoma, left, and Hoi Chung, pastor of Le Tho Phoung United Methodist Church in Vietnam, sing during Mission Bible School at the church. (photo on left), Tommy Walters helps a child with crafts...

VIM leads drive for 5 kinds of emergency kits

Deliver gifts for UMCOR to Annual Conference On a Spring Break tour, McAlester District youth mission team members enter the UMCOR supply site at Baldwin, La. Volunteers In Mission will again collect emergency kits in conjunction with the Annual Conference in late May. This year’s drive will gather five types of...

Funds will assist Oklahoma tornado victims

  United Methodists are praying for and extending aid to Oklahomans in areas hit by tornadoes Feb. 10. Some residents of Lone Grove, just west of Ardmore, died in the storm. Property damage was extensive in that community and in parts of Oklahoma City. How you can help If you or your church would like to financially help the victims of the recent tornados, send donations to the...

Neighbors in other nations

  Partnership projects are connecting Oklahomans with people in Bolivia and South Africa. These pictures show moments in two recent trips to those nations by United Methodist groups from the state. Bishop Robert Hayes Jr. participated with both. Above, children surround Bishop Hayes as he breaks ground in Johannesburg, South Africa, for Come Back Mission home, for people affected by HIV/AIDS. At left, VIM Director...

Two ministries spotlighted in South Africa

VIM international missions: www.okumcministries.org/VIM/Africa.asp; 405-530-2031 Anathoth: www.upperroom.org/international By Robin Paul There’s no English equivalent for ubuntu. This word, in the...

A flood of buckets

Rows of UMCOR flood buckets, ready for shipment, line the walls at Centenary UMC on Nov. 2 during the Lawton District Conference and Awards Banquet. Framed certificates were presented to district “Flood Bucket Heroes.” At a Lawton home improvement store, Montie and Galeda Jones asked to purchase 5-gallon plastic buckets with resealable lids. "There’s more...

Volunteers In Mission

  Flood bucket deadline: Nov. 12 The deadline is Nov. 12 for packed flood buckets to be delivered to the United Methodist Ministry Center, in Oklahoma City, for the next shipment coordinated by Volunteers In Mission. A number of churches are conducting flood-bucket drives to help restock the UMCOR Sager Brown depot in Louisiana. Sager...

Assessment follows hurricanes

Jefferson church goes to work after flooding Recovery work after hurricanes Ike and Gustav is being monitored for Oklahoma Conference by Richard Norman, coordinator of disaster response and domestic missions in the Volunteers In Mission Office. Damage caused by the storms extended into Oklahoma, where heavy rainfall caused flooding in the region that includes Enid District. Fairview UMC Pastor Rich Redinger reported about 100 homes damaged there, according to Rev. Norman. Worship on Sept. 14...

Young adult VIM team serves in Mexico

Showcasing a set of renovated closets at Juan Wesley Seminario are Jeff Jaynes, Adriane Ivey Jaynes, Justin North, Trina Bose North, Morgan Richards, Sheryl Powers, Hillary Ashton, and Tino Espinoza, all of Oklahoma. By Trina Bose North The Young Adult Ministry Council was formed to expand the programs and ministries for young adults in Oklahoma Conference. This year, the council sponsored a new program: a mission to Mexico. This was to be a time for young adults around the Conference to...