Map - National

Cleaning buckets are urgently needed in Midwest Mission Distribution Center

A special plea has gone out from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) for cleaning buckets. The southern Illinois and Indiana tornadoes have used up hundreds of these buckets. The Midwest Mission Distribution Center in Chatham, Ill., has only 2,085 UMCOR Cleaning Buckets on hand. One or two calls could wipe out the MMDC supply. Spring rains and flooding will soon be upon us, therefore, your church’s help is needed to restock the center’s Cleaning Bucket supply, so that United Methodists will be able to supply storm survivors of Cleaning Buckets. For more information about the contents of these five-gallon wonder buckets, click www.midwestmissiondc.net/Projects/UMCOR%20Cleaning%20Bucket.pdf and share the information with your members. For more information about the Midwest Mission Distribution Center or if you wish to talk to someone at the center, visit www.midwestmissiondc.org or call 217-483-7911. The center is local at 1022 New City Road in Chatham, Ill., just south of Springfield.

Free online webinar about disaster response coming from CWS

Church World Service Emergency Response Program continues to hold a series of free webinars on various aspects of long term recovery. Details and registration information can be found at www.cwserp.org.

The schedule for the next several webinars:

• May 1 and 2: Long Term Recovery Basics
  This series of 50 minute webinars over two days will introduce the concepts and best practices that communities employ for effective long term recovery.

Additional information about the domestic disaster ministry of Church World Service may be found here.

NCJ Rx Consultation to be held near Detroit May 4-6

The North Central Jurisdiction Volunteers in Mission announces the 2012 Rx Consultation to be held at Highland United Methodist Church in the Detroit Conference. Dates are Friday to Sunday, May 4 to 6. Please include this event on your calendar. Information on speakers, workshops and registration will be available within a month. Thanks to Highland UMC, the staff and Karie Saunders, mission coordinator, for agreeing to host the event. Highland UMC is located at 680 W. Livingston Road in Highland, Mich. (45 miles northwest from downtown Detroit or 32 miles northeast of Ann Arbor, Mich.).

Jurisdiction to hold Rx Consultation May 4-6 at Highland, Michigan

The 2012 Rx Consultation will be held May 4-6 at Highland United Methodist Church, 680 W. Livingston Road in Highland, MI 48357. This year’s consultation theme is “Preparing for your next Medical Mission.” Every year on the first weekend of May, the Rx Steering Committee of the North Central Jurisdiction offers a training/educational event called the Rx Consultation. It is typically hosted by a United Methodist Church actively engaged in mission. For more information and registration, visit http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=rpqrezcab&oeidk=a07e5oy86pud46c3fa5.

Looking for a mission trip this summer?

Why not Minot, North Dakota in the Dakotas Conference of The United Methodist Church? More than 4,000 homes were flooded, many filled to the rafters with water that stood for weeks. Can you imagine how overwhelming the flood repair work must be to an individual or family? Imagine trying to do the repair work on your house, perhaps a couple of hours each evening or maybe on the weekends. And while you are trying to repair your home (which you probably are not able to live in), you continue working at your job, caring for your family and/or spouse or parents. You continue to attend your children's school, community and church activities. And we think we are overwhelmed or discouraged? The strength and courage of the people in Minot is a real testimony to their faith. And yet in the middle of their courage and resilience, the people of Minot need our help. Recovery from the flood will take years. There will be more information on this summer’s work mission trip that is still in the early planning stages that coming out in the next several weeks. Please be in prayer concerning this mission trip and ask God what he wants you to do. For more information, contact the Dearborn Hills UMC Mission Team leader Harry Lyness at hlyness@aol.com.

Northern Illinois Conference needs flood clean-up assistance

On behalf and at the request of Northern Illinois Conference Bishop Hee-Soo Jung, this is an invitation to assist in clean up from recent flooding. Seven Illinois counties have been declared disaster areas, with the south-side of Chicago especially hard hit. There is a process in place to identify homes most in need of help, those of the elderly and others unable to clean up for themselves. The primary work is 'mucking out' basements, many of which have belongings from more than 20 years of residency. This has resulted in each home taking more clean-up time than had been originally anticipated. Hundreds of Cook County residents still need help. If your church has Early Response Teams available and willing to give a few days to ministry on the south side of Chicago, please contact the Rev. Christina Vosteen (office@umcplano.org). We will help to coordinate time and efforts here.

Iowa Disaster Response team needs ERT help

The severe flooding of the Skunk River in Iowa has caused havoc in the community of Ames and is progressing southward thru Colfax and parts of Des Moines. Trish Burkett, Disaster Response coordinator for the Iowa Conference UMC says they may be needing ERT teams within the next week or two. If you could mobilize your teams for this possibility it would be helpful. For more information, contact Trish Burkett, 808 King St., Bedford, IA 50833, call 712-427-9014 or e-mail Disaster.Response@iaumc.org.

Urgent help needed in flood relief in Colfax, Iowa

Pastor Cindy Finn of First UMC in Colfax, Iowa, says the town needs URGENT HELP to muck and gut homes. The fire station in Colfax is ready to accept volunteers. Please call Wendy at the EMS Office at 515-674-9113 if you are able to help. For more information, call Becky Wood, Director of Recovery and Volunteer Coordinator for the Iowa Conference of The United Methodist Church, 2200 Heritage Green Drive, Hiawatha, IA 52233 or phone 515-238-5346.