Church Members Serve through Volunteers in Mission
They came from all over Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. They ministered to sick people, gleaned potato fields for food banks, played with orphans, repaired and built homes, churches and a medical clinic, readied Buckhorn Camp for the season and served in many other ways. They fostered relationships with people in...

WUMMP Mission Trip to Guatemala
A group of fifteen persons from (UTAH) Wasatch United Methodist Mission Partners (WUMMP) took a mission trip to Guatemala during August 18-26, 2007.  The task was to help build a clinic for Salud y Paz and the Guatemala Methodist Church in Cunen, Guatemala.  The purpose was to share Christ’s love with...

Guatemala Mission Team in Service
A group of fifteen persons from (UTAH) Wasatch United Methodist Mission Partners (WUMMP) took a mission trip to Guatemala during August 18-26, 2007.  The task was to help build a clinic for Salud y Paz and the Guatemala Methodist Church in Cunen, Guatemala.  The purpose was to share Christ’s love with...

The Gumbo is On
The gumbo is on the stove. Y’all are welcome. To give you the flavor of our UMVIM New Orleans team, St. Mark’s host and a United Methodist deaconess, Joanne Finley, writes: “Just an update to let you know another team from the California-Nevada Conference was...

An Unusual Meal
It was a very nice day in the middle of  September in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province in China.  Clear blue sky, with a few floating white clouds made me feel fresh and in good spirit when I stepped out of the hotel.  Eleven American friends with courageous guts agreed favoraby to take a bus to visit my mother.  We walked...

Ramon
One evening after working on the new library at Kusayapu, a Methodist school at 5500 feet high on the altiplano, (high plain) our Volunteer in Mission team gathered in one of the dorm rooms after installing ceiling lights in the new library. Ramon was invited to demonstrate his skills with musical instruments and to show his watercolor paintings...

A story from a mission trip of "China Experience"
When we lined up among the students to buy our lunch on the first day in the farm school, some students were intimidated; others wanted us to be ahead of them to get the meal; some were rather shy and silently watched us. As soon as I bought my lunch, two girls came...

China
Our China UMVIM team visited the Western Mountain Farm School in western China, outside of Urumqi. When we arrived, the students and teachers were standing outside of the school for two hours to wait for us...

Congolese Reality
After our brief welcome last night, work began in earnest when Jean, a nurse and the clinic’s supervisor, took Kathy Raven, M.D. and me on rounds in the infirmary. The aging white and blue concrete building consisted of a small pharmacy and five patient rooms, each containing two thin bare mattresses...

Liberia
I am very grateful for the opportunity to be here. It has come with a cost, however it does not even come close to the price this community...or even this country...has paid. I am very blessed to have my freedom, my health, my family and my life. I need to not take it for granted.

Another Liberia Story
I spoke yesterday with a young woman. While she is 32 years old, she really seemed so much older. The war has cost her a great deal. She is the oldest of 8 children.

Building a Church in Umlazi Township
About 10 years ago I was presented with one of those mission opportunities that seem to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. I was asked to bring an UMVIM team to the South African township of Umlazi to build a Methodist Church. I was excited about the opportunity. I thought everyone would be as excited. Then, with the words of one individual at the church where I was a member at, my bubble was burst. He said to me: “why should we spend so much money to send a small team of individuals all the way to South Africa when we could send that same amount of money, itself, to South Africa and tell the people there to use it to hire the work out?”

California-Nevada Conference UMVIM team in the Kingdom of Tonga
"Malo e lelei..." The UMVIM team to the South Pacific island of Tongatapu from July 6-22, 2004, experienced wonderful hope in serving with the people of the Kingdom of Tonga “where time begins."

Going to the Congo
Congo--Why in the world would anyone want to go to the Congo??? This question was one I constantly had to answer when I told people where I was going in May of 2002.

Alaska VIM Team Comes Home
It is quite incredible to pull together a group of people to make up a Volunteers in Mission team, but when you do it by email and from across the whole United States, what happens is AWESOME! Each one was a dedicated hard worker of like mind, committed to being in service while seeking adventure and meeting new people.

Sugar Cane, Hurricanes, Nail Clippers, and Shrimp Creole
UMCOR provides assistance to victims of natural and human-caused disasters, helps refugees, and sponsors projects to address root causes of hunger. The UMCOR Depot is a huge warehouse that accepts, stores and ships relief supplies to people in the U.S. and all over the world.  We arrived in Baldwin just three days after Hurricane Lili had swept through the area. Many people were still without electricity and clean water. At the Depot, we helped distribute ice, food, and 3000 cases of bottled water provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Red Cross to local people. The Sager-Brown campus also provided shelter to people whose homes were damaged in the storm.

North Central New York Volunteer Team Does Mission Work in New York City
Often United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) is associated with building and repairing schools, homes and churches, but the program offers many kinds of service opportunities.

Congo Camps
"It was a wonderful experience," Broida said. "You go to give but I felt they gave me a lot more than I gave them. I felt so loved." The mission was sponsored by the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission, the missionary arm of the Methodist church, in conjunction with the local Methodist church in Lubumbashi. The medical team consisted of a five-person team from Colorado and a five-person team from Washington and Idaho.

Tjakastad, South Africa
"Sebonana futhi," I assured Notando through tears. "We will meet again." The young South African child just gripped my hand tighter, seeming to understand that my promise might not come true. Notando embraced me and sweetly whispered something in Saswati, her native language. Though neither of us understood the other's words, our emotional connection spoke clearly. As my team drove away, the people of Tjakastad saluted with the American Sign Language sign for "I love you," which they had learned from us. We responded by waving our hands and saying, "Shine," their Saswati affirmation.

15 from Rocky Mountain Conference help at UMCOR's Sager-Brown
The Rocky Mountain Conference team of 15 is back from UMCOR Sager-Brown. We decided it was the perfect week to be there; we got to do disaster response (served Red Cross meals, distributed ice and 3000 cases of water in 2 days, repaired facility roofs, picked up tree limbs around the campus, cleaned dorms...

Why Pastors Need To Go On VIM Teams
To hold in your arms a small child whose body is so malnourished that it feels like you are going to break her tiny little bones just by lifting her into your arms, and then to feel her rest her head upon your shoulder and snuggle into you and fall asleep. To realize this little child form this orphanage has probably never been held before, just to be held- and for a moment you think, "My arms for this child are the arms of Christ."

Kosova
Rebuilding in Kosova They were awakened shortly after midnight by the KLA (Kosova Liberation Army). The Serbians had just destroyed many homes in the neighboring villages and were on their way to the hill where the Istrefi family lived. Get up !Get out! Go Quickly!, the KLA told them, saving their lives. The older boys and men scattered throughout the mountainside, while the women and children (with no time but to grab a few treasured family photos), began the long walk to Metrovice about 40 kilometers away....cold, scared, wondering what they would encounter in the dark along the way.

Appoline-Child of the Congo
Appoline 7-year old Appoline suffers from the trauma of watching her parents die in the bush area of Democratic Republic of Congo where they lived. Elderly, they were too old to resist the invasion and died at the hands of the rebel forces. Appoline and her sister were forced to watch.

Medical Team - Honduras
Estrivo We arrived in the tiny village of Estrivo, Honduras in early February (1999) not knowing what to expect to see in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. We were told this was an area of great devastation, landmines had been washed into the fields from bordering Nicaragua, and no medical persons had been here since before Mitch. We were surrounded by smiling faces, eager to help us unload our personal belongings, sleeping bags, and medical supplies. School had closed for the week because we were to hold our clinic time in their building, and also because our arrival was such a huge event for this community...no one could concentrate on classes anyway! After setting up by using wooden school desks stacked on each other for pharmaceutical shelves, and more desks neatly arranged as exam tables, we ³hung out our shingle². The line had formed hours prior to our arrival, with people walking several hours in the 100 degree heat to bring their children to see the doctors.

Cahuilla Indian Tribe
The Body of Christ Church is in the midst of constructing a permanent sanctuary on tribal grounds with the assistance of UMVIM (United Methodist Volunteers in Mission) teams. Construction teams are urgently needed for Oct 2001-May 2002. Be prepared for sunny wind-blown days, aching muscles, and parched lips. Be prepared also for unique worship experiences, cultural exchanges, and eternal friendships to be built. This church is restoring hope in people¹s hearts. What was once a dream of the tribe, is now a reality. Share in the joy. There¹s more work to be done!

UMVIM--a life-changing experience!
I went to Chihuahua City, Mexico for a week with the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM). A life changing experience, I came away from it a new person. This was something I could see myself doing, helping other people and using my language skills. I have an overwhelming interest to travel and to learn about other cultures and I can actually see myself in a humanitarian career. That week in the city allowed me to get to know the people and how they live. There is such a contrast between what I recognize as happiness and their perceptions. These people don’t have nearly the luxuries I enjoy; yet they are so content. Speaking with the children made me feel at home and I saw how tiny my scope of the world is.