Mission Central

Throughout 2023, Mission Central sought to serve all those in need. Thank you for your assistance in helping us connect God’s resources with human need. We look forward to continuing to do the same in 2024. We often encounter confusion about the difference between Mission Central and UMCOR. In order to make thing clearer, we wanted to provide answers to some of the most frequent questions we receive. 

Mission Central & UMCOR Questions Answered

Is Mission Central UMCOR?

No, Mission Central is its own 501c3 organization. We are not run by the United Methodist Church or UMCOR. We were started by and have a close relationship with the United Methodist Church, but we are ecumenical in nature, working with all those, no matter who they are.

How is Mission Central Funded?

Mission Central is funded almost entirely by contributions from individuals, churches and corporate sponsorships. We receive some private grants as well. We do not receive money from the government or from the United Methodist Church. When you give to UMCOR, you are not giving to Mission Central because we are separately funded organizations.

Mission Central is an UMCOR Affiliate Warehouse. What does that mean?

Mission Central has committed to being a part of the UMCOR Relief Supply Network. There are eight warehouses in the relief supply network. UMCOR Sager Brown is the only warehouse owned, funded, and operated by UMCOR. We pledge to build, verify, collect, warehouse and ship UMCOR kits at our own expense. The network works together in times of disaster to resource kits. Mission Central is ready to send supplies where there is a need. Again, this is at our expense.

We are stronger together - if one of us is down, the others are there to help with supplies, but no money is exchanged. For example, during COVID, UMCOR Sager Brown closed in March 2020 and didn’t reopen until June 2023. During that time, they sent some of the supplies they had on hand to our location since we remained open and continued to operate to keep up with the increased demand around the world and domestically. When supplies were completed, we would send them where inventory was needed.

What are UMCOR kits?

In 2018, UMCOR decreased to three kit types: Cleaning Kit (Flood Bucket), Hygiene Kit, and School Kit. At the end of 2023, they discontinued with the School Kit due to a lack of requests during a disaster. They instituted a disposable Feminine Hygiene Kit instead.

All other kits we talk about are Mission Central kits that we distribute both nationally and internationally. These are completely separate from UMCOR.

Who decides what an UMCOR kit is?

UMCOR decides what is in their kits and often works in collaboration with Church World Services. The items in these kits do not change and are not under our discretion.

When do UMCOR kits get sent?

When a request is put into UMCOR, the kits are sent. UMCOR kits are sent only within the U.S. and mostly in response to disasters.

Should I give money to Mission Central or UMCOR in a disaster?

During international disasters, UMCOR sends relief in the form of monetary grants. UMCOR no longer ships supplies internationally because shipping can be expensive and not as immediate. Because of the way UMCOR is set up, this is the best way for them to steward your donation.

Mission Central, alternately, ships supplies both in the U.S. and internationally because we do not pay for international shipping. We work with partners to receive information on the requested items needed for a disaster. Many times, these are items they are unable to find near the disaster site. Mission Central lets you know what the needed items are, and you can purchase them or send monetary donations to us to facilitate this process.

Every dollar donated to a disaster through Mission Central will be spent towards that disaster. We want to steward your resources well and make sure you are given the proper information to give where is most appropriate for you so that we can all work together to send hope and empowerment in times of crisis around the world and around the corner.

Thank you for your generous support!

Find out more and give at www.missioncentral.org.

VIM Immigration Immersion Journey

Painting of a Humane Borders water station by Janet Gyekis, VIM Immigration Immersion Journey participant.

Michelle Schwartzman, SUSUMC VIM Coordinator

The impact of a mission journey is diverse. Impact can be providing a ramp for a new wheelchair user. It can be listening to someone who lost their home in a flood. It can be the feeling we get when we are able to help someone. It can be learning about immigration. It can be providing dental work. It is experiential. 

Missio Dei, “the mission of God”, is at the center of our theology. We are called to be a community, called to be one. It’s not a stagnant, one-time event but it is moving. We continue to relate, continue to learn, and continue to live the message with the community. This community and this desire to give and love one another is where work camps and mission trips often start. It’s where UMVIM (United Methodist Volunteers in Mission) was born. 

In UMVIM we now say “Mission Journey” instead of “Mission Trip” because it’s not just about the week-long trip or project, it’s part of the Missio Dei, it’s moving and a continual part of our life, not a one-time event.

Western culture is goal-oriented, stereotypically. That makes it hard for us as individuals, for our churches, for our society to not have a specific task or project to complete. When I began promoting the VIM Immigration Immersion Journey I was asked repeatedly, but “what will you DO while you’re there?” The participants of the journey even expressed that churches asked the same or the participants themselves were asking the same. The answer was that this was an educational journey. We would travel to Arizona and Mexico and meet with different organizations to learn about their experience and work with immigration. We would learn to be advocates for immigrants and put that into practice when we got back.

Six other women joined me for the Journey in September. Since we’ve been back, they each have continued this journey; speaking at their churches, to local civic organizations, to boards and writing articles. They’ve raised funds and signed petitions. I hope that you’ve read our Director of Communications’ article in the November 2023 LINK issue. It gives an account of the different organizations we visited and the dire need for more advocates. Please take a few minutes to read it if you haven’t. 

Consequently, the “DOing”, the task that is in question, comes after the actual trip to Arizona/Mexico and lasts a lifetime. Our “DOing” is what Jesus calls us to do. When Jesus talks about the Good Samaritan, at the end, he says that the neighbor was the one who showed mercy and that we should go and do the same.

The Mexico/USA border wall in Arizona and a child’s sweatshirt by the border wall.
What story does this garment hold?

Dotsy Baiza, VIM Journey participant writes in her church newsletter, “We also assisted 60 women with small children, who had been picked up and immediately sent back over the border. A shelter, La Casa de la Esperanza in Sasabe, Mexico is run by volunteers who give the immigrants food, water, and a shower before they must return to Mexico. This was so heart-wrenching, after all they had been through. The Inn of Southern Arizona, a shelter run by a UMC offers beds, food, water, and clothing. The Inn helps immigrants connect with their sponsor, provides transport to the airport, bus, etc. I met a young mother with a 2-year-old son. For 30 days, she walked to the Mexican border from Guatemala. With a small child. How intolerable her life must have been to even consider the journey.”

This is a complex issue but we must not lose sight of what is at the core: humanity. When we talk about “Issues”, we often label to the point of dehumanizing people. That cannot be what Jesus is asking us to do. Studying the Good Samaritan, we learn that the others that pass him by are following policy or practices that they are holding above the suffering of a human. In our journey, we can listen to the experiences of immigrants and to the experiences of those working with them. We can tell the story, and fight for mercy to be shown. To learn more about the organizations we met with you can see them in the November LINK or contact me. 

What we experienced (saw, smelled, tasted, felt, learned) in Arizona and Mexico was heavy. It was a lot to take in; one, just because we visited so many different organizations and two, for the gravity of it all. Returning home, it took some time to process it all. When we have experiences like this with Mission Journeys, it’s important to take time for this. It might be playing with your children, going on a hike, reading a fun book, laughing with friends, getting sucked into a TV series, or cuddling with your pets or all the above. The seven of us that went on this journey are spread throughout Pennsylvania and we talked about this through email after we got back. We also will meet on Zoom to catch up in February. We will talk about how our journey reflects us doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God (paraphrased Micah 6:8).

I’m looking to lead this journey again for our Conference in the future. If you’re interested, please reach out. Once plans are in place I will advertise.

Michelle Schwartzman
VIM Coordinator

vim@susumc.org
www.susmb.org/vim/
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Volunteers in Mission: Faith Bellefonte and Mt. Calvary Harrisburg

 

By Pennsy Waltman

Faith UMC, Bellefonte, and Mt. Calvary, Harrisburg, were so blessed to return to Carteret County N.C. this fall after having served there in the spring. There are 250 families still waiting for help from the 30 inches of rain in 24 hours in 2018 which came up through the floors and rotted them from the bottom up. We helped three families in the spring and two on our trip in October: a grandmother raising four grandchildren (wonderful kids!) and a retired gentleman on disability who had a broken back and neck and isn't able to do a lot of repairs himself. Both homes should have been condemned! Floors were rotted out so that you had to walk on the floor joists in order to cross the room and not fall through the floor. You could see the earth beneath the floor while using the bathroom. Insulation was hanging two feet above the bunk bed where a teenage granddaughter was sleeping. Four tarps on top of each other was keeping some of the rain from coming into the home. The back porch had fallen down onto the concrete making it unsafe to enter the house that way. In one home there has been no hot water since 2018! 

The job/housing coordinators are working six days a week without financial compensation but are greatly compensated by seeing what God is accomplishing through His children in mission. We were able to install shower/bathtubs, toilets, new flooring, new roof, a hot water heater, drywall, and much more. The day after we left, God sent another team to finish where we left off. Praise God both families are back in their homes.

We always invite past and present families we have served to join us for dinner and it was a joy to have them all together and hear their stories. The son of the gentleman homeowner helped us on his days off and is taking vacation to join us on our next trip in the spring because "I haven't seen my Dad smile in 3 years and he's been smiling all week!" A couple we helped in the spring thought God had forgot all about them and lost their faith, stopped going to church, and gave up. Seeing us driving all the way from Pennsylvania, sleeping on the floor, and helping people they never saw before brought them back to God and they paid it forward with a check for $1,000 to help us help someone else! 

As we all say, "We always get more than we give on these trips!! Maybe God just wants us to keep paying it forward!"

For more information contact Volunteers In Mission Coordinator Michelle Schwartzman at 717-766-7441 ext.3105 or email VIM@susumc.org or visit susmb.org/vim

Volunteers In Mission is for All Churches in Mission!

 

United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) is the short-term mission agency of the United Methodist Church. An UMVIM volunteer is any United Methodist who engages in outreach as a member of a United Methodist Church in service of their neighbors near and far.

Any local church serving in missions is eligible for additional accident insurance through United Methodist Volunteers In Mission (VIM) free of charge. 

All VIM teams should carry travel insurance. This insurance is a supplement to each team member’s personal insurance.

If your church is serving the neighborhood, out of state, or out of the country contact Michelle Schwartzman, VIM Coordinator, for more information. 

You can submit a volunteer roster in order to receive the insurance card and information for your time of service with others. 

Michelle can be reached at vim@susumc.org or 717-766-7441 ext. 3105. More info on the insurance can be found at www.susmb.org/insurance/. You can download the volunteer roster here: Volunteer Roster. 

VIM offers training and connections to opportunities too. Check it out at www.susmb.org/vim/

God’s Army is Coming to the Susquehanna Conference

United Methodist Action Reach-out Mission by Youth (U.M. ARMY) is a national youth mission organization offering summer mission opportunities for youth, young adults and adults across the United States. U.M. ARMY works with VIM at both the national and local conference level to ensure quality, faith-based, mission weeks.

Last summer, U.M. ARMY had to re-imagine our mission models so we could still answer the call to serve while working within the COVID guidelines. We did this, through God’s blessing, by creating LOCAL and VIRTUAL models. These models provide a balance of gathering across church groups for social interaction, showing God’s love in a hurting world, creating opportunities for spiritual development and encircling safety around everything we do.

We held one of these LOCAL mission weeks in the Susquehanna Conference last summer with great success and many blessings. Due to the ongoing concerns with the pandemic, we have decided to move forward on this LOCAL model again this summer. EXCITING NEWS! We are offering two LOCAL models in the Susquehanna Conference this year. We already have some youth groups lined up to participate in both weeks; however, we have plenty of room for your group to join us in this “day camp” model.

The theme this year is: GOD @ WORK:CREATING. Each day begins with morning worship to get us focused for the day, followed by service work out in the local community. All projects will either be outside or at a local community service organization with strict COVID guidelines. Each team shares lunch together with guided devotion discussion related to the weekly and daily themes. After a day of service, we gather again for group building activities and closing worship. During the week, we will experience a prayer journey that provides a time of personal reflection and time with God.

Each person is asked to eat breakfast at home, bring their own lunch each day, and eat dinner at home. Water supplies will be provided, along with pre-packaged snacks. We are hoping to offer a closing picnic at the end of the week, if we feel we can serve and eat food safely.

We will be at the following locations/dates this summer:

FISHING CREEK SALEM UMC (Goldsboro, PA) – July 18-23 

CHRIST UMC (Mt. Top, PA) – July 11-16 

NO WORRIES if you live too far away or if these weeks won’t work for your group. U.M. ARMY is also offering VIRTUAL opportunities this summer. These weeks still provide an opportunity to serve in your local communities in a day camp model; however, worship and interactive activities will be held virtually with other youth groups participating during your same week.

Won’t you join us to help share God’s love and experience God’s creation? God is already at work creating our mission work within the Susquehanna Conference. We just need to be His hands, feet and heart by answering the call to serve.

For more information on U.M. ARMY, please feel free to access our website: umarmy.org

To explore opportunities for your group, please contact Darlene Thomas, Regional Director @ darlenethomas@umarmy.org or 877-771-9484 ext. 1108

Volunteers in Mission updated guidelines during COVID-19

John Wesley summarized God’s teaching into three rules, “Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.” In this time of a global pandemic, we focus on “Do no harm.” What does that mean for those of us in mission? UMVIM has created and updated Guidelines for US Project Sites and Team Leaders during COVID-19. Please read through the guidelines for the full information. Updates include encouraging all in mission to be vaccinated and this may be required by the site. It recommends outside work, but there are new strategies if projects can’t avoid inside work. Proper mask wearing, hand washing (sanitizing), and social distancing are a must for all service. 

This is an instance that we must show love of our neighbor by taking this seriously and doing all we can to protect others.

Find out more about Volunteers in Mission at www.susmb.org - click on the “Volunteers in Mission” tab. Or you may reach out to me with questions or concerns at vim@susumc.org or 717-766-7441 ext. 3105

Peace to you,

Michelle Schwartzman, Volunteers in Missions Coordinator