Support EOC Mission Partners By Donating Items on Their 2024 Christmas Wish Lists

The Connectional Ministries team asked East Ohio Conference Advance Special ministry partners to provide a list of needs the people they serve have this Christmas season. Might you and your church family be able to help fulfill some of these Christmas wishes? Doing so will be life-changing for you and for those whom you support with your generosity.

There are a wide range of items on the Christmas wish lists from soap, pillows, onesies, paper towels, and toiletries to soccer balls, gift cards, educational opportunities, and summer camp tuition.

Please keep in your prayers this Christmas season, each of these organizations, their volunteers, and the people they serve.

All Advances can also receive monetary donations through their respective Conference funds.

The following Advances submitted Christmas wish lists:

ACCESS Ashland Emergency Shelter
All In Community
Brookdale Orchard
Caring for Haitian Orphans with AIDS (CHOAIDS)
Heart 4 The City
Midwest Mission
Mission Barn
OhioGuidestone
OPEN M
Project Hope for the Homeless
Royal Family KIDS Camp
South Street Ministries
Thrive 10:10
Trials for Hope

View the mission partners’ Christmas wish lists.
Learn about and support EOC Advance Specials.

Come Transform Lives with Us through
The United Methodist Church. #Be UMC.

“So many people in our world need community, need belonging, need love, need hope and The United Methodist Church has that for them. So that is why I am United Methodist,” said Rev. Allison LeBrun. “Because of the people of The UMC, because of the women in my family, and the many people who call themselves United Methodist I know I’m a beloved child of God.”

The pastor of Boardman First UMC is one of many people in our Conference who have shared how The United Methodist Church has transformed their lives.

To schedule a time to record a one- to two-minute video telling your #BeUMC story, e-mail Brett Hetherington in the Communications office.

View #BeUMC stories & the EOC #BeUMC website.

Storyboard: Faith Witness Transformation

Our EOC podcast, Storyboard: Faith Witness Transformation, explores what it means to #BeUMC.

Episode 49 is titled “Influence, Connection & Impact: Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World”. The episode features a conversation with EOC clergy and laity about how the Bridges Out of Poverty model is transforming the lives of people in their congregations and communities impacted by poverty. The Bridges Out of Poverty model discusses the need for individual, communal, and societal investigation to discover changes that need to be made to overcome poverty.

Bishop Hee-Soo Jung Shares Words of Guidance and Direction to Congregations

Bishop Hee-Soo Jung is the resident bishop of the new Ohio Episcopal Area, which is comprised of the East Ohio and West Ohio Conferences. In his Installation Service sermon and in messages he has shared with laity and clergy Bishop Jung offered the following words to guide our shared ministries:

“I hope you are excited to stand as a new creation in Christ and live as a proud member of The United Methodist Church. Our Church is a place of hope. Our Church is a salvation center. Our Church is a soul-healing center.”

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“Most congregations today are focused on Sunday on-stage performances. Sunday is important but Monday through Saturday is more important. I believe future discourse belongs to off-stage leadership in our society. Church leaders need to know other community leaders. They need to ask clergy of other faiths, ‘How can we work together?’ They need to ask school officers, ‘How can we work together?’ They need to ask police officers and firefighters, ‘How can we work together?’ They need to ask leaders of service organizations, ‘How can we work together?’ They need to ask community mental health experts, ‘How can we work together?’ They need to ask local business leaders, ‘How can we work together?’”

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“Let us build a strong banquet that promotes cooperation rather than separation, unity rather than competition, and mutual respect for diversity and God's freedom.”