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UNITED METHODIST VOLUNTEERS IN MISSION (UMVIM)

Mission News

More news about missions can be found by joining the East Ohio United Methodist Volunteers in Mission Facebook group.

Jan 21

An UMVIM Journey: Mondays in March
Works of Service as a Lenten Practice
Team Leader: Kathy Dickriede, Dir. of Missions and Community Engagement
Free! Register | Flyer

We want you to experience the East Ohio overnight mission sites so that:

• You will discover the amazing ministries that you make happen through apportionments and that you could partner with in hands on ways, building relationships.
• You might plan an UMVIM Journey with your youth or local church.
• You will get excited about these ministries and help advocate for them in your church and district.
• You will be living out your call of discipleship to be God’s agent of transformation in the world!

COVID Smart

• If you don’t feel well, please don’t attend.
• Take your temperature in the morning before you leave your house.
• Drive yourself or carpool with people you know.
• Masks required.
• We will be practicing social distancing.

What will we be doing at the mission sites?
Each site will be planning our time together. Some things we might be doing include: touring the mission, hands on mission, panel discussions with clients or people from the community discussing why the mission/ministry is needed in the community, transitions in the community, goals for the agencies, what someone would do if they brought an UMVIM team in the summer or throughout the year, and sharing promotional videos.

Schedule
9:30 a.m. Arrival to be ready to begin at 10:00 a.m. Mission site leaders will plan our time together.
12:00 p.m. Lunch provided by mission station, pack your own meal or fasting for some as a spiritual practice or in response to personal precautions during COVID.
1:00 p.m. Mission planned activities
2:00 p.m. Spiritual reflection and closing worship
3:00 p.m. Departure

Monday, March 1 Steubenville Urban Mission
Monday, March 8 Epworth Center, Bethesda
Monday, March 15 Blue Rose Mission, Mansfield
Monday, March 22 Nehemiah Mission, Cleveland
Monday, March 29 Covered Bridge Mission, Jefferson newly forming ministry

Register using the Eventbrite link above or call Melanie Thomas at (330) 492-3972 ext. 102 to register over the phone. You can register for all of the dates or just part of this UMVIM Lenten Journey. Questions? Contact Kathy Dickriede. Online Team Meeting on Sunday, February 21 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. for orientation, link will be sent once you register. Register by Friday, February 19.

December 10, 2020

Mission Journeys 2021
We are excited to announce two free, virtual mission journeys in early 2021. It’s a perfect opportunity for those who have always felt called to mission but haven’t been able to go out into the field. Participate in a virtual mission trip to ZOE Empowers in Zimbabwe on January 12-14 and Peru on March 6, 10, and 13.

Learn more about these trips on our Mission Journeys page. You can also find a list of in person trips that are tentative for 2021-22.

Support an EOC Missioner in Mexico
Letty Damian is currently serving as a mission intern in the Fireland’s District in her last year of seminary at Methodist Theological Seminary in Ohio. As the current director of the Resurrection Community Center in Mexico, Letty invites you to subscribe to her blog to receive updates and videos of her family’s mission journey. You can also support her mission by donating to EOC Fund 9974.

Learn about the Resurrection Community Center in Mexico.

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November 30, 2020

#GivingTuesday is December 1
On #Giving Tuesday join United Methodists across the denomination in supporting #GiveUMC by generously donating to an East Ohio Conference Advance project.

View East Ohio Conference Advance projects.

Donate by mailing a check made payable to East Ohio Conference UMC (with the fund # of the project written on the memo line) to East Ohio Conference, P.O. Box 76019, Cleveland Ohio 44101-4755.

You may also make a donation online.

3Cs and International Missions Update
Since launching 3Cs in 2007 we have deepened our scope and widened our reach as we journeyed to more areas and discovered new ways to partner. We celebrate the movement of missions rooted in relationships in East Ohio. The time has come to shift the focus to individual projects and conclude use of the 3Cs general fund number 9936.

Thank you to every church and individual who helped to transform lives in the mission field by raising $1 million over the past 13 years for 3Cs: Churches, Clinics, and Classrooms (Fund 9936). Some of the 3Cs mission dollars went to container shipments of supplies, construction, school fees, scholarships, teacher training, and sponsoring visitors from other areas to East Ohio. Many new ministries formed and covenant relationships with missionaries began with 3Cs. Moving forward we encourage individuals and local churches to partner in specific ways with specific ministries.

View East Ohio Conference Advance projects. If you don’t find the mission or missionary you’d like to support there, search the Global Ministries website or e-mail Melanie Thomas. As your church continues to partner with missions as God’s agents of transformation, please e-mail Rev. Kathy Dickriede, director of Missions & Community Engagement or Conference Global Ministries Secretary Kevin Schaner for ideas of ways to build these relationships. View upcoming mission journeys.

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April 30, 2020

UMVIM Team Leader Training
East Ohio has hosted two online UMVIM Team Leader trainings this spring. They both went well and if there’s enough interest we can host another! This FREE online training is limited to 10 participants. If you’d like to lead folks on a journey into the mission field locally, nationally, or internationally, this training is for you! UMVIM will be back to traveling again and the needs will be great. Some of the things we cover in the training are:

• How to build relationships, awareness and advocate with other like-minded people
• East Ohio Conference best practices and resources for mission planning
• How to promote, tell the mission story, recruit, and fundraise 
• What are UMVIM mission locations across the connection of the UMC?
• How to empower others through your leadership

Let’s be a community ready to get back to the ministry of presence and mission in Cambodia, Liberia, Cuba, Haiti, Ukraine, Mexico, and to the work of rebuilding Puerto Rico and other long-term recovery projects! The world needs you and me to be the hands, feet and heart of Jesus.

Contact Kathy Dickriede, East Ohio UMVIM Coordinator if you would like to be a part of a future Zoom UMVIM Team Leader Training.

Mask Making Mission
The world needs masks! Whether you live in Ohio, Cambodia, or Liberia, masks are needed and recommended by health experts to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. As a Conference, we have been focused on the scripture of John 15:1-17 and “bearing fruit that lasts” for 4 years. In 2020, the focus is on being connected. As people connected by faith, we know that what one person does impacts another. As people connected by faith, we need to love one another and strive to keep each other safe. Therefore, we are calling you to put your faith into action by wearing a mask or face covering when you’re in public. Congregations and communities can also help in the making and distribution of protective cloth face masks for outreach centers, nursing homes, community centers, mission sites, food pantries, and more. These are not meant to be PPE quality but rather what is sometimes called "cough etiquette.”

Here’s how to get involved:
We need people to be coordinators in districts areas or communities in East Ohio. Let me know if you are willing to help be a resource to folks in your area for locations, pick-up of supplies, and/or completed masks. If you would like to send masks locally or internationally, let me know how and where. Then we can find you partners for this mission.

We are hoping those who sew will commit to at least 10 masks per week for 4 weeks. Once you have made a couple, this should be only a few hours per week time commitment. We will assess the continued need at the end of 4 weeks to see if we will continue the outreach project, modify, or stop it.

If you don’t sew, do you have 100% cotton fabric and elastic that you can donate? We will be more than happy to pick it up from you and get it to sewers. Another way to help would be to cut fabric to the appropriate size for our sewing volunteers.

If you have a mask pattern you have been using, please feel free to continue with that pattern. However, if you need a pattern, below are a couple of links to tutorials for mask making:

How to Sew a Face Mask with Fabric Ties // TUTORIAL
How to Sew a Face Mask
Kaiser Permanente Fabric Face Mask Instructions (sewing machine needed):
University Hospital in Cleveland (uses a pattern that does not use interfacing. If that works better for the supplies you have on hand, please review those instructions at this website)
Easy 3-minute mask tutorial with pocket

For a more fitted mask, that is closer to PPE requirements this website has a few videos with instructions and general information. I think the second one is the best. The third gives you some supply options.

If you are willing to volunteer, have questions or need to have materials or masks picked up from your home, please contact Kathy Dickriede or call (330) 492-3972 ext. 102.

If you can’t help with the production of the masks, we welcome, appreciate, and need your prayers.