UMCOR begins response to mudslide in Philippines

Feb. 20, 2006
By United Methodist News Service

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is asking for prayers and financial support as it responds to the mudslide that has buried an entire village in the Philippines.

A Feb. 17 mudslide, triggered by days of rain, buried the entire village - including an elementary school - of Guinsaugon, on southern Leyte Island. The island is about 420 miles southeast of Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of the village of Guinsaugon on the Leyte Island in this time of tragedy and grief," said the Rev. R. Randy Day, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, parent agency of UMCOR.

"We think especially of the families of the children trapped in the school covered in the mudslide," he said in a press release. "The Philippines is part of our United Methodist global family of nations, and we are mobilizing to offer tangible signs of compassion and care."

So far, about 100 bodies have been found, and officials estimated that the toll could climb to about 1,000. The village and school were buried under a massive amount of mud. U.S. Marines, a Malaysian rescue team and others were still helping with rescue efforts Feb. 20.

The dead included the Rev. Niel Toyhacao, the pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines' congregation in Guinsaugon, and his 6-month-old son. Of the church's nearly 70 members, only nine so far are known to have survived, according to a bulletin from the denomination. The United Church of Christ in the Philippines is a partner church of the United Methodist Church, with strong historical links to United Methodism through the former Evangelical United Brethren part of the denomination.

The village had about 1,800 people, and more than 240 children were in the school when the tragedy occurred. Heavy rain from Feb. 7 to Feb. 16 turned the 2,400-foot Mount Kanabag into a mudslide that covered the village, according to news reports.

UMCOR said it anticipated working with partners in the area, including the Manila, Davao and Baguio episcopal areas of the United Methodist Church in the Philippines, to provide immediate relief and support for long-term recovery.

Cash gifts will help the relief agency support immediate relief and long-term recovery of those affected by the mudslide. Checks can be mailed to UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087. Write "UMCOR Advance #240235, Philippines Emergency" on the memo line. Online donations can be made by going to http://gbgm-umc.org/advance/donate/donate.cfm?id=1019604.

Contributions also can be placed in church offering plates, and congregations around the denomination will be collecting support for UMCOR on March 26, during the annual One Great Hour of Sharing observance. One hundred percent of every donation to any Advance appeal, including appeals for the Philippines, goes to support recovery efforts in the disaster-stricken regions.

United Methodist hurricane relief exceeds $62 million

Hurricane Katrina devastated this waterfront neighborhood in Bayou La Batre, Ala., on the Gulf of Mexico. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.

Feb. 14, 2006
By Elliott Wright*


More than $62 million was contributed in 2005 to the United Methodist Committee on Relief for hurricane relief and rehabilitation in the United States and wider Gulf of Mexico region.

"Year-end receipts from the annual conferences pushed the figure far, far beyond what we anticipated in the late fall," said Roland Fernandes, treasurer of the Board of Global Ministries, the denominational agency of which UMCOR is a part.

UMCOR had received $62.37 million as of Dec. 31. All of the money was or is being applied to relief and rehabilitation, primarily through the church's annual (regional) conferences affected by the strong series of hurricanes that struck the Gulf Coast. Post-hurricane work in Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and Nicaragua also was covered.

"In April, our directors will make decisions about how the balance will be expended," said the Rev. Paul Dirdak, the executive in charge of UMCOR for the mission board. "Meanwhile, UMCOR has responded 100 percent to the emergency relief and rehabilitation start-up requests made by the annual conferences, with over $6 million expended to date. Our rehabilitation efforts will likely cover a four-year period."

David Sadoo, international field staff for UMCOR, said the work in Mexico and Central America is an important part of the church's hurricane response. "We are assisting there with both relief and long-term rehabilitation."

The Rev. R. Randy Day, top staff executive of the Board of Global Ministries, expressed appreciation to United Methodists and their friends for the outpouring of support for people and communities affected by the hurricanes.

"United Methodists are such caring and generous people," he said. "How thankful we are that we can provide major assistance to the storm-ravaged areas."

The Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama-West Florida and Texas conferences were the most severely affected by hurricanes striking the United States in 2005. The first two were the hardest hit by Katrina, which made landfall Aug. 29. The Texas Annual Conference received the largest number of displaced people from New Orleans, followed by a major hit from Hurricane Rita in September.

Dirdak said the cash contributions are only one measure of the enormous United Methodist response to the hurricane disasters. In addition, tons of supplies have been sent to UMCOR's Sager Brown materials depot in Baldwin, La., for distribution in the disaster zone. Thousands of church members are helping with cleanup and rebuilding as volunteers in mission.

"The compassion of the United Methodist people for those in crisis appears to be unlimited," Dirdak said. "It is a compassion rooted in thanksgiving for God's grace and love and in Jesus' mandate to love our neighbors."

While most of the $62 million was contributed in response to Hurricane Katrina, some amounts were earmarked for relief following the later Hurricane Rita, and some came in response to 2005 storms prior to Katrina.

Money reaches UMCOR in a variety of ways: telephone and Internet gifts, checks sent directly to the agency, and contributions made through local congregations and channeled by annual conferences to the church's General Council on Finance and Administration. The council serves as treasurer for relief and other designated giving through what is called the Advance for Christ and His Church.

Conferences have until late January each year to make their submissions to the finance agency.

*Wright is the public information officer of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Nashville's Interfaith clinic provides dental care to working poor

Carol Azamtarrahian (left) and two of her children, Mohammad (center) and Fatima, are patients at the Interfaith Dental Clinic in Nashville, Tenn. Carol works full time but cannot afford the dental insurance offered by her employer. The clinic serves people like Carol and her family. Its mission is to help the city’s working poor — people who work full time but have trouble making ends meet. A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry.


Feb. 8, 2006
By Lilla Marigza*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Your smile is often the first thing people notice about you. A ministry started by a local United Methodist church is giving uninsured Tennesseans something to smile about.

Carol Azamtarrahian works 40 hours a week as a preschool teacher. Her employer provides dental insurance, but she can't afford the premiums. Until recently, she qualified for state-sponsored dental care, but budget cuts eliminated the program.

"I used to be on TennCare, but they cut our services, so that's why I came here," she says.

Nashville's Interfaith Dental Clinic serves people like Carol and her family. Its mission is to help the city's working poor - people who work full time but have trouble making ends meet.

"This clinic hits people who fall between the cracks," says Dr. Tom Underwood, a dentist who helped found the clinic. "In other words, if they have no income, if they don't work, the families can have indigent care. If a family actually works and doesn't have insurance, they don't have enough to take care of their family needs and their dentistry at the same time because dentistry is very expensive."

Dr. Tom Underwood, one of two full-time dentists at the Interfaith Dental Clinic, serves the working poor of Nashville, Tenn. The clinic was founded in 1993 in the basement of West End United Methodist Church after Underwood worked in several foreign countries and “realized the people here were in worse shape than most all of the other countries.” Today the clinic is a state-of-the-art facility with a full-time staff and 200 volunteer doctors. A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry.

Payment for services is on a sliding scale based on income, and all patients must show proof of full-time employment. The clinic hours are designed to accommodate the special needs of clients. The clinic serves 1,200 people a year.

"I was able to come here because they are open at night and it's easier for me to come after hours from working and pick up my children from school," Azamtarrahian says. She and her husband have five children, two of whom qualify for the clinic; the others are over 18.
The interfaith clinic began in 1993 in a broom closet in the basement of West End United Methodist Church. Underwood, a church member, posed the idea after several mission trips to provide dental care in Third World countries.

"I worked in several foreign countries, and when we got back to Nashville, we realized the people here were in worse shape than most all of the other countries," Underwood says.
Underwood gives much of the credit for the success of the ministry to the clinic's executive director, Dr. Rhonda Switzer, a dentist and member of West End United Methodist. Switzer supervised the program as it outgrew the church basement. Today, the interfaith clinic has a state-of-the-art facility, a full-time staff and 200 volunteer doctors.

Dr. Rhonda Switzer, executive director of the Interfaith Dental Clinic in Nashville, Tenn., oversees the state-of-the-art medical facility, a full-time staff and 200 volunteer doctors. Begun in 1993 in the basement of West End United Methodist Church, the ministry relies on donations to raise its million-dollar annual operating budget. Its mission is to help the city’s working poor — people who work full-time but have trouble making ends meet. A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry.

Switzer is one of the clinic's two full-time dentists. "I am very proud of the Methodist Church for starting this," she says. "It is, I think, pretty novel and they should be proud it started here, and it's a model for other churches to follow."

Switzer's job is part medicine and part public relations, and she works far beyond the usual 9-to-5. It takes a lot of money and volunteers to keep the program running.

"If we have the opportunity to tell our story… whether it's to a Sunday school class or from the pulpit or at a Wednesday supper … I will be there," she says.

She credits her faith with helping her handle the demands of the work, and her church with developing her leadership skills. Years of Sunday school and singing in the choir have nurtured her for a life of public speaking, she says. "Those are skills I learned at church and not necessarily at school. I think that's pretty cool."

The clinic relies solely on donations to raise its million-dollar annual operating budget. Board members say with private health care costs skyrocketing, public need is growing. They hope more churches will recognize the need for dental ministry not just in developing countries but in the communities they serve.

The Interfaith Dental Clinic in Nashville, Tenn., is a state-of-the-art medical facility with a full-time staff and 200 volunteer doctors. The ministry relies on donations to raise its million-dollar annual operating budget. The clinic, begun in 1993 in the basement of West End United Methodist Church, serves people who work full time but have trouble making ends meet. A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry.

"You know there are so many people out there that you can change their lives if they could just afford to have the dental care," Underwood says.

Carol Azamtarrahian is grateful for the help she has received. She came to the clinic in pain and missing teeth. She now has a new smile, including extensive bridgework and crowns. Her children are also getting regular checkups and cleanings. She hopes the good oral hygiene habits learned here will stay with them for life.

"I just know preventive care is the most important," she says, "and if they keep up with it … they won't be in the situation I got into."

*Marigza is a freelance producer in Nashville, Tenn.

National Council of Churches study guide focuses on poverty goals

Feb. 8, 2006
NEW YORK (UMNS) - To help churches take action on poverty, the National Council of Churches has released a new guide, Eradicating Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the Millennium Development Goals.

The Millennium Development Goals are a set of eight goals to end extreme poverty, hunger and disease by 2015, agreed to by world leaders in 2000. The 2004 United Methodist General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body, supported those goals.

The purpose of the study guide is to motivate people to make the goals a reality, according to Lallie B. Lloyd, one of its editors.

"Since the Millennium Development Goals were announced in 2000," Lloyd writes, "a global movement has emerged. Around the world and across the United States, Christians are joining other people of faith ... in a unified effort to eradicate extreme poverty."

The 64-page study guide has six sessions for use in congregational church school classes and other settings "to foster an understanding of the pertinent issues and promote this worldwide effort on behalf of the poor," said Antonios Kireopoulos, an NCC executive and the guide's editor.
Each session examines one or more of the Millennium Development Goals. An appendix to the guide examines the special economic and political challenges facing the African continent.

The first goal is to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty or suffering from hunger by 2015. Other goals touch upon such issues as education, gender equality, child mortality and maternal health, and environmental sustainability.

One of the resources used in the new study was the book, Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith, written by the Rev. Don Messer and former Sens. Robert Dole and George McGovern.

"In a world of plenty, Christians dare not accept the moral scandal of allowing one person to die in this world every three seconds because of the misery-go-round of extreme poverty, hunger and disease," said Messer, a United Methodist pastor and former president of Iliff School of Theology in Denver. "Now is the time to make hunger history and to work toward an AIDS-free world."

As noted in the chapter on HIV/AIDS, "the extent of human suffering brought about by the global HIV/AIDS pandemic has rarely been seen before in the history of the world."

"If we are truly one, we are the church with HIV/AIDS," said Denise Ackerman, a South African theologian. "People living with HIV/AIDS are found in every … religious denomination. We are all related; what affects one member of the Body of Christ affects us all."

Following the example of Jesus with the leper, the church must practice the values of inclusion, engagement, connectedness and continuity to deal with the HIV/AIDS crisis, according to Ackerman.





Children eat a meal of sadza, a corn meal porridge, and greens at the Surviving Child Orphan Trust in Murewa, Zimbabwe. For many of the children, this lunch will be their only meal of the day. The United Methodist ministry cares for about 600 children left orphaned by AIDS. A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose.






The idea for the study guide grew out of a meeting hosted by the NCC that included a presentation by economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Millennium Project, a U.N.-commissioned advisory body that proposes solutions to meeting the goals by 2015.
The NCC governing board has endorsed the U.N. Millennium Development goals. The study guide was made possible in part by a grant from industrialist Chang K. Park, a Christian layman from New York.

Eradicating Global Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the Millennium Development Goals is published by Friendship Press, 7830 Reading Road, Cincinnati, OH 45237. The cost is $7.95. To order, call toll-free (800) 889-5733, or send a fax to (513) 761-3722. Order also can be sent by e-mail to Rbray@gbgm-umc.org.

Up-to-date listings show Gulf Coast and National/International Mission Teams

You can now view listings of known teams who’ve been or are going to the Gulf Coast or on other National/International mission trips at our VIM website (right column)

http://tnumc.org/index.cfm?PAGE_ID=349

Some teams are able to take extra persons, but teams fill up quickly. When possible, we will include contact information when they are able to accept additional team members. If you, your church, or your district organize a team, please send me your trip information so we can celebrate together being in mission at home and around the world. Please include the team leader contact information if you would be willing to accept additional team members.

Love and prayers

Rev. Jason Brock
Dir. Love and Justice
Disaster Response Coordinator
Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church
1110 19th Ave., S.
Nashville, TN 37212
615-329-1177 (office)
615-329-0884 (fax)
jbrock@tnumc.org