Stories

The Rev. Jenny Phillips, senior technical advisor for environmental sustainability, explores how the impact of climate change on natural disasters, global migration, health and agriculture intersects with God’s creation and our understanding of abundance and scarcity.

Serving at Sunnyside United Methodist Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Emily Burns works to combat issues of food insecurity in her community as a Global Mission Fellow and EarthKeeper by supporting and developing a community garden and food pantry.

Church of the Reconciler UMC in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, uses an EarthKeepers grant to test the viability of increasing community plastic recycling and employment opportunities with a small-scale recycle business within the church.

Eric Soard recounts the abundance of relationships and support received from local leaders and community members while working to plant churches in Tanzania, where he's served as a missionary alongside his wife and three children for the last ten years.

Abundance can be shared across communities in many ways. Africa University produces well-trained agriculturists, some of whom who have become missionaries in other countries, spreading methods for abundant crops and deeper spiritual lives.

After reunifiying in 2018 following 12 years of division, United Methodists in southern Burundi have a newly built and dedicated church that allows everyone to worship together under one roof.

Matt Lohmeier, Executive Dir. of San Antonio Justice for Our Neighbors(JFON) and Susan Hellums, Border Area Mission Coordinator of First United Methodist Church of McAllen discuss their firsthand experiences working with the growing population of migrants in Texas.

Even though Hurricane Harvey hit Texas over two years ago, there is still much work to do. Long-term recovery efforts are going strong thanks to the disaster response team in the Rio Texas Conference. Staff like Austin, Vicki and Nikki continue to be a reliable and compassionate presence in Harvey’s aftermath. To be most effective, they see the importance of building and strengthening relationships. Whether it is relationships with partner agencies, churches, community members, or even among the staff themselves, the Rio Texas Conference has seen great impact and progress in recovery by working together and supporting one other.

After a dozen years of a conference-to-conference In Mission Together connection between the Eurasia and Baltimore-Washington episcopal areas, relationships grow stronger and faith grows deeper roots as they develop ways to reach more people with Christ’s love.

A delegation from Global Ministries met with two mission initiatives — in Senegal and Cameroon — and announced these initiatives will become districts attached to the Côte d'Ivoire Conference.

With support from the Abundant Health Initiative, Old Mutare in Zimbabwe is receiving improvements to its facilities to better meet the health needs of the 15,000 people it serves in the area.

Working as migration ministry advocates on Mexico’s northern border with the U.S., Yabes Manokaran and Eric Agron hear the stories – family stories, political stories, religious stories – dangerous and beautiful stories of the lives of people in transit, trying to find safety.