Missionaries News & Stories

In 1960, Ruth Johnson Colvin decided to volunteer her time to do something about the high rate of functional illiteracy in Syracuse, where she lived. Sixty-two years later, the nonprofit she founded and the methods she designed to teach literacy have spread across the United States and into 26 developing countries around the world.

The application has launched for the next cohort of young adults who will serve in social justice ministries in the United States in 2023-25.

Missionary Julie Wilson tracks the progress of gentrification in her Winston-Salem neighborhood by looking out the front door. The community members Open Arms serves are increasingly losing their rental homes to people who can purchase and rebuild them.

Fifty-four missionaries were commissioned for service in nine different worship events taking place around the world from April to July. Some begin service in new placements while others continue with work they began during the pandemic.

The United Methodist Church in Mongolia will celebrate the ordination of its first Local Elders in Mission, a new hospice facility, growing missions and new work with children and youth at its annual meeting in October 2022.

A missionary who discovered United Methodism through the Cameroon Mission Initiative uses experience gained in 17 years of lay leadership and church development to help strengthen these areas in the East Congo Episcopal Area.

The Rev. Fuxia Wang, a Church and Community Worker missionary serving with international student ministries at the University of Oklahoma, offers a Good Friday devotion that considers Christ’s suffering and death as a choice of great love.

Although people in Western nations generally think of bread and wine as the elements served at the Last Supper, Christians around the world may relate to other elements. The Rev. Claudia Genung-Yamamoto, a missionary in Kobe, Japan, offers a Maundy Thursday devotion.

Would you answer the unexpected call of Jesus to participate in Palm Sunday celebrations? GMF Sims Siamoonga shares a devotion from his work site in Kenya.

Meleanitema Sapoi-Finau joined the Global Mission Fellows program, traveled across the country and discovered what God had been preparing her for all along.

Church and Community Worker missionaries met together via zoom for their biennial meeting to celebrate their ministries, honor retirees, welcome new CCWs and reflect on God’s light in their daily work.

Put your faith into action on the journey to Easter with a set of daily reflections on mission experiences of compassion, challenge and hope.