News & Stories / Mission Volunteers

News & Stories

Mission Volunteers

Explore how your gifts and our global partnerships connect local churches and communities in mission to alleviate human suffering around the world.

Mission Volunteers David and Shari Nelson return to Ecuador for a second year to serve with staff and students of a Methodist school in Pastocalle, Cotopaxi.

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Jerry Feese and Robilea Swindell, a couple from the Great Plains Conference, have made volunteering a cornerstone in their lives. As Global Ministries Mission Volunteers, they have broadened their opportunities to serve in different places and capacities.
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.
Global Ministries’ Mission Volunteer program offers an outlet of service for a lifetime of experience for recently retired couple, Nancy Potter and George Gull.
Three-day trainings, offered in September and December, will prepare those accepted into the Mission Volunteers program for long-term service in the U.S. and around the world.
Mission volunteers Lyn and Gene Saltzman are putting their deep knowledge of farming to use in Tennessee, planting and harvesting produce for four counties served by Reelfoot Rural Ministries.
Virtual gatherings hosted by Global Ministries’ Mission Volunteer office in June 2021 will cover the basics of volunteer service.
With faith, hope, prayer and dedicated partners, the UMC in the Central African Republic has built a new temple, and that’s just the beginning.
Virtual gatherings in 2021 will cover the basics of volunteer service and different options for serving through Global Ministries.
Take a look inside the Mission Volunteer program through the experience of volunteers serving in Czech Republic, Costa Rica and Liberia.

Contact Information

Have questions? Send us an inquiry and we’ll get back to you promptly. Please direct all media inquiries to Susan Clark, chief communications officer for Global Ministries and UMCOR.

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Susan Clark, Chief Communications Officer
media@umcmission.org
800-862-4246

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Six Years, No Solution: A 500-Gallon Tank Carries Hope to West Virginia’s Forgotten

McDowell County is one of the poorest in the U.S., and the communities of Anawalt, Leckie and Gary are some of the hardest hit by the current six-year water crisis. All have Methodist churches that are part of the Welch Charge.

To ease the burden of residents who have to purchase many gallons of drinking water weekly, the Welch Charge contacted the West Virginia Conference Disaster Response Coordinator, Jim McCune, for help. McCune’s United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) connection put him in touch with Global Ministries’ Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) program. 

A WASH grant allowed them to obtain a 500-gallon “water buffalo.” The conference disaster response team arranged to fill the portable water buffalo from the Welch water system, the county seat of McDowell, and transport it to Gary, where residents have been supplied with refillable containers. Residents of all three towns can come to get water, and volunteers will also continue deliveries for those who need it. Meanwhile, residents, including church members, continue to advocate state and local officials for a permanent solution to their aging, compromised water infrastructure. Full Story