September Mission Focus... Bashor Children's Home

Campus of Bashor Home  

Bashor Children's Home is just nice drive from Valparaiso.  Goshen isn't all that far away.  Some of our Porter County youth have been referred to this facility for the services provided.  Sometime soon a group for FUMC will be planning to take a fieldtrip to visit Bashor  for a first hand look at the facility and the programs they currently provide.   In years past this institution was a home for boys ...strictly a live-in facility.   As times changed so did Bashor. 

 

Today, Bashor Children’s Home is a 501-C-3 non profit child welfare agency affiliated with the United Methodist Church. They provide help for troubled children and their families through residential care, day treatment/ alternative education, foster care, and many other services. Bashor has become a regional provider for services over the last 90 years and works with over 150 children daily from 22 counties and 3 different states.

 

This month the Monthly Mission Offering will be given to the Chaplin program at the school.   Our offering will provide "working" funds to help the Chaplin create a meaningful spiritual atmosphere for the residents and those who come to for services according to need.   Thanks for your generous offering.   Bashor relies on the connection with the United Methodist Church in light of reduced funding from State agencies for child and family services.  

 

Let Mike Strayer know if you are interested in joining a group for a tour and lunch at the facility sometime in the future. Just email him.    jstrayer@netnitco.net  

 

Thanks for your donations for the Mission Focus  in August.   We were able to send $500 to Clara Biswas (our missionary in Cambodia) to use with her street children's ministry.   THANK YOU!!!

UMCOR responds to the floods in Colorado

UMCOR has some specific ways for us to respond to the flooding in Colorado.    Please read and select a way to respond that best works with your time and resources.   

What You Can Do

Make a cash donation to US Disaster Response, UMCOR Advance #901670. This is the most effective and immediate way you can support relief and recovery efforts following a disaster. One hundred percent of your gift will support survivors of the Colorado floods and ensure UMCOR is prepared to respond whenever and wherever emergencies strike in the United States.
Make a cash donation to Material Resource Ministry, UMCOR Advance #901440. This will help replenish UMCOR relief supplies and enable UMCOR to ship cleaning buckets, health kits, and other supplies to people in need. It is another great way you can bring relief and comfort to families reeling from a devastating emergency. (Making cleaning buckets is expensive and then the maker has to get the bucket to one of our UMCOR centers so sending money is a better option.) 
Assemble cleaning buckets and other relief kits. An emergency such as the flooding in Colorado underscores how vital these supplies are to people caught in a crisis. UMCOR stocks of these supplies are low. Please visit our Relief Supplies web page to learn how to assemble and ship kits to any of the depots in the Relief-Supply Network.
Please do not self-deploy to volunteer your services in the course of an emergency such as this one or immediately following it. Volunteers will be needed over the long road to recovery. Contact your United Methodist Volunteers in Mission jurisdictional coordinator for more information.
UMCOR supplies disaster-response training at every level of the church, from congregations to jurisdictions. Get trained, and make sure your local church is ready to respond should disaster strike. In Colorado, the church’s readiness is making a crucial difference to survivors.
Please continue to be present to survivors in Colorado through the gift of your prayers. “We follow Jesus by caring for each other and the world through our prayers, gifts, and presence,” Honeycutt said.

MMDC is one of the UMCOR depots where the buckets are assembled.   Consider making a donation to MMDC (located in Chatham, IL).    We'll be there again in March 2014 to work on kits that will replace the ones sent out for disasters that have taken place prior to March.  MMDC orders the materials for the cleaning bucket at wholesale price so our money is goes much further. 

Thanks for asking how you can help.    

Missionary Ardell Graner

In recent weeks we've had several communications from Ardell as she gets settled in her new assignment with the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM).   She is one of two missionaries supported by our church as a Covenant Missionary.   What that means is we agree to provide $2,500 toward the support of missionaries serving through GBGM and she agrees to stay in communication with us and when the opportunity presents itself, she will come and visit us in person.  (And this $2,500 comes from your pledge to the General Fund at FUMC.)  One way to stay current with her is to follow their blog/webpage. (Just click on the hot link.)

Rev. Luisa and Ardell

Ardell and her husband Gordon went to Dominican Republic in April 2013 so they are just getting their ministry legs.   She's been trying to find where her gifts and graces are fitting with the needs of those they are serving.  She has invited our church to send a team there in the future... so be thinking about whether this is something that you would like to do.  Here's a quote from a recent email to our mission team.

 

One small church had their vacation Bible school last month with the children from their neighborhood.  500 children came one day.  Isn't that incredible!  The church is so small they didn't have materials or even space to receive all the children, even though they went into the street to work with them.  They actually had to turn away some.  That makes me feel sick.  During this same time one little boy got into an argument  with another little boy and he broke a bottle to start a fight.  The church panicked and had to call the police.  There is so much work.   The other huge area is with young, young girls who are being abused and are pregnant.  There is a suburb south of Santo Dominigo where 23 girls between the ages of 9 and 14 are pregnant.  My head can hardly handle this. 

So it is with this information that we pray for our missionaries wherever they serve on our behalf.  

Mission outreach in South Korea

The day began later than usual but once we got it started ...whew!!  Three cabs to a women's domestic violence center ... One cab got a little lost but we were all in the shelter by 10:30.   Twenty women and children live in the facility, receive counseling, therapy, art classes, computer classes, legal services, and lots of love.  Domestic violence is everywhere, in all countries and in all cultures and always with undesirable outcomes for children.  We were not allowed to take photos but the little guy who had recently celebrated his first birthday all dressed in his special traditional clothing and another boy about 4 or 5 years old who carried a nasty looking dead,dried insect will not be forgotten.  
We were blessed by participating in their house worship service, with robust singing and recorder accompaniment, and following the service an amazing lunch.  By 1:00 we were on our way waving 3 cabs to get to the ChungDong UMC ... The largest and oldest church in Seoul.  The mission team members were participants in the 2:00 English service, however the best part of the service was the choir. Technique used for getting that quality of sound was to give choir members a tongue lashing 10 minutes before the start of the service...in front of us all.   Miguel ...this will not work with our folks.  

Shortly after the service we were hailing a cab again and off to another Domestic Violence Shelter.  This time many of the women joined us for a bit of singing, discussion, and of course a Korean meal.  Both our shelter meals were the best meals we've had.  Great cooks!!! Enjoy a few photos from the day. Please note the kitchen that produced all of the food we had placed before us.  

A message from Ardelle Graner

Ardelle and Gordon - Missionaries serving in Dominican Republic

Ardele is "our" missionary.  Once serving in Bolivia, she and her husband have recently been reassigned to the Dominican Republic.    They serve as a missionary couple.  We share her words to her churches.  We will be posting additional information in the future.   Come back again.   

Dear friends,

We are grateful for your prayers and your support, especially now as we begin a new mission journey with the Iglesia Evangelica Dominicana (IED).

We were in a meeting this week with two national pastors, one who is the head of the seminary and a previous executive secretary for the IED.  They expressed to us that they believe it is God’s will for us to come to the Dominican Republic. It was encouraging to hear that as we seek to find our way in a new mission.

As we listen and learn from the Dominican people, we are beginning to understand what the needs are and how we can support the ministry of the church.

We do this knowing that we are together with you in mission and are aware of your prayers for us, daily.  Ardell & Gordon

Here's a great link to Newsletter telling more about their new mission assignment. 

Street Children in Cambodia

Clara prays with some of the street children before lunch time.  

Clara's work is so important to the lives of especially the young girls.   Girls are sold or stolen around the age of 11 or 12 as sex slaves.  By the age of 17 or 18 they are deemed "used" and are returned to the streets. What Clara is trying to do is to keep these young teens out and away from the human trafficking so that they will instead move from being a normal teen to a productive adult.    

The Street Children are practicing for the Easter Pageant.



Our mission offering for the month of August is going to support the work of Clara Biswas, our missionary in Cambodia.   Without the funds provided by her supporting churches for the Street Children's ministry, she would not have much to do.  Your offering does make a difference in her ability to reach the vulnerable children.  

Working with these children is so important for more than the obvious reason.   Children on the streets without supervision or some place to go is never a good thing.   One of the intentional pieces to this program is to keep the early teens 12 - 17 out of the hands of human traffickers.   She works to make it less attractive to be "sold" into that trafficking by giving families of the dumpsite or streets another option.   There are signs all over Cambodia warning adults of the penalties for engaging in Sex Trafficking.  These signs are written in English.  Does this tell you why we in the English Speaking world need to be aware of the issues of injustice that happen in the developing countries?   Families living in just awful poverty are convinced that a life of as a sex slave is better than what they have to offer so they sell their children.   Guess which countries have the most money to spend in this manner? 

On September 25 at 7:00 p.m. Valparaiso 1st UMC will be hosting a forum and discussion around Human Trafficking in the United States. Two FBI agents will be with us to share what they can from the most recent "busts" in the United States.    The events brought to light around the 3 girls being freed after more than 10 years tells us that children who are not connected with family are real targets for the those who want to prey on young people.   We are hoping that the forum will educate our community on the danger signs and how we can prevent children and young people from being taken in to the trafficking arena.   Please mark your calendar so that you might be part of that evening and conversation around  Human Trafficking in our country.  

Habitat House for one of us...

Derrick (in the red hat) works every Saturday on "his" house. 

Derrick Holman carefully measures and cuts the siding for duplex being built in the Hilltop neighborhood.  He and his 3 sons will soon call this place home.  To be the recipient of a Habitat house requires new owners to put in sweat equity...that means 300 hours of volunteering personally on the build.   He's also asked to find volunteer hours from family and friends.   We are part of Derrick's family and we have been donating some of those volunteer hours.   The house is located on Cyprus Street in the southern part of the Hilltop neighborhood.  

 

Sue Clemens is giving her hand
to putting on the siding.

Eldon explains how volunteers
are connected with the work
at the Habitat house. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eldon Versteeg has logged quite a few hours on this project and took time to explain what is needed to be done on a recent  Saturday morning.   He gave a tour of the house as it stands today.  Eldon sometimes volunteers at the project during the week and would love to have other volunteers join him.   Give Eldon a call (462-4989) or send him an email (emversteeg@frontier.com)  to see what the schedule might be for the week. Eldon keeps all volunteers on an email list so he contacts potential volunteers via email to keep them informed regarding the progress on the house.
If you just want to set something up for yourself, call the Habitat volunteer coordinator Danielle Topping to schedule in a time to volunteer.  She can be reached at 531-0359 or danielle@portercountyhabitat.org. She's the one responsible to have the materials on hand for the volunteers so it is important that you contact her first.  Volunteers are needed every Saturday from 8:00 - 3:00 and weekday hours upon request. 

Roofers were working above while the siders
 were working  on the west side of the house.

 

Volunteers are also needed to provide lunch for the workers.   Danielle can get you scheduled if bringing a simple lunch is something you want to do. 

In the next few weeks the inside of the home will begin to make big changes.   As soon as the electrical work is done, insulation will be put in and the dry walling will be ready to go. Then comes the painting and getting the cabinets put in.   Danielle will be able to tell you the timeline for the jobs in the coming month or so.  

 

If you want to stay current with the work being done on Cyprus St., "like" Habitat for Humanity of Porter County on Facebook. 

And while you are there liking new Facebook pages, "like" Valpo FUMC.  I know that we have way more than 62 people who like Valparaiso 1st United Methodist Church.  Are you one of them?