Operation Classroom Country Coordinator...Alfred Zigbuo

Bonnie, Gene, Alfred, Fata Yawah, Sandy and Bob

Thanks to Sandy and Bob Coolman, we were able to meet Operation Classroom Liberian Country Coordinator Alfred Zigbuo and his wife Fatu Yawah.    Obviously we shared a few stories about Liberia and West Africa but basically the Zigbuo's, Albert's and Coolman's enjoyed a meal and got to know each other.  

 

Alfred and Bob had a tour of Valparaiso University with Reggie Syrcle.   They also visited Paul Schlottman's new school in South Bend (South Bend Career Academy).  Next week Alfred will visit the Indiana Annual Conference while his wife will spend a bit of time with Mary Zigbuo and family in North Carolina.  Alfred will worship with us on Sunday morning so extend our hospitality to him.  

Upper Room Recovery

Our May Mission Focus is a ministry in South Bend, IN and an outreach of South Bend 1st United Methodist Church. 
 
Requirements for admission are:

• A sincere desire to live a sober life
• Openness to accept new ideas
• Willingness to change
• Clean drug and alcohol screening
• No record of criminal sexual behavior
• No health problems that impact community living or prevent routine housekeeping chores.
• An ability to get along with others.

Upper Room residents are required to:

• Attend church weekly 
• Get a sponsor
• Participate in house meetings 
• Step studies 
• Be involved in men’s groups 
• 2 AA/NA/CR meetings per week
• Work 5-10 hours per week in the church 
• Apply for applicable social services

 Mission education is part of the reason we have a Mission Focus each month.   We want to learn more about how our connectional church is connected with people.  This kind of ministry is so important today...providing the opportunity for men who need a second chance to become good citizens and better men and to do so within the context of Christian Community.

Your support for the May Offering will be much appreciated by the staff and volunteers at the "Upper Room".   Maybe we should take a road trip to South Bend this summer to check out Broadway Christian Parish and South Bend 1st.    Keep watching for emerging plans.    

 

Meet a new young adult missionary

 

Hye-In with the Lyric Opera House in
the background. 

Hye-In Lee had a "taste of Chicago" on Wednesday.   In addition to lots of city walking, she was able to see the musical "Sound of Music".   South Shore provided the transportation to and from Chicago.   The Cultural Center is always a great visit for new people who come to Chicago and that we did.  (Lots of changes taking place there.  Very exciting.)  Walking, walking, walking and wind, wind, wind summed up the day outside the Opera House. 

 

In July Hye-In will be trained to serve as a young adult missionary with the United Methodist Church.  She's part of one of largest Korean congregations in Seoul and is seeking to serve God through mission.    Hye-In will join other young adults from around the world in the Philippines for training and consecration prior to going out to serve.   She's not sure where she will be placed.  Next fall, an update will be posted.    

 

Hye-In worked for the Scranton Women's Training Center in Seoul.   The training center is a wonderful extension of the women's work in Korea through training young women all around Asia.  

For those who met her on Sunday and Tuesday evening, she felt very welcomed by our congregation.  Thanks for being that radical hospitality group that we've all come to love.  

Good Samaritan Sewing Circle

Meet the women of the Good Samaritan Sewing Circle.  

Barb  Blake is very serious about the project at hand. 



Finished projects ready for distribution. 

Julia Young and her group of sewers do amazing things.   First and foremost, these women love to sew and they have found that doing projects for others has been a real incentive to work together.  

 

Sometimes the project they sew are used as items for fundraisers so that they will have the raw materials to do a project that will be given to the local hospital (Boo-Boo Bears) or sent in a container with Operation Classroom or given to a missionary for something they are doing. 

 

On Mother's day this year (May 11)  people in our church will have an opportunity to support the Sewing group through the sales of some special items.  Quilted table runners, disaster ducks (store in freezer for disasters),  and the usual dish clothes and other items.

 

One new item for possible is a Tee Pee for children.  If you want one, you can order exactly what you want.   Should be fun to watch the "coffee hour kids" try out the demo. 



Completed drawstring bag ... a small book bag for
potential; distribution through Operation Classroom
 

One current project is preparing book bags for Royal Family Kids Camp this summer.  Each child will be given two bags for use at the camp.   Last year the sewing circle made fleece blankets for each camper.   Valparaiso 1st UMC has a number of people who have volunteered to help with the camp over the years and so our sewing circle helps those volunteers to find new ways to connect with the program. 

 

The sewing circle is open to any one who enjoys sewing, pressing, cutting, and being in a fellowship group around doing something with their hands and being part of the outreach of our church.   They meet the 3rd Saturday morning of each month in Tower Chapel.   Stop by any week and join the group.  

 

 

   

Upper Room Recovery - Mission Focus for May

As part of North District, 13 ministries are listed as Advance Projects.   What this means is they have a strong connection with the United Methodist Church, they are a 501c3 or operated directly out of a North District UMC, and they are involved in a ministry that addresses one or more of the 4 focus areas for the UMC.    This month our mission dollars will go to Upper Room Recovery Community in South Bend.   Upper Room Recovery provides support in many ways from men who are struggling with addiction.  With so few places available for men (or women for that matter), our mission team wanted to acquaint our church family with the ministry so close to us.   

For over 30 years the mission of the Upper Room Recovery Community has been to  express God's love by supporting individuals to a full recovery physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  The goal of our recovery program is to lead men recovering from alcoholism and addiction out of their shattered lives by providing a pathway for life change to become healthy individuals.   To find out more about the ministry that is part of South Bend 1st UMC and one of the North District Advance projects, please check out the website:

 http://www.upperroomrecovery.org

These men also provide assistance for the Food Pantry, South Bend First UMC, the Soup Kitchen and other ministries of the downtown church.    

Thanks for sharing what you can to help the ministry of addiction. In addition to financial support, they accept gifts of personal hygiene products, bedding, and food.  

 

Report from March's Monthly Mission Offering.   Thanks to all who supported the offering to Midwest Mission Distribution.   We were able to send $878 for the fund that will soon be used to build phase 3 of the Distribution Center.    For all those who have been to MMDC over the past 7 or 8 years, they can tell you what amazing things take place there and how this ministry is a blessing to many.  

Her favorite "job" at UBL... and Holy Week

In a recent letter from Margie, she has shared her joy of all joys while volunteering in Costa Rica.   Margie writes:

 

Working alongside students here at UBL is one of my favorite activities ... here I get to help Beauvais from Haiti as together we go over Chapter 3 of his 47 page thesis, checking and changing Spanish grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, paragraphs to be sure the words are saying exactly what Beauvais wants his writings to express.  Of course, he has a professor-guide here at UBL who is an expert in Bible and Theology who has been spending many hours with him to be sure his content is up to the highest standards.  His topic, The Assassination of John the Baptist," looks at Bible times and texts and then abundantly applies those  to present-day Latin American culture, economy, politics, including historical perspectives and his own pleas for change and liberation.  Beauvais is reading and researching in his first two languages, French and Creole, along with Spanish, and now is writing in his third language,.. Spanish.  That language connects me with him, as I can help him clarify his written ideas in Spanish.  Fun!!! 
(all those written homework assignments in Spanish that I corrected while a high school and college teacher in northern Indiana during my career there can now help a brilliant young Haitian man achieve his Bachelor's Degree in Bible here in Costa Rica before he returns to his home in Haiti at the end of this year to continue serving his people there). 
  You must surely know that the heart satisfactions for me in the repeated joys of relating with UBL students in this way make each day full to overflowing with blessings!  Margie

Having spent Holy Week in Costa Rica in 2007, I was remembering Margie this Holy Week as this is so much different that our experience here in the US.    Another bit about what she experienced this year.  

 

Dearest Bonnie, you are right...Holy Week here in CR is a big week of pageantry as connected with the Roman Catholic Church...and this week I did something I have wanted to do but never done before...I participated in the Good Friday procession which started at 9:00 a.m. up the hill at the Cedros Catholic Church, going down our street, thru the neighborhoods near by, gathering pilgrims as we walked slowly, stopping along the way it the 14 stations of the cross which were designated at little home altars signifying the stations.  At each station, the whole procession would stop, listen to the reading of scripture pertaining, listen to the priest then help us to apply that scripture to our personal lives and the living out of the gospel HERE in this culture and society, amidst THESE needs, then continuing along the street singing somber songs pertaining to the pleas for forgiveness of God's people.  We all ended up at noon at another church, the large Catholic Church of Lourdes, not at all far from where Lloyd and I and our little girls SL and RL lived back in 1967!!  All in all, it was a very meaningful activity for me on Good Friday morning to PARTICIPATE and not just observe the pageantry of this week here in CR.  Today I'm going soon to the downtown Methodist Church for worship, then out to dinner with a new friend from church.
  God be blessing you, each one, on this Day of Resurrection!  Much love,  Margie

Earthquake in Chile ... Margie reports

In addition to Costa Rica, Margie has part of her heart in Chile as this is where she and Lloyd served as missionaries in the mid 60's.   One of the young girls that Margie has continued to mentor and love all these years.   Our mission team from FUMC in 1994 was blessed by meeting this now grown woman while we worked at Kusayapu in Pachica, Chile.  Some of you have asked what we've heard from Margie about the earthquake that struck in that part of the world knowing her connections and "extended" family there.

 

Margie writes: 

Now here I want to translate to you a letter I received from my Myriam, my dear adopted daughter in northern Chile...which she wrote about their terrible situations there after the earthquake.  Of course, we know that since that first quake there have been literally HUNDREDS of small after-quakes that simply keep everyone on pins and needles.  AND, today the Word has come that fires are being fought in the Valparaiso, CHILE area.  Oh my!!!

So, here is the translation of the letter...please use whatever part of it as you see fit. As you know, the 8.0 + earthquake off the coast of N. Chile came evening of April 1, so I know that here with Myriam's letter dated April 8, 9:24 p.m.

 

My Dear Mom,

After so many days of horror, many days of no sleep, days of escaping to sleep in secure zones with only taking what we were wearing, I have not returned to home in our Little fishing village called Chanavayita, right on the coast of N. Chile, returning with granddaughter Heipril and her baby son, they had left to find refuge upon on the hill for several days until there was the message of certain safety, but...

there are always persons with bad intentions who make a  catastrophe even more sad and bitter also...particularly my beloved husband Pablo.  While all the population of our Little village was up in the hills overlooking the coast in a secure zone, others were taking advantage of the emptiness of the village.  With a bag in hand and with tools they boarded a boat in the harbor and they took it over to our boat, they tried to rob the complete motor but not being able to take it off the boat because Pablo had securely attached it, they then took it all apart, completely taking every single piece of the motor, leaving it completely unusable...the rest of the pieces were strewn all over the boat and my Pablo now without his tool for work...the motor for his fishing boat (Pablo earns his living fishing and taking university scientists out to sea for their investigations).  Complete destruction in the boat and an immense pain for all that has occurred.  To another fisherman they did exactly the same thing and to another they stole his whole boat, perhaps to carry away the pieces they had stolen for the others..what injustice and sadness we are living...even until last night (some 7 days after the first quake) we were up in the hills to sleep, for the majority of the quakes and tremors have been at night and the alarms do not stop sounding, warning and asking everyone to move up to safe zones.  We and 80% of our village and all the coastal zone are doing the same...we go up before nightfall and try to sleep a Little more peacefully without the desperation that all of this is causing...but thanks to God that  our health is fine, we are whole, nothing has happened to our persons except many broken things and all in complete disorder such that we just don't know where to begin...In Iquique the building where we have our new Little apartment has suffered serious damage...the walls have sunk 15 centimeters and are seriously cracked open such as to give us fear of reentering there, especially with the constant aftershocks, and to see pieces of broken walls is not very encouraging and even less safe, thus we don't know what will be happening with the legal part of all of this, it's all unknown now meanwhile so much the constant alerts and it is not mean to be lifted until April 16.  If there is no other quake or tremor like the scientists are saying have to come...we could be at peace for at least a year or maybe 10 or 50 years...then we live with an immense uncertainty...200 to 250 aftershocks every day...it's a lot...we have much faith that all will pass on and we will return to being a city and a fishing village happy and alive...for the moment no one leaves their houses, all classes are suspended of course because of the deterioration of the classrooms.  There it is, Mom, that is what I can tell you for now...we didn't have electricity for 5 days, without energy for kitchen stoves, all our perishables in the store and house were lost, ice creams lost, everything...in the end, all material things...the important is that we are safe and sound.  I send you a huge hug and a hope that all will son return to normal...I love you so very much, Mom, your daughter, Myriam 

 

Prayers are needed for the people of Chile and our friend through Margie  Myriam and family.