Serving at UMCOR Sager Brown

UMCOR Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, La. Photo: UMCOR Sager Brown

 

Carl and June Coleman, United Methodist individual volunteers from the Texas Annual Conference, who were trained and placed by the Mission Volunteers office of Global Ministries, share their volunteer experience at UMCOR Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, La.

September 18, 2013

Carl and I are in our sixth week at UMCOR Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, Louisiana, and we are seriously considering writing a book.  Just kidding…but the whole experience has been wonderful and full of inspirational stories from so many fantastic volunteers who have come here to serve.  By the time we leave next Friday there will have been approximately 300 volunteers on campus, who have given special meaning to our mission experience here.

In addition to Heart and Hand Home Repair in the community, the kit ministry is in full swing at the UMCOR depot every day.  There are a number of different kits made at Sager Brown, which include health, birthing, bedding, layette, sewing, cleaning buckets, etc.  Since we have been here, we have sent one container (an 18-wheeler trailer) of supplies to Angola. It contained 11,424 health kits, 700 bedding kits, and 3,360 birthing kits, for a total weight of 38,540 pounds.



Henry Heaton, a volunteer, assembles health kits for shipment. Photo: J. Santiago

Tomorrow we will be loading and sending out another container of supplies (mainly health kits) to the Republic of Georgia.  We have been told some cleaning buckets (which contain cleanup supplies) will be going to Colorado from Sager Brown and also from the warehouse in Utah (UMCOR West Depot).  It has been such a blessing to see the complete cycle of service the volunteers provide at Sager Brown in being the hands and feet of Christ—(1) starting with the donating and bringing supplies for the relief kits; (2) assembling the kits; (3) packing the completed kits into packing boxes;  (4) loading the boxes on to pallets;  (5) loading the truck with boxes of kits, and (6) finally watching the loaded truck leave the depot heading for its destination.

We always have a prayer of blessing around the container right before the truck pulls out of the depot...very awesome!!!



A group of volunteers assemble to pray for a shipment about to depart UMCOR Sager Brown. 
Photo: UMCOR Sager Brown


Carl has been doing service projects in the community and is staying very busy. One man could not come home from the rehab hospital until a wheelchair ramp was constructed at his home. Carl and some other volunteers made it happen. Another lady had holes in her floor so that daylight was clearly visible. She was so pleased after the repairs were completed, because for the first time in many years, she can have a Christmas tree in her house. We will never lack for community service jobs in the Sager Brown area.  Between the poverty, hurricanes, and the destructive nature of rain, there will always be work to do here.

We only have one more week of service here. We will be heading back to Texas for a few days, and then we will be starting a NOMADS mission experience, October 7-27, at The Methodist Children's Home.  We have told our adult kids (and grandkids) we will definitely be home by Thanksgiving. 

Sending you all our very best,

Carl and June Coleman
United Methodist Individual Volunteers

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UMVIM Team: Reflections on the Last Day

 

 

The United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) team from First United Methodist Church in Portland Oregon, shares their experiences with UMCOR as they volunteer at UMCOR West Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In the last of this five part blog series, Kay Ward brings us reflections from the UMVIM team’s last day of volunteering at UMCOR West.

August 31st, 2013

As we are winding down our week at UMCOR another UMCOR/VIM team from Susanville, California has come into this beautiful Episcopal center last night and worked with us today at the Depot. Bob was impressed again with how many tubes of toothpaste can be unboxed and bagged with many hands working. On Thursday he was the lone toothpaste volunteer while the rest of us sewed.

Rev. Brian held a communion service for both teams. This has been a day of reflecting and finishing up. We sewers finished up 30 baby gowns, two footie sleepers, six blankets and two sweaters. The sweaters were begun while we traveled and finished up here. We leave behind to be remembered by, an origami crane mobile made of tooth paste boxes and a beautiful quilt square banner made with the Christian symbol of fishes.

We have been remembering and appreciating FUMC of Portland’s involvement with UMCOR this past year. Both UMW and the Global Mission Committee and many individuals contributed money for materials. Tabitha Circle and friends managed to create an entire pallet of baby gowns and sweaters (Dora crocheted about 140 sweaters by herself). We assembled 82 complete layette kits and as a church we gave over $3,000 to One Great Hour of Sharing which funds UMCOR. We have sent two UMCOR/VIM teams.

 

The shipment we have worked on this week will go to Armenia. The need is still great in many parts of the world. UMCOR was originally begun by a Methodist Bishop in 1940 because he saw the tremendous need in Europe from a war in which we were not yet involved. Seventy-three years later Methodist churches all over the United States put forth efforts like we did to keep this great “idea” flourishing. We feel quite passionate about our wonderful experience. We’ve tentatively picked a date in mid-September for next year’s team, and because we so want our youth to experience this and can’t get a date for them when school’s out before 2015, we’ve reserved a slot for a team of 10 people for the week of June 15, 2015.

As we get ready for our trip home, we are filled with a sense of fulfillment in being able to serve the global community, and look forward to our return next year.

Kay Ward
United Methodist Volunteer in Mission

 

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UMVIM Team: FUMC PDX Meets FUMC SLC

The United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) team from First United Methodist Church in Portland Oregon, shares their experiences with UMCOR as they volunteer at UMCOR West Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In part four of a five-part blog series from First United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, Bob Fujimoto, Volunteer in Mission, shares about a recent dinner with guests from First UMC in Salt Lake City, Utah, and discusses its history and similarities to his own church in Portland.

August 30, 2013

Our Volunteers in Mission team hosted dinner last night, with guests from First United Methodist Church, Salt Lake City’s (FUMC SLC) United Methodist Women, and other guests staying with us at the Episcopal Church Center of Utah. All 15 of us enjoyed a wonderful stir fry with peanut sauce dinner (Kay Ward’s fabulous recipe), and had great conversations with all. FUMC SLC UMW President Carolyn Thurmond led her group one block from their church, and Pastor Eun-Sang Lee welcomed us to Salt Lake City. Although he couldn’t stay for dinner because he had to attend a meeting (Pastors have to go to evening meetings?), he invited us for a tour of their historic church this morning. This is the church that UMCOR West Director Brian Diggs was Senior Pastor for 10 years before working for UMCOR.

FUMC SLC was founded in 1870, one year after the completion of the transcontinental railroad. Their first service was in a hay loft above a livery barn, with 40 worshippers. Their current building was constructed beginning in 1905, and completed in 1906. The large, beautiful stained-glass windows, and pipe organ, are originals to the building. During this time, J.C. Penney and his wife Berta Alva Hess Penney attended the church, and Berta was a member. Following her tragic death in 1910, JC Penney paid off the mortgage for the church. The bell tower is dedicated to the memory of Berta Alva Hess Penney.
There are several similarities between our two churches. Both are the oldest in their respective cities. Both are located in their central core areas. Both work with interfaith groups to sponsor lodging and meals for homeless families. Both have diverse congregations – FUMC Salt Lake City has over 10 nationalities in their congregation.

Following the tour, we went back to UMCOR’s West Depot for another day of volunteer service. Anxious to sew the fabric that they brought, the ladies began to work in the sewing room. Overcoming a few problems with the sewing machines (they frequently get a hard workout), they sewed and assembled baby gown (17 in progress), did some mending of other layette items, and Shirley Blalock began work on a fish-themed quilt square which we will leave at the Depot as a memento of this year’s FUMC PDX VIM team.

The non-sewer in the group (me) went back to repackaging tooth paste. It is a lot slower going when there is only one person, rather than five people, working on this part. However, I had the company of Antonin and Dmitri. Erin asked who they were, and I told her Dvorak and Shostokovich. Three full pallets of toothpaste are still waiting to be repackaged, as part of the health kits that will be sent out next month to Armenia. Along with the health kits, UMCOR’s West Depot will send out school kits and layette kits. In October, another shipment will go out to another destination.

Fortunately for me, another United Methodist Church group will be arriving tomorrow, and will be working with me.

Gotta love Mint Fresh toothpaste.

Bob Fujimoto
United Methodist Volunteer in Mission

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UMVIM Team: Our Day at Deseret Industries

  

The United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) team from First United Methodist Church in Portland Oregon, shares their experiences with UMCOR as they volunteer at UMCOR West Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In part three of a five-part blog series from First United Methodist Church  (FUMC) in Portland, Oregon, Shirley, a UM Volunteer in Mission, shares about her volunteer work outside of UMCOR West at Deseret Industries, a vocational rehabilitation facility, which cares for the poor and the local community. 

August 28th, 2013

No work at the West Depot today. We met Maika, FUMC Salt Lake City lay leader, at the depot and he took us to Deseret Industries for two hours of volunteer work and a tour of the facility. Deseret Industries purpose is to care for poor and needy, foster self-reliance, and encourage service to others. This large welfare square consisted of a cannery, bakery, thrift store, storehouse, and job training.

 

Our two hours of service was very rewarding because we work alongside employees and many volunteers. Apple, oranges, and potatoes were put in five-pound bags. Time was spent on grooming the onion for their market shelves. Also, work was done in the recycling center.

What I saw during the two hours of volunteer in service:

• Service – Our volunteer hours with LDS church is towards the larger humanitarian aid.
• Hope – A young man from Romania with both arms off at the elbows driving a fork lift and carrying 50-pound bags of onion with a cheerful smile on his face.
• Transition – A homeless man working for food and clothing.
• Job Training – A disabled young man working at the center.
• Partnership – Deseret Industries partners with UMCOR West Depot when purchasing supplies for our seven relief kits.
• Humor – A man asked the women if we were single because he was looking for a good Mormon wife. Someone said we were Methodist. His reply was “What are you doing here?”

 

Tonight we are having a dinner party. Originally, we had planned on some UMW women from the local church. Now the party is up to 19, because our fearless leader has included other house guests at the Episcopal Retreat Center. The dinner party will be fun. We are having stir fry. Better close for now, almost time to start chopping for the dinner party.

Blessings, Shirley

United Methodist Volunteer in Mission

 

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Today We Count

The United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) team from First United Methodist Church in Portland Oregon, shares their experiences with UMCOR as they volunteer at UMCOR West Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In part two of a five-part blog series from First United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, Volunteer in Mission Kay Ward shares the value in performing the oftentimes mundane tasks in preparing relief supplies for those most in need. 

By Kay Ward

August 28th, 2013

Day 3

What a rewarding, expanding experience this is. Last night after dinner we shared some of the things that impressed us most. For one it was the loving extras knitted, crocheted or sewn into the handmade layette garments. For another the realization that the mundane task of taking tubes of toothpaste out of their box and bagging them in groups of 12 was important work that needed to be done. Two others were impressed with the size of the undertaking, the thousands of items that pass through the UMCOR Depot on to the needs of the world.

Rev. Brian is currently working on staging the next big shipment that will go out in October. With funds low he didn’t want to overbuy for the health kits or the layette kits. Though thousands of items are donated it all has to come out even with each kit fully supplied so Brian must use budget to cover the expense. We were asked to inventory what was on hand. The numbers are impressive. The layette kit inventory was 102 complete kits, 221 diapers, 496 shirts/onesies, 3,136 washcloths, 2,611 gowns/sleepers, 4,920 diaper pins, 1250 sweaters, and 169 receiving blankets.

The health kit inventory was 3,120 hand towels, 2,719 washcloths, 3,600 combs, 3,405 toothbrushes, 3,600 nail clippers, 2,880 soaps, and 7,345 bandages.

YES, we counted it all! No wonder we are impressed with the volume.

During the day a man from Southern Arizona came by to drop off some materials from his church. He was up this way on vacation. We thought of all the effort we had made this year at FUMC Portland to complete 82 layette kits and enough sweaters and gowns to complete one pallet. All over the nation churches are doing the same thing.

Kay Ward
United Methodist Volunteer in Mission

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UMVIM Team at UMCOR West Begins Work

The United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) team from First United Methodist Church in Portland Oregon, share their experiences with UMCOR as they volunteer at UMCOR West Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In this first of five blogs to appear on the UMCOR Notebook, Erin Riley, a United Methodist Volunteer in Mission, reflects on the church’s week of service at UMCOR West Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah, assembling and preparing relief supplies for shipment.

August 27th, 2013

Our first day at UMCOR West began with an orientation given by director Brian Diggs, a tall, ordained Methodist minister. Diggs served as the pastor of Salt Lake City First United Methodist Church for ten years before he took the UMCOR position. The Reverend has an unusual hobby – pro-wrestling. Known as the “Deacon of Doom,” Diggs plays the bad guy in the ring, but uses the matches as an opportunity to share the message of God’s love.

When Diggs describes UMCOR’s mission, his strong faith and love of being part of the organization that calls itself the “hands and feet of Christ” quickly becomes apparent.

He explains that UMCOR is like a Methodist Red Cross – a non-proselytizing, non-profit, humanitarian aid agency. UMCOR responds to urgent disasters in the US and around the world – tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes. In addition, it helps people cope with long-term disasters such as poverty, hunger, and war.

UMCOR West’s mission is to assemble and ship seven types of relief kits:

•  Birthing kits
•  Layette kits
•  School bags
•  Bedding kits
•  Sewing kits
•  Health kits
•  Cleaning buckets

Hundreds of thousands of relief kits are shipped to US sites and around the world each year. Diggs said the depot shipped cleaning buckets to Colorado in June when the area around Colorado Springs was struck first by fire, and then by floods. Recent overseas shipments have gone to Haiti and to refugees fleeing the upheaval in Syria.

After Digg’s orientation, our five-person, First Church team spent the day removing cardboard packaging from toothpaste and counting band aids to go into health kits, and inventorying baby sweaters and diapers to go into layette kits. We were thrilled to see layette kits our congregation packed during a coffee hour in March. We were equally delighted to see that some of the items sent by FUMC this year had already been shipped!


For lunch we walked to a local landmark, Victor’s Tires and Custom Wheels. Apparently Victor’s wife wanted to open a Mexican restaurant, so he gave her a kitchen and half the counter in the tire shop. The restaurant was a hit, and now both businesses happily carry on together.

Erin Riley
United Methodists Volunteer in Mission

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Philippines: Pray, Fast, Build

At left, UMCOR’s Ciony Eduarte and DAMBANA’s Norma Dollaga prepare to distribute UMCOR school bags to students in the remote Salugpungan community on the island of Mindanao. The students’ school was severely affected by a super typhoon in December 2012. Photo courtesy of Ciony Eduarte.

By Norma Dollaga
 
From July 12 – 16, an International Solidarity Mission traveled to the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines to visit the site of the Pray Fast Build Project of a Filipino ecumenical organization called DAMBANA. Pray Fast Build began earlier this year in Holy Week, when Christians were encouraged to pray, fast, and raise funds to help rebuild a school in a remote community of Muslim indigenous peoples. The school had been severely damaged by Typhoon Bopha, which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people in December 2012. Bopha was the strongest typhoon to ever strike the island of Mindanao.

Norma Dollaga, a United Methodist deaconess and leader of DAMBANA, and Ciony Eduarte, head of UMCOR’s Philippines office, were part of the group. DAMBANA and UMCOR partnered to facilitate the rebuilding of the primary school in the remote Salugpungan community. UMCOR also provided school kits for 200 children as well as reference books and other teaching aids and supplies for teachers.

Below is Dollaga’s reflection on the visit.

The path to the heart and life of the Salugpungan community, located in the barangay, or neighborhood district, of Panansalan, in the province of Compostela Valley, on the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines, is not an easy one. Only by truck can you get close. You must drive for more than two hours over rough and winding roads. Then, you must travel on foot for nearly another hour. The trail is rocky, muddy, and sometimes very slippery.

We were all drenched when we reached the place. Heavy rains had come after scorching sun. We marveled at the apparent beauty of the mountains. But a community leader lamented that we could not see the mountains at their best, referring to the splendid days before corporate logging took over the area. In addition, he said, Typhoon Pablo (also known as Bopha) had left the mountains almost bald, practically devoid of vegetation.

We stayed at the local school, which is being reconstructed. Classes have started, and the rebuilding has proceeded through bayanihan, or communal work. Parents and community members agree that their participation in the school project helps ensure that their children will get an education. That joint effort inspired PANAGSANDUG, the local people’s organization in Panansalan, also to participate in rebuilding the school.

The Salugpungan community has gathered its strength and risen above the recent tempest and pain that came with Typhoon Pablo. The bare mountains will grow trees again; the children will go to school again; and the farmers will sow again. This they believe. They have never given up the hope that has been their companion since long before the storm unleashed its fury. Through years of official neglect, they have learned to organize, to demand their rights be respected, and to build their dreams.

School for Teachers and Students Alike
“As teachers and volunteers in the community, we did not come here to teach and then leave just like that. Our concern for the community is comprehensive. The people have struggles and aspirations, too. It is not enough to teach children about arithmetic, reading, and writing. When we are with them, we also are thinking of the entire community life. We believe education must not be detached from the everyday reality of the children.” These are the words of Kakai Rosello, head of the High School Department of Salugpungan Ta’tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center (STICLC) in Panansalan, Compostela, Compostela Valley, and Southern Mindanao Region.

Salugpungan is the word the Talaingod indigenous people use for unity. The Talaingod, Matigsalog, Manobo and other tribes organized themselves as Salugpugan Ta’tanu (People United to Defend the Ancestral Land). The organization has an expressed dream to empower their youth through education. Thus, an educational philosophy was conceptualized and organized to strengthen the unity of the Lumads, or indigenous peoples. This gave birth to STICLC.

The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation, Inc., and martyr-priest Fr. Pops Tentorio, PIME, had accompanied the Lumads and helped them shape their aspirations. They developed and continuously improved the curriculum with an overarching educational philosophy that is pro-people, nationalist, and scientific. It complies with the requirements of the Department of Education (DepEd) and integrates subjects and practicum on farming, environmental care, and children’s rights.

The Panansalan STICLC annex is one of the schools being rebuilt after the damage caused by Typhoon Pablo. It has 55 students with seven teachers who are all graduates of Education and come from different places in Mindanao. Teachers stay in the community as they are also volunteer community organizers. By integrating themselves into the lives of the tribe and peasants, they are able to understand their students and learn the most effective methods of teaching and learning. Teachers are also engaged in economic production and in co-discovering the gifts, talents, and abilities of the people. They also take part in training community health workers.

Kakai is an English teacher. In her youth, she was a volunteer of Gabriela, a women’s organization, and AnakBayan, a youth organization. She came to know about the problems of our society by listening to stories of fellow youth who were struggling to survive amid economic woes. She visited communities of farmers, Moro [Muslim] communities, and tried to link the situation of each one to national issues and concerns. For her, it wasn’t enough to know and analyze problems. There is a need to organize people and let their struggles and hopes unite them.

As a teacher, Kakai finds it both fulfilling and challenging to engage in this work. Born with a weak heart, there were times when she would collapse while trekking to school. She experienced difficulties in adjusting to the food, the long hikes, learning the language of the community, and even on the issue of toilet use.

“If we want the learning process to happen, then we have to be ready to become students, too. The answers to all our problems are not in the hands of the teacher. Our role [as teachers] is to blend with the people and be one with them in shaping the kind of community we want to have. Teaching children within the classroom is not enough. We have to be with them in their farming and harvesting activities, learn with them the lessons of collective life, and respect the dignity of the work of farmers. The conversation does not stop when we sing the goodbye song at the end of the class. We have to get to know who they are. And there is no way to know them except to listen to them and speak their language. If the people express the need for a water reservoir near the community, then we have to facilitate a discussion until we collectively design a plan of how to achieve our goal,” says Kakai.

The children naturally embrace their dance and music. They could not forget who they are as Filipinos and as indigenous people, because it is part of their curriculum. Just before dusk, when there is community gathering, children re-enact their history and current life stories through song, storytelling, music, and dance.

Building a school among peasants and indigenous peoples is not just about building physical structures, providing supplies and teachers. It is about building community life—the development of children to embrace a scientific, nationalist, and people-oriented education—and cultivate the capacity of community members, especially women, for basic health care, improved farming and agricultural production, and to nourish a collective community life.

We visited the community and were blessed by their radical hospitality and stories of enduring strength and perseverance despite the natural tempests and structural injustice that they wrestle with and that test their courage. The collective joy we shared with them through our material contribution from the Pray Fast Build Project has reached them. But, indeed, we received back the blessings we shared through their inspiring call to us to never give up hope.

We thank the people who made this experience of sharing and giving an even stronger testimony of loving communion.