We make connections with our people – and we see them, and we minister to their needs.

Preston Boyd, mission co-chair, Southfield-Hope UMC

SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN – “The clothing closet and food pantry ministry has been around for about 20 years, and so it is engrained in the culture of Hope (UMC),” Preston Boyd explained. He co-chairs the current version of the Closet of Hope Food Pantry with his wife, Ale Jean Boyd, and Michael Boggs. The Boyds joined the church just two years ago and Michael has been a member for four years, so this trio volunteered to guide the ministry even though they were relatively new to the church.

While the official signage and website says the closet is open one Saturday a month, its volunteer staff is ready and willing to work with clients whenever they need help. The closet is open for walk-ins two days a month and by special requests. Hope UMC’s pantry model focuses on individual appointments. People who need help call the church, they receive an appointment on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday; they come in and have a conversation with pantry volunteers. There are some restrictions as to how often you can receive a food box, but most of their clients are return customers, so they get to know these community members well, even if they are not church members.

“When Jean and I stepped in, the church was still in pandemic mode and the ministry had been shut down for two years,” Preston continued. “So, when we took over, we rebuilt it with a core group of volunteers. We didn’t have very many clients at first, a whopping 14 households served in the first month. We started doing outreach into the city of Southfield – we made municipal staff aware that we were back in operation. Word of mouth spread, and we’ve grown to about 100 households per month. Part of the core volunteer team was still there, and then, as we continued to grow, new people volunteered and Mike stepped up to be co-chair with us.”

“Since our reopening, we have distributed something like 86,000 lbs. of food, which reached about 4,500 people, or 500 different households. That speaks to the effort the Boyds and the team have put into this,” Michael Boggs noted. “The volunteers are revved up and wanting to be here, because they know they are contributing to the lives of the clients we serve.”

About 50% of the people who come in for food also need clothing, so they receive help with that too. The ministry received a Community Engagement grant from Global Ministries earlier in the year, which enhanced what they could offer to clients. It meant that some families who needed additional food in a month could receive that. It also allowed them to purchase and provide necessary hygiene items and winter clothing.

“That grant from Global Ministries allowed us to really delight and surprise some people with the extras,” Preston added. Community Engagement grants are made possible by the United Methodist Voluntary Services fund, derived from the UMC Human Relations Day offerings.

Jean Boyd mentioned that the pantry is small in comparison to others in the area, but it still meets certain standards. “We are considered to be a Gold Star Pantry for Gleaners – and that’s a big certification for a pantry of our size that is not a client-choice pantry. We are small enough that we can’t have families come in and pick their own food, but we do try to give them adequate canned food, meats, and when we can get it, fresh milk and produce.”

Going another step with their clients, they provide recipes for fresh produce because: “You never know what you are going to get from Gleaners, and sometimes they send produce that people have never eaten or don’t know how to cook.”

Both Preston and Jean are retired and were former pastors of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Prior to those careers, Preston worked for Ford and Daimler, and Jean worked for an insurance company. As they get to know their clients, they pray for them…and sometimes they pray with them. One of their client families lost a child who was attacked by a pit bull. The child’s grandmother at a scheduled food distribution asked for prayer, and they took the family to the Hope Chapel. “That was one of the hardest prayers I’ve ever prayed,” said Preston.” And at the end of it, all I could do was embrace them, and assure them God was still there with them.”

Another time, a gentleman with family problems said, “my family is driving me crazy, can you come pray with me…” and they did. “I love when people get surprised by God,”. Preston noted. “He came back a few weeks later, and he says, ‘pastor, that worked!’ Well, that’s why we pray.”

Both the Hope Church congregation and the community it serves are predominantly African American, but people of other races and immigrants of other nationalities have come for help at the pantry, and all are received.

Preston described an elderly Russian lady who, at first, sat by herself at the pantry intake area. “I remember when she first came into the pantry, I made sure I knew her name. I called her and the minute I pronounced her name correctly, her face lit up. She’s not that little shy lady who sits at the back anymore. She now feels at home in this church.

“We try to make sure that we see the clients and that they see the love of Christ in what we do and that they walk away with a good experience. That shows in the surveys we do. The clients say that our pantry cares and that they appreciate the love and care we show them.”

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

Human Relations Day is an opportunity to stand with other United Methodist churches to build the beloved community envisioned by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This denominationwide Special Sunday is designed to strengthen human relationships and community outreach. By participating in the Human Relations Day offering, United Methodists embrace the power of relationships, the strength of community and the good news that all of God’s children are of sacred value.

Gifts made on Human Relations Day, Jan. 19, 2024, support the Community Developers Program as well as community advocacy through the United Methodist Voluntary Services administered through Global Ministries.

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MALANJE, EAST ANGOLA – Greetings from the Quéssua Mission in East Angola. I have worked for 10 years here as the agriculturist for the United Methodist Quéssua Agriculture Center. Though this site with its church, schools, hospital and farm was torn down to the ground during three decades of war that finally ended in 2002, we are rebuilding all aspects of the mission – with help from many partners, including Global Ministries.

My particular passion and calling from God is to continue to develop a productive and sustainable farm that also sustains the community. I am thankful to God for keeping me strong and committed to this ministry. I believe that God calls us together to the mission of serving the most vulnerable in our communities. To this end, we completed a large new chicken coop this year to ramp up our egg production.

The main goal of the project is to raise chickens for eggs to support malnourished children in the villages and contribute to the Sunday school children’s meal. This will provide extra protein and nutrients to the healthy meal, including produce from the farm, that is diligently prepared under the direction of missionary partners who lead the children’s meal mission in Quéssua. This is a challenging goal when between 600 to 800 village children are fed each Saturday and Sunday. Just a year ago, we served 400 to 600, so the need and our project has multiplied.

Chronic poverty contributes to a high rate of perpetually undernourished children. Most Quéssua village households can only manage to provide one meal per day. Toddlers are particularly vulnerable, and most children attend school with no breakfast. Some often go without eating a meal for a day or more. Imagine going to school with no breakfast, snack or the hope of lunch. These weekly meals are very impactful for the children, so we are doing our best to keep up with the demand.

Villagers also come to the farm to purchase eggs; two, three or five eggs at a time, with which they make an affordable, tasty, nutritious sauce that serves as a protein rich meal for the whole family. Eggs replace the usual dried fish sauce which many families can no longer afford. Families have their own unique recipes for using the eggs. We thank God that we can provide them to people at an affordable price.

The demand for eggs has grown, making us contemplate the need for increasing our production. The challenge that we are facing to accomplish this is the availability of chicken feed. The cost has increased with the deteriorating economy. We pray and believe that with God’s blessing and wider church support for our projects, we will keep moving forward.

East Angola Episcopal Area is participating in the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative and has received a food security grant from Global Ministries to increase income levels of smallholder farmers through agriculture, specifically through maize (corn) and pig production. Quéssua agriculture is a project site for this work. A new piggery was constructed a couple years ago, and pig production is well underway.

The village communities we serve receive vegetable seeds from the Quéssua farm each planting season and we follow up with them on methods to successfully cultivate these. Sometimes one or two of the communities have disappointing seed beds resulting in poor harvests, so, we decided to plant the seeds in a farm nursery and once the seedlings are ready, community members come to receive seedlings to transplant into their individual gardens.

This was a positive and productive experience and hopefully a learning one. The community spirit of the people, singing together as they arrive with their leader to receive their seedlings, is heartwarming and gratifying. During a visit to one of the gardens we were thrilled to see villagers preparing harvested vegetables for sale.

We also still provide seeds to communities along with training and tools. The happiness on the peoples’ faces while receiving the seedlings gives us a sign that they really needed them. They cannot afford to buy the seeds, yet they need the vegetables for their own consumption and the quantities they are given will help them have some extra produce to sell, enabling the purchase of other needed items for their families.

Agriculture is an important mission at Quéssua. In addition to providing meals for children and seeds and seedlings for nearby villages, the agriculture center also undergirds the whole mission, supplying produce, animals, eggs and peanuts to the schools, theological center and hospital. “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” (Romans 12:4-5). Thank you to all who support this ministry with prayer, gifts and service.

Kutela Katembo Dieudonne, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has served as a United Methodist missionary at Quéssua since 2014. He is married to Fatuma Nana Katembo, who is also a missionary serving as agriculture technician in the West Angola Episcopal Area. They have five children. 

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Global Ministries missionaries are a tangible connection between The United Methodist Church and mission. Through denominational or ecumenical ministries, missionaries bear witness to God’s presence all around the world. They are called by God and sent out to serve by the church, usually placed in a new cultural context beyond their country of origin. Missionaries engage in ministry that is defined by mutuality and partnership, seeking to expand the mission of God already present and active in people and places. Explore the work of Global Ministries missionaries.

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This is the first time I have ever felt comfortable in front of a computer!

Charles, a Saint Mark computer lab client

The South Los Angeles neighborhood that is home to Saint Mark United Methodist Church is populated by a mix of people, with a majority of Black, Latino and Asian American families. It is primarily a lower-income neighborhood, and some households do not have wi-fi connection or computers beyond phones and tablets. This made the recent COVID-19 school shut-downs particularly challenging for students in this community.

While schools would open again, and students would get back to in-person learning, the technological challenges remain the same for these families. Staff and volunteers at Saint Mark had been working on that challenge before the pandemic, but as COVID-19 shut down most gatherings, their plans were put on hold until 2022.

In 2021, Saint Mark UMC became part of an Annual Conference Community Development Program Cohort with five other churches in the South Los Angeles area. This new community development model pioneered by Global Ministries brings a cohort of churches and church leaders together to consider needs throughout their whole community and opens new possibilities with more partners.

With a Global Ministries’ grant derived from Human Relations Day funding and with the support of the California-Pacific Conference, the West District and the South Los Angeles cohort, Saint Mark moved ahead with a new computer lab, celebrating its grand opening on March 5, 2022.

The computer lab is part of a larger community center called Manna House. Saint Mark’s pastor, the Rev. Gary Bernard Williams, prefers to describe it as a “neighborhood center” being developed by the church.

“Manna House also has a gym, where young people come to play basketball, open two days a week,” Williams said. He referenced a study completed by the Los Angeles Unified School District that found only 35 of 700 schools offered music arts appreciation.

“We are developing a music center, and we are in the process now of finding a regular music teacher to offer instruction. We already have the instruments – keyboards, violins and drums.”

Saint Mark has a gifted retired United Methodist Community Developer, Latanya Cunningham, who was part of Global Ministries’ Black Community Developers Program in the 1990s. She now works full time on the church’s community engagement projects and with the other churches in the cohort as well.

“We are very happy to be of service in having the computer lab open,” Cunningham explained. “We have been very consistent, open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., three days a week. We’ve been able to hire a young adult program manager, Danyelle Benware, from our community. We also hired two high school sophomores as interns during the summer who served our lab.”

Cunningham said the computer lab provides the church with opportunities to work on three of its ministry objectives: leadership development for young adults and youth; ministry with the poor; and health and wellness for those in the community. Benware often works with seniors and others coming to the computer lab to apply for health care benefits and find the services they need. Children from a nearby elementary school also come, as well as older youth.

The South Los Angeles Mission Area, which Saint Mark is part of, was established in 2010 to create partnership among area churches. Williams became the mission area chair in 2015. 

The other churches in the South Los Angeles Community Development Cohort include Hamilton, Bowen, Wesley, Faith and St. John United Methodist churches. The cohort decided to develop a computer lab in each of the churches – Saint Mark is the first to complete the project. Faith United Methodist Church’s lab is also near completion.

Each church had the opportunity to delegate a lay leader to attend virtual training offered by Global Ministries Multiethnic Ministries, led by Dr. Dana Lyles, the program’s director. The training included cohort groups from across the U.S. Both Cunningham and Williams attended from Saint Mark UMC. Williams said he was inspired by what other churches in other communities were able to do and Cunningham found it refreshing.

In addition to the Global Ministries’ grant, Saint Mark also received funding from its district, and staff and volunteers have coordinated fundraisers, including one that featured Black women entrepreneurs who were opening their own product lines. Fundraising plans are in the works and the church would like to offer formal training in the computer lab – and then on to wherever God’s spirit leads them.

“Our church motto states: ‘We are a church in the heart of the community with the community at heart.’” noted Williams. “Our mission is to provide social services and programs that empower children and adults in our community to help promote respect for one another, self-determination, and to lift each other up and just be community.”

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

One of six churchwide Special Sunday offerings of The United Methodist Church, Human Relations Day calls United Methodists to recognize the right of all God’s children in realizing their potential as human beings in relationship with one another.

Gifts made on Human Relations Day, Jan. 15, 2023, support the Community Developers Program as well as community advocacy through the United Methodist Voluntary Services administered through Global Ministries.

Human Relations Day Sunday offerings are coordinated by the general church and then distributed to the agencies that manage the grants from the funds.

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Media Contact:
Sara Logeman, Content Strategist
slogeman@umcmission.org 

Global Ministries is extending the 2022 Annual Conference Community Developers Program (CDP) cohort application process to March 4 to allow congregations within the same annual conference more time to explore possibilities for developing community development programs together.

CDP is a network of racial-ethnic United Methodist congregations and communities throughout the United States committed to advancing the church’s capacity to be in mission with the communities in which they are located.

Using the same model it adopted in 2021, the CDP works directly with five annual conferences (one conference within each U.S. jurisdiction) in a cohort model. Annual conferences and congregation groups accepted into the cohort program will participate in monthly meetings and coaching sessions organized by Global Ministries. Throughout the cohort, groups will develop an implementation plan and receive a grant of up to $20,000 after the training sessions conclude.

The grant can be used to assist congregations working together to implement programming in their local community. Cohorts should be composed of mostly racial-ethnic congregations and the areas served should be racial-ethnic communities. Grant funds can be used for, but are not limited to, activities such as community assessment and mapping, creating and expanding community partnerships, asset-based community development, advocacy for social justice and recruiting volunteers to work together for systemic change.

One example of the CDP model from 2021 involved congregations in the West Ohio Conference, which developed the Northland Star Partners, a church and community alliance for intentional mentorship with Northland High School students as the school rolled out its first-ever Career Connections Workshop Series. Students are participating in eight, 90-minute workshops of their choosing throughout the year that align with one of the 16 career pathway models developed by the Ohio Department of Education, focusing on Ohio’s in-demand occupations.

Other churches within the CDP network are in active ministry within their communities, focusing on education, housing and homelessness, immigration, racial equity and other community needs.

For more information and to access the grant application, contact Dr. Dana Lyles at dlyles@umcmission.org. 

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February 9, 2021 | ATLANTA 

FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATE 

Media Contact:

Sara Logeman, Content Strategist

slogeman@umcmission.org 

The Community Developers Program (CDP) is a network of racial-ethnic United Methodist congregations and communities throughout the United States committed to advancing the church’s capacity to be in mission with the communities in which they are located. 

The CDP network currently has 22 active sites across all five of the denomination’s U.S. jurisdictions. Churches within the network are in active ministry within their communities, focusing on work including but not limited to education, housing and homelessness, immigration and racial equity. 

Financial challenges facing many United Methodist congregations are making it more difficult to successfully implement programs on their own, despite their desire to be in partnership with their communities. 

A new model has been developed to address this reality. The Annual Conference CDP Cohort Program will enable congregations within the same annual conference to develop programs as a cohort. 

“The cohort model will enable congregations to work collaboratively in cities and communities to serve those in need,” says Dr. Dana Lyles, director of Multiethnic Ministries for Global Ministries. 

Operating with this new model, the program will begin this month. Each cohort will be composed of mostly racial-ethnic congregations and the areas served will be largely racial-ethnic communities. Their work will focus on asset-based community development, expanding community partnerships, advocacy and social justice. 

“The Community Developers Program has made a lasting impact since it began in 1968, greatly advancing the church’s ability to be in mission on a local level,” says Roland Fernandes, general secretary of Global Ministries and UMCOR. “Global Ministries is now excited to offer a more sustainable model for congregational participation.” 

The following annual conferences and areas of work have been accepted into the 2021 program: 

• California-Pacific – resources to help close the socioeconomic gap in Greater Los Angeles 

• Mountain Sky – resources to guide, heal and reconcile Native and Indigenous individuals who suffer from historic generational traumas 

• North Texas – healthy food options to the Redbird/Oak Cliff Community of Dallas County 

• Upper New York – educational inner-city learning center in Syracuse 

• West Ohio – community engagement with six congregations in the Northland community of Worthington 

After attending monthly meetings and training sessions, each cohort will develop an implementation plan and receive funding to help with its programming. For more information, contact Dr. Lyles at dlyles@umcmission.org. 

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About the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church 

Global Ministries is the worldwide mission and development agency of The United Methodist Church. Founded in 1819, Global Ministries today supports 250 missionaries in over 70 countries, including the United States. It has personnel, projects, and partners in 115 countries. Learn more about Global Ministries by visiting www.umcmission.org or by following www.facebook.com/GlobalMinistries and Twitter.com/UMCmission.

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May 2020 | ATLANTA

[We] exist to bring hope and transformation to the people of Afghanistan. We focus on building capacity in the sectors of health and development – seeing lives changed through eye care, community development, health projects and education. We believe that the people of Afghanistan can build a more just, peaceful and sustainable future.

UMCOR’s ecumenical partner in Afghanistan

Name is withheld for security reasons.

For many, Afghanistan is known only as a country wracked by decades of war and terror. Yet, since 1966, United Methodists have been meeting the Afghan people where they are in rural, isolated communities and in larger cities through a partner that offers health, development and educational services. While United Methodists have not been the only supporters of this partner’s work, Global Ministries has provided consistent support through a variety of channels, including project funding and personnel, since its inception.

UMCOR’s ecumenical partner works with the Afghan government and the ministry of health to reach vulnerable populations. In an early survey, they recognized a high incidence of vision problems in Afghanistan. The first health expertise offered by this partner formed the National Organization for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation program, or NOOR, which also means “light” in the local language. The World Health Organization estimates that as much as 80% of the world’s blindness is preventable. Today, NOOR operates three hospitals in Afghanistan, one of which is also a training facility to equip Afghan ophthalmologists and eye technicians.

In time, the ecumenical partner branched into other services directed at community health, including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects, community development projects and food security and nutritional needs through sustainable agriculture. In recent years, expertise in mental health has emerged as a growing need.

The agency’s mental health program works through communities with a family-based approach to improve the lives of children and adolescents, particularly those with psychosocial disabilities. These conditions are widely misunderstood in Afghanistan, as Sadiga* and her family discovered.

Sadiqa had tried everything she could to help her 8-year-old son, Aziz*. She took him to clinics and hospitals looking for a solution to his seizures. He was unable to walk well, climb stairs, or even go to the bathroom by himself. These issues were compounded with behavioral problems. With three other children, Sadiqa was often overwhelmed. She lost hope that Aziz would ever get better.

“Someone always had to be with him,” Sadiqa said. Aziz would hit himself and his siblings, break things and walk around the house making lots of noise. “Sometimes he was so disruptive, I would lose control and beat him,” his mother said.

A lack of services and awareness about mental health mean that many people in Afghanistan are struggling. The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Project (CAPP) offers children with mental health issues and their families the support they need through a combination of medical treatment, counseling, physical and occupational therapy and practical coaching.

UMCOR’s ecumenical partner’s team prescribed medication for Aziz and asked Sadiqa to bring him to the center each week to receive counseling and practical support. “[The mental health workers] encouraged me to spend time with him, playing football with him, talking with him, going out with him,” Sadiqa confirmed. In the past, she didn’t take Aziz many places because of his disruptive behavior. Now, she brings him into the neighborhood or to the bazaar.

The changes in Aziz’s life have affected his whole family. In just two months, Aziz learned to use the bathroom by himself. He can now walk up the stairs. He plays outside with other children and listens when his mother asks him to sit quietly.

The mental health program for children and adults addresses mental health issues holistically, involving the child, the parents, and the community; while medical treatment can be an important factor, the tools families learn together through counseling and therapy also play a key role and strengthen the entire family.

Sadiqa now has hope for Aziz and plans to continue counselling and therapy with him so that he can improve even more. “I want him to get better,” she says. “So, I will keep taking him to the clinic…It makes me very happy to see him getting better.”

A new grant was approved by UMCOR’s Board of Directors during its Spring 2020 meeting+ to support this partner’s mental health programming. This necessary work helps to create peace in the family and the community.

The CAPP mental health programming started in 1996 in Herat, a town on the western border with Iran, in response to a high suicide rate among women in the region. (The high suicide rate is due to domestic violence in many instances.)

Since 2006, the ecumenical agency has systematically trained all primary health care providers (such as community health supervisors, nurses, midwives and doctors) throughout the country’s western region to carry out mental health services. The agency also trained nonmedical professionals (teachers and religious leaders) in the western and northern regions, produced TV and radio programs and published a quarterly magazine to raise awareness about mental health. All of these networks and relationships developed over more than a decade have placed UMCOR’s ecumenical partner in the crossroads of the Afghan response to the coronavirus.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans working in Iran were severely affected when Iran closed its borders because of a rapidly growing outbreak of COVID-19. Afghan migrant workers flooded back home into Herat beginning early in March and continuing through April. Some carried the novel coronavirus back home. This is a major concern for a country that has a fragile health system and economy and has endured over 40 years of armed conflict.

The ecumenical health and development agency is helping Afghan communities and the government in the fight to stop the spread of COVID-19 by providing services, raising awareness and informing people how to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Included with awareness and prevention resources are materials about managing the stress and anxiety that many are experiencing and contacts for counseling and support for people throughout Afghanistan. The agency is preparing and distributing personal protection equipment to health centers and technical and management assistance to the Provincial Public Health Directory and health committees in the provinces.

The thousands of returning migrant workers no longer send back remittances or earn an income. Thousands of workers in the informal sector also lack an income. Ongoing armed conflict, repeated droughts and the heightened economic instability add pressures to the country’s fragile health sector. For many Afghans, COVID-19 is simply one more crisis on top of so many others. Yet in this uncertain context, UMCOR’s partner agency provides a steadfast presence, serving the needs of some of the most vulnerable, like Sadiqa and her family.

_{* Names of beneficiaries have been changed.}

^{+ Some grants await clearance because of current constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic.}

Christie R. House is a writer and editor consultant with Global Ministries.

Contribute to the ongoing work of Community-Based Health & Development in Afghanistan, Advance #3020522.

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