The Rev. Lorenza Andrade Smith sold all of her possessions and gave up her salary to live among and minister to the homeless. Photographer Mike Dubose documents in this slideshow where she was planning to sleep for the next few nights.
In her keynote speech to the 40th anniversary meeting of MARCHA, Bishop Minerva Carcaño told the story of an immigrant father and his children she and another church worker met at a border crossing near Nogales, Mexico.
Sometimes you need to take action, whether or not it will change anything, says Jim Winkler about participating in a protest about the debt ceiling crisis.
As executive director of Bahamas Methodist Habitat, McIntyre coordinates disaster relief efforts and repairs homes for low-income families. “A lot of people just think about the glitz and glamour of the Bahamas. They don’t realize that just the next street over are families that don’t have running water or electricity in their homes.”
The Rev. Brian Combs pastors a congregation that leaves labels - homeless, mentally ill, addict - at the door, and simply calls everyone a child of God. It "reflects their understanding of Jesus, which is a Savior with radical hospitality, inclusive love, extending grace in every direction and always inviting the circle to be widened."
A thrift shop serving the Navajo Indian Reservation in New Mexico can’t keep enough shoes in stock. Local United Methodist churches came to the rescue.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo could be the archetype for what Africans call the “resource curse” — the malady where impoverished people fare worst in countries with abundant natural resources. Yet United Methodist Women is helping impoverished families, women, children and youth in the Congo keep hope alive.
As we contemplate the direction of the United States in a time of extreme economic uncertainty, we must remind ourselves that calamities such as hunger and disease have their own timetable.
An Alabama woman is taking her message to the streets—quite literally. She's walking from one end of the state to the other for a cause that's close to her heart.
In Senegal, a land where 95 percent of the population is Muslim, The United Methodist Church has been welcomed and is growing through good relations with neighbors and partnerships across borders.
A $300,000 grant will cover part of the start-up costs of a United Methodist three-year program to lift 75 families out of poverty and help communities to make strides toward eliminating poverty in three counties of western North Carolina.
Three counties in North Carolina are the focal points of a new United Methodist Church pilot ministry to eliminate poverty. They will become training stations for the denomination in the United States.
The head of the United Methodist Church's mission agency has thanked the Methodist Church of Great Britain for its role in keeping the concerns of poverty and environmental protection in the public eye as representatives of the world's 20 strongest economies met in London.
A new United Methodist Border Health Partnership in South Texas is building on the work of a small membership congregation in the city of Pharr, near McAllen and just across the Rio Grande from the Mexican city of Reynosa.
This is Worship at the Y, the Sunday morning faith gathering of the White Pines United Methodist Church. Worship begins before the Y opens on Sundays and is followed by a workout.
The global financial crisis underscores the importance of a renewed focus on mission and ministry for the church and reminds Christians to maintain hope during fearful times, said three key United Methodist leaders.
A campaign to link United Methodist youth to the realities of local and global poverty is being expanded into pilot areas across the United States after a successful launch in New Jersey.
It’s happened to most everyone. Chances are someone has come up to you on the street and asked for a handout. They might share a hard luck story, or just plead for spare cash.
Several ecumenical Christian groups in the United States both appealed to and pledged to support the president in matters dealing with peace, poverty, and human rights.
Several ecumenical Christian groups in the United States both appealed to and pledged to support the president in matters dealing with peace, poverty, and human rights.
On the evening of Nov. 28, a caravan of eight cars left the Warwick United Methodist church at 9 p.m. for eight predetermined stops in Manhattan to deliver more than 100 prepared bagged meals and 10 boxes of clothing to homeless men and women.
With unemployment, layoffs and a stretch of hard economic times hurting many, a local church plans to provide more than prayers to help. Parishioners at Perry United Methodist Church are opening a food pantry the last two Saturdays of every month beginning Jan. 31.
Old East Dallas was growing poorer and poorer when Munger Place United Methodist Church opened its food pantry there in 1982. Swiss Avenue and other historic neighborhoods had fallen into disrepair.
The Payday candy bars sometimes given to hardworking volunteers at Southeast Ministries are meant as much as a little joke as a reward. The real payback, Loretta Foreman explained, comes from knowing they’ve helped someone, such as one woman who visited the ministry recently.
The tiny United Methodist community in Strumica, Macedonia, feeds some of the city's poorest of the poor on a regular basis, and a society that is predominantly Eastern Orthodox and Muslim has taken notice.
In times of need, churches play vital role. In the midst of hard economic times and an uncertain future, the church remains a safe haven to many. It is a place to find peace, it's a community of friends and it's a provider of needs.
For the 10th year in a row, Trinity United Methodist Church’s youth group teamed up with other spiritual organizations from around Rome and celebrated their love of Christ with Jesus in the Park.
A seven-week fundraising effort by members of Reynoldsburg United Methodist Church has yielded $50,000 to distribute equally among four charities. Dennis Franko, director of program ministries, said the undertaking began April 12 after the idea was suggested by lead pastor Jeff Greenway.
Pat Callbeck Harper of Helena, Mont., has been hired as Project Manager for the United Methodist Council of Bishops’ new “In Defense of Creation” document.
Meagan Cook was among the volunteers from Second Avenue United Methodist Church helping paint a house on Sixth Avenue this week as part of Altoona's Gateway renovation project.
Tonight, 3,000 families in sub-Saharan Africa will mourn the deaths of their children. A similar number mourned yesterday; the same number will mourn tomorrow and the next day as drug-resistant strains of malaria claim more lives.
The United Methodist Church wants to move past the debates over homosexuality that have dominated its meetings. So the denomination is pushing a new agenda when it holds its international meeting, which runs Wednesday through May 2 in Fort Worth, Texas.
For a number of years, Myrna Marble of Gospel Lighthouse Church and Neal Blount of the United Methodist Church have worked with missions in their respective churches.
The United Methodist Church is increasing its support for a ministry that assists people from Zimbabwe who are fleeing into South Africa to escape food shortages and economic chaos at home.
More than 200 United Methodist Women members and friends from across the country will take action on poverty, immigrant rights, living wages and other critical justice issues at the 2007 National Seminar: "For Christ's Sake, Turn the World Upside Down," at Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, Aug. 11-16.
Virginia Beach United Methodist Church and the city's housing department have joined forces to help find affordable rental housing for some of the Beach's homeless families.
A local church group is collecting donations for Zimbabwe. The project began with just 15 people from churches in the area who visited Zimbabwe last year with Christ Community United Methodist Pastor B.J. Norrix.
Two officers of the United Methodist Council of Bishops have joined with the president of the denomination’s social justice agency to call for a reordering of the nation’s budget priorities.
Working on a mission team in Guatemala with a bunch of adults might not be every teenager's idea of the perfect Sweet 16, but Jordan Oakes didn't mind.
Many experiences in his life have helped Erick Veliz hear God's call to help the poor, the least and the lost. Growing up in La Paz, Bolivia, he never considered himself poor because there was always food on the table. When he was 10, after years of struggle, his parents raised enough money to move to the United States.
Prayers for Encouragement: Hope for Persons Living with HIV & AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Other Serious Diseases is being printed by Upper Room Ministries in partnership with the Africa Upper Room Office.
Members of Woodlake United Methodist Church packaged enough meals to feed more than 8,000 hungry children for the non-profit organization, Stop Hunger Now.
For a magnified example of how poverty, housing and a just society are intertwined, take a look at the Gulf Coast. That's exactly what United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert has done in his role as chairperson of the Special Commission for the Just Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast for the National Council of Churches.
Increasing the U.S. federal minimum wage is "a matter of economic and racial justice," according to a letter to Congress signed by 11 Christian leaders.
The United Methodist Council of Bishops has unanimously approved a proposal to the denomination’s finance agency to pilot a pension program in the church’s Liberia Annual Conference.
The Connectional Table, a 60-member group responsible for coordinating the mission, ministries and resources of the United Methodist Church, has proposed four goals for the 10 million-member denomination.
Dale Kimball, director of the United Methodist Slidell Recovery Station, spends six days a week driving a truck from one end of town to the other, 12 or more hours a day, helping the poorest in his hometown rebuild their lives after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their homes.
Generous responses by United Methodists to Hurricane Katrina enabled the United Methodist Committee on Relief to assume its largest role ever in a domestic disaster. UMCOR raised $64.5 million for hurricane relief, causing Newsweek magazine to rank the agency sixth in a survey of “Big Names in Katrina Relief.”
The harshest winds from Hurricane Katrina first hit a remote community on the tip of the Louisiana coast destroying most of the town, including Buras Trinity United Methodist Church.
After a year of destruction, chaos and despair, the greatest gift that can be given to people of the Gulf Coast is hope, says Ed Blakeslee, coordinator of United Methodist Katrina relief efforts in Mississippi.
Lisa, Destin and Darrien Swanson are wearing big smiles and new school uniforms for their first day of school in Pearlington, Miss., thanks to two United Methodist churches in upstate New York.
Hurricane Katrina blew the face off of poverty in the United States, revealing the plight of the poor in startling detail and forging a church group’s resolve to see that people of color are treated fairly in the rebuilding.
NEW YORK (UMNS) — To help churches take action on poverty, the National Council of Churches has released a new guide, Eradicating Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the Millennium Development Goals.
NEW YORK (UMNS) — A group of Norwegian youth are exploring how they can help eliminate hunger and poverty through meetings at the United Nations and a journey to Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and India.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — A caravan of United Methodist deacons, searching for a site for an AIDS treatment project, personally confronted the needs of those suffering from the disease.
An organization of Filipino-American United Methodists has joined with groups condemning the recent killings of a Protestant pastor and others working with the poor in the Philippines.
WASHINGTON (UMNS)—For the first time in history, human beings have the ability to eradicate poverty from the face of the earth, leaders of several religious and faith-based groups in the United States said at a June 27 press conference.
A group of seamstresses make cheerful hospital gowns for Operation Smile, which repairs facial deformities for children in many of the world's poorest countries.
WASHINGTON (UMNS)—Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards met with two United Methodist bishops and several other Protestant leaders April 11 to discuss poverty, homelessness and hunger.
NEW YORK (UMNS)—Despite their important contribution to the world’s breadbasket, rural women face challenges of poverty, illiteracy and gender discrimination, according to panelists speaking recently at the United Nations.
In Haiti most people cook with charcoal, but since the landscape has been decimated it won’t be long before this resource will be unobtainable for most.
While baking, boiling and frying are easily accomplished by most families in developed nations, cooking a simple meal can be a daily challenge in impoverished countries such as Haiti.
Lieu Dea had to flee the Ivory Coast after an armed rebellion. Now he’s studying agriculture in the states, hoping to go home again, with skills that can change his country.
Korean News