A major earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 12, 2010, causing widespread destruction. Millions of people are affected and thousands are feared dead. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has close ties with the Methodist Church in Haiti and is responding to the devastating earthquake with funding, material resources and prayers.
UMCOR executive, Melissa Crutchfield says, “We are working with our partners on the ground to provide immediate relief to the people in Haiti. UMCOR has worked in Haiti for many years. We anticipate that there will be years of rebuilding needed and are prepared to work with the people to help them through that process.”
Working with partners, Action by Churches Together, Church World Service, Global Medic and the Methodist Church, UMCOR is channeling its resources to respond effectively to the people most in need.
You can also donate by check. Checks can be made to UMCOR with Advance #418325 Haiti Emergency in the memo line. Checks can be put in the church offering plate this Sunday or mailed to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087.
Please pray for all of the people affected by the earthquake in Haiti. Thank you for your faithful support for all of God’s children. 100% of gifts made to this advance will go to help the people of Haiti.<
The Centennial Endowment Funds Committee is beginning the Grant Process for 2010.
Only official organized administrative groups within First Church are able to apply for a grant.
Applications are not accepted from individuals. Any individual suggestion for the use of funds must go the appropriate committee. That committee will consider the suggestion and decide whether or not to submit it to the Centennial Endowment Committee for consideration.
Please also note that Centennial Endowment Committee members are available for consultation during this process. Should you have any questions, please ask the Committee for clarification and/or guidance before you submit your application.
More details about the grant process, and a list of the current committee members are available in the Grant Application Information package.
Applications may be submitted to the Church Business Administrator at any time up to 4:00PM on Wednesday, March 24, 2010. Late applications will not be considered.
Click here to downloand the Grant Application package.
"The hum of chatter, clink of plastic spoons on plastic dishes, scrape and thuds of chairs sliding on hardwood floor, laughter, sounds like a joy filled community when the homeless gather for dinner. Its still warm, the pianist came in barefooted as usual, many others wear shorts and sandals, jackets in back packs.
Some travel light, one has a bike with trailer loaded. A woman carries several bags. I sit by the door, welcoming people and watching over the church, will lock it when they leave. Tonight I decide to surreptitiously draw the scene and some of the characters, but they look over my shoulder, recognize people they know, and encourage me.
I’m beginning to know them now, I have seen on University Avenue, others in front of stores begging and often stop to chat. One fellow, who I knew well before the Coop grocery failed, recognized me before I could place him. I know few by name. It’s getting to be fun. Our watch is only once monthly, but we always look forward to it."
Clint McClintic, one of our parishioners who wrote the text and drew the graphic above, is one of many volunteer greeters for Innvison's Breaking Bread Meal. Every day Innvision serves a hot meal at a different church, to the area folk in need of food. First Church hosts the Breaking Bread meal every Monday evening.
Innvision has one paid staff member here each week. This staff member is in charge of five or six volunteers who cook, set up, serve and cleanup. We provide the use of Fellowship Hall and kitchen plus two greeters. The greeters will need to be at church from 4-7 pm to the area of our reception desk. They will greet those who come to eat; giving directions, answering questions and representing our church.
To become a greeter, please contact the church office.
Special Mission Visitors are a new Outreach initiative based on a suggestion by Pastor Michael Love at the July 2009 Outreach Committee Meeting. The purpose is to better acquaint our congregation with the extensive range of mission activities being conducted to help fulfill the broad mission of the United Methodist Church, namely, to witness to and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
The visitors will come from across the spectrum of missions associated with the United Methodist Church and nominally funded in part through a variety of UMC sources such as Apportionments, General Board of Global Missions, etc.
On Sunday, October 4, 2009 we welcomed Deborah Katina, the first of our Special Mission Visitors. Deborah is from the Nairobi, Kenya office of Church World Service (CWS) where she heads the CWS projects in Kenya and Uganda that bring good water – literally, the water of life – to peoples in those two sub-Saharan countries. Listen to and view her presentation here.
Additional Special Mission Visitors are being planned for January, March and June, 2010. In conjunction with their witness/sermon on a Sunday morning, our First UMC Finance Committee has approved an opportunity for our congregation to make a “plate offering” to further the work of that particular mission.
Congregations of all sizes, from a variety of faiths, in small towns and big cities are joining in this powerful public witness against torture by displaying a banner outside their place of worship.
In 1988 a group of church members had an idea to start a fund to raise money to support mission projects around the world, as well as providing an ongoing source of funds to support projects around the church.
The money that was raised wouldn't be spent all at once, but would be invested, and a portion of the funds would be made avaialble each year in the form of grants. With an eye to having the fund up and running for First Palo Alto's 100th anniversary, the Centennial Endowment Funds were born.
Almost 700,000 in grants have been distributed since the inception of the funds.
Please collect the UPC (bar codes) from Campbell products (including Pepperidge Farms) for a UMW mission project at McCurdy School.
A container is in the lobby of the Education building with a poster showing various products that qualify. It will be greatly appreciated if you cut or tear off only the section with the UPC code - please do not submit the entire label. This will be a great time saver.
First Palo Alto has a long history of supporting missionaries around the world.
Cuurently we support Paul Jeffrey in Honduras. Paul is a writer and interpreter of of current events in the Central American Region.
Several years ago we strengthened our commitment to missions by formally becoming a certified Global Mission Partner of the United Methodist Church
The goals of this program are to:
• expand the church's vision of mission partnership to encompass the globe and its peoples.
• continue to spread the gospel of love and hope by increasing covenant relationships with missionaries commissioned by the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM).
• work with partner churches around the world in developing leaders and service among their people by supporting Persons-in-Mission serving in their own or other countries.
• challenge every congregation to become a center for mission education and interpretation.
We fulfilled each of the following six steps required to become a Global Mission Partner
1. Pay 100 percent of our World Service apportionments.
2. Have an ongoing mission education program.
3. Serve our local community through an outreach ministry.
4. Support a General Board of Global Ministries missionary in a Covenant Relationship.
5. Support the ministry of a person in mission (a missionary sent by a partner church to serve in his or her own or another country).
6. Give a presentation on the Global Mission Partners program to two neighboring congregations.
Can you spare just 3 hours a year to serve as a greeter at the Urban Ministry Monday Meal?
Every Monday night our church, in cooperation with the Urban Ministry of Palo Alto, hosts a meal in our Fellowship Hall for the homeless in our community. This meal is part of Urban Ministries' Breaking Bread program.
Breaking Bread currently offers a free hot meals every day of the week, six in Palo Alto and one in Menlo Park. The meals are at the same church on the same day each week, and are intentionally spread out among various locations so that people with transportation issues will always have at least some services near their home.
Urban Ministry staff members deliver food for each meal from various food storage areas. There, a team of volunteers prepares the meal, then serves it and cleans up. Each of the meals has five teams of volunteers that rotate, so that each team cooks and serves once every five weeks.
The Outreach committee of First Palo Alto provides two volunteers to monitor the our building during a time when the building would otherwise be closed.
We are asking you to volunteer just 1 Monday a year from 4pm to 7pm.
To volunteer, please contact Ann Robar, 650-961-3739.
Hotel de Zink is a shelter for the homeless in Palo Alto. In partnership with InnVision, twelve churches in Palo Alto take turns hosting the homeless. Each of the twelve churches provides shelter for a month for up to 16 guests, and June is our month. Our church houses the shelter in Kohlstedt Hall and its kitchen. Individual families and groups of the church take turns providing a hot meal each night throughout the month of June.
In 1987, Jim Burklo visited Church shelter programs in Santa Cruz and Berkeley and began planning for a homeless shelter with Urban Ministries of Palo Alto. After many community and planning committee meetings the first homeless shelter on the peninsula opened in May 1989 in Palo Alto. Programs in Mountain View and San Jose were then modeled after ours.
How did Hotel de Zink get its name? In the great depression of the early 30’s many people were homeless. Tents were put up near the railroad tracks, where the Sheraton on El Camino Real is now, to house the homeless of that era. The local police chief spent a lot of time there to make sure that nothing untoward happened and to help provide the services that the tent people needed, and, as is the custom in the jails, the tent city was named after their keeper by the residents. Thus, Police Chief Zink was so honored, and is honored today with the present manifestation of the homeless shelters.
During the month of June we need our church members to provide hot meals each night. Each evening an Urban Ministries staff person and the participants in the Hotel de Zink program will arrive by 9pm. Volunteers bring a meal to serve up to 18 adults. Dinner is served from the kitchen in Kohlstedt Hall. Meal volunteers may stay and socialize with the guests, as each feels comfortable. Volunteers may also provide food for breakfast (e.g., juice, milk, bread, cereal) and food that can be used to pack lunches (e.g., sandwiches and fruit).
Chuck Hebel and Mark Bateman are two of a dozen Volunteers-in-Mission (VIM) traveled to Angola under the auspices of our California/Nevada United Methodist Conference. They departed on May 24, 2007 from SFO and returned on June 13, 2007.
This three-week VIM trip was part of a multiyear "partnership" between California/Nevada Conference and the West Angola Methodists to help them rebuild their country after the 27-year civil war which finally ended in 2002.
Our VIM team stayed in a nice structure in Luanda, the capital of Angola, which is on the Atlantic coast. The structure was built by a European church for visitors, under the auspices of Bishop Gaspar Domingos of the West Angola United Methodist Conference, Luanda.
Several members of the VIM team taught English as a second language. Mark and Chuck were on the "construction gang" and worked in and near Luanda and a small villiage, Cabala, about two hours south-east of the capital. Cabala is the site for which First UMC PaloAlto raised some $10,000 in 2006 to build a library for their local school.
This visit gave Mark and Chuck an opportunity to take pictures of the Cabala site to share with all of us. They also had many opportunities to build relationships with the people.
We posted Chuck and Mark's email reporting from their trip as soon as we received them.
Our own Chuck recently took a mission trip to Kenya and Rwanda with Church World Service. During his trip he visited the Maua Methodist Hospital in Kenya. This is the same hospital that our youth will be visiting during their 2007 Mission Trip.
Chuck kept us up-to-date on his activites by email. Read his trip reports.
In 2006, as a congregation we have become more aware of life in Africa. Perhaps news of Africa has caught your attention more than it did before. Perhaps you gained a new perspective from the Africa faire, the devotional booklet, the Children of Uganda concert, a prayer focus or the narthex display.
Survey Results
In the survey conducted among the congregation in March 2006, both health and education were rated your first priority. For health care, small clinics and preventive medicine were the main interests. For education, elementary through high school was the prime concern. UMC projects as well as projects by other organizations were deemed acceptable. Most respondents felt we should concentrate our efforts in one or two areas of need, but in more than one country.
Now the real learning begins as we offer support and caring not just for ideals – improving health or education – but for real people. The Outreach Committee reviewed more than one hundred projects, and made selections that best suit the concerns and capabilities of the FUMCPA congregation.
The Projects
The goal now was to make an impact in Africa in the areas of concern expressed in the survey.
Project 1: Community Maternal and Child Health Care,
Maua Methodist Hospital, Meru, Kenya
Your gifts were matched with a $10,000 with a Centennial Endowment grant. Over $24,000 was raised for these projects
Click here to download the 2006 Many Faces of Africa projects brochure and donation form.
Other Needs
Some survey respondents expressed interest in creating jobs and funding microgrants for small businesses, supporting AIDS orphans, and providing scholarships for Africa University students. Information about opportunities to make an impact in these ways can be found at www.villageef.org, www.starcross.org and www.africau.org, respectively. Donations made through the church may be designated for these NGOs (non-governmental organizations) working in Africa.
FUMC’s global mission efforts will be focused on Africa for the next few years.
The goal of the Outreach Committee is to increase awareness, understanding and concern about problems in Africa, as well as help the congregation recognize the diverse cultures, geography, and political climates of the continent. We will concentrate our efforts in the areas of education, health, and job creation and in the countries of Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda. Ultimately we hope the congregation will guide us in choosing some mission projects in Africa where our church can become involved in a variety of ways, especially financial support, and personal involvement through a Volunteers in Mission trip. This Africa initiative has been dubbed, “The Many Faces of Africa.”
Why Africa? Three reasons...
Focus
In 2004 our longtime mission partners Judy Newton in Japan retired and Lyda Pierce in Honduras left the mission field. Our only remaining mission partner, Paul Jeffrey is a photojournalist based in Oregon who travels around the world. (We still maintain our partnership with Paul.) It was time to rethink our global mission focus.
Precedence
The United Methodist Church has chosen Africa as an area of particular concern through the Bishops Initiative: Hope for the Children of Africa and the California-Nevada Conference’s partnership with the West Angola Conference. In addition, our church has funded the Africa Initiative of Church World Service through a Centennial Endowment Grant of $10,000 this year.
Need
The following quote from Bob Chase, President of A Greater Gift, sums up our concern.
During the 55 years we have been working to alleviate poverty, we have seen economic conditions gradually improve in much of South America and Asia. However, conditions in sub-Saharan Africa have actually deteriorated. The average life expectancy in much of this region has decreased to less than 40 years and 40 percent of the population is not able to obtain sufficient food on a daily basis. . . . We must and will focus greater attention on Africa and look for ways to expand our impact there.
The Many Faces of Africa will consist of three phases.
In the first phase, Think Africa, as a congregation we learned about Africa and its people, and consider the following questions.
Why Africa?
What about all the injustice and violence?
How about gender issues?
What about poverty and hunger?
Is illiteracy a big problem?
What are the education opportunities?
What about health, AIDS, for example?
What about unemployment and poor economies?
What can we do? Is there any hope for Africa?
In the second phase, we as a congregation identified particular projects of concern/ interest, and figure out some things we might do to help.
In the third phase, we will focus our efforts and begin making real impact in one or more of these areas of concern.
Please join us as we look closely at The Many Faces of Africa.
In June-July 2004 a group from California, Tennessee and Australia went to the island of Hunga in Tonga to help rebuild and renovate a church and parsonage that were damaged by Cyclone Waka.
A significant part of the cost of the repairs was paid for by a grant from our Centennial Endowment Funds and also by a special offering that we took after Cyclone Waka struck.
The trip was led by the Rev. Richard Thompson from Wesley UMC in Palo Alto and the Rev. Jerry Russell of Fairview UMC in Maryville, TN
Nancy Glaser passses on this update from Duaine Goodno, Country Director of the Afghan Center in Kabul:
"I am attaching three pictures of yesterday’s event where we held a rally of our women and marched nearly 500 of them more then one mile to register them to vote.
While there has been much criticism of the Afghan administration and the lack of progress in Afghanistan, seeing 500 women march down the street should be evidence enough that the criticism is unjustified. Add to that the sheer amount of rebuilding that is evident, the new opportunities that have been created, and the crack in the repression that women are suffering in Afghanistan should provide a great deal of optimism for the future."
In May 2002 one of our members, Nancy Glaser, traveled to Afghanistan with the mission of establishing a program to help women in post-Taliban Afghanistan through vocational training and business development. In September 2003 she returned to continue her work at the Afghan Project.
Nancy has sent us 2 photos from her most recent trip.
These Afghan women participate in a vocational training program in Kabul provided by the Afghan Center, the nonprofit that Nancy Glaser volunteers for and has spoken about to us. They are receiving the home health kits that Methodist women through UMCOR have volunteered. On behalf of the recipients, Nancy wants to thank everyone who made these kits possible!
This is my second week in Kabul and am leaving for home on Saturday. The time goes more slowly here than in the U.S. You actually feel each moment. We have gotten a lot of work done, met many of the organizations working here (big international and NGO's) and seen the local needs first hand. It continually amazes me how resilient the Afghans are - they can made a living or just live with so little.
The tourists are coming! (Sort of...)
The mix of foreigners here are much different than in May 2002 when I was here last. Someone saw a tour bus filled with camera-carrying Japanese and their leader with microphone in hand. Sandy Gell, a retired UK journalist who started a foundation here 20 years ago, brought 30 people from England with him (potential funders) including Lady "Diddlydo", a 70-something for a "look-see". Then you have the vast majority of NGO, ISAF and large internationals here (Save the Children, UNICEF, Mercy Corps, WHO, CARE, other UN orgs, local Afghan NGO's - there are signs along all the streets). It looks like there would be enough to take care of all the social, education, health and infrastructure problems here, but it's a drop in the bucket, but it's a good start. The problem is that most organizations are leaving the other providences because of the rising security issues. Kabul is protected by NATO's peacekeeping unit (ISAF) but this doesn't extend to any other region.
Looking at Kabul's progress over the past 15 months convinces all of us here that security is critical for development in this country. Step by step these grass roots and larger projects work. Men and women are being trained in skills that enable them to get work, they are being taught how to read and write. Home health care and nutrition is being taught, along with modest home health kits. The schools are being rebuilt and classes for all children resumed. The girls and boys even wear backpacks like our American kids. It all convinces me how this kind of "aid" is so more effective in winning hearts and changing minds than all the "scare tactics" that governments use.
This week I visited the largest agriculture NGO here - ICARDA - to see if they had an agriculture calendar for Kabul. We need this for our canning vocational training program. An Afghan manager sat down with me and went through every fruit and vegetable grown here in detail. He even told me how to plant garlic and store pumpkins and potatoes. What a patient and educated man. I have a feeling that this kind of information is only available by speaking with people directly. I charted all this if anyone is interested!
The Wheelchair Foundation (founded in Northern California) donated and sent over 250 wheelchairs to Kabul through our program (Afghan Center) recently. We met with some of the recipients - women, children, men of all ages - some crippled from birth, but many who lost legs and arms from the vast number of land mines here. This is a country with one of the largest number of live land mines. And, they are all over the place - near schools, roads, parks, etc. It is a daily danger for the Afghan people. The Afghan Center is expecting to distribute and additional 5,000 wheelchairs over the coming months for the foundation. Each person is listed with his or her "story", photo and history. I am having some of them translated for reporting purposes. If you are interested, I can send a copy of this report on to you.
Everyone home asks about safety. We have 5 guards/driver at night in our house. We lock our bedroom doors (just in case), but during the days as we drive around Kabul on appointments we do not have guards, just a driver who takes us around in a van. We have had no problems. Most of the Afghan people are very friendly and smile and wave at us as we go by. Westerners are still a "scarce commodity" here - men of all ages think I am gorgeous (I just love this place!). There's a small but tight expat community of hardworking, committed, bright, adventurous men and women of all ages, many of whom hop from war zone to war zone helping out. This is their life's work and I am continually impressed and amazed by them. They are surely the secular angels living among us.
This has been a wonderful two weeks seeing the many changes in Kabul and the Afghan people. Tonight at dinner we actually did run into bona fide tourists from Australia. See how fast the world changes?
Love,
Nancy
Here is her first e-mail.
September 17, 2003
Dear Friends,
After an eventful journey via London and Dubai, I arrived in Kabul safe and sound Sunday without any of my luggage. Thankfully it arrived today (Wednesday) just in time before I wore out my one outfit. My first impressions of Kabul are that there have been many changes from the last time I was here in May 2002. It is a bustling, vibrant, energetic and entrepreneurial city. There are many more vehicles on the road, so many more food stands, retail stalls, small shops selling everything you could think of from wheelbarrows, fruits & veg's, duct tape, construction materials, men's slacks, children's clothes and on and on....
The women wearing burkas are so fewer - most of the women and girls are wearing scarves and long tunics - such a welcome sight! We even saw a few girls wearing t-shirts and denim jeans (but with a scarf on). Of course, most of the people on the street are men and there are very few female drivers. However, you'd have to be insane to drive here! It's nuts on the roads.
Our Afghan Center is located just outside of downtown Kabul in a quiet section. The living quarters for American staff (2) are located in the office building. The training for 760 women (preselected by Women for Women International) has begun - rights awareness and home health care/nutrition now and literacy to start soon. Next will come canning and other nontraditional skills for both home use as well as self-employment. It's a great sight to see our "students" arrive each morning - it was a struggle to get started, but now to see it all happening is so wonderful.
Some of our NGO friends that we have seen this week are Dr. Nilaf, a Afghan-French doctor that we met last year. She has raised $4.5 million in France to build a teaching children's hospital here. She is also doing research throughout the country to identify the most urgent issues for women. She mentioned that over 50% of the population is 18 years or younger. Her organization's website is: www.enfantsafghan.com.
Nilaf introduced us to an evening of welcoming to Kabul a caravan of French geologists who drove from Paris through Turkey, Iran and the whole of Afghanistan in cars - about 40 people in all. What an adventure!
I stopped by the Ministry of Women to see the first western style beauty salon that was started by a group of Afghan-American women from NYC. Unfortunately they are still in training. I was hoping to try them out. I met one of the American women who is training them in hair color.
We stopped today at Women for Women International to see their bakery training center. I ordered a dozen cinnamon rolls for tomorrow. Their most popular item on the menu is chocolate mud cake. See how civilized it's becoming?!
Another vocational training program we passed by is the German House Hotel School for Cooks, Waiters and Housekeepers. There are many computer and English classes in town. Apparently there are many internet cafes now too. I walked into one and it was very professional with high speed internet access and 20 computers. Prices were very reasonable
The infrastructure is still so in need. Schools are in session, but in buildings that have no windows, desks, supplies. The children are still going in shifts because of the shortage of useable buildings. However, we were watching young girls walking to school this morning in their uniforms and backpacks. So encouraging from last year when they just started again after no schooling while the Taliban were in power (5 years).
Well, that's all for now. I'll keep a short report coming over the next 10 days. Although there is much to applaud there are many serious issues still. The whole society is changing and with that comes many problems. Domestic violence is on the rise we hear. NGO's are promoting classes on women's rights as well as training for lawyers, judges and police on this issue. Security remains a big issue, especially in the southern part of the country. Afghan's working for NGO's are being threatened (and some have been killed) trying to discourage them from working for international organizations. We are safer here in Kabul where large forces of ISAF (International Safekeeping Forces) from NATO are in place. They are a welcome sight for us as well as the local population.
I will have a photo album at the end of my trip that I will provide through ofoto.com. Until later,
BACKGROUND In autumn 2003, Afghan women in Kabul were the recipients of a Hygiene Kit Distribution as part of a joint UMCOR / Afghan Center (AC) effort to access some of the most vulnerable people in the city. The distribution, the result of a cooperation between UMCOR and the Afghan Center, an American NGO offering vocational training assistance to 760 women in Kabul, was funded by the US Government Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (BPRM).
The First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto, California - A Welcoming Church spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties since 1894. We're conveniently located in downtown Palo Alto near the Stanford University campus. Whether you're in the Silicon Valley or on the Peninsula, we want to be your Church home.
We invite you and your family to worship with us any Sunday morning.
Our members come from all over the San Francisco bay area including Atherton, Belmont, Burlingame, Campbell, Castro Valley, Cupertino, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Fremont, Gilroy, Half Moon Bay, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Newark, Pacifica, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Francisco, San Mateo, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Stanford, Sunnyvale and Walnut Creek.
Check out our Visitors Information section for more information about the First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto
Join Pastor Michael for this new class. Just as a house can be rebuilt after it has fallen into disrepair or devastation, so God can enter in to our brokenness and completely rebuild our lives.
The Centennial Endowment Funds Committee is beginning the Grant Process for 2010.
Help feed and clothe the needy in our community.
Please collect the UPC (bar codes) from Campbell products (including Pepperidge Farms) for a UMW mission project at McCurdy School. 
First Palo Alto has a long history of supporting missionaries around the world. 
Can you spare just 3 hours a year to serve as a greeter at the Urban Ministry Monday Meal?
Hotel de Zink is a shelter for the homeless in Palo Alto. In partnership with InnVision, twelve churches in Palo Alto take turns hosting the homeless. Each of the twelve churches provides shelter for a month for up to 16 guests, and June is our month. Our church houses the shelter in 
Chuck Hebel and Mark Bateman are two of a dozen Volunteers-in-Mission (VIM) traveled to Angola under the auspices of our California/Nevada United Methodist Conference. They departed on May 24, 2007 from SFO and returned on June 13, 2007. 
In 2006, as a congregation we have become more aware of life in Africa. Perhaps news of Africa has caught your attention more than it did before. Perhaps you gained a new perspective from the Africa faire, the devotional booklet, the Children of Uganda concert, a prayer focus or the narthex display.
In June-July 2004 a group from California, Tennessee and Australia went to the island of Hunga in Tonga to help rebuild and renovate a church and parsonage that were damaged by Cyclone Waka.
In autumn 2003, Afghan women in Kabul were the recipients of a Hygiene Kit Distribution as part of a joint UMCOR / Afghan Center (AC) effort to access some of the most vulnerable people in the city. The distribution, the result of a cooperation between 
Listen to Pastor Michael's greeting. You are welcome here!