Volume 151 Number 37

January 21, 2005

Briefly…

Positions available

• Part time sales associate: Cokesbury Christian Bookstore, Memphis. 25-30 hours a week. No late evenings. No Sundays. $7.00 an hour to start. Apply in person 6150 Poplar Avenue Suite 118, Memphis, TN.

UMTV features Memphis Conference people and ministries for nat’l TV

Mike Gentry, a member of Broadway UMC in Paducah, Ky., was featured in an Oct. 1, 2004 article in the Memphis Conference Reporter (“‘Being Jesus’ to kids in jail”) and in a video segment for UMTV which provides stories about United Methodist ministries to the nation’s TV stations. (See the UMTV segment at http://umtv.org/archives/life_skills.htm) Gentry is one of the founders of a prison ministry for youth. UMTV producer Dennis Ferrier said the program had great response. “Mike called me and told me he had received lots of calls, including a church group in Kansas that wants to duplicate the program,” Ferrier emailed The Reporter. “They wanted to know where to get the supplies and the whole nine yards. Mike is the perfect guy for a youth prison ministry,” Ferrier continued. “He is so straight-forward, very masculine, you know, construction worker with great compassion for kids, just a wonderful person in the right place.”

UMTV also recently featured other stories first reported in the Memphis Conference Reporter. See the UMTV report on Ministry on the River: http://umtv.org/additionalstories
/christmas_on_the_river.htm
and the story about Joey Williams, middle -aged football player at Lambuth University. http://umtv.org/archives
/fountain_of_middle_age.htm.

Applications now being accepted for Lipscomb Scholarship Fund

Applications for the John & Molly Lipscomb Scholarship Fund are now available through Mullins UMC. The purpose of the fund is to provide tuition for deserving students entering Christian ministry in the Memphis Conference of the United Methodist Church. Applicants must be certified ministerial candidates. To request a form, please write to: Mullins United Methodist Church, 4 North Mendenhall Rd., Memphis, TN 38117-2698 or fax your request to: (901) 681-0317. Deadline: April 15.

Lambuth University hosts UM Student Day & X-Fest

On January 29, United Methodist students will be welcomed to Lambuth University in Jackson, Tenn. for a campus tour, free dinner, worship with college students, and a free concert with Hawk Nelson and Sanctus Real. Hawk Nelson is a power pop/punk foursome hailing from Canada. Sanctus Real says it’s all about maintaining spiritual integrity. To register for the 4:00-10:00 PM event, email Tiffany Padgitt at padgitt@lambuth.edu or call (731) 425-3340.

Youth Study Tour of NYC and Washington, DC

The Tennessee, Memphis and Holston Annual Conferences are sponsoring a April 2-10, 2005 Youth Study Tour to New York City and Washington, D.C. for high school juniors, seniors and college freshmen. The cost is $900, basic fee, per person (covers bus, hotel, seminar costs, study materials, Broadway play tickets and Holocaust Museum Tour). It is suggested that each student take along a minimum of $400 for expenses. This year’s topic will be Global Conflicts. An orientation banquet will be held on March 10. Each participant and his/her family should attend. If selected for the tour, each participant must research the seminar topic and submit a two-page report at the banquet. Students will be selected to represent their conferences. For more information, contact the Rev. Deborah Suddarth, email, dcsuddarth@bellsouth.net, or call (731)664-8480.

Schoolfield partners with Frayser Elementary to help third graders succeed in classroom

On Math Day, half the students practice math and computer skills
while the other half receive instruction from tutors.

By Bill Tate

pastor, Schoolfield UMC

_Schoolfield United Methodist Church has been partnered with Frayser Elementary School since 1999 as part of the Memphis City Schools Adopt-A-School program.

The church has built a very strong and successful community relationship with the school, establishing several initiatives such as:

• Members volunteering and tutoring in their Adopt-A-School program

• Members leading vacation Bible Schools

• Hosting block parties

• Financially supporting students for out-of-town field trips

• Donating school supplies

• Sponsoring 20 students at Lakeshore, the Memphis Conference camp

• Decorating the church’s dining room for a special meal with the principal for students who make the honor list.

Schoolfield’s newest venture is an after school tutorial program called “The Blazing Third Graders.”

This program is designed to enhance reading and math TCAP scores for third graders. The tutors meet with the children every Monday and Tuesday from 2:30-4:30 PM. The church prepares three classrooms with one outfitted as a computer lab with 10 computers donated by the Make A Wish Foundation and by church members. The computers are used to reinforce reading and math skills.

During the tutorial time, students receive a snack and are taught character lessons from a Christian perspective. The Rev. Lonnie Royal Sr., director of the Raleigh/Frayser Cooperative Parish, teaches the lessons before each tutorial session. Royal is the computer lab instructor as well.

Program Director Beatrice Williams who is also a Guidance Counselor at Frayser Elementary, selects the students for the program.

Working with the program are dedicated church members Annette Moore, Ann McCoy and Virginia Williams. Community volunteers include Myehia Willis from the Raleigh/Frayser Cooper, the Rev. Renee Dillard, Carol Mosby and John Dillard from Scenic Hills UMC who have dedicated their time as tutors.

Approximately 15-20 students are in the program and they will be tracked through the fifth grade.

“Each year we will bring in a new group of third graders and rotate the same process,” said Royal. “This will mean we will eventually have an enrollment of 30 to 40 students.”

Royal says the goal is to continue to work with the students until they reach the fifth grade. The program’s success will be measured by the success of the students and the result of their 2004-2005 TCAP test scores.

Frayser Elementary was recently removed from the high priority failing list.

I feel, as pastor of Schoolfield, it was the collaborative effort of this congregation that helped them attain their goal.

In October, we had our first After School Open House. Parents, students, community stakeholders, staff and faculty from Frayser Elementary came and toured the classrooms. We received admiring expressions of gratitude from the parents.

This program is by far the best we have done. I know we will continue to grow as we are blessed. Of course we will need the continued support of the Raleigh-Frayser Cooperative Parish.

We’re looking forward to making this a model for others. Please keep us in your prayers as we attempt to be faithful in mission and ministry in the Frayser Community.

Christmas came to Hardin County, thanks to local United Methodists

Volunteers from United Methodist churches in South Hardin County operated a Toy Store that ensured more than 100 children found presents under the tree on Christmas morning.

_Some Hardin County parents were able to provide Christmas for their children last year because United Methodists cared enough to spend time and resources purchasing toys and making them available at nominal prices.

On December 3 and 4, the second annual Project Christmas Toy Store was held in the fellowship hall of Lebanon United Methodist Church. The program was sponsored by the following United Methodist churches of Southwest and Southeast Hardin County: Pickwick, Pisgah, Shiloh, Crump, Stantonville, Lebanon, Mount Vinson, Union Grove, and New Hope.

With volunteers from the Adamsville, Tenn. Jaycees and the Adamsville Reach Out Program, shopping was done for 85 children. Left-over merchandise was given to the Adamsville Jaycees and The Reach Out Program for Angel Tree Children.

Hardin County United Methodist churches thank local church members for their generosity, local businesses for their donations, and the Memphis Conference Program Ministries Office and the Darryl Worley Foundation for grants of money to underwrite the program.

At least 100 children had a better Christmas this year. Each family was also given a bag containing a Bible and a devotional/activity book for the Advent season.

The Project Toy Store was patterned after an existing ministry at Reelfoot Rural Ministries in Lake County. Families are approved for shopping by submitting applications. The board of directors used Federal Poverty Guidelines to determine eligibility. Parents or guardians were able to purchase new items at greatly reduced prices. That allowed parents to be proud that they were able to provide part of their child’s Christmas.

No one was turned away because of an inability to pay all or part of the cost of the toys.

It is the goal of the project to reach out to these families during the coming year and to invite them into a fellowship at the nearest church.

UMs take medicine, support to Indonesia

_Top mission and communications leaders of the United Methodist Church left Jan. 10 to convey Christian love and medicine to people devastated by the recent tsunamis.

“We are going primarily to Sumatra, a part of Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim country on earth, but where Methodists also died,” said the Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive of the denomination’s Board of Global Ministries. The delegation will be taking 100,000 doses of antibiotics and anti-diarrhea medicine.

As of Jan. 7, UMCOR had sent $750,000 for emergency relief assistance and was planning additional shipments of medicine to several Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia.

More than $1.1 million had been contributed to the agency through telephone and online donations as of Jan. 6. That figure does not include the substantial relief contributions that come through congregations.

The United Methodist Church has links with two denominations on the island of Sumatra. Those are the Methodist Church of Indonesia, and the Karo Batak Protestant Church. Methodist missionaries went to Sumatra from Singapore in 1905. The Methodist Church of Indonesia serves some 100,000 people.

UMCOR depot serves as hub for aid to tsunami-stricken areas

By John Gordon, UMNS

_Thousands of health kits with soap, bandages and other essentials are headed to Asia from the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

The kits were assembled by volunteers from around the United States working at UMCOR’s Sager Brown Depot in south Louisiana.

“It makes me feel good, making all the bags for people that I know really need them (and) taking time out of my life to help someone else out,” said Corey Rosemurgy, a college student from Austin, Texas.

The 25,000 kits, valued at $300,000 to $500,000, were loaded Jan. 6. With the assistance of Church World Service, the supplies will be airlifted to areas devastated Dec. 26 by tsunami waves that killed at least 150,000 people and left millions more homeless in countries around the Indian Ocean.

“The people of the United Methodist Church are always fantastic to respond in whatever the disaster is,” said Tom Hazelwood, UMCOR’s executive secretary for U.S. disaster response. “Our phones have been ringing off the hook.”

The health kits also contain toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels, combs, nail files and fingernail clippers.

“We have found that if you’re able to use just the soap and water, that’s a big help in helping keep down the diseases and everything that comes in after a disaster like this,” Hazelwood said.

Congregations around the United States donated items for the health kits. Cash donations are still needed to help with the disaster relief.

UMCOR, working with other faith-based partners, is making a long-term commitment to help the tsunami victims. Church World Service, which receives support from 36 denominations, is involved in the rush delivery of more than $900,000 in supplies to stricken countries.

“We’re there for the long haul,” said Hazelwood. “Our hope is to work through our partners there, and the goal has already been set to rebuild at least 10,000 homes.”