The AIDS Walk supports services and programs that help more than 10,000 Hoosiers with HIV/AIDS. We’ll solicit pledges from family, friends, co-workers, and others to provide assistance with shelter, utilities, food, medicine, and other daily living needs.

Won’t you sign up today to be part of the LifeJourney Team? Your participation can make a difference to many people right here in Indiana. The walk is Saturday October 8 at University Park.

Sign up to be part of the LifeJourney Church Team at church on Sunday, or sign up directly online. Click “walker registration” then choose “LifeJourney Church” as your team. You can download the pledge form with instructions.

If you can’t walk, you can still participate by gathering pledges or sponsoring someone else. If you’d like to make a general team donation, please see Gina Walker or email the church office.

Eastern Africa is in the midst of a famine that is wreaking havoc on the people of Somalia, Kenya, and the Horn of Africa.

Life Journey Church tries to respond with the love of Christ when emergency situations such as this occur. Because of your generous giving, we have been able to provide $2,000 in desperately-needed assistance. $1,000 is going to CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE’s efforts include emergency aid to individuals, especially children, who are suffering from malnutrition and other medical problems. Families are given food and other essentials including tents, kitchen sets, firewood, fuel-efficient stoves and access to general food distributions in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya.

Another $1,000 is going to Oxfam, which is providing water and sanitation for displaced people and giving life-saving equipment to Somalia’s only children’s hospital. In Kenya and Ethiopia, Oxfam is giving people money through cash-for-work projects to build water tanks and reservoirs and is trucking in water supplies and treating water for drinking, cooking, and washing.

And here at home…

We’re also responding to hunger and poverty here at home. Next Sunday (August 7) we will collect donations for the food pantry at the Damien Center, which assists people affected by HIV/AIDS. They especially need:

• meats, including canned chicken or Spam (but not tuna)
• canned entrees (beef stew, chunky soup, chicken/dumplings)
• canned fruit (peaches, pears, fruit cocktail, applesauce)
• toiletries (razors and shaving cream, bath soap, shampoo)
• toilet paper, and
• laundry detergent.

You can bring these items to the collection point in the social hall on Sunday, August 7.

The Homeless Ministry has been working through some significant changes over the last few months. Horizon House — the terrific day shelter we’ve supported for several years — has had to reduce their operating hours, and they’re now closed on Saturdays. That makes it impossible for most of the Homeless Ministry Team to participate in our usual service opportunities. We will continue to support Horizon House with donations — see the list below.

The Team worked diligently over the last three months to find a new service opportunity that respected both our commitment to service as well as our cultural diversity. We are pleased to announce a new affiliation with The Dayspring Center, located at 16th Street and Central Avenue. The Dayspring Center is a 24-hour shelter providing temporary lodging for families with children under the age of 18.

We will be able to serve in many ways at the Dayspring Center in addition to our traditional kitchen duties, with opportunities to serve at the front desk, playroom, donation receiving and sorting, cleaning, and in the summer in their garden and with the summer camp. Our initial focus will continue to be with the kitchen assistance, but we hope to expand our ministry into other areas as the Spirit leads team members into those paths.

Our team members have committed to cooking and serving breakfast on the third Saturday of each month, and we expect to add another Saturday breakfast or lunch in the very near future, as more of the current team is brought up to speed.

All of our Homeless Ministry volunteers who work with The Dayspring Center begin by attending one of the Center’s orientation sessions. At the end of orientation, you will be invited to consider making a commitment to serving the center on a specific day and time.

If you’re interested in being part of this new phase of Homeless Ministry, please contact either April Kerulis or Greg McMullen via the church office.

We will continue to support Horizon House by collecting:

• deodorant, razors, tooth brushes, toothpaste, and lotion,
• new men’s socks and underwear, and
• new or gently used men’s pants (sizes 32-36) and men’s tennis shoes (size 9 and up)

Donations can be left in the closet next to Room 2 in the tote marked Homeless Ministry. Please do not bring items other than what’s listed. Thanks!

An enormous Thank You! to everyone who donated food and toiletries for the Damien Center Food Pantry. Your contributions will go directly to people in our community whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Your generosity provided:

• 110 cans and pouches of meat (chicken, beef, luncheon meat, tuna)
• 58 jars of peanut butter
• 91 cans of fruit
• 93 cans of vegetables
• 34 cans of soup
• 10 bottles of laundry detergent
• 50 bars of soap, 20 tubes of toothpaste, 52 rolls of toilet paper, and 80 other toiletry items.

Many thanks also to the Fellowship Galactica Oasis for coordinating this food drive. So say we all!

Beginning Sunday, October 17, we will collect food and toiletries for the Damien Center Food Pantry. This outreach is being coordinated by the Fellowship Galactica Oasis.

The Damien Center provides services and resources for those who are affected by HIV/AIDS. Over 70% of the Center’s clients live below the poverty level, and the Food Pantry is an essential resource for them. The Pantry relies on the generosity of people like you to keep it running.

The pantry is especially in need of:

• canned protein goods: beef, chicken, spam, peanut butter,
• canned fruit (fruit cocktail, peaches, pears) and
• laundry detergent.

They also welcome canned vegetables, soup, pasta and rice, spaghetti sauce, and toilet paper and other toiletries. The don’t need snack foods, like popcorn or candy.

We’ll have a collection table in the social hall on October 17, and we’ll finish the collection the following week. Questions? Please see Fellowship Galactica leader Dave Wene, or contact him via the church office.

There are a lot of people in central Indiana who are struggling to get by. Some lack basic clothing. On Sunday, September 12 we’re going to try to do what we can to make a difference.

Please bag any gently used clothes and shoes that you can spare and bring them to Church. We’ll place our donations in the coat room. Your donations will be distributed to two groups working hard to help people get back on their feet:

• Local Family Stores operated by the Adult Rehabilitation Center of the Salvation Army;
• The Indianapolis Re-Entry Education Facility, which provides assistance to adult male prisoners being released from jail.

We need clean, gently-used clothes and shoes in good condition — for both men and women, as well as children of all ages. Start cleaning out those closets and drawers!

When our Missions Team visited Sudan in January of 2009, the woman of the Toposa tribe asked for our help to construct a well for their tribe. The women have to walk miles daily through dangerous territory to retrieve water. Constructing a well in southern Sudan is very expensive — $13,000!

Donna Hays (who is on the Missions Board and helped to plan that trip) and her father (before he passed away) felt a special burden to respond to the request of the Toposa woman. Together, they raised $10,000. Our challenge, as a congregation, was to come up with the balance. We have now done so in the following ways:

• 20% of last Sunday’s offering was designated for the well, adding $1,986 to the total.
• Donations made by our children during Vacation Bible School added another $200.
• Tuesday the Board of Directors voted to take $814 from church reserves to complete the project.

Drilling will begin soon in the Toposa tribal area. Thank you for your wonderful generosity!

You may recall the report from our last Sudan missions trip about the Toposa tribe and their defunct well. The women of the tribe walk several miles each way to retrieve their daily water supply, and are often attacked by wild animals. It has been our dream to fund a clean water supply in the heart of the tribe. With your help, on July 11, that goal can be met!

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Because of everyone’s extraordinary generosity in last Sunday’s offering, we were able to donate $3,412 to Haitian relief efforts!

Specifically, $1,250 was sent to a sister congregation, Chapel Hill United Methodist Church (Indianapolis), to purchase medical supplies for their medical missions trip to Haiti. They left Friday, February 5 and expect to treat 5,000 patients at a clinic near Port-au-Prince this week. Another $2,162 was sent to Partners In Health to be used exclusively to provide medical and health services for the poor in Haiti. Thank you so much for your overflowing generosity!

If you’d like to make additional, individual contributions to help in Haiti, you can find more information here:

• Partners in Health
• Doctors Without Borders
• American Red Cross or text “Haiti” to 90999

Next Sunday, January 31, 20% of everything you put in the offering plate will automatically go to relief efforts in Haiti. Our Missions Board has conducted extensive research and has identified two organizations who are doing exceptional work in Haiti.

Chapel Hill Medical Missions Trip
The first $1,250 of our relief funds will go to support a medical missions trip being coordinated by a sister congregation here in Indianapolis, Chapel Hill United Methodist Church. They will be sending 17 medical missionaries to Haiti from February 5-13. They have made similar trips to Haiti for years. These medical missionaries will be stationed at a clinic about an hour north of Port-au-Prince, where refuges from Port-au-Prince are fleeing to seek medical assistance.

The Chapel Hill team expects to treat about 5,000 Haitians during their two week stay! Our funds will be used exclusively to purchase medical supplies for this trip, including antibiotics, bandages, suture kits, braces, splints, and medications. If you would like to help prepare handwritten notes of encouragement for these medical missionaries, join us at the church this Tuesday, January 26 at 7:00 pm in Room 6.

Partners In Health
Amounts collected in excess of $1,250 will go to Partners In Health. Our Missions Board is very impressed with the work PIH is doing. For the past 20 years, PIH has employed a number of native Haitians to provide medical and health services for the poor in their local communities — as well as water, food, and shelter. All of the funds we donate to PIH will go directly to their relief work in Haiti.

When you give next Sunday, there is no need to designate your giving for Haiti. We will automatically set aside 20% of every dollar donated next Sunday. This approach has worked well for us in the past when we responded to the tsunami in Asia and starvation in Africa. Our 80/20 formula allows us to make a very sizeable donation to relief efforts without falling too far short in funding the ongoing ministries of our Church.

So, we encourage all who can to plan to give a little extra next Sunday, as an expression of God’s love for Haiti. Thanks!

The AIDS Walk supports services and programs that help more than 10,000 Hoosiers with HIV/AIDS. Funds raised will provide assistance with shelter, utilities, food, medicine, and other daily living needs. The funds are managed by the Greg Powers/Direct Emergency Financial Assistance Fund (DEFA).

Won’t you sign up today to be part of Team JMCC? Your participation can make a huge difference to people right here in Indiana. The walk is Saturday October 10, 1:00 pm at University Park. You can join the team or make a donation online, or sign up and get details at church on Sunday.

If you can’t walk (or don’t want to) you can participate by gathering pledges or sponsoring someone else. You’re even welcome to join the team on Saturday for the team picture, turn in your pledges, and not walk, if that’s what you’d prefer. Our goal is to raise funds to help those in need!

The 2009 Navajo Nation Mission Service Team will depart this week for Gallup, New Mexico to lend a hand to the Navajo people. We’ll be working with the Southwest Indian Foundation to help with new home construction for those in need.

• Please pray for the Team: for our health and safety, and that we demonstrate the love of Christ in all our actions.
• Please pray for the Navajo People: that God will prepare their hearts, and that they will be abundantly blessed!

Jesus MCC is partnering with New Community Project in two practical areas: promoting agriculture sustainability and women’s development in the southernmost portion of The Republic of Sudan.

There are several local projects which have been created to bring about greater peace, prosperity, and equality for the people of Sudan. We hope to support these wonderful projects.

To provide funding for the New Community Reforestation Project and the Girl Child Education Fund, Jesus MCC will be offering delicious pizzas for sale. Every cent of profit will be directed toward the planting of trees in southern Sudan, or toward the tuition costs for a young girl’s education. The people of Sudan have told us that these two areas of concern are the most critical to their future.

Together we can make a difference on the other side of the globe and make earth a little more like heaven.

Orders will be taken at the church July 19, 26, and August 2. All pizzas will be picked up or delivered on August 15 and 16. Please visit the table in the social hall to place your order or to get more information. You’re also welcome to email Melody Merida with questions.

Trip to Sudan, January 2009 from Jesus MCC on Vimeo.

Six people from Jesus MCC went to Sudan with New Community Project to meet the people there, learn about the country and their needs, and to see if there is something we can do to make a difference.

See also:

• From the Be Still and Know devotional: Lessons from Sudan
• Pictures from the trip: Back from Sudan
• A Visit to the Sudan: Great Need, and Glimmers of Hope

2008 Missions Service Trip to the Navajo Nation from Jesus MCC on Vimeo.

An overview of Jesus MCC’s Missions Service Trip to Gallup, New Mexico, to work with the Southwest Indian Foundation and the Navajo Nation. The trip was in October, 2008.

Our missions team returned from Sudan this week. Here are a few pictures from the trip, and the group will share much more information in the weeks ahead. Click the picture to enlarge.

Greetings from sunny, cool — and very dry — Gallup, New Mexico. It’s hard to believe that a year has flown by since our mission service team has been here, but amazingly enough, we’ve picked up where we left off.

While we’ve only been here a few days, so many wonderful things have happened –- so here’s the latest from the southwest.

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Have you ever noticed, that when Jesus was physically present on the earth, he often used ordinary things to achieve incredible results? He used mud to heal a blind man, and a little boy’s lunch to feed a crowd. As we seek to follow Jesus, God is allowing our simple, ordinary offerings to be used to save hundreds of lives and reduce the impact of the plague of mosquito-borne malaria.

Malaria kills 3,000 people every day in Africa (that’s about one every 30 seconds), and it infects and weakens many, many more. Jesus MCC, through our Missions Board and the Sudan Ministry Team, are helping to change that by providing mosquito nets — a simple, ordinary thing — to save hundreds of lives.

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Two exciting missions projects are now taking shape:

• We’re making plans for another Navajo Nation Missions Service Trip in October, and
• We’ll be parking cars at the Brickyard 400 to offset some of the costs of this trip and other missions endeavors.

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Did you know that one person dies from malaria every thirty seconds?

We have the opportunity to help change those alarming numbers for the better. In May, we’re going to donate our time to help direct cars to parking at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. By doing that, we can raise funds to provide mosquito nets, which help prevent the spread of mosquito-borne malaria.

The money will go to support mosquito net manufacturing and distribution by the New Community Project, a nonprofit Christian organization that provides assistance to people and communities in need around the world. Representatives from NCP visited Jesus MCC in September 2007, as we began to explore ways Jesus MCC can make a positive difference for some of the neediest people around the world.

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