Serve Regionally
Relief and Recovery Missions
Relief & Recovery ministries serve our local and regional communities who have experienced disasters like fires, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. This team of folks helps repair homes where home insurance is not available or insufficient. Some of the work includes minor repairs, cleaning out debris, sheetrock repair and replacement, rebuilding some structures, painting, sanding, and more. You do not have to have construction knowledge to help, all skill levels are needed. For more info contact missions@fumcgt.org.
Our Relief & Recovery Missions team is looking to equip the trailer we use on project sites. We are asking for donations for some of the items. New and/or used equipment (in working condition). If you have any of the following you’d like to donate, please reach out to Reagan Cook at disasterrelief@fumcgt.org or 214.725.7269.
The items needed can be found here.
Camp Sunshine
Camp Sunshine is a week-long New Mexico Conference camp for physically and/or mentally challenged adults aged 16 to 60+. The mission team assists in providing a safe, loving, fun Christian environment where campers can be themselves leaving behind the stress of societal expectations. The camp takes place in late July or early August each year, in Sacramento, New Mexico. For more information, contact Kathy Pena, Director of Congregation Care, care@fumcgt.org.
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Delta Grace Mississippi
The four main goals of Delta Grace are to repair homes, bring wholeness to a racially divided community, build awareness of the needs of the Mississippi Delta region, and serve as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ by sharing His love in all that we do. This ministry is located in Sunflower, Mississippi. The objective is scheduling at least 600 missioners across the United States per year to impact at least 20 homes annually. We hope that through the influx of diverse missioners from every corner of our country, the racial division of the community might begin to heal and bring wholeness as people see each other as God's children, one family in faith. We also hope to bring awareness that the poverty level of this area, and therefore, the needs, are greater than other areas often visited by mission teams such as the Appalachians or even other countries. For more information, contact Dr. Ron Swain, Director of Transformative Missions, missions@fumcgt.org.
Sager Brown Louisiana
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Sager Brown Depot is the headquarters for UMCOR's relief-supply operations. Each year, more than 2000 volunteers prepare about $4 million in supplies for shipment from this Baldwin, Louisiana campus. Locally, Sager Brown reaches out to Baldwin neighbors through food distribution and housing rehabilitation projects, while engaging volunteers in these projects that help families and the elderly. Volunteers also use carpentry skills to help repair homes in the community. Volunteers have a passion for helping others, especially those who have been involved in a disaster. UMCOR Sager Brown makes three kits; Hygiene Kits, School Kits, and Cleaning Buckets. These may be shipped to disaster areas in the U.S. and countries in the Caribbean and Central America. Various teams are assembled each year and travel to Baldwin to dedicate their time and energy at the depot or in the community. For more information, contact Dr. Ron Swain, Director of Transformative Missions. missions@fumcgt.org
United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Early Response Teams (ERTs)
UMCOR ERTs are trained and certified individuals who fill a specific need in the early days after a disaster to clean out homes damaged as a result of a natural disaster. Persons are trained to remove debris, place tarps on homes, etc. thus to stabilize and prevent further damage, while providing caring facilitating techniques. Once the one-day training is complete, one is placed on a contact list should there be a need for the formation of a team to be deployed to a specific location.
An UMCOR ERT volunteer gives of oneself in aid of re-establishing the lives of victims of natural disasters. He or she applies wisdom or knowledge to any given situation during the ministry. Volunteers recognize the suffering of the victims of the disaster. They also provide the leadership necessary to help accomplish the goals of the team.
Volunteers have a desire to assist survivors of a natural disaster without causing further harm or becoming a burden to the affected community. One must have the physical ability for debris removal, and the emotional ability to listen to and comfort victims through a Christian presence. This also requires the ability to often work within an unorganized structure as often occurs during the early days after a disaster.
Volunteers are contacted when a natural disaster occurs damaging the homes and businesses of individuals in a specific area. The ministry will proceed once directed by the Bishop of the Central Texas Conference. This ministry could happen at any location affected by a natural disaster. The primary focus would be the confines of the Central Texas Conference but may be made to support other conference efforts. For more information, contact Dr. Ron Swain, Director of Transformative Missions.
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United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM)
The UMVIM motto, “Christian Love in Action,” is taken from 1 John 3:18 in which Christians are asked to love “not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Living our faith is at the very heart of our Christian calling and Methodist heritage. These perspectives reflect the purpose that has grown out of our understanding of who God has called us to be: people of God who express “Christian Love in Action” by the power of the Holy Spirit to make disciples of Jesus Christ to transform the world. We do this by serving domestically and internationally as the heart, head, hands, and feet of Christ through organizing teams for various mission work such as construction, primary/traditional education, Christian education/Vacation Bible School, medical/dental, evangelism, and other types. However, our task is secondary to our primary purpose of sharing the love of God in ways that make a Christian difference. For more information, contact Dr. Ron Swain, Director of Transformative Missions. missions@fumcgt.org
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