News

VIM mission team travels to Honduras; trip journal records experiences

Eleven Iowans, with one member from Albany, NY, escaped the wintry climes for a two week work experience in El Paraiso (Paradise), a small country town 2 hours southeast of Tegucigalpa, Honduras and 15 minutes from the Nicaragua border. Nestled in tobacco and coffee growing country, the community is made up of farm workers and some cattle growers…   (What follows is the journal from the Honduras VIM mission team…)   Thurs. Feb. 5 In DM it was snowy with wet rain...

I/Eye care

Each year I go to see the eye doctor to check the only pair of eyes I have! Has my vision changed in a year? Do I need new glasses? Do I have cataracts or glaucoma? I care about my eyes!   In Nigeria caring for one’s eyes is difficult due to lack of good sanitation, poor diet and no reputable eye doctors. Quack “doctors” will come into a village stating they are able to care for eye problems like removing cataracts. Taking the villagers money, they poke the...

March school teachers for Nigeria

Our Bishop Julius Trimble just returned from Nigeria where he was one of four bishops from the Council of Bishops to meet/greet Nigeria UM Church persons. While in Nigeria Bishop Trimble was impressed with the educational program at the Junior Secondary School. The new boy’s hostel/dorm is being utilized by 30 boys. Plans are to install solar panels (in the sea container) on the roof to allow for brighter lights enabling students to study in the dorm.   Cletus David, our...

The journey (of the kits) begins!

It starts in a local church where a “mission” minded individual decides to select a “hands on” project. A kit from the InGathering Booklet is chosen with the kit items lovingly gathered, packaged and taken to an InGathering site. From there the Nigeria bound  kits are collected and stored in two 40 x 8 x 8 foot trailers in Altoona, IA.   On March 4, thirteen workers gathered to load 842 boxes of kits, two solar refrigerators, solar panels, batteries...

Bishop announces Conference Superintendents: Weesner to lead Central District; Lippincott to continue in the Northeast District

The Rev. David Weesner will become Superintendent of the Central District and the Rev. Anne Lippincott will continue as Superintendent of Northeast District. The appointments, announced by Bishop Julius Calvin Trimble, Resident Bishop of the Iowa Area, become effective July 1, 2010.    “Dave Weesner brings the evangelical passion for Christ and the love of reaching out beyond the walls of the church that is needed at this time of our witness in Iowa,” Bishop...

Conference receives note of thanks for 100% apportionment payment

A. Moses Rathan Kumar, General Secretary of the General Board of Finance and Administration, recently expressed his personal thanks for Iowa Annual Conference’s 100 percent payment of the 2009 apportioned funds. He wrote to Bishop Trimble to take “the opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to the people of the Iowa,” which he described as “an honor.”   “Your faithful ministry of giving 100 percent to the apportioned funds in 2009 impacts lives...

St. Pauls UMC, Cherokee, to sponsor 2nd annual pancake race

Legend claims that 565 years ago, a homemaker in Olney, England, heard the church bells signaling the start of a Shrove Tuesday service.  She had been hurriedly cleansing her pantry of all fattening foods in preparation for Lent, using up the remainder of milk, flour, eggs, and butter to make a batch of pancakes.  Upon hearing the bells, she scurried out of the house, still wearing her apron and carrying her cast-iron skillet.  In it was a pancake, which she repeatedly flipped as...

Rev. Abraham Funchess Jr. shares message at 2010 Advocacy Day worship service

(Click here to see the video of Rev. Funchess' keynote presentation.) On Monday, February 1, 2010, Rev. Abraham Funchess Jr. of Jubilee United Methodist Church in Waterloo, shared a powerful and inspiring message at the Advocacy Day worship service held at Calvary Baptist Church in Des Moines. Rev. Funchess started his message with the spiritual song, “I Want Jesus To Walk With Me”. Funchess shared that “there is no end to this work we are engaged in” as we like...

Bishop Trimble visits the Beverly Nolte Communication Center

During his fact-finding visit to Nigeria, Bishop Julius C. Trimble, Resident Bishop of the Iowa Annual Conference, visited  the Beverly Nolte Communication Center in Bambur.     Adams Davidson sent an e-mail describing the experience. “It is good to say, today I had Bishop Julius Trimble visiting my office and using one of the computers send to BNCC (Beverly Nolte Communication Center) by the Iowa Conference which he is the Bishop.  I want to appreciate...

Faith community in Des Moines holds pro-immigration reform faith in action vigil; tells congress we want reform now

Over 150 people from many different denominations gathered on February 2, 2010 to hear stories of hardship from immigrants, pray and take action to tell Congress that they want action on comprehensive immigration reform.  The faith community in Des Moines wants comprehensive reform that will provide a pathway to citizenship, reunite families and protect workers.   In Des Moines reform advocates gathered at Trinity/Las Americas United Methodist Church in Representative Leonard...

Jesus Wept

I am writing these words of reflection on Monday, January 18, 2010. Today is the official holiday where the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is celebrated.  Until the time of her death, Mrs. Coretta Scott King advocated for this day to be a day of service and prayer, not just a day when banks would be closed and people would not go to work. The King children, who now carry on the legacy of their parents, have also promoted the King holiday and the words & witness of their...

Meals from the Heartland makes a difference in Haiti

We know that everyone is seeing and hearing heartbreaking stories through national media. Following are two stories of how the earthquake has impacted groups we support, and how Meals from the Heartland meals have been used to feed those in need. Joy In Hope: Following is an email received on Saturday night from a missionary with Joy In Hope, a non-profit organization dedicated solely to working in Haiti, that received some of the food we packaged last fall. "My name is Leann Pye...

Conference Center Offices Closed on January 8, 2010

The offices at the Iowa Annual Conference Center will be closed on Friday, January 8, 2010, due to the weather advisory for bitterly cold temperatures.  Click here for specific contact information for Conference Center staff, including e-mail addresses and phone numbers to which messages may be sent....

A Conversation with Carol Howard Merritt

A Conversation with Carol Howard Merritt, author of Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation and the upcoming Reframing Hope: Looking at Vital Ministry in a New Generation, will be held on February 19, 2010 from 6:00-8:00 pm and on February 20. 2010 from 9:30-11:30 am at 1st United Methodist Church in Des Moines, Iowa (1001 Pleasant Street). A $10 registration fee for each conversation can be paid at the door before each event. These conversations are sponsored by First...

ABC to Air United Methodist Christmas Eve Service

ABC television affiliates nationwide will broadcast a United Methodist-produced Christmas Eve candlelight service on December 24 and 25. "We are privileged to open our doors, via television, to viewers who seek a Christmas Eve worship experience," says the Rev. Larry Hollon, chief executive of United Methodist Communications. "We celebrate this opportunity to express our faith within the broader culture."   The hour-long broadcast was taped at First United...

Orders and Fellowship Event to Feature Bishop Sally Dyck

Bishop Sally Dyck, Resident Bishop of the Minnesota Area, will lead the Order of Elders, Deacons and Fellowship of Associate Members, Local Pastors and Diaconal Ministers event on Monday, January 11, 2010. Bishop Julius C. Trimble has announced that Bishop Dyck will speak on “Living the United Methodist Way in a Changing World.”   The gathering will be held at Indianola First United Methodist Church, from 10 am until 3 pm. (Refreshments and registration sign in will...

Gods Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action

God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action: A Pastoral Letter from the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church   (Click here for a PDF of the Pastoral Letter)            God’s creation is in crisis. We, the Bishops of The United Methodist Church, cannot remain silent while God’s people and God’s planet suffer. This beautiful natural world is a loving gift from God, the Creator of all things seen and...

Bishops Launch Churchwide Appeal to Rebuild Lives and Churches in the Philippines

Bishops Launch Churchwide Appeal to Rebuild Lives and Churches in the Philippines Nashville: The bishops of The United Methodist Church are launching an appeal to help the people of the Philippines, hard hit by recent typhoon and flooding disasters. The Council of Bishops approved the Churchwide Appeal for Philippines Disasters during its Nov. 2-5 fall meeting in Lake Junaluska, N.C. The appeal will focus on providing humanitarian relief and support of the ministries of The United Methodist...

Valley UMC Presents No Room at the Inn

For the past five years, church members and friends eagerly lend their treasured nativity sets for display at Valley United Methodist Church’s No Room At the Inn  Nativity Annual Event the first weekend in December.  The dates and times are as follows:   Friday, December 4, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, December 5, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday, December 6, 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.   A small group of dedicated women and men carefully unpack, catalogue and...

With Faith and Determination, Global Goods Store Opens in Dubuque, Iowa

Community leaders along with members of various United Methodist Churches gathered around the front of the new Global Goods Store for a wonderful ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the fair trade store in downtown Dubuque, Iowa. The opening ceremony took place on Monday evening, November 9 with individuals from different United Methodist churches showing that with a connection and determination to work together that anything is possible. The new Global Goods store is located in the...