Jesus says, “I was a stranger … and you welcomed me.” Such is the work of UMCOR’s Justice for Our Neighbors Ministry. Here is one small portrait of such love in action:
Michael Fombang was 12 years old and orphaned by war in the Democratic Republic of Congo when he fled the country in 2001. He worked on freighters that traveled the world. When one of these docked in the Great Lakes in 2005, Michael was detained by US immigration authorities. He was classified a stowaway and inadmissible to the US except to pursue asylum status.
Michael petitioned for asylum and was placed in foster care in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He quickly learned English and earned a high school diploma. An aspiring doctor, he enrolled at Grand Rapids Community College. But, his immigration status kept him from working or applying for student aid, and medical school seemed a distant dream.
Two years later, Michael’s foster family sought help from JFON. The JFON attorney got the stowaway provision waived on humanitarian grounds, and Michael qualified for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Finally, in 2008, his application was approved and his status adjusted to Legal Permanent Resident.
We have begun a joint an UMCOR JFON partnership with the Western North Carolina Conference. The first clinic is now operating at Matthews United Methodist Church near Charlotte. It is our hope that by the end of 2011, we will also have a clinic operating in the NC Conference. Please pray for this exciting ministry and please consider giving to the Carolinas JFON Peace and Justice Clinic.
You can send your donations to: JFON P & J Clinic, P.O. Box 60053, Charlotte, NC 28260-0053. 100% of your gift to the Peace and Justice Clinic will be used in this specific JFON ministry.
If you would like to support the general church ministry that provides the framework for JFON ministries across our nation, you can give to Justice for Our Neighbors, UMCOR Advance #901285. You can give on-line at: JFON Advance.
Please read more about JFON and subscribe to the JFON newsletter, First Monday, at First Monday.
For many more resources please see our offerings at: Media Center JFON Resources
where in SC is your office?
Jeannette,
This is the NC Conference, not SC. Se do not have an office in SC. The SC Conference information can be found at: http://www.umcsc.org/
Peace and grace,
Steve
God has always asked that we care for the needy, poor. We are to see-hear-love as Jesus, not turn our heads to those inside and outside the walls of our church. I can’t understand becoming so hardened that one can’t feel the pain these people are going through.
An awesome letter reminding us Bishop . We also should encourage and thank legislators(when they have helped the poor) and be in prayer. As a church we can do some things to help the poor as well.
God’s peace to all!
Below is a post from a dear new friend in Christ who is a father of 4 children (one new adopted child from Poland); who by faith alone was able to finally bring the child home to NC.
“for 14 yrs I have been a proud member of the United Methodist Church. All
previous and current Pastors preached the Truth every Sunday and never
their politics, so this has nothing to do with them. However, over the
last few weeks the actions of our Bishop and the UMC of NC conference
from Saturday have shown that we are becoming more of an extension of
the Democrat Party and a political organization and less of a Church.
This is wrong no matter what political parties agenda they take on. The
Church has NO business taking on Voter ID, medicaid spending, education
spending, tax reform and a long list of other issues they have adopted
in the last few weeks.”
Here are my additions:
When will the pro-life rally be organized and a proclamation written? When will some free training be offered for the many who want to help those in Oklahoma? When will the proclamation be written to rally around those who have never heard the gospel before?
I am not against any one who wants to protest, preacher, Bishop or other; it is just the fact that leaders took the time to write the proclamation and attend; and representing (in my opinion) what some may feel is not the best way to help the poor.
Sarah,
Hello Sister. Thank you for your reply to our Bishop Hope’s letter as she encourages our witness – in support of the needs of the most vulnerable people in our state. I wanted to gently respond to a few of the questions you posed. I hope I can offer a bit of insight about the myriad of ministries of so many people in the NC Conference as the ministry pertains to your questions.
You asked about free training to go and help in Oklahoma. We do have “free” training (we ask people to pay a small fee for their food and lodging when we have 2 day training events but the training is essentially free) that is offered for helping with disasters like you see in Oklahoma. We have a ministry for training Early Response Team members who are trained and certified to go and help in the early relief phases of a disaster and then we have more training, called United Methodist Volunteers in Mission training, to equip folks to go and serve in the recovery and rebuilding phases of a disaster. You can read more about it here: http://www.nccumvim.org/index.htm We also have many other ways and places we are in ministry with the poor. You can see many ways to be engaged here: http://nccumc.org/outreach/ .
With regards to your question about a proclamation for those who have not heard the gospel. We have many ways that we make such proclamation and help train folks so that can better share the saving grace of Jesus Christ. You can see much more about this at: http://nccumcevangelism.org/ and also through our Office of Christian Formation at: http://nccumc.org/christianformation/ Additionally, though we have three primary “offices” of ministry in our connectional ministries area — Christian formation, leadership, and outreach — the coordinator of each ministry area and our Director of Connectional Ministries, along with 4 other clergy members in our NC UMC have been working together over the 18 months on a major ministry & evangelism initiative called the Disciple Making Way. You can see more about this at: http://nccumc.org/connectionalministries/disciple-making-way/
We also have a ministry to begin new faith communities and are seeing the fruits of much exciting ministry in new places and with new Christians. If you look under the Tools area you can find many great resources for evangelism and outreach. You can see that here: http://newfaithcommunities.net/
Finally, to your question about a pro-life proclamation. We do have a proclamation that is for life and seeks to honestly and respectfully address the complexities of your question. And where individuals may differ as they seek to live out their life in Jesus, this proclamation is the collective voice of our global United Methodist church. You can download it here: http://umc-gbcs.org/content/articles/Abortion.pdf
So, my sister, I thank you for your reply to our bishop. I truly did wish to honor your questions and hope my response to you has been helpful in regards to your questions. I pray God’s deepest blessing on you and your ministry.
Steve Taylor
Outreach Team Coordinator
staylor@nccumc.org
Also, I forgot one other thing… Just last week the Urban Ministries shelves were very bare, I didn’t see the rally about that?
I’m very disappointed with your actions as Bishop and even more disheartened by the resolutions that were passed at the Annual Conference. None of the resolutions are about “making disciples of Jesus Christ”. One of them was about transforming the UMC to match the world’s corrupt standards (instead of transforming the world to God’s standards) and several others were about promoting policies that destroy families and continue to increase poverty and dependence on ever increasing government. You are not serving Christ and His Church with your political activism.
As Christians our first mission should be to take care of those in need and ask nothing in return. That mission should be held by all Christians as they go about their private, public and even political lives. Thank you Bishop Ward for standing up for and showing us what being Christian is all about.