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.

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!

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!

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.

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

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.

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

When we arrived on Saturday, we were invited to the MCC of Albuquerque to meet, greet, eat and share with them our work with the Southwest Indian Foundation (SWIF). It was a fabulous time of fellowship and sharing, and feasting. (We were definitely spoiled!) We learned that the MCC Albuquerque folks were preparing for a big event in the next couple of weeks called “A Thousand Cranes For Peace” service. They were in the midst of creating and hanging 1,000 origami cranes in their sanctuary –- and still had a long, long way to go. To lend a hand, our group decided to join in their “crane making marathon”, and after an internet tutorial (and a few crane disasters), the plan is to make 100+ cranes and drop them off before we fly home.

This year, our assistance with SWIF is very different.  We are working in the SWIF warehouse (in Gallup) on new home construction — which will eventually be moved out to the Navajo Reservation.

There are two houses currently under construction in the warehouse.  One, called House #11, is basically up, framed and roofed, so our jobs are mainly inside work –- sanding (cough), priming walls, and painting.

The other house, House #12, was started on our first day! We literally laid the first board in the foundation. Our team members have been sawing, nailing (with air guns no less), painting, hammering, driving fork lifts and scissor lifts, and generally having a great time!

Wednesday and Thursday some of our folks will be working at St Michael’s Association for Special Education — delivering the reading project books and assisting in adapting curriculum for the student’s needs.

Another important aspect of our trip is building relationships with the organizations we are working with. Wednesday night we are having about 40 people from SWIF over for dinner and fellowship!

Finally, to everyone back at Jesus MCC — thank you, thank you, thank you for all the prayers, support, well wishes and wonderful care packages we’ve received from church this week. Keep the chocolate coming!! We’ll be home soon with lots of pictures and stories!

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.

We’re working with New Community Project and their Every 30 Seconds Mosquito Net Program to provide some ready-to-use nets (constructed by inmates in the Indiana Women’s Prison) and also sewing machines and netting material so that nets can be made on location in Sudan. NCP was overwhelmed with the response from Jesus MCC. This year’s Every 30 Seconds program — which they thought they’d have to solicit several churches to fund — was paid in full by Jesus MCC!

The Sudan Ministry Team has received funding from special fundraisers and activities over the last several months, including the Art Auction in April and two car-parking volunteer events at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Abundant thanks go to:

• everyone who attended the Art Auction, and to everyone who helped in any way to make that event a success;
• to all the volunteers who parked cars at the Speedway;
• to the inmates of the Indiana Women’s prison who have labored to construct the nets;
• to our Sudan missionaries and the New Community Project who organize this effort and distribute the life-saving nets;
• and to everyone who is a part of Jesus MCC, who contributes time and talent and treasure to make our church a vital part of God’s kingdom. Even if you’re not directly connected to the mosquito net initiative, your faithfulness has kept children from dying and has improved the quality of life for hundreds of people. Thanks be to God!