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Relief Supply Network News

Relief-Supply Network News  

February 2012

The New Year brings many opportunities for service and celebration. This year, UMCOR Sager Brown celebrates its twentieth anniversary, along with 145 years of Methodist mission service on the property in Baldwin, Louisiana!

Each newsletter this year, beginning with the April edition, will feature a segment of UMCOR’s material resources history, from the origins of Sager Brown in 1867 with the founding of the Orphan’s Home Society Corporation, to the development of our kit ministry, building our first depot, and the growth that has brought us to where we are today with a nationwide relief-supply network.

Don’t miss a single issue!

Open Hands
Critical Needs: Monetary Donations, School Kits, and Cleaning Buckets

Volunteers verify school kits at Sager Brown.

Requests for relief supplies continue to climb each month. Support from local congregations is critical for us to keep meeting these needs.

Our inventory of school kits and cleaning buckets is running low. We have a constant demand for the school kits and we need to increase cleaning bucket supplies in anticipation of the spring storm season. In 2011 alone, we sent more than 25,000 cleaning buckets to meet needs throughout the US.

Your monetary donations are critical to purchase bulk materials that help augment material donations! Please consider a fundraiser or gift to Material Resources, UMCOR Advance #901440 Online Giving

 

Hearts Focused on Mission

Some folks are just born with a focus on mission! Perhaps it is their gift of the Spirit. I had the privilege of working alongside two of those servants recently at UMCOR Sager Brown in Baldwin, La.
 

Rev. Ed Wyers packs boxes of health kits.
The Rev. Ed Wyers (Arkansas Conference) first came to Sager Brown to help with Hurricane Andrew relief efforts in 1992. He has returned to Sager Brown at least once a year since then. Rev. Wyers states that having lived through a disaster and having been a recipient of gracious response and compassion, he feels a special connection with the work accomplished at Sager Brown. He often brings others with him to witness the depth of need and discover the opportunity for service in both preparing relief supplies and reaching out to the Baldwin community.

Monteene McCoy

 
In 1998, Rev. Wyers was serving a congregation in Monticello, Ark., and brought a group to serve at Sager Brown. Among the group was Monteene McCoy, a woman who has always been mission-minded. Ms. McCoy also returns to Sager Brown each year, often with new volunteers in tow. She says it’s very rewarding and encouraging to introduce others to this mission where you can proclaim Christ by preparing relief supplies.

Others in her congregation say she is a recruiter par excellence, and you just can’t say “No” to Monteene!

Both of these dedicated, mission-minded Christians have witnessed many changes at Sager Brown over the years. The depot wasn’t even built when Rev. Wyers first came. Once you experience the sacred place known as UMCOR Sager Brown, like Rev. Wyers and Ms. McCoy, you are likely to keep coming back for many years to come!

Alice P Langehennig,
Newsletter Coordinator