• Deliver gifts for UMCOR to Annual Conference

On a Spring Break tour, McAlester District youth mission team members enter the UMCOR supply site at Baldwin, La.

Volunteers In Mission will again collect emergency kits in conjunction with the Annual Conference in late May.

This year’s drive will gather five types of kits, as requested by UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief), which provides humanitarian aid globally to people in crisis.

Needed are: school kits, health kits, infant layette kits, sewing kits, and buckets with cleaning supplies. They range in value from $11 for a school kit to $55 per bucket.

Kit donations will be accepted May 24 through 28 at a designated VIM truck that will be parked near the Freede Center at Oklahoma City University. Then the supplies will be delivered to the UMCOR Sager Brown distribution depot in Baldwin, La.

Here are some specifics about preparing the kits, from an informational brochure by VIM.

• All items in the kits must be new.
• Pack only one type of kit in each box.
• On each box, clearly identify its contents.
• Include $1 for each kit you send. This money donation, used to meet processing and shipping costs, enables kits to be sent without delay to areas in need.
• Carefully follow UMCOR’s packing instructions. Strict government rules govern product shipments worldwide.
• Kit contents MUST be limited to the requested UMCOR items and nothing else. Do NOT include personal notes, money, or additional materials in the kits. Extra items must be painstakingly removed, which delays shipments.

You can also find details online about all the kits. Go to the UMCOR site for Sager Brown: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/getconnected/supplies.

You may also contact VIM staff members Richard Norman, RNorman@okumc.org,  405-530-2032; or Lori Foster, lfoster@okumc.org, 405-530-2070.

McAlester volunteers tour UMCOR center

An emergency supply center in Louisiana was one educational stop during Spring Break for the McAlester District Youth Mission Team.

The team, 39 youths and adults from Henrietta-First and McAlester-First churches, had spent a week working in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, helping the hurricane recovery effort. On the way back to Oklahoma, the group toured the UMCOR Sager Brown depot in Baldwin.

The emergency supply kits that Oklahomans donate during Annual Conference are delivered to the depot, then routed from that center to aid people when disasters occur.

Team leaders decided to add the stop to give participants a close-up view of how The United Methodist Church uses its connectional system to respond to emergency needs around the world in times of crisis, reported Charles Neff, pastor at McAlester.

"With One Great Hour of Sharing coming at the end of Spring Break, the visit was timely," he said. "Participants were able to return to their churches and give firsthand accounts of how contributions to UMCOR are used to respond to human need."

The offering from One Great Hour of Sharing is a major funding source for the work of UMCOR. A Sunday in March is annually designated for the special offering, although it can be collected at any time.

The McAlester District tour of the distribution center took about an hour. Rev. Dr. Neff noted that the depot welcomes both short- and long-term mission teams and volunteers and coordinates mission projects in the local community as well. Accommodations include dormitory-style housing, RV hook-ups, a cafeteria, gym, and meeting spaces.

Last year, UMCOR sent out more than 150,000 health kits, nearly 103,000 school kits, and more than 21,000 cleaning buckets, officials reported. The greatest need was for health and school kits.