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| Missions & Outreach |
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UUMC is a church in mission, serving others in the name of Jesus Christ. Throughout the year, we give of our time, talents and financial resources to help minister and provide assistance to those in need, both close to home and in distant lands. We work in a variety of configurations – as individual members, as families, as formal committees and teams, and as informal groups. Click on the tabs below to learn about some specific ways we serve our neighbors.
Need more information on one of the missions or projects listed? Want to get involved? E-mail the designated contact.
General questions about current missions and outreach at UUMC, as well as ideas for developing new missions and projects and expanding opportunities for church members and friends of all ages to serve should go to Scott Glasser or Caroline Martens, chairs of the missions committee.
Inter-Faith Council for Social Service
Powered almost entirely by volunteers, Inter-Faith Council for Social Service (IFC) provides the needy in our community with shelter, food, direct services, information and advocacy.
UUMC regularly supplies financial support and volunteers for IFC projects and programs:
* Food Pantry – The pantry serves more than 1,000 needy families in our community. Every day a UUMC volunteer, Carol Smith, works there. In fact, she has been so faithful that she now helps manage other volunteers. Jobs include sorting, organizing and distributing free food. Other church members also volunteer at the pantry and generously contribute food to help keep it stocked.
* Community Kitchen - UUMC volunteers make and serve meals at the kitchen twice a month year-round. One group prepares dinner on the second Monday; the other prepares lunch on the third Tuesday.
* Holiday meal distribution – In December, our volunteers help the IFC distribute hams and all the fixings to needy families, so that they can enjoy a Christmas dinner at home.
* Letter Carriers Food Drive – UUMC volunteers help pick-up contributions from local post offices and deliver them to the pantry. We also help with sorting and storing what comes in on that day.
* CROP Hunger Walk – Every March, UUMC clergy and other church leaders participate in the Crop Walk, a nationwide event focused on feeding the hungry. They solicit sponsors from the congregation who agree to make financial contributions when the walkers complete the course. The IFC receives 25 percent of the earnings from this event, which totaled $46,000 in 2010. The rest goes to Church World Service to feed the hungry in other parts of the nation and the world.
Contacts: Paul Schwenke (food donations and distribution), Fran Ross (kitchen meal teams) or Kin White (CROP Walk) |
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity of Orange County changes lives by bringing together God's people and resources to help families in need build and own quality affordable housing. Habitat fosters a spirit of responsibility and self-reliance in the new homeowners as they work alongside volunteers to build their own homes.
University UMC partnered with nine other area churches in 2009 to build Habitat homes in the Fairview Community in Hillsborough. In spring 2010, we partnered with five other Methodist churches in the area (Amity, Carrboro, Christ, Hillsborough and Orange) to build a Habitat home for a Burmese refugee family in Phoenix Place, a well-designed subdivision of affordable, green-certified homes within the Rogers Road community in Chapel Hill. Volunteers put hundreds of hours of work into constructing this and several other new homes in the subdivision. We hope to participate in another build in 2011.
Contacts: Tate and Terry Hamlet. |
Alamance-Orange Prison Ministry
The Alamance-Orange Prison Ministry funds a full-time chaplain at the Orange Correctional Center, a minimum-security state correctional facility in Hillsborough. It recently completed construction of a Peace Center to house the chaplain’s office, classes, group meetings and worship services for inmates of all faiths. The ministry is working closely with the prison to develop a transition program targeted toward inmates who have shown themselves to be serious about changing their lives and are working to do so.
UUMC volunteers serve as Yokefellows and visit inmates at the prison almost every Tuesday. Their charge is to listen respectfully, communicate caring, and provide support and good counsel to the prisoners. Re-entry issues are frequent topics of discussion, as are those concerning lifestyle.
UUMC also helps to support the Alamance-Orange Prison Ministry financially through special mission offerings, designated gifts from individual members and receipts from the sale of pecans during the Christmas holiday season. In addition, our church & society committee collects greeting cards for inmates to send to their families. And each holiday season, many in our congregation donate toys and clothing that are distributed to families of prisoners through the chaplain.
Contact: Paul Triulzi
Society of Saint Andrew
The Society of Saint Andrew (SOSA) is an ecumenical Christian ministry that feeds the hungry throughout the year by saving fresh fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be wasted. Volunteers glean the nutritious, excess produce from participating farmers' fields and orchards after harvest and deliver it to people in need locally and across the United States. Innovative methods enable SOSA to keep costs down. A donation of less than $100 can supply a person with the USDA recommended requirement of vegetables and fruits for an entire year!
UUMC provides both financial support and volunteers for gleaning events. In 2009, 24 UUMC volunteers participated in the Yam Jam, helping to glean and bag 84,010 pounds or about 252,030 servings of fresh, nutritious sweet potatoes for our neighbors in need.
The 2010 Yam Jam has been scheduled for Saturday, October 9.
Contact: Linda Griffin. |
MERCI
The Marion Edwards Recovery Center Initiatives (MERCI Ministries), named for a former bishop in the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, is located in Goldsboro. Disaster preparedness, response and recovery are the primary missions of the center. Much of the effort coordinated by MERCI is to provide safe, sanitary and secure housing for people affected by hurricanes in our state.
UUMC volunteers, trained at MERCI, are among the "first responders" sent to areas of our geographic region affected by a natural disaster. Volunteers also help assemble health kits, school kits and flood buckets to be sent where they are needed.
In 2010, a team of volunteers traveled to MERCI to help pull together supplies and health kits to send to the people of earthquake ravaged Haiti.
Contact: Don Berg
A Helping Hand
A Helping Hand is a non-profit organization that provides companionship, transportation and in-home assistance to seniors over 65 and younger adults who are temporarily or permanently disabled. Located in Chapel Hill, its service area includes Orange, Durham, Chatham and western Wake counties. This award-winning organization uses volunteers to supplement the services provided by paid companions. Volunteers may act as “sitters,” affording a tired family caregiver 2-3 hours of weekly respite, or work in groups to help an elderly person or tired caregiver with yard work. Other opportunities include honoring clients on their birthdays, participating in the annual “Valentine Delivery and Serenade,” or interviewing veterans for the national Veterans’ History Project.
Numerous individuals and groups at UUMC volunteer with A Helping Hand. And every year, the children’s Sunday School classes make more than 200 Valentine cards for distribution to elderly shut-ins through this organization.
Contact: Beth Alexander
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Panama
For the past 15 years, UUMC has sent a mission team to Panama. Since 2001, the team has worked in rural Chiriqui Province, some 250+ miles west of Panama City. Objectives have been to provide medical and construction assistance in support of the Methodist Church in Panama – Iglesia Evangelica Metodista de Panamá (IEMPA).
During their visits, team members have helped build and maintain a new church in Jacu, completed several smaller construction projects in Volcan, and provided screening services and health care to patients at a remote Panamanian Ministry of Health clinic in Bongo.
UUMC sent an eight-member medical mission team back to Bongo in July 2010. During its nine-day visit, the team provided medical supplies and services to about 50 patients a day at the local clinic.
Contact Jan Sassaman.
For more information about the Panama mission, see the team's blog. |
Nicaragua
UUMC sent an 11-member mission team to Nicaragua to serve in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Managua in 2009. The team worked with local United Methodist missionaries, Nan McCurdy and Miguel Mairena, serving children and youth in a community church and preschool and through a local baseball academy. In 2010, with the higher costs of airfare, UUMC decided it could best help the people of Nicaragua by financially supporting Nan and Miguel and the programs of their ministry. These include:
"Cows in Women's Hands" – grants qualified women no-interest loans to buy cows and trains them in cattle-raising, so that the women can provide milk and cheese for their children and produce excess to sell.
Youth Scholarship Program – provides scholarships and other learning opportunities for young people from impoverished families in remote villages.
14th de Septiembre Baseball Academy – provides training in baseball to kids ages 6 to 15 and supports baseball teams with equipment and uniforms. The kids play year-round, building friendships with their teammates and coaches.
Monies from the missions committee and United Methodist Women, as well as contributions from individual church members and receipts from fundraisers, help support the Nicaragua mission.
Contact: Robbie Dircks
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Haiti
One of our experienced mission team leaders, Robbie Dircks, will be in Haiti from August 29 to September 5, 2010. This trip is through Family Health Ministries, based in Durham, to help rebuild their orphanage, which was destroyed in the earthquake. He will travel as part of a United Methodist church group from Indianapolis led by friends (now pastors) who ran the orphanage for two years.
Robbie hopes to gain sufficient experience to allow him to take a UUMC, UNC Wesley or combined team of volunteers to the orphanage within the next year or so. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available…
Youth Mission Trips
At UUMC, middle school and high school youth have opportunities to travel and do mission work during the summer. Our mission trips take young people away from the comfort of their own homes to be in ministry with others. Over the years, youth teams have traveled to Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Montreal, New York, New Mexico, Arizona, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Goldsboro and Speed, N.C. Emphasis is on constructional and relational work with people in need.
In 2009, 14 members of the high school youth group and four chaperones headed to Washington, D.C., to serve the needy in our nation’s capitol, working at homeless shelters, food banks, elderly centers and children’s programs. Our middle school team of eight youth and three chaperones traveled to Newport, Tenn., to minister to neighbors in need.
Both youth teams served in rural West Virginia in 2010. The high school team went to Chapmanville as part of the Appalachia Service Project (ASP) to build roofs, lay flooring, dig trenches and do many other jobs for needy families there. Everyone who went (all 15 youth and seven chaperones) worked hard to make sure the tasks assigned were completed. This was the first time our high school team has worked with ASP, but it most likely won’t be the last. Those who participated were impressed with the energy, enthusiasm and organization demonstrated by its leaders and want to work with ASP again – soon!
Our Mmiddle school team went to Charleston, W.Va., as part of YouthWorks. Fourteen youth and three chaperones made the trip. The purpose of the mission was to gain insight into the lives of local residents and the culture of the area while serving local children's programs and ministries. Everyone had a terrific time!
Contact: Jim McConnell
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Missionary Support
UUMC shares covenant relationships with two United Methodist missionaries:
The Rev. Shana Harrison is a missionary with the Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church in Santiago, Chile, serving as executive director of the Fundación Crescendo (formerly La Esperanza). Crescendo offers a sheltered workshop and group home for adults who have intellectual disabilities. It strives to find the balance between giving the adults with intellectual disabilities the protection that they need while simultaneously integrating them into society as much as possible. As executive director, Shana’s responsibilities include daily administration, fundraising, care giving and community building. One aspect of her job she especially enjoys is enabling others to meet and develop relationships with adults with disabilities. She does this on a regular basis in Santiago, creating opportunities in which the workshop participants and group home members can interact with local church groups and organizations.
UUMC provides modest financial support for Shana and her ministry. In 2009, she visited UUMC to update us on recent organizational and administrative changes to La Esperanza (now Crescendo) and discuss opportunities for members of our congregation to help in additional ways.
Mary Randall Zigbuo is a missionary with the Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, and is assisting the United Methodist Church in Liberia with its development of programs for disabled persons. Her new assignment is with the School for the Deaf Program in the capital city of Monrovia. She will help Brother David Worlobah, its founder, expand the program into vocational training - targeting the deaf, mute, blind, and victims of polio.
Mary’s immediate past assignment was with the Ganta United Methodist Mission Station, where she served along with her husband, The Reverend Herbert Zigbuo. She was a hospital administrator; he led vocational training classes to provide students with the skills necessary to enable them to earn a livelihood after high school. Reverend Zigbuo recently retired as a GBGM missionary. He will now play a supporting role to his wife Mary, as she continues with her work.
UUMC has provided modest financial support for the Zigbuos and their ministries for years. They return to North Carolina every so often to touch base. We hope to host their next visit to this area.
Contact: Caroline Martens
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UMCOR
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is a not-for-profit global humanitarian aid organization of the United Methodist Church. It currently works in more than 80 countries worldwide, including the United States – providing relief after natural disasters, aiding refugees and confronting the challenges of world hunger and poverty.
UMCOR maintains a corps of trained disaster response specialists for quick reinforcement of local efforts, plus it keeps a supply of relief materials in warehouses for dispatch when and where needed. Special emphasis is given to the emotional needs of disaster victims, who may lose confidence and the ability to meet new demands forced upon them when they are traumatized by the loss of family members, homes and jobs. Pastoral care to children involved in disasters is a recently added special program.
One hundred percent of the monies donated to UMCOR go to emergency response or designated Advance projects. Administrative costs are covered through generous giving by United Methodists during the “One Great Hour of Sharing.”
UUMC provides support for UMCOR through special offerings, receipts from fund-raising events and individual gifts. The missions committee has contributed $1,500 annually for the past several years.
Contact: Wes Wallace
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ZOE Ministry
The ZOE Ministry helps African children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and genocide by partnering with Christians in Africa and the United States to provide relief (clean water, food, clothing, medical care and school fees), life skills and vocational training to those in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda, and Kenya. Its goal is to free the children from the cycle of poverty and dependency, so that they can lead happy, productive lives.
In past years, UUMC has provided financial support to the ZOE ministry. We hope to host another visit from its executive director, the Rev. Greg Jenks, in 2010. We want to learn about other ways members of our congregation can help – perhaps in the mission field.
Contact: Jim McConnell
Burmese Refugees
With a humanitarian crisis taking place in Burma, the United States has been welcoming refugees from that country on a daily basis. Many are settling in the Chapel Hill – Carrboro area. Through its church and society committee, UUMC has been partnering with Lutheran Family Services to co-sponsor refugees.
The length of the resettlement process can vary from months to years. We help provide shelter, food and clothing for as long as it takes the refugees to become self-sufficient. Our volunteers also assist with acculturation by providing early introductions to available community resources (telephones, grocery stores, retail shopping areas and thrift shops, post offices, churches, ESL classes, parks, buses, schools, health clinics, social service agencies, etc.) and by transporting the refugees to important appointments as necessary. Adults receive assistance in preparing job applications. Families with children get help enrolling them in school. Lasting bonds of friendship often result from these interactions.
Our current family – Maung Kyar, Moeh Kaih and their three sons – has progressed significantly since their arrival in fall 2007. The boys, in particular, are doing well. The church and society committee hopes to welcome a new refugee family sometime in the near future. We’re sure the Kyars will want to help!
Contact Kristin Parks
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Golden Rule Rally
Each August we team up with Operation New Life, Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project, St. Paul AME Church, Celebration Assembly of God and the Chapel Hill Police Department to provide school children in need with the basic supplies necessary for school.
We supply shopping lists (click here) for the necessary school supplies. Church members buy the supplies for students in need and bring them to the church office for the Golden Rule Rally. Additionally, members provide financial contributions specifically designated for school supplies for children in need.
Last year we were able to give more than 65 filled backpacks and more than $3.200 for additional school supplies to local children living in public housing to help assure they got off to a good start in the new school year. |
Robeson County Church and Community Center
The Robeson County Church and Community Center (RCCCC) was founded in 1969 to help “God’s people help God’s people who are in need.” Strongly supported by the NC Conference of the United Methodist Church, the center’s ministries involve people of many denominations, cultures and races. The United Way has also given support. Programs include assistance with literacy, housing, food pantry and emergency services. Our Project 5000 food drive is partially donated to the community center.
Each Christmas our congregation contributes toys, clothing and money for the “Warm Fuzzy Tree.” These items are distributed to poor families in the area through the Robeson County Church and Community Center. To learn more about this outreach project, please read the story in the Chapel Chimes.
In 2008, UUMC gave more than $1,000 to the RCCCC, as well as a carload of toys and new warm clothing for the center's Christmas Store.
From the Staff of the Robeson County Church and Community Center:
"We are so grateful to the people of University United Methodist Church. Your generosity has shared the joy of Christmas with many people this year! Thanks for collecting gifts that mean so much to those whose lives are broken by poverty, and for offering them the love of Jesus. May all the blessings of Christmas be yours."
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Wesley Foundation on the UNC Campus
Begun in the 1940s in the basement of our church, for many years the Wesley Foundation has had a home of its own at 214 Pittsboro Street, near the Carolina Inn. As a home to students where they can be, belong and become, the foundation is a force for Christian life on the campus. A comfortable place to study, socialize, rest, pray and worship, the UNC Wesley Foundation also includes a small residential community. Amanda Dean and her staff provide spiritual guidance, aided by the student design team who are elected by active United Methodist students.
Each year, UUMC contributes more than $3,000 to support the UNC Wesley campus ministry of Chapel Hill.
Here are some ways you can support the Wesley campus ministry.
- Donate your used cell phones, which Wesley can sell back for up to $50 each. Drop off in basket beside the church office door.
- Link and/or relink your Food Lion MVP card to Wesley. Every time you use your MVP card, Wesley will receive a portion of your total grocery purchase. Visit http://foodlion.com/IntheCommunity/ShopAndShare, and register or link your card to “Wesley Foundation at UNC.” You must re-link your card every year.
- Search the internet at www.goodsearch.com for “Wesley Campus Ministry at UNC-CH.” Every time you search, Wesley will receive about one cent. It may not sound like much, but it adds up!
- Hire a Wesley student to do yard work and other small jobs to earn money for their work team trip to Tucson, Ariz. Call Wesley at 942-2152 to arrange for student workers.
- Send a tax-deductible donation to Wesley, 214 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill NC 27516 or make your donation online. Click on the www.justgive.org link.
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Project 5000
Hunger is not just a problem in India or other far-off places. It is a reality in our own local community and state. Requests for food assistance come regularly to our local social agencies and churches. Inflation, unemployment and crisis situations all compound this problem. There is a real need for balanced emergency food supplies. Project 5000 enables us to help meet the needs of the hungry around us.
Project 5000 is founded on an unforgettable experience in the life of Jesus -- the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish offered by a small boy and multiplied them to provide more than enough food for a multitude of 5,000. Project 5000 allows us to give our own small contribution of food and see it multiplied into greater usefulness.
Each box of food we collect will supply emergency food for a family of four for two days and will carry an insert saying:
"In God's love the people of University United Methodist Church of Chapel Hill care about you."
Project 5000 was started at UUMC in 2002. Since then, UUMC families have filled about 4,500 Project 5000 boxes of food that provided more than 100,000 meals for the neediest folks in Orange and Robeson Counties. This year we will also be including Chatham OurReach Alliance as a recipient of a portion of Project 5000 contributions.
How does Project 5000 work?
The plan is quite simple and is patterned after a plan implemented by a Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. During Lent, families or individuals are encouraged to pick up a small box from the church to take home and fill with items from a specified list of foods and then return the filled box to the church for distribution.
Thank You for Helping Us Exceed Our Goal in 2010
Thank you to all who helped us exceed our goal of filling 500 boxes with food to feed the hungry in our area. The UUMC family filled 427 boxes plus contributed an additional $2,664 for Project 5000 to fill an equivalent of 534 boxes. That’s 91 more boxes than we filled in 2009 and the most we’ve filled since 2005. With your generosity, we also achieved another significant milestone. Since beginning Project 5000 in 2002, we have filled a total of 5,013 boxes! That’s about $125,000 worth of food – enough to prepare about 125,000 meals for those most in need in North Carolina.
Contact Paul Schwenke for more information.
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Durham Rescue Mission
The Durham Rescue Mission is a faith-based, non-profit organization whose primary goal is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross. The Durham Rescue Mission is achieving this goal as they minister to the needy and homeless in central North Carolina.
In 2007 UUMC donated more than $2,000 to the Durham Rescue Mission to care for needy families and the homeless in the community.
For more information, contact Eston Campbell. |
Meals on Wheels
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals on Wheels program uses volunteers to deliver nutritious noonday meals with cheerful personal visits five days a week to those who are homebound or recovering from surgery. In addition to delivering meals, volunteers bake homemade desserts and help in the office, which is located in Binkley Baptist Church. For more information, call 942-2948.
Child Care Services of Wake, Durham and Orange Counties
Quality child care is very expensive to provide. In a good program there are only a few children to each teacher. The environment is stimulating, with many fun, child-oriented toys and things to do, and lots of space for children to move around. Well-trained and compensated teachers, toys and equipment, space and nutritious meals add up to high costs.
In our society, most of the responsibility of paying for child care falls on parents. Yet Orange County has the highest rates for child care of any county in the state, and Durham County rates are nearly as high. Many families cannot afford the cost of care on their own. , enabling them to prepare lunch for 17 daycare facilities which serve many low income students.
Child Care Services Association is a nationally recognized nonprofit working to ensure affordable, accessible, high quality child care for all families through research, services and advocacy. They are more than just an agency working to improve child care; they are also an association of groups, individuals and volunteers committed to supporting the right of young children and their families to have the best possible life.
To help support Child Care Services of Wake, Durham and Orange Counties, UUMC donates the food prep facilities to the organization, enabling them to prepare lunch for 17 daycare facilities which serve many low income students.
English as a Second Language
Durham Technical Community College offers courses in English as a Second Language (ESL) to non-native speakers, helping them learn the language. Desiring to help those new to our country adjust and become good citizens, we donate our facilities for these ESL classes. Courses are free, but students must be at least 18 years old to enroll.
Beginning, intermediate and advanced ESL classes are offered. These classes give non-native speakers of English the opportunity to develop their English speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in real-life situations. |
UUMC members and groups give of their time, talents and money on a regular basis. Here are some of the outreach programs with which we are involved.
- Many of the UMW circles provide Christmas gifts to needy Chapel Hill and Carrboro families each holiday season.
- During 2007, UUMC contributed more than $2000 to Operation New Life to help support the Christian education in Chapel Hill's Northside Community.
- Each Christmas the Angel Tree provides more than 40 families in the Chapel/Hill area with gifts through the Chapel Hill Training Outreach Project.
- Each Thanksgiving, the Faith Meets Life Sunday School class adopts a family and provides a complete dinner and presents for all the children.
- This past year the Missions Committee contributed $230 and UUMW $320 to Camp Chestnut Ridge for special needs scholarships.
- Each Sunday the Higher Education/Campus Ministry Committee organizes a lunch and educational program for more than 20 UNC students.
- During the past year the Missions Committee contributed $340 to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.
- Each year at the UMW yard sale, a local needy family is allowed to shop for items free of charge.
- Each year our Conference asks us to us to help contribute on a few Sunday mornings to a select number of worthy causes through “Connectional Offerings.” During the past year we have contributed a total of more than $2,000 to Human Relations, Methodist Home for Children, One Great Hour of Sharing, Lake Junaluska, United Methodist Retirement Home and World Communion Sunday.
- Throughout the year the University United Methodist Women (UUMW) conduct a number of fund-raising activities such as the annual yard, bake and poinsettia sales that in 2007 raised $18,000. In addition to contributing to many of the worthy causes noted on this site, they contributed $8,360 to the NC Conference UMW as well as additional dollars to the UUMC Youth Choir, adult mission urip, Ministers Discretionary Fund, Methodist Retirement Home, Charles House (Adult Day Care), Meals On Wheels, Mental Health of Orange County, Boarderlinks Young Adult Mission, Orange Rape Crisis Center and the Family Violence & Rape Crisis of Chatham County.
- UUMW host four birthday parties each year for the residents of Croasdaile Methodist Retirement Home.
- The Tuesday Evening Circle has made blankets for young children at UNC Hospitals and provided cookies for the Prison Ministry.
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University United Methodist Church
150 East Franklin Street | Chapel Hill, NC 27514 | PH: 919-929-7191
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