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Oklahoma Tornado: Cleaning buckets always appreciated

“Our material resource ministry is extremely important for two reasons,” said the Rev. Tom Hazelwood, who formerly headed UMCOR’s disaster response in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America.

“It provides people who sit in the pew an opportunity to use their hands in a tangible way to respond to disasters and help individuals all over the world when they cannot personally go and volunteer. They are still the hands of Christ that have put the kit together.”

Read more about relief supplies here.

How disaster giving works

When both the United Methodist Committee on Relief and an annual conference ask for funds, United Methodists who want to help in a disaster might be uncertain where to send donations.

Conferences may set up their own funds to help with the immediate needs of housing, food, shelter and transportation. Conference fundraising is intended for raising money within the conference to meet immediate needs.

Giving to UMCOR through The Advance, the United Methodist official giving channel, ensures that 100 hundred percent of each donation goes directly to the need specified. UMCOR’s administrative costs are covered through a separate fund supported by One Great Hour of Sharing.

Read more about how disaster giving works.


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General Conference
The Rev. Gabriel Banga Mususwa. Photo courtesy of the author.

An appeal to hold General Conference outside US

The United Methodist Church’s top assembly has never met in the central conferences; the decision to hold the 2028 gathering in Minneapolis should be rescinded.
Disaster Relief
Patrick Abro (left), a United Methodist missionary serving as health operation manager in the Burundi Conference, and the Rev. Cimpaye Valentine (right), Bujumbura District superintendent, hand a bag of rice to flood survivors in Cibitoke, Burundi. With financial support from the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the church helped 140 households affected by severe flooding in the district. Photo by Jérôme Ndayisenga, UM News.

Church supports flood survivors in Burundi

With financial support from the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the church has distributed food and other supplies to hundreds of flood survivors.
Disaster Relief
An uprooted tree lies across a crushed car in the neighborhood of Grace United Methodist Church’s parsonage in St. Louis. United Methodists are responding in Missouri, Kentucky and other states after violent storms tore across the central U.S., leaving at least 28 people dead. Photo by the Rev. Katie Nix, Grace United Methodist Church, courtesy of the Missouri Conference.

Churchgoers respond to deadly US twisters

United Methodists in Kentucky and Missouri, among other states, are trying to bring relief after deadly tornadoes wreaked havoc this weekend. They also offer ways others can help.

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