The Mission Team of First UMC began in the Summer of 2002 an annual mission trip program for rising seventh graders through mature adults. In 2002, forty-five individuals attended the mission trip to Costa Rica which included an Optical Team Ministry, a Vacation Bible School Team Ministry and a Construction Team Ministry. Singles as well as entire families made up the team and each individual had the opportunity to share in ministry according to his or her gifts and graces. Due to liability issues, you must be a member of FUMC.
Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing organization. We welcome all people to join us as we build simple, decent, affordable, houses in partnership with those in need of adequate shelter. Since 1976, Habitat has built more than 100,000 houses in more than 80 countries, including some 30,000 houses across the United States. Although many members of the First United Methodist Church of Vero Beach have participated in this project, our church family has set as a goal to raise the funds and provide the labor necessary to one complete house by the end of 2005. You may support this project through cash gifts and/or labor.
The Community Outreach Group is a consortium of fourteen churches which have come together to provide and maintain a food bank in Vero Beach. The organization was the dreamchild of Ray Scent of our church family who started it, sought the support of neighboring churches and incorporated it as an ecumenical outreach program to those in need of food. You may support this ministry through the gift of time, food and cash.
Good Sam ministries is a ministry that picks up where COG leaves off. Those who are in danger of being evicted from their homes, who are in need of having medical prescriptions filled or who are concerned that their utilities may be turned off are able to receive assistance according to the funds available and guidelines set by the Good Sam Coordinator, Ray Scent. The Good Sam program is supported solely through the church family and friends of First United Methodist Church. In 2001, nearly $30,000 of assistance was distributed to those in need.
The Florida United Methodist Children's home ministers to children in crisis. Children come because of sexual abuse, other physical abuse, abandonment or because of family breakdown due to divorce, drug abuse, illness or death of a parent. There may be neglect, or conflicts that have made impossible a normal family life. When children are referred by family, schools, courts or other agencies, the child is evaulated to see if the program of the Home can be of help. Each year, on average, about 94% of the total funding for this ministry to children comes from private sources. Strong church support enables the program of the Home to maintain its ministry as a Christian outreach of our commitment to children. First United Methodist Church is proud to be a partner with this wonderful ministry to children in crisis.
Nestled between the lowlands of Mozambique and the highlands of Zimbabwe breathes Africa University -- a young, sturdy educational facility promoting academic, physical and spiritual development. Africa University students come from Burundi, Kenya, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Tanzania, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and even Rwanda. In this university community, 784 students from 16 African countries are united on one goal to attain a quality education. One of Africa University's unique characteristics is its culturally diverse, multi-lingual, multi-traditional student body. Besides a variety of classes, students enjoy stimulating discussions from classmates of different cultures and beliefs. While AU is a private institution, it is not an elite one. The university takes pride in welcoming students from a variety of backgrounds, languages, traditions, values and lifestyles. The university's logo, the healthy and prolific acacia tree which grows beautifully throughout Africa, is indicative of what happens to persons who wish not only to grow, but to share and spread that growth. The university's mission is "to provide higher education of high quality, to nurture students in Christian values, and to help the nations of Africa achieve their educational and professional goals. Africa University will play a critical role in education of the new leaders of African nations."
The Ministerial Education Fund helps provide churches with pastoral leaders who in turn work to meet the daily needs of churched and unchurched members in their community.
How your church benefits from the fund:
- By keeping tuition cost down, MEF support for all thirteen United Methodist seminaries makes educating future leaders of your church possible.
- Clergy and diaconal ministers currently serving congregations benefit from continuing education courses provided by MEF.
- Direct scholarship aid is available to candidates for ordained and diaconal ministry.
Ordained and diaconal ministers are provided with spiritual formation resources to help them be more effective spiritual leaders in your congregation.
- MEF supports course of study schools which train local pastors.
- Women and men in your congregation can explore God's call to ordained or diaconal ministry in regional or national events sponsored by the MEF.
- Annual conference Board of Ordained Ministry are trained and supported in their work of approving and evaluating the leaders that serve your church.
Nurtured by the Black College Fund, the 11 historically Black United Methodist-related institutions play a unique role in American education. These institutions recognize, recruit, and graduate students of promise---students who require special nurture and training, and those with nationally competitive academic profiles. These institutions serve as intellectual and spiritual founts preserving and expanding upon the rich history, traditions, and culture of a people and a nation. Today, it is critical for The United Methodist Church to renew its commitment to provide, through the Black College Fund, major support to these schools because of the unique role they continue to play in U.S. education. Societal inequities of race and class require educational institutions committed to providing academic excellence while serving as intellectual, spiritual and cultural reservoirs of African-American history and tradition.
The World Service Fund is the heart of our denomination wide ministry, underwriting Christian mission and ministry worldwide.
The fund strengthens evangelism efforts, stimulates church growth, expands Bible studies and enriches spiritual commitment.
By giving to World Service and conference benevolences, we help shape the lives of tomorrow's leaders and proclaim and witness to our faith.
Because of our offering on United Methodist Student Day:
- Undergraduate students attending United Methodist-related schools receive scholarships.
- Undergraduates and graduates benefit from student loans.
- Each year $50,000 is returned to annual conferences for merit scholarship awards to students of their choosing.
God calls us to serve gladly and to help others achieve their potential.
One Great Hour of Sharing
and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)
“Serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”
--1Peter 4:10b, NRSV
Joining together to offer our gifts,
Joining together with those who struggle,
We plant; we build; we feed.
We teach; we learn; we grow.
Together we recover— From earthquakes in El Salvador and India and floods in the United States.
Together we offer sustenance— to uprooted people in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Together we offer hope— to embattled people in the Middle East and Sudan.
Together we create a better life— through community-based health care in Bolivia, loan programs for women in Uganda and sustainable development in Papua New Guinea.
Together, through UMCOR and
One Great Hour of Sharing,
we serve one another with God’s abundant gifts.
Our offering on Human Relations Day models Christ’s love through:
- Local church Youth Offender Rehabilitation projects that match United Methodist mentors with first-time, nonviolent young offenders;
- More than 30 church-based community developers who work in U.S. racial-and ethnic-minority communities; and
- A multiracial network of grass-roots social justice organizations related to United Methodist Voluntary Service.
God calls us to model Christ’s love in our churches and communities.
Our offering on Native American Ministries Sunday enriches The United Methodist Church in many ways:
- Mission with Native Americans in your annual conference and across the connection is developed and nurtured.
- Native Americans attending United Methodist and other approved schools of theology receive scholarships.
- Urban ministries with Native Americans across the United States provide vital outreach.
As we are strengthened in the faith, we are called to share God’s love with others.
Our offering on World Communion Sunday provides:
- Crusade Scholarships for international and U.S. racial-and ethnic-minority graduate students;
- Scholarships for racial-and ethnic-minority persons seeking second careers in church-related vocations; and
- Ethnic Scholarships for undergraduate students.
God calls us to encourage and to build up one another.
Our offering on Peace with Justice Sunday fosters peacemaking in your annual conference and around the world as:
- People of all ages learn alternatives to violence;
- New resources foster global justice; and
- Violence is stopped, and peace is restored.
“It is to peace that God has called you,” Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 7:15b, NRSV).
"Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received."
– 1 Peter 4:10
Although the guns had been silenced when the delegates gathered in Boston for the 1948 General Conference of the Methodist Church, the suffering and destruction wrought by World War II had not ended. Christians everywhere were called to help rebuild a physically and spiritually broken world.
Delegates adopted a "Quadrennial Plan for Christ and His Church," which called for a voluntary "Worldwide Advance" stewardship drive. It was launched with a global preaching mission led by the Council of Bishops. In 1952, the Advance for Christ and His Church became a regular program of The Methodist Church, and in 1968, with the merger of the Methodist and the Evangelical United Brethren churches, The United Methodist Church.
For more than 50 years, the people called United Methodist have given more than 3 million Advance gifts totaling more than $800 million for thousands of ministries in more than 100 countries. Through the Advance, we touch the lives of millions of people around the world!
Today, the Advance is an official, second-mile channel for designated giving in The United Methodist Church. The Advance is called second-mile giving because the first mile, or priority, is for local churches to support their World Service and other apportioned funds and conference benevolences. The Advance is called designated giving because it is a way for individuals, church groups, congregations, districts, and annual conferences to select specific ministries to support voluntarily.
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