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Pan-Methodist Campaign for Children in Poverty
10/3/2019
The North Alabama Conference Connection to the Pan Methodist Campaign for Children in Poverty invites you and your congregation to celebrate Children’s Sabbath. Children’s Sabbath is different from a Children’s Sunday. Children’s Sabbath does celebrate your congregation’s children, but it also is a time (during worship, study, outreach) to invite your congregation to focus on the realities of children beyond its church family. Children’s Sabbath is a way for congregations to help children ...
4/11/2019
Dear Friends, This past Sunday I preached in a church that was brimming over with children. I was introduced to a family whose six-week-old child was in attendance for the first time. I sat at a table with a lively six month old whose grandmother graciously let me hold him for a few minutes. I knelt on the floor and talked with a little girl who was building a train. I enjoyed seeing several other children sitting with parents or grandparents. Each child with whom I interacted at this church ...
10/22/2018
The North Alabama Conference Connection to the Pan Methodist Campaign for Children in Poverty wants to engage every congregation in making an active difference in the lives of children in poverty. One annual way churches are encouraged to participate is by celebrating Children's Sabbath. Children’s Sabbath is different from a Children’s Sunday. Children’s Sabbath does celebrate your congregation’s children, but it also is a time (during worship, study, outreach) to invite our congregations to ...
12/18/2017
8.9 million U.S. children will soon be without VITAL healthcare if CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Plan) is not restored to our nation's budget. You know these vulnerable, God-given gifts to us; many of them have parents who work but make too much to access Medicaid yet cannot afford other health insurance options. As Methodists, we share a holy calling to sing Mary's song to "magnify the Lord...to rejoice in God our Savior...to lift up the lowly...to fill the hungry with good things...to ...
10/9/2017
The North Alabama Conference Connection to the Pan-Methodist Campaign for Children in Poverty invites you and your congregation to Celebrate Children’s Sabbath on October 22, 2017. Children’s Sabbath is different from a Children’s Sunday. Children’s Sabbath does celebrate your congregation’s children, but it also is a time (during worship, study, outreach) to invite your congregation to focus on the realities of children beyond the congregation. Children’s Sabbath is a way for our congregations ...
8/25/2017
By Sheila Freeman, Minister of Discipleship and Children at Gadsden First UMC If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. - John 12:26 (NKJV) Missions Around the Corner Often churches and individuals look to far off places around the world for meaningful mission experiences and ways to serve. However, opportunities to make a difference exist right in our own cities, communities and neighborhoods. More ...
7/27/2017
by Rev. Holly Woodall “Where’s the white van? “When’s the white van coming?” “Where is the lady in the white van?” These familiar questions have begun early every Friday at Haleyville Elementary School in Haleyville, Alabama, since 2012. For five years, Littleville United Methodist Church (Northwest District) has worked through the Backpack Beacons to provide backpacks filled with food, beverages and snacks for the weekend to hungry students in the elementary school. In the first week in 2012, ...
5/26/2017
Jesus said to let the children come to him, and Jesus gives us a command to show love and justice to his most vulnerable little ones. In North Alabama, our work is more than overwhelming when staring down these numbers. Each number represents one child and their family struggling in poverty. If you add up all the numbers district-by-district, and take into account those districts that don't cover an entire county on the southern end, the numbers of children in poverty are staggering. We've ...
4/20/2017
By Melissa Betts, Director of Children & Serve Ministries Cullman First UMC Often times, our heart strings are pulled when we see the commercials for providing aid to children in third world countries. The children who are living in poverty, malnourished, and struggling. But how often do we stop to ask ourselves “Are there struggling children in my community?” My neighborhood? The answer is YES. In the state of Alabama, there are NO counties that do not have families living in poverty. Feeding ...
2/28/2017
Our Pan-Methodist Campaign for Children in Poverty North Alabama Conference Team mission is to equip congregations to share in God’s mission by providing hope, compassion, justice, and radical hospitality to children who live in poverty. Over the next year, we’ll offer monthly blog posts to provide ideas, inspiring stories from local congregations, and ways to connect what we do and who we are to others working on behalf of children and their families in North Alabama and the larger ...