Sharing Good Newsabout

MISSIONSFirst United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor • 120 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104 • www.fumc-a2.org • 734.662.4536

With this issue your church begins an occasional publication entitled “Sharing Good News.” The intent is to spotlight activities, ministry areas, and people inour family. This first issue emphasizes missions, with reports from our Kenya team, the Appalachia team, and our Youth Ministry areas. Enjoy!

Kenya Mission 2015The seven 2015 Kenya team members, Marcos Bacelis, Dixie Edwards, Debbie Houghton,Greg Hulbert, John Kaczor, Kathy Macdonald and Julie Roesch, have made a collectivetotal of 27 visits to serve BLISS and the primary and polytechnic schools! FUMC hasbeen so faithful to this mission financially and spiritually, and the annual trips to Merukeep the relationship of love alive between our two communities. The focus of this recentvisit was to support ongoing programs at the schools, and to determine the best way toserve both the Kenyan effort and FUMC in the future. The team found that BLISS isthriving with an enrollment of 539, the polytechnic is recharging its programs and en-rollment, and the primary schools are very open to assistance in buoying up their mathand science programs. Helping the primary schools with their math and science cur-ricula with be a focus of future trips – look for more information this fall about aFebruary 2016 trip.

The 2015 FUMC Kenya Mission teamBLISS at the morning devotional ceremony. The students fill in thespace in the courtyard and the BLISS band plays – a joy to hear!

Great strides were made to partner more with Gichunge Primary School, which is afeeder into BLISS. Throughout the week, these staff members discussed their meth-

ods of teaching of math and sci-ence, and we shared some of thetools used to facilitate a bettergrasp of concepts by students.Decks of cards, flash cards, andnumber games were shared, aswell as a commitment to futurevisits to work with the staff andstudents to improve the testscores for high school admit-tance.

A morning meal of porridge for theGichunge Primary students – for manyof the children, this is their only meal.This feeding program, started in partwith FUMC funds, is credited with im-proving attendance and classroom per-formance. Parents are helping to makethe program self-sustainable by plant-ing and harvesting maize (corn) on theschool property.

Pigs at school? Yes! BLISS is also working at be-coming self-sustainable by planting crops and car-ing for livestock on the school property. The addedbonus is that the school has begun teaching agri-cultural classes to the students to make them bet-ter farmers for both income and their families’ sus-tenance.

“I learned to be a better Christian by observing our brothers andsisters in Kenya, working as equals with them and seeing how theylive the Word (and how we can all live the Word).”

“I learned that joy and gratitude and generosity are abundant in ourpartners and friends in Kenya, and we should adopt more of thesequalities in our own lives!”

“FUMC is transforming lives in Kenya.”

“The Kenyans are constantly telling us “We love you!” We can learnsomething from the power of this unconditional expression of love.”

“No matter how good your skit presentation is, your group will beupstaged by the appearance of wild elephants!”

We went to the brand new Zeba TribalHall to celebrate 20 years of ministrywith the Zeba and L’anse UMCs. Theyouth sang two of their best songs andshared the Mt. Sinai Express skit withthe families who joined us. In thisphoto, Wendy Everett presents one ofthe plaques we had made to the pastorof both churches, Rev. Steven Rhoades.

Zeba Youth Mission 2015

“When my buddy talked about his experiences/thoughts about God, itmade me realize how truthful “You must be childlike to experience thekingdom of God.’” 8th grade male

“I feel like every time we sing “Sanctuary” my faith was strengthened becauseit’s so beautiful to hear everyone singing as one and I see God in that.”8th grade female

“Sophia, my little nine year old, made a big impact on me. At the last dayof VBS, she couldn’t stop saying how much she would miss me and shekept saying that she wanted me next year and stuff like that. It made merealize that I really do change other people’s lives and that I do make adifference to other people. Knowing this, I will want to go out in the worldlater in life and make a difference to other people.” 7th grade female

“It was really fun and enjoyable to work with the other youth in the youthgroup and I also think it was like that for the kids that came to VBC as wellto have not just one counselor doing everything.” 7th grade male

L’anse is west of Marquette and it took about 12 hours, including lunch, dinner, and reststops, to drive there. The group stays in a small dorm that is part of the Ford Center inAlberta, a facility owned and run by Michigan Technological University. On our first fullday we attended worship at the L’anse United Methodist Church.

Local children from the Zeba Reservation and the L’anse community come to VBS and join acrew led by pairs of FUMC-A2 youth. Zeba means “little stream” in the Ojibway tribal lan-guage. 26 Youth (grades 7-9) organized and led the VBS with 10 adult supporters.

FUMC-A2 youth lead games, singing, and crafts for the children whoattend VBS, as well as perform skits that dramatize the Bible lesson foreach day. This year we continued the theme of “Be Still and KnowThat I Am God” from our spring SoulFull Retreat and Youth Worship.We took the skit “Mt. Sinai Express” and modified the references fromThe Big House to Lambeau Field (where the Green Bay Packers play)and from Zingerman’s to the local Frosty Freeze.

Another day, we drove to Ontonagon to theAdventure Mine for an hour-long tour. Thisis an abandoned copper mine and Michi-gan Tech students guide the tours.

One afternoon we enjoyed a picnic lunch in downtown L’anse next to theKeweenaw Bay and then walked about 10 minutes to a hidden waterfall for ahike. Working together to climb the waterfall creates a great team building

adventure and gives a greatsense of accomplishment tothe youth. Spending a lotof time outdoors recon-necting with nature is alsoa special feature of the Zebamission trip.

We visited Copper Harborfor a bit of tourist shoppingand then headed over to thepark to prepare and grill apotato and fresh fish (rain-bow trout and whitefish)supper. Many hands madelight work of preparingdinner at Fort WilkinsState Park.

Guatemala Youth Mission 2015

“Every day on the work site someone would be making a joke or trying tolighten the mood. This strengthened my faith because even though thework was hard, everyone kept a positive attitude and made the situationbetter, and it seemed like God’s presence was there.” 12th grade female

“Meeting and talking to Raul (translator) was important to me as I learnedhis story and how though in a different situation, he was quite similar inhis values and beliefs to me.” 11th grade male

“Every single one of the workers I worked with daily made it easy to seeand learn what it is like to live a life where nothing is given and everythingis earned. More so, the joy and patience that these workers showed meinspired me to work hard and also to work for the right reasons.”12 grade male

“We would not have gotten as much done if it were not for our teamwork.”9th grade female

This year the high school mission trip served Mission Guatemala in Panajachel,Guatemala. We were 33 high school students and 7 adult counselors. On our firstfull day we visited the National Methodist Church in Chichicastenango, where theservice was mostly in Spanish. One of our youth introduced us and we led thecongregation in the song “Alleluia” — all in Spanish!

Another team of 15 worked in the com-munity of Xepec (pronounced “shepek”)to expand the kitchen where MissionGuatemala provides after-school snacksfor hungry kids. We laid cinder blocksto build the walls of the new room andmade the mortar from scratch.

One team of 25 worked in the community of Xecotoj (pronounced“shekatoe”) to continue expanding the elementary school from two class-rooms to four. Many in this community were displaced a few years ago byHurricane Stan. Our team poured concrete for the foundation footers.Teamwork with a “bucket brigade” made the work go more smoothly.

On both sites, trenches had to be dug so that towers ofrebar could be “planted” for the foundation.

Some mornings when we got to work, thelocal women would already be making thesnacks for the school children. On this par-ticular day, the snack was tortillas, whichmany Guatemalans eat with every meal.

Our youth would take time off from the construction work to do aVBS session with the local children. We did crafts, skits, played games,read stories, and sang songs in both English and Spanish! This was afavorite time of day for many of us.

At the end of our week with Mission Guatemala, we got to be touristas. Justoutside of Panajachel, there is a nature preserve/park that features a zipline. Wesuited up in our climbing harnesses and hiked up a fabulous trail to the top ofthe ziplines.

Appalachia Mission 2015Each spring, for over 10 years, a group of families from FUMC has traveled toour United Methodist Mission Agency in the southeast corner of Kentucky.Henderson Settlement has been in Frakes, KY since 1925. Originally their goalwas to bring education to the area. Over time the mission has transformed toprovide much needed support services, including a food pantry, senior citizencenter, youth after-school programs, community housing rehabilitation, andagriculture programs for the community that raise much needed financial sup-port. FUMC’s congregation participates in this effort by eating pancakes at ourfundraising breakfast, donating items for the food pantry, infant/child pro-gram, and health resources.

The Ann Arbor FUMC 2015 Appalachia Mission Team

Digging postholes for that new corral fence

Fun and fellowship after a productive work day

Digging a trench on the Settlementgrounds to find the leaky water line

Mucking out the barn forthe Settlement’s goatsraised to sell and gener-ate funds

Doing a home rehabilitation in the community and getting to know our newfriend, the homeowner

“I learned that you have to go with the flow. If something doesn’t go the way youhoped you have to go with it and be flexible.” 8th grade female

“The sense of community is really amazing. From sharing sleeping quarters, tosharing meals, to sharing work that is for others...song, faith and a strong knowl-edge that everyone participating (regardless of age) really wants to be there andmake a positive difference for this Settlement. I have a great feeling of peace andjoy that always warms me when I think of our trips to Henderson.” Parent

“I saw God on the mission trip in the willingness of the participants to work onanything to help the community.” 6th grade female