Your hands and your heart can help provide a full stomach for those in need in developing nations! The Rise Against Hunger Experience, a meal-packing event where we will team up with Rise Against Hunger to package 20,000 meals, is taking place on Saturday, October 5, with shifts spanning periods between 8:30 AM and 3:00 PM in the Wesley Center. This is the eighth time Asbury has participated in this event, sponsored by Asbury in Mission. We hope you’ll consider being a part of this Church-wide opportunity to take part in sharing Christ’s love and compassion!
There is no cost to be part of this life-giving mission, but for reference, each meal costs $0.33 – a small price to make a big difference!
More about Rise Against Hunger Rise Against Hunger is driven by the vision of a world without hunger. Their mission is to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the critical resources. They are committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #2 of ending hunger by 2030.
Asbury began working with Ramos Elementary in the early 2010s to be a resource to students, families, educators, and staff. Through the years, projects have been undertaken to expand the playground, provide tutors, do annual cleanups of the grounds before the school year starts, help families to provide Christmas gifts, and collect supplies to resources students and classrooms.
Photos of the annual “Ramos Beautification Day”
Delivery of “Gifts for Ramos” – an annual campaign to help struggling families purchase Christmas gifts
The student population at Ramos ranges from 700-900 depending on the year; and over 90% of Ramos families live below the poverty level.
Over the years Asbury members have been actively involved in the support of Ramos teachers, staff, students and their families. In addition to the efforts noted above, additional items have included:
• Obtaining Books for the Library (Christmas Eve Offering)
• Concert to raise money for musical instruments
• Donation of used musical instruments
• A dozen or so Asbury members volunteering in classrooms
• Backpack drives in the fall
• School supply drives
• Coat, hat and mitten drives
• Packing holiday gift bags before Christmas
• Gathering cleaning supplies to help teachers keep their classrooms safe
A video shown in worship as Asbury worked to raise funding for the playground at Ramos Elementary School in 2014.
Since 2013, Asbury’s “Living Water Well Ministry” has worked with local mission connections in Liberia to help construct wells in villages that lack clean water. Spanning 4 counties, these wells save lives by providing a source of clean water to reduce water borne illnesses prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa.
Our friends in Liberia celebrating upon completion of a well
Many areas of rural Liberia lack access to clean water. Unclean water spreads sickness and disease. The Living Water Well Ministry partners with local community leaders to equip these locations with wells to provide clean water – in many instances for the first time in their community.
The “Barrels of Love” ministry was founded in 2001, a time when the end of the civil war in Liberia was in sight and Dr. Chris Hena (who was stationed in Kazakhstan at that time) requested children’s books to replace those destroyed during the war. Several thousand books were collected in that first Barrels of Love shipment.
Today, “Barrels of Love” sends shipments of clothing, medical supplies, books, and more to our friends in rural Liberia.
Volunteers packing and loading barrels to be shipped
Our friends in Liberia rejoicing upon receiving a shipment
Through Barrels of Love, Asbury connects with Through These Hands, a non-profit organization that acquires and distributes medical/nonmedical supplies developing countries, and Healthy Women, Healthy Liberia, an organization working to develop improved healthcare in Liberia for women without access to adequate healthcare facilities. Together, medical supplies, clothing, books, and more are delivered to help care for our friends in Liberia.
Learn more about the story of Barrels of Love from Asbury member Connie Miller
Thanks to your generosity, two 55-gallon drums of pill bottles have been collected and will be shipped to Dr. Chris Hena for her clinic in Kakata, Liberia. Thank you!
Questions? Please contact Dick McCreight or Asbury in Mission.
Looking for a tasty way to support missions at Asbury? Join us on Sunday, June 2, between 8:30 AM and 11 AM for an Asbury in Mission (AIM) Mission Breakfast, supporting Valley Health Partners! The breakfast will take place in the Wesley Center. There is no charge; but your free-will donations will support the efforts of Valley Health Partners, whose mission is “partnering with the people of our community to achieve health and wellness through the delivery of extraordinary care that is compassionate, accessible and affordable in a family-centered and culturally sensitive environment.” They DO NOT turn patients away based on their ability to pay and remove financial barriers for receiving care. Their Lehigh Valley Street Medicine Team provides these services for patients who are experiencing housing insecurity. In addition to the medical services, the Street Medicine Team provides survival supplies (items like heavy-duty gloves, new cold weather rated sleeping bags, etc.) as well as deliver the sleeping mats crafted by Asbury’s own Sleeping Mat Ministry team (the volunteer group co-founded by Asbury Church four years ago to make sleeping mats out of “plarn”).
Looking for a tasty way to support missions at Asbury? Join us on Sunday, May 5, between 8:30 AM and 11 AM for an Asbury in Mission (AIM) Mission Breakfast, supporting Laundry on Linden! The breakfast will take place in the Wesley Center. There is no charge; but your free-will donations will support the efforts of Laundry on Linden, which provides free laundry services and healthcare to those in need in center city Allentown.
The final gift from Asbury’s 2023 Christmas Eve offering to Mobility Worldwide was $16,426, an amount that covers the cost of 38 handcarts. Gary Moreau, Executive Director of Mobility Worldwide, says “Asbury is lifting 38 persons off the ground.” Thank you for your generosity and for providing the gift of mobility and dignity through this offering!
While a final official total is still being compiled, we are so grateful to be able to report that as of last week, $14,436 has been collected for the Christmas Eve offering, 100% of which will be donated to Mobility Worldwide (learn more) Thank you for your generosity!
The following report comes from Linda McCreight, one of the volunteers instrumental in coordinating the “Gifts for Ramos” collection:
December 18, 2023
“Once again, this December, the Asbury congregation has welcomed 16 Ramos Elementary School families into the warmth and joy of Christmas giving. In this Allentown school where 90% live below the poverty level, your generous outreach has encompassed 61 family members with donations of clothing, toys, gift cards and needed household goods. The abounding care shown by so many in our faith community is heartwarming and truly appreciated in this season of love.”
Thank you for generosity this Christmas season!
About “Gifts for Ramos”
Each Christmas, Asbury helps to spread Christmas cheer to families at Ramos Elementary, our partner school, by helping families in need with Christmas gifts. Over 90% of families of attendees of Ramos Elementary School live below the poverty level; and teachers and counselors at Ramos identify a few families in especially great need. That list is then shared with the Asbury congregation so you can prayerfully decide what individuals or families you may be able to support at Christmas.
providing the gift of mobility and dignity to those in developing countries who are unable to walk through covering 36 handcarts.
DONATED TO
THANK YOU!
ABOUT MOBILITY WORLDWIDE
Mobility Worldwide’s goal is to provide the gift of mobility for all of God’s people in need. They create and distribute hand-cranked Mobility Carts, vehicles that allow those who are unable to walk to go where ordinary wheelchairs won’t go. There is no cost to the recipient. Since 1994, Mobility Worldwide has built 100,000 Mobility Carts which have been distributed in 106 countries.
Asbury Celebrates First Graduates of Liberian Sewing School
The following article was written by Dick McCreight of Asbury in Mission. Dick has been instrumental in fostering the relationship with and infinitives for our friends in Liberia.
Asbury Church has had a relationship with their brothers and sisters in Liberia for over 20 years. It began when Asbury connected with the Reverend Jerome Kennedy, who at that time was the District Superintendent of the Voinjama District in rural Lofa County Liberia. After years of sending clothing, educational curriculum, and medical supplies through Asbury’s Barrels of Love ministry, it was suggested by a member of Asbury’s United Methodist Women that Asbury start a sewing school so that parents could earn an income to provide for the basic needs of their families.
In 2014 the first one-room school was founded in Paynesville, a suburb of Monrovia. The facility could accommodate only 14 students. In 2020 the school lost their lease on that space and was in need of a new, larger, space to accommodate more students. Through the generous support of Asbury members, construction of a new building dedicated to the sewing school began in 2021 on Tylers Island, another Monrovia-area suburb. Through the leadership of Rev. Kennedy and School Director Yamah Wymon, the school was completed and opened in 2022 with funds for sewing machines and instructors provided by Asbury.
Asbury was thrilled to hear news of the first graduation class of the Tylers Island Home Economic Training Center in October 2023. School Director, Yamah Wymon writes, “[I] am so happy to present to you the first graduates of Tylers Island Home Economic Training Center, a vocational school in Tailoring. I am so proud to be a part of history-making in Liberia. Thanks [to] the Asbury United Methodist Church [for] their continued support in the life of Liberians, They are the reasons behind our success today. May God continue to bless the work of their hands. To my students, go into the world and explore the new skills acquired and make a difference. Thanks [to] the teaching staff for their patience and tireless efforts doing every section. Thanks to our parents, friends, and well-wishers for gracing our occasion this past Sunday.”
Asbury is blessed beyond measure by being a blessing in the lives of our Liberian friends and looks forward to many more graduations from the Tylers Island school.
“How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter!” Song of Solomon 7:1
Soil-transmitted helminth infection (parasitic worms) thrive in the warmer climates of the earth. Unfortunately, these are the areas of most of the world’s poverty. This poverty is accentuated by the presence of worms that cause the depletion of already scarce nutrients in the body. Worms enter the body in various ways. Hookworm larvae (immature worms) mature into a form that can penetrate the skin of humans. Hookworm infection is transmitted primarily by walking barefoot on contaminated soil. Flip-flops are a simple and effective means of combating the transmission of hookworm.
On July 15, Asbury in Mission will be making their next Barrels of Love shipment to Liberia. Your donation of flip-flops (all sizes) will help prevent parasitic infections in the villages served by Healthy Women, Healthy Liberia. Look for barrels to collect flip-flops in the Mission Donations Area across from the office. We will be accepting donations until July 13.
THANK YOU to all who helped with the Rise Against Hunger meal packing event on Saturday, March 25! Here are some quick statistics from the day:
20,000 meals packed
$8,000 donated to Rise Against Hunger
100 volunteers
300 volunteer hours
With the meals packed yesterday, a total of 90,000 meals have been packed by Asbury over the past 5 years. Again, thank you!
More about Rise Against Hunger Rise Against Hunger is driven by the vision of a world without hunger. Their mission is to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the critical resources. They are committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #2 of ending hunger by 2030.
Our hearts break as we continue to learn about the devastation in Turkey and Syria as a result of the major earthquakes. Learn how you can help provide relief for Ukraine via UMCOR at asburylv.org/turkeyandsyria.
Asbury is pleased to announce the opening of a new donation bin area to drop off your generous donations for missions. Thank you to Elijah Kinzel, working towards the rank of Eagle Scout, and Dick McCreight of Asbury in Mission (AIM) for their work on this project.
This installation is across from the church office (on the lower level).
The generosity of the Asbury Church community has allowed the Asbury in Missions (AIM) team be able to approve a budget for Mission Outreach of $117,837.50 for 2023.
This includes $104,844 in direct monthly support for 37 mission partners (18 global, 5 national, and 14 local), $10,093.50 for one-time projects and $2,900 for general mission support. The one-time projects include: sewing machine support for Liberian Sewing School graduates, storage racks for Meals-on-Wheels, uniforms and registration fees to support the Future stars activities at Ramos Elementary, and support for the Asbury Youth Ministries’ West Virginia mission trip planned for this summer.
Please join the Asbury in Mission (AIM) Committee as it hosts Denise Shelton (Disaster Recovery Director) and others from the Eastern PA Conference’sDisaster Response Team as they share information on what they do. Their work is funded mostly by a $417,000 grant received from UMCOR in December, along with generous donations by individuals and churches. But while additional funds are needed, the more urgent need now is volunteers, with various skills or even unskilled, who can devote time during the week and on weekends, starting this spring and throughout the year. Come see how you can help!
Asbury in Mission (AIM) strives to be “in mission” by partnering with mission partners throughout the world through regular communication to learn of their needs, to pray for them, to work on one-time mission projects, to go on one or two week mission trips, celebrate mission, and provide financial support.
The Conference of Churches is collecting the following items to serve Thanksgiving dinner to families and individuals in need. Please deliver donations directly to them (there are NO collection points at Asbury for this drive). All donations must be delivered by Friday, November 18.
This project is now fully funded! Thank you for your support!
Help Provide Clean Water to a Community in Need
A previously completed Asbury well
Your generosity can help provide clean water for a village in need. Asbury’s Living Water Well ministry is fundraising to build their 24th well in Liberia. This well will be built in honor of Asbury member Alice Huey in celebration of her 90th birthday.
The total cost of the well will be $3,500.
If you’d like to contribute to improve the quality of life for our Liberian friends, and to honor Alice, please write a check payable to Asbury UMC with “Liberian Well” on the memo line and place it in an offering plate or drop it off at Asbury’s office.
About the “Living Water Well Ministry”
Since 2013, Asbury’s “Living Water Well Ministry” (via Asbury in Mission), has worked with local mission connections in Liberia to help construct wells in villages that lack clean water. Spanning 4 counties, the most recent well funded by the ministry was built 2022 at Baptist Seminary Community in Montserrado County. These wells save lives by providing a source of clean water to reduce water borne illnesses prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa.
