Learn how you can help provide relief for Ukraine via UMCOR at asburylv.org/ukraine.
Missions
Learn how you can help provide relief for Ukraine via UMCOR at asburylv.org/ukraine.
| All educators/staff are now covered by a note-writer. THANK YOU!
NOTE WRITERS: Please write and deliver your notes before February 25th (we’d like to deliver the notes by March 1st) and remember to leave the envelope unsealed. The collection bin is outside at the upper entrance to Asbury. |
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Need to know more? Here’s what “Notes for Ramos” is all about:
In 2020 Asbury in Mission (AIM) asked for Asbury members to help show our support for educators at our partner school, Luis A. Ramos Elementary School in the Allentown School District. The responses from Ramos teachers and staff were very touching.
“What a thoughtful gesture from people at Asbury!”
“Thank you Asbury Church for all you do for our students and our teachers!!”
“It brought tears to my eyes.”
After two years of the pandemic, teachers’ spirits may be at an all-time low as COVID cases continue to impact students and teachers alike. Absences have disrupted in-class learning and strained virtual instruction. So now that we’ve entered the spring semester of 2022 we again ask you for notes of encouragement for Ramos teachers and staff.
Sign up to write a personal, hand-written note of encouragement for one to three teachers or staff members! AIM will include a $5 Wawa gift card as well.
Please write a note to that person before February 25th (we’d like to deliver the notes by March 1st).
Put the teacher/staff member’s name on outside of the envelope, leave the envelope unsealed and place it in the container outside of Asbury’s upper entrance.
AIM will add the address and gift card, and stamp and seal the envelope for mailing.
Not sure what to say? While you’re encouraged to make it your own, if you have writer’s block, here are a few phrases/ideas to help you get started:
Sign your note with your name “and your friends at Asbury Church.”
Additional information on Asbury and Ramos:
Luis A Ramos Elementary School at 15th and Allen is a long-time Asbury mission partner.
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.
• Obtaining Books for the Library (Christmas Eve Offering)
• Concert to raise money for musical instruments
• Donation of used musical instruments
• Annual work day to mulch playground and beautify grounds
• Key supporters of the construction of a new playground at Ramos
• A dozen or so Asbury members volunteering in classrooms (prior to the pandemic)
• Backpack drives in the fall
• School supply drives
• Coat, hat and mitten drives
• Adopting Ramos families at Christmas
• Packing holiday gift bags before Christmas
• Gathering cleaning supplies to help teachers keep their classrooms safe
Here are excerpts from some of the most recent updates from some of our mission partners around the world, along with links to the full letter. Please keep them in prayer as they share the Good News!
“2021 was quite a year for us. Even leaving aside work in a COVID hospital, it brought more than its share of unexpected challenges and dangling issues… Our family, who’d spent the last two decades together, was abruptly in four different locations… [still, 2021 brought] a sense of gratitude. I don’t think we as a family had ever prayed as much or as fervently. So, along with its ups and downs, the journey has left an aftertaste, the sweetness of having shared a path with Immanuel…”
“The recent uproar over the new Omicron variant is taking Ecuador (and the world) by storm this Christmas season. The government is struggling to know how to respond, and we hear daily news of new rules and regulations. At the same time, rainy season has hit early, and we are being deluged with daily rains, triggering major mudslides and road closures. landslide. The main road between us and the city is now closed for perhaps the next 6 months as the engineers try to figure out a way to move a large section of the mountainside to re-construct the fallen roadbed… Amidst this chaos, we were recently encouraged by the phrase ‘Business as usual’ — God’s call to keep going about the business of teaching and discipling. People need to know Him, and amidst the craziness of the world situation, that is still our call!”
The Boake family has been a mission partner for many years as they take in and care for children and young adults in their home.
“I, as, mom to these children am so blessed, I love them dearly and they in turn are so kind, caring and a great blessing to me. We all miss our wonderful dad [Colin Boake passed away in 2020] –he was such an example of strong values, consideration and manners & I proudly say the children are following his example. Our home is bursting at the seams with every corner occupied. In the outside rooms we have Sean, Kayleen & four little boys. Sean’s work place was completely destroyed during the unrest so they have come to stay with me. In the main house we have Joy (now 24, Donny (24), Mathew (22), Siyabonga (18), Asanda (15), Lindo (15), Samuel (11), Thabiso (8)…”
On Christmas Eve, we pledged that 100% of the offering collected would be given to support Afghan Refugees as they resettle in the United States; and we are so excited to announce that the final amount has been totaled, and $19,187 will be donated towards this important cause.
Thank you so much for your support of this initiative!
The total will be split evenly between the United Methodist Commitee on Relief (UMCOR), which supports resettlement nationally; and Bethany Christian Services, which helps support resettlement more locally to our area. Thank you for your generosity!
A food drive for the animals at Gress Mountain Ranch will begin on Sunday, January 2, and run through Sunday, January 16. Donations can be left outside Asbury’s upper level doors anytime throughout those weeks.
For over 21 years, the Gress Mountain Ranch in Orefield has been caring for abused, neglected, and abandoned animals. This is their “forever” home – animals are not bred or sold. Currently about 90 animals, including dogs, cats, pigs, horses, donkeys, ponies, alpacas, llamas, ducks, parrots and peacocks, are in need of food.
Items most needed at this time are applesauce, canned fruits and vegetables, zero Gatorade (no calories), duck pelleted food, pine shavings (not cedar) and Timothy hay. Other items requested, or for more information about the ranch, visit their web page at gressmountainranch.
Thank you for your generosity in caring for God’s creatures!
One-hundred percent of the offering collected at Asbury on Christmas Eve will be donated to help Afghan refugees resettle in the United States. Learn more at asburylv.org/christmas-eve-2021-offering/.
Asbury’s Stamp Ministry is continuing to collect and in need of used stamps to help raise money for missions.
Did you know cancelled stamps are a vital mission use? They are prepared and sold to stamp dealers, and every penny earned is used to prepare lessons and send to South American Sunday Schools to teach about our Lord, Jesus Christ. When removing stamps from envelopes, please leave at least 1/4″ – 1/3″ paper around the stamp so the stamp is not damaged, otherwise stamp dealers will not purchase these stamps. Machine-cancelled stamps are not useable, but computer generated stamps are.
Stamps are collected year-round.
The stamps may be placed in the marked drawer in the collections area across the hall from the church office (on the lower level). Do not use paper clips or anything else that might damage the stamps to keep them together, but they may be placed in plastic bags or envelopes.
As of April, 2021, more than $1,099,000 has been raised for this mission since its inception in 1972 – all from what we usually used to think of as trash.
Dr. Chris Hena’s father, Dominic is celebrating his 100th birthday on September 18th. In honor of him and all he has done for the people of Liberia, a well is being built in a Liberian community that currently does not have a source of clean drinking water. Please help us reach our goal of $2,500 with your donation. Donations are being received until October 31. Give at asburylv.org/give.
Dr. Chris writes about her father: “It was in 2003 [during the war years], after a young girl was hit by a car while crossing the street on her way to school. My Dad knew the girl’s mother. He decided to bring the community dwellers together so they could put their resources together and build a community school, so their children would not have to go across the main street again. People were happy and embraced his idea. However, when it came time to bring their resources together, they backed off. He decided to go alone. He purchased the land, and started building. Today, there are more than 1000 kids attending. It is now a high school with many employees. What a blessing. I am very proud of him.”
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| Mr. Hena in 2010 at the Dominic K. Hena School | A previously completed Asbury well |
We are praising God that construction has begun on the new Asbury Sewing School in Paynesville, Liberia. Thanks to all who contributed to funding the building of this new facility which will accommodate 100 students in two sessions per day. With the sewing skills acquired at the Asbury Sewing School, our Liberian friends will be able to generate income for basic needs for their families. Your generosity is changing lives in Liberia. The school staff has asked that we pass their sincere thanks to the Asbury congregation.
| Clothing from Barrels of Love was distributed to children at the Kennedy Early Learning Daycare in Liberia |
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A project to provide clean drinking water for a town in Bong County, Liberia has gotten underway thanks to your donations and the leadership of Asbury in Mission |
Asbury’s Barrels of Love ministry was started with a book drive by Connie Miller and her daughter Devin 20 years ago! At that time, 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.
In March we’ll be conducting a 20th anniversary children’s book drive for Bête Gbanee School in Paynesville and the Dominic Hena School in Kakata. Please gather new or gently used children’s books (no textbooks please). Look to your children for titles they particularly enjoy(ed). Deliver them to the upper parking lot at Asbury on Sunday, March 14 and March 21 between 9 AM and 10:30 AM.
Thank you for sharing the gift of reading with these Liberian children and helping Asbury celebrate 20 years of the Barrels of Love ministry.
Asbury in Mission‘s Barrels of Love were today’s featured story in the United Methodist News! Read the article, “Wheelchairs provide freedom for 50 Liberians,” at https://www.umnews.org/en/news/wheelchairs-provide-freedom-for-50-liberians.
JANUARY 14, 2021 UPDATE:
All teachers and staff have been signed up for! Thanks for your support!
ORIGINAL MESSAGE
Thanks in part to your tremendous response to the notes of encouragement for educators and staff at our partner school, Luis E. Ramos Elementary School, Asbury in Mission (AIM) is asking for Asbury members to help show our support for educators and staff at Parkway Manor Elementary.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Parkland elementary schools have been offering in-person and online classes with frequent shutdowns when a student tests positive. Teachers are really stressed attempting to teach this year—particularly those involved with younger ages and those teaching students with learning disabilities.
Sign up to write a personal, hand-written note of encouragement to one or two teachers or staff members!
Sign up now by adding your name to this Google Sheet. Please write a note to that person ASAP (due date is January 15)!
Put the teacher/staff member’s name on outside of the envelope, leave the envelope unsealed and place it in the container outside Asbury’s top entrance before January 15. • AIM will add a $5 gift card to Wawa and seal the envelope for delivery to Parkway Manor.
Not sure what to say? While you’re encouraged to make it your own, if you have writer’s block, here are a few phrases/ideas to help you get started:
• I want you to know that you are seen and you are valued. You may not be listed as essential workers. But you are essential.
• As a former teacher, I know all the work that goes into teaching under typical circumstances. Teaching during this coronavirus pandemic is so far from typical. It’s literally nothing school systems have ever done before.
• This isn’t what you signed up for, and yet you’re doing it anyway. You’re putting together distance learning plans. You’re adapting your teaching in the blink of an eye.
• I know you miss your students, the classroom community, and the culture you cultivated. I know how much your students mean to you—how they become “your kids” year after year—and how much you love seeing them light up when they learn something new.
• Even though it may not feel like it sometimes, you’re teaching. Right now your kids are learning social-emotional skills that no curriculum could account for.
• You’re the first teachers to tackle a challenge like the one we’re facing now. Years from now, 2020 will be remembered as the year we all learned how to live life at a distance from each other and continue to function as a society.
• Pause a moment and realize that what you’re doing matters. It matters not just for the students you have in your classes today, but also for the future. You’re part of large-scale systemic change and are making history.
• For now, it’s OK to cry together, too. (Or on your own.) If you’d all known that goodbye would be the last for the year, maybe you would have hugged a little longer or high-fived more often. It’s OK to grieve those hugs and high-fives.
• Teachers, parents can’t replace you. You are essential. Take care of yourself. Be well. Try your best. And thank you for being there.
• The #1 factor in the success of our children is having quality teachers who care about them! Thank you for being there!
• From the sidelines, know that our community is cheering you on as you make the very best of a challenging situation in the classroom this year. Thank you for all that you give to our children, families, and community! You’ve got this!
• During this time of much uncertainty, your passion for teaching and your creativity to make learning dynamic and fun for our children is nothing short of amazing! Keep doing what you love, and spread your light to everyone you work with! You are an inspiration to me!
• Thank you so very much for serving our community as a teacher! With much uncertainty ahead, know that you are deeply admired and appreciated for your work with our children. Thank you for all that you do! We believe in you.
• “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” – Proverbs 22:6
• “Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” Deuteronomy 32:2
• “Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.”-Proverbs 4:13
• Sign your note with your name “and your friends at Asbury Church”
Asbury in Mission (AIM) has been in contact with our mission partners and shares the following messages we’ve received from them. Please pray for all of them as they, too, navigate the new landscape put before us because of COVID-19.
Mark & Deirdre Zimmerman, Nepal
Thanks for being in touch, and for your prayers. Nepal remains relatively untouched by coronavirus, with just one case in January in someone travelling from China, and one case announced yesterday in a Nepali student returning from France. Unfortunately that hasn’t stopped the government taking very drastic measures, with rapid changes at very little notice. They gave 24 hours’ notice for closing the airport to all flights, and last night suddenly announced we were under complete lockdown from 6am this morning with no chance to go shopping or make other arrangements. The boys have been home from school for 10 days now with both doing on-line classes and exams, and Mark and I still go to the hospital. So we remain quite busy although it looks like things will get quieter in the next week while the hospital empties and if it continues to have no corona cases.
Of course, if we do get struck by the virus it will probably be pretty bad here given most people’s economic situation/living conditions and the limits to medical facilities. We wait, like everyone, to see how long this will last. We will probably put out a letter in the coming days which will give you a better idea of our situation, but meanwhile thanks again for your prayers.
Sincerely,
Deirdre
Brendon Homan, Youth with a Mission (YWAM), South Africa
Things are going forward in SA, but we did find out last night that the whole country will be going into a 21 day lockdown from midnight Thursday as our president has declared a state of emergency.
Please pray for us that our country doesn’t go into a state of panic and also that the virus doesn’t reach the townships as there are many people with HIV and TB and this would have dire consequences of it did.
Further we started an online prayer movement to push back and we’re hoping that many people will join in this as we believe this is the exact time Christians shouldn’t be going into hiding. Here’s the link if you’d want to give it a look. https://mvmnt.co.za/
Thank you for checking in on is and I also would like to know how we can pray for you in the States?
God bless you all,
Brendon
Josefa Wall and Prof Munashe Furusa-Vice Chancellor, Africa University, Zimbabwe
The university affirmed its position to adhere to the government directive to close down the university effective 24 March 2020. On behalf of staff and students, I would like to thank you all for your unwavering support during these trying times. Your support has indeed lessened the burden on our shoulders and given us hope through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are grateful for your support and appreciate your prayers for the continued safety and welfare of the members of the Africa University community and their families during this global crisis. We unite with you in prayer for those affected by this illness, those experiencing stress and the medical personnel treating and caring for them.
Grace and peace to you and the Asbury family,
Josefa
[Since this initial email we have learned from Josefa that one of the two people in Zimbabwe with confirmed cases for COVID 19 has died.
Kevin & Kathy Bruce, Liebenzell, Ecuador
We are doing fine, seeking to place our trust daily in our Lord and not succumb to fear or panic. We’ve had two emergency ambulance trip calls so far, but neither really seemed to be related to the corona-virus, but rather just from a lack of other vehicles. Some of our local Awa are really wanting to close up our road with a pile of gravel and rocks; they are just scared and want to keep the sickness away. Some are saying they will only eat food from up here, as the virus might come in eggs, or rice, or food that is brought from the city. Many are coming here to our house to ask questions, to see the news, and maybe just for a voice of reassurance.
We do continue to appreciate your prayers that God will give us daily strength, words of encouragement, and patience with our people in this time. In parts of the country the people are running out of food, as many local stores are closing without the help of public transportation, but our people can live reasonably well out of their backyard gardens, so that hasn’t been a real issue here. We are also well-supplied so haven’t really felt a lack of food. And yes, we have plenty of toilet paper and quite a variety of leaves in the back yard! (that is, as long as there are no stinging fuzzy caterpillars on them…) 🙂
We also appreciate your prayers as we seek to try to help our Mission family in these days, keeping everyone in good contact, well-supplied, and encouraged. Pretty much every ministry and church has had to cancel most meetings. It was fun to see that three of the Liebenzell churches here posted services on-line! A good time to put all this excellent technology we have to work! 🙂
And you all there are facing many of these same issues…! We are thankful that our God is still sovereign, even amidst the seeming craziness that has overtaken the world.
Thanks so much for keeping in touch!
Kevin & Kathy
For some specific prayer requests:
1. For a peaceful heart and mind, along with a calm message, for Kathy & I during this present world situation. Many of our Awa people are getting pretty panicky. We desire to be voices that encourage them to place their hope and trust in our Father God, rather than drown in fear.
2. That our road would remain open, as many of our neighbors are fearful and have plans to shut it up with a pile of rocks and gravel. Since we have become the local ambulance, and are also trying to take Marco Aurelio, one of the Awa believers, out to the city regularly for his dialysis treatments, it would be really helpful if our road remained passable!
3. For the Awa believers as we have had to cancel church services and also our Easter conference. There were six young Awa wanting to get baptized at Easter, pray that their faith will remain strong. Last Sunday we were able to post a short Sunday message, at least for the ones who are technologically able to listen to it on their phones.
4. For our kids and grandson Ronin there in the USA, and also for Kathy’s mom who has recently been hospitalized with what seems to have been a mild heart attack. We find it hard knowing we are somewhat cut off from travel at this time; at the same time so thankful for good communication!
5. For a good ability in leadership for the Ecuadorian Mission team, including our Ecuadorian pastors, ministry workers, and our German and American co-workers. Pray for good fellowship and unity in a time when we are geographically isolated from each other.
6. The Ecuadorian health-care system is already maxed out, so we imagine this new crisis will be very difficult to handle. Please pray for the IESS hospital and San Vicente hospital, both located in the city of Ibarra, as they will soon be full to capacity; for doctors and nurses, for supplies that will likely run short.
Diana Coke, Thembelihle School, South Africa
South Africa is near the start of this pandemic, but we realise we are facing a massive challenge. There are approx 7 million people in this country with HIV and TB, with suppressed immune systems. Our State Health service has been mismanaged and under-resourced for at least the last decade, so there’s no way we could deal with the numbers that could require medical care. This sector is very decidedly Third World and hasn’t been coping with the everyday health needs of the population, let alone Covid-19.
Our State President has just made his 2nd announcement this evening.
Last Sunday he declared a National Disaster, when we had approx 130 Covid-19 patients. Since then the numbers have risen to over 400, but we know this is just the very tip of the iceberg. Thus far we have had no deaths).
We are praying that SA may somehow come through this without the total collapse of the economy that has been looming anyway. Their Crisis Task Team seems to have made some very far-reaching decisions regarding helping those who will suffer economically during this time, and we pray that these can be put in place.
All schools closed instead on 17 March, and will only return after Easter (at least that’s the current decision). This makes a great deal of sense, except for the children who will have no one to care for them at home, and who will not receive the daily meals that Thembelihle, and many other schools, supply to disadvantaged children.
So please may we ask for prayer for safety for all the children, especially at Thembelihle. So many of them live in a squatter camp, or in crowded communities, where social distancing or hygiene requirements just aren’t feasible. Also for those initiatives that are trying to fill the gap as regards feeding the hungry. We also ask for prayer for God’s guidance for those dealing with this pandemic; protection of the most needy of our people, and the health care workers who will be at the forefront.
That is all we can do, and we really appreciate the fact that brothers and sisters in Christ on the other side of the world are also praying for our situation.
In Christ alone, we put our trust. May God guide and direct the USA as well, as you have to deal with this situation.
Very many thanks to all at Asbury. We value your concern and prayers.
Diana
Dr. Chris Hena, Healthy Women, Healthy Liberia
COVID 19 is in our county now. Honestly, so much fear, but I have faith in Jesus who controls everything, to see us through this time. We are going to use wisdom and do all the things we are told to do, but I am not going to give in to fear. I see so many hopeful passages in His word, so I am refusing to give in to all the negatives.
You may never know how much you and others have blessed us. During Ebola, I had only mask and gloves. Today, we are more prepared, because of all the materials you sent our way. A big thanks to Doreen [at Through These Hands] and the Asbury United Methodist Church family. We are going to defeat this COVID-19, because of your generosity.
Have a blessed evening. A thanks again for everything.
In Him,
Chris
