2008 Annual Conference
Vital Ministries
"Vital Ministries", formerly known as "Goals", comprise many of
our important ministries. Conference Vital Ministries support ongoing ministry
agencies of the United Methodist Church within the Missouri Annual Conference
and beyond. Local churches generally pay their Apportionments before moving on
to paying their Conference Goals since the latter carry less obligation. Other
U.M. churches, excited about the value of these ministries, will contribute to
the Conference Vital Ministries throughout the year.
- Children and Family Center of Northwest
Missouri
- Contact: Muriel Zimmerman, 2022 S. Main St., Maryville,
MO 64468. Phone 660-562-2320
- The Children and Family
Center of Northwest Missouri serves victims of domestic violence and sexual
assault by providing 24 hour crisis hotline, crisis management, case
management, court advocacy, support group and 24/7 shelter. We serve victims
from throughout the state - especially Nodaway, Holt, Atchison, Worth and
Gentry Counties.
- Della Lamb Community
Services
- Contact: Judy McGonigle-Akers, 500 Woodland Ave.,
Kansas City, MO 64106. Phone 816-842-8040
- Della Lamb Community
Services was founded in 1897 as a Methodist Mission to provide child care
for poor, working mothers. Today, this Kansas City-area institution
offers a wide variety of additional ministries aimed at the needs of
individuals and families with inadequate resources, or those who are in crises
or those need intervention. Programs are designed to create
self-sufficiency through education, joy training, and support services.
- Epworth Children's Home
- Contact: Kevin Drollinger, 110 North Elm Ave., Webster
Groves, MO 63119. Phone 314-961-5718
- Epworth is in its 137th year of operation and continues to
provide the best educational, therapeutic and spiritual care possible for
children with emotional and behavioral difficulties. Some of these adolescents
suffer from neglect, abandonment, and severe sexual, physical and emotional
abuse. Epworth Children's Home is located
in Webster Groves, MO.
- Gulfside Assembly
- Contact: Wilma Dunbar, P.O. Box 27, Waveland, MS 39576.
Phone 228-467-4909
- Gulfside
Assembly is a significant, historical part of the United Methodist
Church. In August 2005, this ministry was significantly impacted when
Hurricane Katrina destroyed every building on the grounds.
- Council of Churches of the
Ozarks
- Contact: David Hockensmith, P.O. Box 3947, 627 N.
Glenstone, Springfield, MO 65808. Phone 417-862-3586
- Council of Churches of the
Ozarks is a faith-based, human-services organization serving the people of
the Ozarks through programs including child-care food program, child-care
resource and referral, adult daycare, senior volunteer program and a long-term
care program.
- Doorways
- Contact: Lynne Cooper, 4385 Maryland Ave., St. Louis,
MO 63108. Phone 314-535-1919
- Founded in 1988, Doorways is an interfaith AIDS
residence program in the St. Louis area. Its goal is to increase access
to safe, affordable housing for people with HIV/AIDS and, in doing so, to
improve access to health care and social services, increase compliance with
individual treatment plans, reduce further transmission, and enhance the
quality of life for those living with HIV/AIDS.
- Gambrill Gardens
- Contact: Mike Cicchese, 1 Strecker Road, Ellisville, MO
63011. Phone: 636-394-2992
- This retirement community provides housing and services to meet
the physical, social, and psychological needs of its residents.
Gambrill Gardens is located in
the St. Louis suburb of Ellisville, MO.
- InterServ
- Contact: David Howery, 200 Cherokee Street, St. Joseph,
MO 64504. Phone 816-238-4511
- InterServ is a
multifunction faith-based social-service agency located in St. Joseph. Since
1909, InterServ has been meeting needs, responding to crisis and helping the
community define and solve problems. InterServ unites individuals and
churches together in service and advocacy to counter the effects of poverty on
children, youth, elderly and families in St. Joseph and the surrounding
communities. Their Food Pantry, Rent Assistance Program, Counseling and
Case Management, Immigrant Services, In-Home Services, Professional Medical
Services, Elderly Nutrition, Infant/Childcare, Youth Programs, Homeless
Housing, and volunteer opportunities assist those in need so that all may live
their lives more fully and more capably.
- Kingdom House
- Contact: Thomas T. Sanders, 1321 South 11th Street, St.
Louis, MO 63104. Phone 314-421-0400
- A social service agency on one level,
Kingdom House is really much
more. It is a neighborhood community serving the residents of the Near
Southside of St. Louis since 1902 through education and job training,
recreation, and direct assistance. Of prime concern is the provision of
services for families, children, and individuals under stress, including child
care, and direct material relief. Kingdom House also has programs for
youth as well as a Senior Companion program for older adults.
- Newhouse
- Contact: Leslie D. Caplan, P.O. Box 240019, Kansas
City, MO 64124. Phone 816-474-6446
- Located in urban Kansas City,
Newhouse provides shelter and aid
to abused women. Its facilities and programs empower women to change
their lives, while it educates the community about the increasing issue of
domestic violence. The mission of Newhouse is to break the cycle of
domestic violence by providing the tools which allow women to make positive
choices and lead self-sufficient lives.
- Old McKendree Chapel
- Contact: Jack Byrd, Route 3, Baimbridge Road, Jackson,
MO 63755.
- This fund helps maintain the historic landmark
Old McKendree Chapel, the oldest protestant church
site west of the Mississippi River. It is located just a few miles west of Cape
Girardeau, MO.
- Philander Smith College
Scholarships
- Contact: Walter Kimbrough, One Trudio Kibbe Reed Drive,
Little Rock, AR 72202. Phone 501-370-5275
- For more than 120 years, the United Methodist Church has been a
part of a legacy that began for freed men in a church basement. Located
in Little Rock, Arkansas, this fully accredited college began as Walden
Seminary and then was part of Wesley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church Sunday
School Program. Philander Smith
College is a small, privately supported, historically black, four-year
liberal arts, career-oriented college, related to the Board of Higher Education
and Ministry of The United Methodist Church.
- re-Start
- Contact: Evelyn Craig, 918 E. 9th Street, Kansas City,
MO 64106. Phone 816-472-5664
- An interfaith ministry with homeless persons,
re-Start is a place of shelter and
support providing emergency shelter, help for those in transitional places in
their lives, community-based housing, youth programs and job training.
- Spofford
- Contact: Janine Hron, P.O. Box 9888, 9700 Grandview
Road, Kansas City, MO 64134. Phone 816-508-3400
- Founded in 1916, Spofford offers community-based and
residential therapeutic treatment services for young children with emotional
disturbances. The children have experienced significant trauma most frequently
due to problems in their homes caused by substance abuse, untreated mental
illness or domestic violence.
- Metro Homeless Center and Family
Services
- Contact: Tammy Laws, 1040 S. Taylor, St. Louis, MO
63110. Phone 314-534-1010
- "Metro
Ministry," as many long time United Methodists like to call it, is
located in the St. Louis inner city where it helps persons improve their lives
through education, training, and advocacy. Metro Ministry serves persons
in three major ways:
· MetroServ
Food and Clothing Pantry
· Shalom
House a 24-hour emergency shelter for women
· Shalom House Transitional House
Program
- Oklahoma Indian Missionary
Conference
- Contact: David Wilson, 4047 NW 30th Terrace, Oklahoma
City, OK 73109.
- In 1972, the General Conference of The United Methodist Church
made it possible for the Indian Mission, established in 1844, to become a
“Missionary Conference” because of its particular mission
opportunities, its limited membership and resources, its unique leadership
requirements, “its ... language considerations, and ministerial
needs.” (Book of Discipline) The move enabled the Oklahoma Indian
Missionary Conference to license and ordain its own ministers and officially
function as an Annual Conference. There are more than 90 congregations in this
conference that are led by indigenous clergy and laity.
- Ozarks Methodist Manor
- Contact: David A. Lewis, P.O. Box 403, 205 South
College, Marionville, MO 65705.
- This retirement community has a tradition of caring since 1925.
It is owned and partially sponsored by the United Methodist Church of the
Missouri Area Conference. The Manor has a variety of living options available
to suit various levels of needs. It offers 57 two-bedroom private homes and 48
semi-independent living apartments.
Ozarks Methodist Manor is
located in Marionville, MO (southwest of Springfield).
- Rainbow Network
- Contact: Mark Struckhoff, 3834 South Ave., Springfield,
MO 65807. Phone 417-889-8088
- Founded in 1995, Rainbow Network is an
inter-denominational Christian ministry working in rural Nicaragua with some of
the poorest people in the world. The Rainbow Network focuses on four
areas: health care, education, housing, and economic development.
- Rio Grande Conference
- Contact: Able Vega, 16400 Huebner Road, San Antonio, TX
78248-1694. Phone 210 408-4513
- The Rio Grande
Conference works with the growing Hispanic population living in the
boundaries of Texas and New Mexico.
- Susanna Wesley Family Learning
Center
- Contact: Martha Ellen Black, P.O. Box 249, East
Prairie, MO 63845. Phone 573-649-3731
- This center serves more than 350 families in southeast Missouri
through such activities as youth leadership training, parenting skills, adult
learning and computer training, and direct services to victims of domestic
violence. The mission of Susanna Wesley
Family Learning Center is to build healthy families through Adult Education
Literacy, and Youth Programs.
- Encounter with Christ in Latin America
and the Caribbean
- Contact: Dr. Wilson Boots. Phone
713-960-9436
- This is a permanent mission fund established in 1992 to provide
support for projects in Latin America. A unique dimension of
Encounter
involves the distribution of mission support through a process of shared
decision making by church leaders of the Latin American and Caribbean churches
in partnership with leadership of the General Board of Global Ministries,
considered to be an historic, innovative step forward in global Christian
mission.
OTHER VITAL MINISTRIES
- Lydia Patterson
Institute
- Contact: Socorro De Anda, 517 S. Florence, El Paso, TX
79901. Phone 915-533-8286
- Owned by the 17 annual conferences in the South Central
Jurisdiction, the Lydia
Patterson Institute is a fully accredited college preparatory school. It is
committed to providing a bilingual, cross-cultural, academic education for
students who mostly come from impoverished homes in Mexico and the barrio of
South El Paso, Texas.
- Mt. Sequoyah Conference and Retreat
Center
- Contact: 150 NW Skyline Drive, Fayetteville, Arkansas
72701. Phone 800-760-8126 / Local phone (479) 443-4531
- The Mount Sequoyah
Conference and Retreat Center is a year-round facility situated on 30
remarkable acres atop Mount Sequoyah in Northwest Arkansas. This United
Methodist learning center serves the churches, districts, and conferences of
the South Central Jurisdiction of which our church is a part. The Center
provides accommodations for up to 350, large spaces for group meetings, as well
as more intimate accommodations for work-shops, small discussion groups, or
team building activities. Durable facilities for youth programming are also
available.
|
