UMCOR Academy

Church and Community Worker, missionary Dwaine Morgan
shares how a seed of hope can grow into God's Spirit.
(photo courtesy of Dwaine Morgan)

Several things registered with me when I attended the UMCOR Relief Network Academy at Sager Brown in Louisiana.

One was the variety of ministries performed by the cooperating depots in the Relief Network. No two serve God in quite the same way.

Another was that many of the relief centers seemed to begin with a vision of a few people (an individual, a handful of people, a church). Someone planted the mustard seed of faith, watered it carefully, waited for God to work, and a mighty ministry sprouted forth. Isn’t that the way that God’s Spirit is often manifested?..

Our conference pickup in October netted the largest load of gifts that we have received since the special emphasis on Haiti two years ago. Among the gifts are more than 1,000 AGAPE Children’s Christmas Boxes (with more coming each week) that are awaiting inventory at our Center. Last week I sent out a call to those who are on my “emergency work crew” list to catalog the boxes so that we can get off to an early start on preparation for our next Armenian shipment.

We have already sent relief supplies estimated at $585,145 to UMCOR, to Armenia, or to local ministries this year and that will probably be very close to our final total for 2011. By the end of the year we should also reach a milestone of sorts as we host our 400th work group.

I can never adequately express my appreciation for the exacting work of the volunteer teams. Without them we simply cannot provide the assistance that is needed by so many people around the world.

Learn more about the missionary work from the bio of Dwaine Morgan