Check out the groups at Floris UMC during the Group Life Fair.
Help Hungry Kids
Each week, the Help Hungry Kids (HHK) ministry distributes 180 meals to children at Hutchison Elementary School.
We host monthly meal packaging events. Your help is appreciated!
For more information, contact Donna Porter at dporter@florisumc.org.
Ask the Pastors
July 21 – Ask the Pastors from Floris UMC on Vimeo.
Why Do You Go On Mission Trips?
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Hymns & Scoops
Join us for a joyful morning as we sing our favorite hymns during worship, followed by a delicious ice cream social! Bring your family and friends for a time of praise, sweet treats, and fellowship.
Come for the hymns, stay for the scoops!
For more information contact Yoon Nam at ynam@florisumc.org
Messy Church: Bingo Night
Join us for some road trip fun!
The Call Continues
Greetings from Sierra Leone.
Today is our last day before beginning our travels home. Our team was just a part of the certification ceremony for 50 UMC primary and secondary teachers who were trained as part of a collaborative program that began in 2018 through HCW, the CRC, the UMC, and our July mission team members. In the closing ceremony, there was so much joy and appreciation for the learning achieved. Teachers grabbed mentors and church leaders for pictures to commemorate the proud moment.
These emotions are in harsh contrast to the ones I experienced earlier today as I traveled with CRC staff and the occupational safety specialist on our team from Texas to “the dump” for a collaborative exchange with city staff that manage local waste. I was warned that there would most likely be children “picking” the trash as part of a network of resale and recycling that is necessary here for some to survive.
As a mother, I cannot get the image of young children working in this way out of my head and heart. One girl wearing a black, sack-like dress stood out to me. She was maybe 7-years-old walking in adult-size slides (plastic shoes) across dumped medical waste where I had spotted syringes and broken medicine bottles from a hospital. I’ve seen this similar situation in other countries, but even so, it does not make it easier to think of her life today. What is it like picking for plastics with bare hands where she may receive pay from someone depending on what she finds, or her family perhaps exchanges a volume of plastic bottles for sale later this week? This image, her story, is the story of children struggling in an impoverished society with little resources and a narrow way to find sufficient income just to eat.
With that in heart, I must say as I close my blog on this journey that the call of the Gospel here in Bo is certainly strong. The example of Jesus calls us all to care for children and all those struggling from poverty. This includes empowerment of local people to seek out resolutions so that they can carry their next generation forward in health and wholeness, without dependence. That call is not diminished since the early joint Sierra Leone UMC Annual Conference and Floris UMC vision more than 24 years ago. It just sounds a bit different today because there is new hopeful work in process that empowers families and villages toward a better tomorrow. In that tomorrow, our concern, our generosity, our presence, and our compassion hold potential for vital, life-giving and life-sustaining change.
As an HCW board member and the lead pastor of Floris/Restoration UMC, please consider beginning now to save for our 2024 Christmas Eve offering and I encourage you (if you have not done so already) to step up to support a family or perhaps even a village through Helping Children Worldwide. To learn more, please feel free to reach out to me, HCW staff members, or visit the HCW website. Join me also in-person or online for worship on Sunday, July 21, where we will continue our conversation.
-Gina
Holy Conversations
Greetings, Floris Family,
Today I’m sharing a few photos from our journey that show some of the holy conversations taking place as part of our work. Nabs Nabieu, HCW development staff member and Floris member, who was a child in the former orphanage at the CRC, has worked diligently with our team and particularly me to give context to our joined ministry with HCW, the CRC, Mercy Hospital, and the UMC in Sierra Leone through conversations and interviews.
Colossians 4:6 advises: “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt…” Through many deep, gracious, and insightful conversations, I have learned so much more about the present work of God through the ministries here. I feel I will step away from the people in this place changed, “salted” if you will, through their wisdom, perseverance, and deep reliance upon the grace of God in all things. They have shared their hearts and dreams with me, and in that, I feel humbled.
While we have captured some video, I wish I could download all my learnings with each transformative story. For example, today, I met a 16-year-old girl who is first in her classes. Yet just a short few years ago, she was not in school because she had to work selling goods on the street so that she and her mother could eat after her father left them. With support from the CRC, including much needed counseling, the girl is thriving with hopes of a bright future. Her mother is a recipient of business training and a microfinance loan to help strengthen her seamstress business. This girl tearfully spoke about how her life had so radically changed to the positive since meeting a CRC caseworker on the street one day who noticed her condition.
Processing that conversation and several others like it will take me some time, because other conversations have involved the limits to the work here due to financial constraints and an inability to meet the full needs of even all those who are in the care network. Resources are scarce, even with progress and hopefulness. The limitations of those resources can be the difference between life and death and security and adverse poverty. That is why our support and generosity remain critical.
Even in challenge, there is incredible inspiration that emerges with each shared encounter shaping the conversations to be holy in nature. I’ve heard so much hope expressed from the people working here. This might be in a life saved in screening a young child with malaria and providing lifesaving treatment, or about the desire and hunger of children to learn the ways of God, or in a person learning about how to manage diabetes or hypertension which are both killers here, or through the expressed dreams of a youth who sees the need for healthcare for the children in the street, so she is working hard in her studies with hopes of training to be a pediatrician.
I pray that your conversations today hold some holy, gracious content and “salt” as well, and that you can see God at work from your vantage point.
-Gina
Family Visits and Resources
Preaching on Sunday about the importance of youth and God’s love present for all ages
Day 6 – Family Visits and Resources
Hello again, Floris UMC from Bo Sierra Leone.
The week has launched with a lot of good work in process here from our HCW team and our partnership with the CRC (Child Reintegration Centre) and Mercy Hospital. The weekend allowed for some downtime for our team as well as for those who support us. There were some “family visits” where team members visited with families that they financially support through HCW’s program. These visits held much joy.
On Sunday, I preached at Centenary UMC for their annual “Youth Sunday” which was such a blessing to the whole team. The youth led us in music and dance, which they had planned with the preaching theme taken from 1 Timothy 4:12, “Let no one despise your youth…” We were welcomed with great hospitality and a sense of connection and unity.
In today’s work, we focused on two major projects and continued resourcing in the areas of diabetes management, IT/cybersecurity, and finance management systems. I was a part of a large CPR/AED training session led by the doctor, nurse, and occupational safety management professional on our team. I was a coach for the session. The training was offered to hospital staff, midwives, and other local hospital affiliated professionals. Some of you may not know, but I had to perform lifesaving CPR on my husband about a year and a half ago when he collapsed in my church office. He was then saved with an AED. The training had such significance for me in helping people know what to do when a medical emergency occurs, whether at the hospital or in home settings. Those participating were deeply appreciative of the knowledge shared. Breakfast and lunch were also served. I’ve learned that many here are only able to eat once per day due to poverty, so nutrition with the training is another resource provided.
Teaching training day
The other major ongoing project is the resourcing of local teachers in a collaborative training model using master teachers and our team member’s expertise. This will continue over the next couple days as best practices are shared among 50 teachers through the CRC. This is a highly engaged and committed group serving children locally.
I also had the opportunity to interview the case management supervisor at the CRC today. In doing so, I learned more about how families come into case management services and how those families are resourced based on their needs. The assessment process is collaborative with other local agencies. The needs range from housing, nutrition, and medical to job training and microfinancing to help the family become more self-sufficient. I heard transformative stories of families strengthening and children being nurtured with great care.
I hope that in reading these posts, you are keeping the people here and those ministering in Sierra Leone in your prayers. Learn more about HCW. [https://www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org/]
Finally, please know our mission team and I have been greatly disturbed by the news of the shooting at the rally over the weekend. We are keeping President Trump, those who lost their family member, and others affected in our prayers. Violence should never be tolerated. Such actions will impede the work of our democracy. We must center ourselves as peacemakers in our society living in these times with the way of Christ Jesus. Read the special eNote message from Barbara, Daniel, and me that went out on Monday. [link to the letter to congregation]
-Gina
Ask the Pastors
July 14- Ask the Pastors from Floris UMC on Vimeo.
Why Do You Stay With Jesus?
But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Reflection from Mercy Hospital’s Diabetic Clinic
Diabetes clinic at Mercy Hospital
Day 5 – Reflection from Mercy Hospital’s Diabetic Clinic
Hello again, Floris,
Our day today has held mixed emotions for me. Most of our team focused on supporting day #2 of the free diabetes clinic at Mercy Hospital today. Goals for the clinic were to begin to monitor and control both diabetes and hypertension, while triaging other conditions that may present to the doctors. This is year three of this annual HCW mission team supported clinic that works in partnership with Mercy Hospital.
For the clinic, I helped keep the medical records to support the dietetic/medical staff in the lab cubical. We saw 249 patients until supplies of medicine were limited for the day, which was a huge crowd, many arriving very early and staying for hours to be seen and then treated. We had a triage area to provide immediate insulin for those with dangerous blood sugar levels.
I cried the first time someone celebrated that their blood sugar was within normal range as they shouted, “Thanks be to God!” When did you do that when you last had your blood checked? You may have, but most of us know even if our levels are not normal, we can access the needed treatment regimens and monitoring equipment. In contrast, there was no one in today’s clinic group, even if being treated already for diabetes, that had a blood sugar monitor at home. The good news is that will change on Monday thanks to Mercy Hospital and our South Carolina team members who are beginning to provide free monitoring devices and access to the needed meds. The doctor serving with me today who specialized in nutrition and diabetes management will train the staff while we are here so that they can independently maintain this new program.
A story of note from the clinic was a severely malnourished teen girl who was in dire need of insulin yesterday and was treated late in the day. She returned today doing somewhat better. The staff were able to establish a relationship and hopefully will be able to get her Type 1 diabetes under control. The medical staff said if she had not been treated yesterday, she probably would not have lived through the night. I am so thankful she is now on a road to potential better health.
Other members of our team worked with the master teacher program providing coaching for resourcing that will unfold next week as they provide further educational resourcing. Three additional team members are also lending expertise in the areas of financial management programming, IT/cyber security upgrading and training, and environmental/waste management consultation.
I have much to process from all that I have seen the past few days. In that, I am thankful for God’s work here, for the legacy of Floris UMC in this place and the ongoing work that is saving lives and making a difference in our partnership with HCW. Thank you Floris/Restoration for your faithful generosity to the people of Sierra Leone!
I will continue to share as we move along. Tomorrow holds some preparation for preaching at the annual Youth Celebration Service at Centenary UMC in Bo on Sunday. I am looking forward to being with our UMC family here for worship, but please know I miss everyone at Floris and at home!
– Gina