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Beymer Memorial and Winter Haven have a lot of interesting things going on all the time. Check out these items below that you may find interesting or want to participate in.

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Beymer Memorial Offers Free Afterschool Tutoring and Mentoring Program

Click here to read the newspaper article about Beymer's new afterschool tutoring program for Inwood Elementary students.

Beymer Supports the National Federation of the Blind

Click here to read the newspaper article about Beymer's support for the annual National Federation of the Blind's fundraising and education breakfast.

Beymer Youth Helps Take Lead in Student Initiative

Click Here to read the newspaper article about "Wrapping Up Love."

United Methodist Church told to stop feeding the homeless.

Click here to read the article about Crossroads United Methodist Church in Phoenix, Arizona.

Beymer member, Josh Hallett, is named one of "Today's Leaders" for Polk County.

Click here to read the read the article about today's leaders in The Ledger.

Concerns mount for missing UMCOR workers                               

 

NEW YORK (UMNS)—United Methodists throughout the world are saying prayers, donating time, talent and money and planning relief efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Haitian people even as the church worries about the fat  e of some of its mission workers in the devastated nation. In the aftermath of the 7.0 magnitude quake Jan. 12, church officials on Jan. 13 were still waiting to hear from three executives of the Board of Global Ministries who were in Haiti. Sam Dixon, top executive of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Clinton Rabb, head of Mission Volunteers, and James Gulley, an UMCOR consultant, were on the island on a mission-related trip. No one has been able to reach the three men since the earthquake occurred and communications with Haiti have been difficult, officials said.

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Friday, January 15, 2010         

 "For us not to die with that magnitude of an earthquake, to me, that is second life."—Sarla Chand, a former staff member of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, on surviving with colleagues the earthquake in Haiti.              

 

United Methodists rescued in Haiti                               

 NEW YORK (UMNS)—A team of French firefighters were carefully picking through the rubble of the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince to extricate a United Methodist mission leader trapped since the Jan. 12 earthquake. The   Times of London said rescuers were using metal cutters to clear the way to the Rev. Clinton Rabb, head of Mission Volunteers for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, who was trapped under a large concrete slab. Two other church officials trapped at the hotel were rescued earlier. The Rev. Sam Dixon, top executive of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, was taken out of the debris Friday morning, hours after the Rev. James Gulley, an UMCOR consultant, was freed.

Read full story (http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mjIUI8PPJeKPIdI&s=7eKJJVNzHeLDLQOsEkG&m=kkKXIfORIkJ7F)                                                 

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United Methodist woman saves colleagues in Haiti                               

 NEW YORK (UMNS)—The Hotel Montana in Port  -au-Prince was collapsing around Sarla Chand moments after a massive earthquake struck the Haitian capital. A piece of debris hit Chand on the head, and all the former staff member of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries said she could think of was not to give up. "If I didn't keep moving, I think I'd be dead," Chand said Jan. 15 in an interview on "ABC News." Chand was able to move through the debris to escape the hotel, and her quick action in bringing back help is credited with saving the lives of several colleagues, including three United Methodist mission leaders.

Read full story (http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mjIUI8PPJfKPIcI&s=7eKJJVNzHeLDLQOsEkG&m=kkKXIfORIkJ7F)                                                 

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Palmer asks churches not to let causes compete                               

 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)—The president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops is calling on church members to "rise to the occasion" of meeting both the emergency needs of   the Haitian people and U.S. community-development needs supported in a special offering scheduled for Sunday. The two causes should not compete, Bishop Gregory V. Palmer said in a letter to Illinois Great Rivers Annual (regional) Conference clergy. "As you know," he wrote, "Sunday, Jan. 17, is Human Relations Day in The United Methodist Church. This annual emphasis also carries with it the invitation to give a special offering that supports the ministry of The United Methodist Church in strengthening people, relationships and communities. We are also in the midst of giving special offerings through UMCOR because of the disaster in Haiti. Both giving opportunities are important, so please do all you can not to let them compete."

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The Rev. Sam Dixon, UMCOR leader, dies in Haiti

The Rev. Sam Dixon speaks at the opening of the new UMCOR office in the Philippines in this 2009 file photo. Dixon died before he could be rescued from the rubble of a hotel in Haiti destroyed by a Jan. 12 earthquake. A UMNS photo courtesy of GBGM.

 Editor’s note: Updates throughout with details on Dixon’s life and work, responses from colleagues and friends.

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*
Updated Jan. 16, 2010 | 5:30 pm EST

The Rev. Sam Dixon shows a digital picture to children in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, in this 2007 file photo. A UMNS photo by Ginny Underwood.

The Rev. Sam Dixon came to Haiti to make life better for the poor and afflicted.

As the leader of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Dixon traveled the world assisting Indonesians whose homes were washed away by the tsunami, Africans whose crops had withered under unrelenting drought and Americans needing shelter after tornadoes destroyed their neighborhoods.

So it came as a shock Jan. 16 when, after four days when hopes dimmed and were raised again with reports of his survival, church workers learned that Dixon died of injuries received after being buried in the rubble of a collapsed hotel following the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.

“He lived his life following the commandments of Jesus to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and love the least of these—all over the world,” said United Methodist Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of Houston, UMCOR’s president.

Dixon was attending meetings in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck Haiti. He was one of six staff from two different relief agencies who were at the Montana Hotel when it collapsed. Four people in that group were rescued from the rubble of the hotel late on Jan. 14.

Dixon died before rescuers could free him, contrary to earlier reports from church leaders that he was pulled out of the wreckage alive. Another United Methodist colleague who was with him, the Rev. Clinton Rabb, was in critical but stable condition in a Florida hospital.

“Sam Dixon was a tireless servant of the church of Jesus Christ on behalf of all of us,” said Bishop Joel N. Martinez, interim top executive of the Board of Global Ministries, UMCOR’s parent agency. “His death is an incalculable loss to Global Ministries, UMCOR and our worldwide ministry of relief to God’s most vulnerable children. Our directors and staff extend their condolences to Sam’s wife, Cindy, their children, and their wider circle of friends and colleagues.”

Pastor and mission leader

A native of North Carolina, where he served for 24 years as a pastor, Dixon had worked at the Board of Global Ministries since 1998. He became UMCOR’s top executive in 2007, where he oversaw programs of emergency relief, long-term disaster recovery, economic development, health services and peace building.

The Rev. Tom Hazelwood, who worked closely with Dixon at the relief agency, thought of him more as a brother than a boss. “He treated me like a colleague and always valued anything I had to say. He did that for everybody.”

In fact, Dixon’s emphasis on building relationships is a model for Hazelwood’s own ministry.

“He understood better than anyone I know the value of relationships,” he explained. “Sam had lots of relationships on all levels. That’s what made him so good at what he did. He was able to bridge gaps.”

Roland Fernandes, the board’s treasurer, said Dixon enabled and encouraged others to do their very best. Dixon offered significant leadership during periods of transition at the mission agency in recent years, he added.

The Rev. Edith Gleaves, another board colleague, also knew him as a devoted husband and father to his wife, Cindy, and four daughters. As a fellow North Carolinian, they would playfully spar over football rivalries during board cabinet meetings. “He was a Carolina fan, I’m a Duke fan,” she explained.

Ecumenical leader

Longtime colleagues in ecumenical relief work said Dixon was an effective advocate for the poor and disenfranchised who went about his work with a sense of joy.

“Sam, throughout all the years that I’ve known him, was completely devoted to the work of the church and really labored tirelessly, especially on behalf of the poor and afflicted,” said the Rev. John McCullough, a United Methodist pastor who leads Church World Service. “He will truly, truly be missed.

The Rev. Ray Buchanan, who runs Stop Hunger Now, is a longtime friend and mutual clergy member of the United Methodist North Carolina Annual (regional) Conference.

“Sam was a man whose heart was as big as he was,” Buchanan said. “He was always open to new projects and to reaching out. He had a sense of ‘mission vision’ that went beyond the norm.”

UMCOR has provided support to Stop Hunger Now for various projects, including funding meal distribution in Haiti.  Buchanan said Dixon was always open to new opportunities for mission.

“He was a realist,” he added.”He knew what needed to be done and he wasn’t afraid to step out and do it.”

Roberta Evans, a North Carolina friend whose husband, Cashar Evans, was with Dixon’s family, said she knew him best as a pastor.

“He was really quite remarkable,” she recalled. “He was kind to everyone—taxi drivers, other ministers, children—it didn’t really matter. Sam saw only humanity.”

In addition to his wife and children, Dixon is survived by two grandchildren, his mother and three sisters.
 

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

 

Dear United Methodist Friends:

                   

United Methodist Communications offers the following updates on the Haiti earthquake.  With sadness, we report the passing of two United Methodists, whose families we lift up in prayer.

                    

Sam Dixon 

The Rev. Sam Dixon, top executive of UMCOR, died of injuries received after being buried in the rubble of a collapsed hotel following the earthquake.

Continue >> (http://bit.ly/8htHHJ)

                    

Volunteer Jean Arnwine

A member of a Dallas UMC mission team providing eye care to Haitians died of injuries suffered in the earthquake.

Continue >> (http://bit.ly/5KMLSE)

                   

Communications Worship Resources

United Methodist Communications offers downloadable bulletin inserts, bulletin covers, Web and worship graphics, and more.

Continue >> (http://bit.ly/6ojYBr)

                    

GBOD Worship Resources

GBOD offers hymns and prayers related to Haiti, as well as other worship materials suitable for times of crisis.

Continue >> (http://bit.ly/8aul51)

                   

Ways to Support

UMCOR continues to receive gifts online (http://bit.ly/8XRmyF), which have totaled more than $1 million so far. Checks can be made to UMCOR with "Advance #418325 Haiti Emergency" in the memo line. Checks can be put in the church's offering plate or mailed to: UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087.

Continue >> (http://bit.ly/88qDfY)

 

Updated Information

Breaking news and information appears at http://www.umc.org/haiti and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/unitedmethodistchurch.                   

 

 

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