Day 3 News: Friday, June 18

Good work results in good news coverage

Thursday's “Stop Hunger Now” project at the North Georgia Annual Conference dominated the front page of Friday's Athens Banner-Herald. The 861-word story went into great detail about the volunteer effort at the Classic Center.

Excerpts from the Banner-Herald:
In town for the annual meeting of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, volunteers from across the state worked to package 200,000 meals for hungry children Thursday.

Sponsored with an anonymous $50,000 donation to the feeding group Stop Hunger Now, teens and adults crowded around long tables and worked in an assembly line to measure and package dehydrated meals that will go next week to feed school children in Nicaragua.

Thursday's event was the largest that the Raleigh, N.C.-based hunger relief group has hosted in Georgia in its 12-year history. Smaller events at churches and Rotary clubs with around 40 volunteers have sent 10,000 meals to schools and disaster areas across the world. Stop Hunger Now plans to open an Atlanta facility by summer's end that will help local groups raise the money for the packaged meals.

To read the full story and view the photo gallery, go to: www.onlineathens.com/stories/061810/new_655630573.shtml

SESSION FIVE

Wesley Woods
Wesley Woods Senior Living serves over 1500 older adults in seven retirement communities each year and 75 percent of whom receive financial assistance. The annual Mother's Day offering enables moderate and low income older adults to live in one of the suppported retirement community environments. For more information to to: www.wesleywoodsinc.org.

Commission on Higher Education
"God is doing extraordinary things through our colleges and Wesley Foundations," said Cindy Autry, director of the Georgia Commission on Higher Education. Students from Paine College, LaGrange College and the University of Georgia Wesley Foundation addressed conference along with Leigh Martin, Campus Minister at Reinhardt University, who asked members of the North Georgia local churches to help in two ways: to tell the Campus Minister or which students are coming. Tell your student about us.

The Advance
Amanda Mountain, mission specialist with The Advance and the General Board of Global Ministries. The Advance is the designated-giving arm of The United Methodist Church. Highlights included:


Camp Glisson and the Camp and Retreat Ministry Task Force
Director of Camp Glisson, Russell Davis, greeted the conference on behalf of the campers and staff of Camp Glisson. Highlights from the report included:


Connectional Cafe
The Office of Connectional Ministries is launching a new model of training for the Conference. In the coming year training will be geared twoard smaller audiences. Churches, individuals and districts will be served according to needs. Connectional Ministries is committed to recruiting extraordinary faculty. 

Office of Communications
The Conference Office of Communications encourages you to connect, be informed, and be inspired by:


North Georgia Advocate
Advocate editor Glenn Hannigan encouraged each conference delegate to subscribe to the paper. For just $25 per year (or $23 for people over 65) receive the Advocate twice a month along with the denominational newspaper the United Methodist Reporter. For more information and to subscribe, visit www.ngumc.org/advocate.

United Methodist Women
"Faith, hope and love in action" is the focus of the Conference UMW. Their work this year has included advocacy, mission trips and work days, serving, educating and offering creative fellowship opportunities. This spring more than 140 North Georgia women travelled to the United Methodist Women's assembly in St. Louis, Missouri. For more information on the UMW, visit www.ngumw.org.

Action Ministries
This year volunteers gave 50,000 hours of volunteer service through the programs of Action Ministries. In addition, the agency held its first conference-wide special offering. Mark your calendars for this year's Action Ministries special offering in November 2011. For more information on Action Ministries, visit www.actionministries.net.

United Methodist Children's Home
The North Georgia UM Children's Home seeks to give children a feeling of permanancy they may never have felt before. They ask local churches to reach out to the children by becoming Big Brothers, Big Sisters, volunteering, or writing a check. For more information on the Children's Home, visit www.umchildrenshome.org.

Aldersgate Homes
As part of its report, Aldersgate Homes named the first-ever Warm Heart Award recipient to Ken Lowery, a devoted long-time volunteer.

United Methodist Men
Jasper Russell, president of UMM invited Men of the conference to become involved in their local church UMM or to charter a UMMen group at their church. United Methodist Men focus on spiritual growth, service, disaster response. Mark your calendars fo the UMM night at the Atlanta Braves on August 28 and for the Annual Men's Retreat at Rock Eagle September 24-26.

New Church Development
Tommy Willingham, director of New Church Development invited every congregation to get on board to help start and support new church plants in North Georgia. Highlights included:


Denman Evangelism Award Recipients
Youth: Caitlin McKenzie
Laity: Henry Fuller
Clergy: Sharma Lewis
 
District Denman Award Winners 


Churches of Excellence in Outreach
 


Churches Recognized by UMCOR for Outstanding Ministry to Refugees


Mission Offering Update
The current total given to the Conference Mission Offering for CCPI is $121,600. 

SESSION SIX

Conference Committee on Youth Ministry
New Conference Youth leadership was recently elected. The new president will be Christian Higgins and new Vice President will be Asia Howard. Highlights of the report included:
 


Conference Young Adult Ministry
 
Resolutions
Members of the North Georgia Annual Conference adopted four resolutions, 701. COSROW Resolution, 702. Resolution on Program Coordinator for Creation Care, 703. Resolution to Establish an Annual Day for Men Within The North Georgia Conference, 704. Resolution Relating to Rental/Housing Allowance for Retired or Disabled Clergypersons of the North Georgia Annual Conference. The resolutions are found on pages 140-146 of the Handbook.

Please note: Any member of a United Methodist Church may submit a petition to General Conference 2012. Petitions are submited through the Conference Committee on Resolutions in accordance with Paragraph 507 of the Book of Discipline.