“Thank you!” to all the churches and individuals who brought food
and blankets to the In-gathering at Kansas West Conference in Salina! We appreciate
your generosity in supplying our Food Banks for a busy summer. We’re also
grateful for Conference support of the One Field, One Round Project. This project
will support food ministries of Urban Ministries and Mexican-American Ministries
plus the hot lunch program in Haiti. We are grateful to the Hunger Committee,
Commission on Global Ministries, and to many individuals who take seriously
Christ’s command to “feed the hungry.”
The Inmate Clothing Project, coordinated by Bob Strevey, Norcatur, carries out
another of the Lord’s commands: “clothing the naked.” Inmates
sort, repair, clean, and box donated clothing for use by MAM and other ministries.
Delivery costs are partially supported by selling hand-loomed rugs. I have one
of the colorful rugs in my home, and I imagine many of you would also enjoy
one.
We were thrilled to receive the 2005 Janet Sevier Gilbreath Special Recognition
Project of the Year award presented by United Methodist Health Ministry Fund
for our Lifetime Smiles Oral Health program. The program was chosen from 164
grant projects funded by UMHMF. Lifetime Smiles screens about 9,000 area school
children each year for dental disease and assists many of the children in getting
needed treatment. Consuelo Sandoval and Cruzie Corpus are instrumental in the
project’s success.
Arturo Ponce, Coordinator for HIV/AIDS projects, received the 2006 Grand Community
Champion Award from the Office of Minority Health for his excellence in outreach
and education. Mia Korbelik, Director of Development, has been named to the
Sterling College Board of Trustees. We are delighted that staff members are
appreciated and recognized for their outstanding work.
Jennifer Ebersole, ARNP, has begun seeing patients through our Liberal Clinic.
We are happy to have her on staff. We look forward to the arrival of Dr.Jorge
Guillen and his family later in the summer. Dr. Guillen will be seeing patients
at the Dodge City Clinic.
Our prayers and best wishes for a wonderful summer!
With love,
Penney Schwab
Executive Director
Nancy and Jorge and their three children Tony (7) Eduardo (5)
and Natalia (4) love to come to United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries.
They say they can feel Christ’s love when they walk in the door. Dad applied
for Mom to get her legal papers in 1998 and her time on immigration’s
waiting list was up in June 2005. Mom and the children had entered legally but
they still had to wait “their turn.”
It was with great excitement and anticipation that they filed all the remaining
necessary paperwork and made a payment of over $1200.00 in immigration and medical
fees to the United States government.
Nancy and Jorge kept busy learning English and working. They went to a series
of fingerprint and interview appointments before they went to their final interview
with an immigration official. The official was so impressed by their English
skills and work ethic, he immediately told them the good news. Everything was
in order. They would be receiving proof of their permanent legal status soon.
Two weeks later they got their Legal Permanent resident cards in the mail!!!!!
They came to show them to us immediately. UMMAM staff had been there for them
at different important times in their lives: Immunizations, doctor visits, Christmas
parties, parenting classes, and other general community information. But they
say the most important thing they credit us with is bringing them Christ’s
word. When they moved to Garden City they were given their first Bible by persons
on our staff, their children have attended our Bible school and this year will
be going to multi-ethnic Bible camp. They are the model Christian family contributing
and following God’s law. AND all the credit goes to the supporters of
our fine United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries.
With God’s Love
Consuelo Sandoval
Community Developer, Garden City
The month of May was especially busy for us. We assisted many of our senior
clients to enroll in their Medicare Part D plan. This was new to us and at times
very confusing. Most of our clients were not familiar with the plan and had
many questions about this new prescription drug program. Not all of our clients
that we helped enroll were Spanish speaking. Some were individuals who needed
help understanding and comparing plans. It was very fulfilling for me to be
able to help our senior clients enroll in this program. We hardly ever mention
our elderly clients, but they are just as important to us as any other individual
who walks through our doors.
Don Manuel is another one of our senior clients who lost his wife in a terrible
car accident in Oklahoma. He was entitled to an insurance settlement and had
no one to advise him on his case. After a few phone calls, we were able to get
him a legal representative to look into his case. Aside from his financial difficulties
and family loss, his grown children are still dealing with legal matters and
the family is under a lot of stress. We could see that Don Manuel was going
though a very hard time and had some degree of depression. We will continue
to assist him as much as we can. In the mean time, please keep him your prayers.
Elva Dominquez
Community Developer,
Dodge City
Summer is here and our children are at home. We always see a change in our
Care Center because most of the year our office is quiet but when vacation time
is here, we see many children running in and out, going directly to the toy
box looking for something. The children are happy when they get a nice toy.
Some of them cry, laugh and even scream. Our summer camp is coming up and we
have youngsters who can’t wait for the day to come. Some of them attended
last year and they had a wonderful experience, they loved the many activities
we offered them. Please pray for our kids and teams on our next camping day.
We continue supporting our community, every day we have more people looking
for help with food and kids’ clothing, especially during this vacation
time. We are in great need of children’s clothing and food. Please continue
to support us in our ministries. God will bless you.
Due to the recent immigration debate in our nation, our office is busy with
people looking for information about this controversial issue.
Our best wishes for a great summer vacation.
God Bless You,
Dora Ponce
Community Developer, Liberal
Greetings from Jose:
And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap
a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up. That’s
why whenever we can we should always be kind to everyone, and especially to
our Christian brothers. Galatians 6:9-10.
I want to thank all the churches that brought food to Salina for Urban Ministries
and our Mexican American Ministries. The food we received is distributed to
the hungry people in Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal, Satanta, Ulysses, and
Johnson in western Kansas.
This year we had some special help in bringing the food to our centers. This was the first year that the Grant County Road and Bridge department brought a pick up and trailer and delivered our food to Dodge City and Ulysses. John Duran works for Grant County and he also coordinates the delivery of our USDA commodities. He brings our food from Garden City to Ulysses to distribute.
We are most grateful to John Milburn, Harlan Rittgers, Barbara Olivas, and Don Schwab for helping to load the food onto the trailer. God bless you all for selflessly helping others.
Jose Olivas
Community Developer, Ulysses, Satanta & Johnson
As the middle of the summer arrives I think that sometimes we get hot and tired
and don’t really want to be very active. Or we just plan to be away from
home a lot. Summer is a time when collection plates at worship are a lighter
than during the rest of the year.
We see this same phenomenon at United Methodist Mexican American Ministries.
Our gifts of food and clothing seem to slow down in the summer. And yet kids
aren’t in school and they don’t always receive a meal at noon. Summer
is when lots of our families need a little extra food.
If you are one of those persons who was blessed with a green thumb and have
a vegetable garden, please share the bounty of your harvest with MAM or any
food pantry in your area. It is such a blessing when people share the bounty
of God’s harvest with MAM. It is the only time of the year that MAM is
able to supply fresh fruits and vegetables to our clients. Please continue to
support MAM through your prayers, your gifts of food, and your many acts of
kindness to our clients and our staff.
Mia S. Korbelik
Director of Development