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March is National Social Work Month

Weaving Threads of Resilience & Advocacy

Social Work is the profession of hope - fueled by resilience and advocacy. Social Workers matter because they help millions of struggling people every day dream differently.

Sometimes all it takes to help people get on the right path is guidance toward what is possible. Other times, Social Workers area an immediate lifeline in crisis - providing access to resources and new life options.

Celebrate Social Work Month with us by telling us why Social Work matters in your life. Please use the comments area below.

Homeless Day of Care, FUMC Victoria

submitted by Kathy Frels, RN
Wesley Nurse Health Ministries™,
Wesley Nurse, First United Methodist Church,
Victoria, Texas

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, wrote of a significant shift in his ministry in England with the phrase, “My heart was strangely warmed.” Though not a doctor, he wrote the Primitive Physick, which included many cures for diseases.  He started clinics for the poor and organized outreach excursion to minister to orphans and prisoners.

He had a social conscience and a powerful connection to addressing injustice through his ministry. The greatest success of Methodism was not among the rich in England, but the poor and impoverished.

This, too, is the vision the First United Methodist Church in Victoria adopted. We see ministry beyond the local congregation as normative and necessary. Our impact earlier this month, on February 8, 2013, was to 90 individuals that were homeless or at high risk in Victoria. This event was made possible by many local organizations along with the Homeless Coalition.

Volunteers from Prescription Assistance graciously assisted individuals with registration and provided referreals to local resources and care facilities. A delicious hot casserole breakfast, prepared under the direction of members of the First UMC, was served in Wesley Hall.

Individuals were able to sit down and visit with Pastor Jarrell and Marilyn as well as lay people from our congregation. They were able to take a shower and put on fresh clean clothes provided by FUMC Victoria and other local groups. Many received haircuts, assistance with a variety of health and human services, assistance with prescription medications, free screenings of blood glucose and blood pressure (with some referred that day to the ER for abnormal readings), transportation assistance, access to free pneumonia vaccine and mental health services.

This was the first event of this type in Victoria, and will hopefully mark the beginning of many more to come. Our vision, much like that of John Wesley, is to develop ministries which will awaken and cultivate faith in similar innovative ways.

May the Lord give us His grace and the heart of John Wesley.

A Lenton Reflection

In Lent we commemorate the journey of Jesus from Galilee where he spent the great majority of his time in ministry teaching, healing, and forming disciples to Jerusalem the religious center of Jewish life. The journey was a physical one from a place of fisherman to a cosmopolitan city. The physical journey was from 690 feet below sea level in Galilee to 800 feet below sea level in Jericho near the Dead Sea to about 2600 feet above sea level in Jerusalem. It was a physical journey of 94 miles that places physical challenges on people and is through some rugged, isolating terrain where safety can be in jeopardy.

The journey was a spiritual one from itinerant preacher in a far-off region to a challenger of the religious, social and political life of Israel in the center of Israel’s power structure. Would Jesus be one who transforms the fabric of life in Israel with power and what kind of power?

As Jesus in the period before what became Easter and has become Lent for the Christian community went through spiritual and physical transitions, we are in the midst of transitions:

• Personal – engagements, weddings, expecting babies, raising children, marital troubles, loneliness in relationships, loss of children, parents, grandparents, friends, economic pressures, unknown before us;
• Work – personal relationships, new ways of doing things, questions about the future, unknown before us; and
• Societally – social safety net versus can we afford it; conservative versus liberal; big government versus small government; individual rights versus communal rights; safety versus freedom.

Those are huge transitions and issues to deal with. The journey of Lent grounds us in being able to put some perspective as we live with those issues. It invites us to be involved in a process in 6 weeks through which we can physically change some of our world and spiritually prepare ourselves for the next beginning that God has for us.

One of my core beliefs is that God is not the God of endings but the God of beginnings. There is never an ending that happens in life with God that there is not a beginning for which God is preparing us. Lent is a proclamation of that belief. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday where we start the journey remembering who we are…we are dust and to dust we shall return. Our life in this world, in this way, is transitory. Life is always in transition. However, Lent travels to the cross and the tomb where we await the possibility of a transformed beginning…which happens at Easter!! A new beginning for which we have been prepared by our journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, from Ashes to the Light of Resurrection!

--Pastor Mickey

The 23^rd Psalm comes from the ancient tradition of Israel and reminds us that in the midst of a particularly significant journey we need to be in the presence of God. The psalm proclaims that God has promised to accompany us on that journey guiding us and keeping us safe. It is a psalm that I invite you to learn by heart and recite daily during this journey of Lent as you and I go with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, from ending to beginning, through transition to transformation.

Dianne Dorsett to join Leadership Texas Class of 2013

Dianne Dorsett, Board Liaison, has been selected to join an elite network of more than 5,000 women as a member of the Leadership Texas Class of 2013.

“Mrs. Dorsett is one of 92 outstanding women leaders competitively selected from across the state to participate in the longest-running women’s leadership development program in the US. Throughout the year-long program, she will have the opportunity to broaden her perspective on our state by exploring four Texas cities and receiving cutting-edge information from renowned experts, government officials and other leaders to positively inform her work and community for years to come,” said Candace O’Keefe-Mathis, CEO of Women’s Resources. Leadership Texas, now in its 31st consecutive year, is the flagship program of the Texas-based foundation headquartered in Dallas.

Launched in 1983 as the first statewide program for women’s leadership development, Leadership Texas is patterned after, though not affiliated with, the co-educational civic programs that have found success in a number of cities throughout the state and nation. “Our founders decided to create Leadership Texas to help women become better, more informed leaders in our state’s communities, organizations and corporations,” O’Keefe-Mathis added.

The theme for the 2013 program year is ‘The Future of Texas is Now: From Local to Global’ “Participants will visit Dallas, Bryan/College Station, Galveston and Austin where each city’s opportunities and challenges will help to illuminate the participants’ knowledge of our rapidly evolving state across three common themes– the economy, education and the environment,” O’Keefe-Mathis said.

“We consider it a privilege to offer these influential women leaders from a broad diversity of professional and personal backgrounds some new perspectives, opinions and validation on some of the issues, people and places they might not otherwise encounter outside of the program. We recognize that it is necessary for today’s successful leaders to understand the cultural, social and economic shift before us and the programming of Leadership Texas provides opportunities and access to help the women impact the future of our evolving state.”

Dianne has offered her leadership, guidance and vigor to MHM for over 17 years. It is this passion that has helped to drive and mold MHM's path to success.

We are all so proud of Dianne's accomplishment, and contribution to the community!