Missions

Serving others is an important part of who we are at Mount Vernon United Methodist, and there is no better time to get involved! To those of you that are already active with missions, thank you for your continued support! For those of you looking to participate, keep in mind that there are numerous opportunities for mission giving, and we don't expect you to give to them all. Choose the missions that speak to your heart, or pray for guidance on which missions to support.

Thank you!

Carrie Nichols, Missions Chair

2009 Mission Offering Report

We had another generous year of giving for mission offerings in 2009. The highlights are as follows:

- $5,000 to local causes such as camp scholarships, REM greenhouse, dog rescue, local school children and Vacation Bible School.

- $11,425 to world hunger/poverty including Heifer International and the Southeast Linn Food Bank

- $672 to United States missions such as Project Crossroads and flood recovery

- $2055 to our Missionaries at Red Bird Clinic in Kentucky

- $1390 to Iowa ministries such as Justice for our Neighbors and Matthew 25 Ministry

- $441 to new parish development for Women at the Well: Mitchellville Women's Prison Ministry

- $1300 to required special offerings such as Human Relations Day, Christian Education Sunday, Peace with Justice and Disability Awareness Sunday

Our total giving is $23,357.00 for 2009 compared to $32,ooo in 2008.

Meet Our Missionaries

Photo of Sharon, Kurt (21), Joella (17), Mark (18) and Lynn Fogelman

I have been in correspondence with Sharon Fogelman, the wife of our missionary team and a Cornell graduate. She sent me the following information on her family:

Lynn (husband and fellow missionary) and I met in the Dominican Republic while we attended two separate medical schools-- I at the U of Iowa; Lynn at University of Kansas. Eventually we married six years later after residency training. At the time we were seeking God's leading in overseas missions; in September 1986 we left Waterloo, IA where we were married and went to England to train at Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham, England.

Our first son, Kurt, was born there in 1987. We went to Kenya in April 1987 and lived there (except for Home Assignments to US) for ten years. Mark (our second son) was born in North Carolina in 1989 and Joella (our Kenyan adopted daughter) came to live with us at 14 months.

In 1997, we felt God called us to return to the US and we came to Red Bird in August 1997 after speaking to churches. We are both Family Physicians and work in Red Bird Clinic, which is a rural health clinic and primary care clinic. This involves home visits to our shut-in patients and elderly as well as some educational programs at the school and in the community. If you don't know about "Box Tops for Education" and Campbell soup UPC collections, please look into those programs. They are especially helpful to the schools.

Sharon invites us to visit the Red Bird website to learn more if you are interested.

Lynn with an AIDS patient

Maua Methodist Hospital Ward when the Fogelmans were in Kenya for a 6 month sabbatical in 2004