hearts. Since all of them wanted to be picked up and held, I was grateful we were able to escape for the evening to recover sore muscles! Eagles Nest Orphanage (the intake or-phanage) was also pre-dominately younger chil-dren. The children greeted us with their smiles and love. Our final orphanage to visit was the Bakchar Orphanage. This orphan-age was the first “partner” orphanage that the Texas Conference adopted back in 1995. What an amazing

(Continued on page 2)

During the summer, two teams of Marvin members ministered in Tomsk, Sibe-ria. One team went three weeks early for camping trips and then joined the main team that came in for two weeks to work in or-phanages and do renova-tions at Tomsk UMC.

The following report comes from George Brig-man, team leader and chair of the Texas Conference Russia Initiative:

One of the great joys this year was to work with children from four orphan-ages. At Orphanage No.

Four, we worked with young teenagers. This was “home base” for our team,

so we had lots of interac-tion time, especially in the evenings. Many games of Skip-Bo were played! The preschool children at Or-phanage One captured our

A few spots are left on our six-day mission trip to the UMCOR Depot in Bald-win, Louisiana, from Oct. 17-22 (Sunday-Friday). Our team will work in the 48,000-square-foot ware-

house receiving, sorting, packing and shipping sup-plies for disaster relief around the world. The cost for this trip is $300 if you want to ride on the church people mover or

$235 if you want to take your own vehicle. For more information or to sign up, contact Melissa Brigman (mbrigman@marvinumc. com) in the Missions office.

Claire Brown and kids

To Russia with love

UMCOR mission trip

HEARTS AND HANDS V O L U M E 2 I S S U E 8 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Missions Fair 2

Treasure Sale 2

Military Care 3

Mercy Ships 3

Communion

Gifts 4

PATH Week 4

F I N D O U T

M O R E

For more in-

formation

about any-

thing you see

in this news-

letter, visit the

Missions pages

on Marvin’s

web site

(www.mumc

family.org/

ministry/

missions).

A N E W S L E T T E R

A B O U T M I S S I O N S

A T M A R V I N

U N I T E D M E T H O D I S T

C H U R C H

P A G E 2

I could use a little

something to go

here—some short

story??

Russia

Mercy Ships treasure sale

Missions fair S U N D A Y , O C T . 3

9 : 3 0 A . M . –

1 2 : 3 0 P . M .

F A I R G Y M

Come and see more than 30 displays from Marvin mission partners!

Come and shop at the

Russia Christmas Market (benefitting the Russia Children’s Hope Fund) or at Sam Duree’s Bird-house Booth (benefitting the Methodist Seminary in Cote d’Ivoire)!

Come and learn how you

can be involved in serv-ing and outreach, here and around the world!

Come and enjoy snacks, fellowship and fun! Bring your family, friends and Sunday School classes!

by the Three Strands Circle of the UMW with all proceeds going to Mercy Ships. Collection days will be Thursday, Oct. 28, and Friday, Oct, 29. We are looking for gently used items and

S A T U R D A Y ,

O C T . 3 0

8 A . M . – 4 P . M .

I N P I R T L E

H A L L

This church-wide rum-mage sale is sponsored

real “treasures” that you are ready to share with others—clothing, cloth-ing, household items, books, toys and games, furniture, shoes, jewelry, etc! Watch for more details!

worked on Tomsk UMC. The building is nearing completion. The church has dedicated itself to increasing its presence in the community. Tomsk UMC requests our prayers for their evangel-ism outreach and for protection from reaction from the government. The church has begun a new ministry for men battling alcoholism which is a major problem in Russia.

Marvin Church has been involved in Russia out-reach since 1996. We have truly witnessed the impact of our ministry on the lives of children, on the quality of care received through the orphanages and on the development and growth of Tomsk UMC! Thank you for your continued prayers and your support of the Russia Children’s Hope Fund!

change has taken place, thanks in part to the Texas Conference! A former prison was trans-formed into a children’s home where the children are thriving. Rev. Yelena Chudinova, pastor of Tomsk UMC, helped us deliver the message of Christ’s love to these children.

This trip was also about change. The Marvin Menders on our team

(Continued from page 1)

H E A R T S A N D H A N D S

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 2 I S S U E 8

plastic and obstetric. Mercy Ships also trained about 450 Togolese to help increase the country’s capabilities in vision, dentistry, mental health, agriculture and mi-crofinance.

M E E T C H A R L I E

W A T E R S

Hey you, Dallas Cowboys fans! Charlie Waters will be coming to Tyler in the fall to help us do a fundraiser for Mercy Ships. Be watching for information about this op-portunity for you and your family to meet and hear this Cowboys legend.

H E A R A B O U T A F R I C A

Also be watching for the date and time for a dinner where Dr. John Robbins, Dr. Doug Baker, Melissa Brigman and Donna Bowers will

By the time you are reading this update, Mercy Ships will have completed its 2010 field service in Togo, Africa, and Africa Mercy will be sailing to South Africa for several months of ship refurbishing. Following the completion of this much needed work, Af-rica Mercy will return to the sub-Saharan peninsula and Sierra Leone where the ship will be for 2011.

The life-changing impact that Mercy Ships had in Togo is truly amazing. More than 42,000 medical procedures were performed during the seven months in Togo. About 26,000 of these pro-cedures were vision related. Almost 14,000 were dental related. The balance was other surgeries including orthopedic, maxillofacial,

share their experiences from their May trip to Togo.

E V E N T S

The fall will also be busy with other Mercy Ships fundraising events including a Mercy Ships Treasure Sale on Oct. 30 and the famous All Things Chocolate Bake Sale at a date soon to be set. And don’t miss the Mercy Ships booth at the Missions Fair on Oct. 3.

W E N E E D Y O U

We need everyone’s help in order to meet our 2010 goal of $50,000 to support Mercy Ships. We currently stand at about $17,500. Now is the perfect time to make gift to Marvin for Mercy Ships in honor of someone.

Mercy Ships

Members of the Marvin Mili-tary Care Committee and Children’s Sizzlin’ Summer Missions assembled more than 50 care packages to send to our men and women serving overseas. Thanks to everyone for their material donations, cards and prayers! Our next mailing will be during the holidays. If you have names to add to the mailing list, contact Marty Fazand (mfazand@suddenlink.net).

DIRECT OR

OF MISS IONS:

MELISSA BRIGMAN

MBRIGM AN@

MARVINUMC.CO M

903.592.7396

Bits and pieces Communion offering

The September Communion offering will be used for Marvin’s NOAH Ministry Fund. Our church helps families and individuals with emergency needs such as transportation, housing, utility and medical expenses. Your gifts to the NOAH Fund echo the words of Jesus, “What you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.” Thank you, mission hearts!

PATH Week—Faith in our Future

Sunday, Sept. 12 | Pick up your PATH sign at Marvin UMC

Tuesday, Sept. 14 | Prayer Luncheon, noon at Green Acres Baptist Church, free, call PATH (903.597.4044) to make your reservation

Wednesday, Sept. 15 | Dine Out for PATH, participating restaurants will donate a portion of their evening proceeds. Go to www.pathhelps.org for the complete list.

Thursday, Sept. 16 | PATH 25th Anniversary Dinner, 6:30 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, tickets are $50, call PATH (903.597.4044) to make your reservation We’re on the Web!

www.mumcfamily. com/ministry/

missions

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