A Moment for Mission
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. —Galatians 5:22b-23, NRSV
A three-member Hope of Hearing team traveled to Haiti in September 2018 to provide the gift of hearing to children who are deaf. Gil Hanke, top executive of the General Commission on United Methodist Men, has gone to Haiti nearly every year since his first trip in 1989.
"A new material to make the custom ear molds changed how our team completed our work," Hanke said. "The children were tested one day and had hearing aids and custom molds the next. This new approach made for longer days and shorter nights, but it was a much faster way to provide the gift of hearing to Haitian children."
The team worked for three days at a school in the Port-au-Prince area, but also scheduled an "open day" to enable them to see where God might lead them to provide additional service opportunities.
"Our team was able to spend our open day at a Methodist school associated with King's Hospital in one of the poorest areas of the city," he said. They tested 323 children and a few adults and fit 61 children and one adult with hearing aids. "We also discovered some mild medical issues in a few children," Hanke continued. "Ironically, we completed this testing at the school clinic where I worked during my first visit to Haiti."
On Men's Ministry Sunday, we celebrate Hope of Hearing and other life-changing outreach of the General Commission on United Methodist Men.
—Adapted from "Hope for Hearing," Gil Hanke, UMMen magazine, 2019 Winter issue
Offertory Prayer
Loving God, thank you for giving each of us unique talents to use to your glory. Show us new ways to share hope and healing with your children everywhere. In your name, we pray. Amen.
From Discipleship Ministries: Third Sunday after Pentecost — God of the generations that have come before and have yet to arrive, you call new hearts into service every day. As we offer our gifts to you, forgive us as we confess that too often, we have held back and allowed others to do the sacrificial giving. We've told ourselves the older generation has more resources. We've told ourselves that the younger generation has more energy. Remind us in our giving that that you have placed a mantle on each of our shoulders that is the right size for us. Help us take it up and respond to your call in faithfulness. We pray in the name of our Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen. (2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14)
Newsletter Nugget
Last summer, 400 United Methodist Men engaged in "Amending Through Faith," an eight-week study designed to help men combat a male culture that treats women as sexual objects, an orientation that encourages domestic abuse.
"The curriculum has been well received throughout our United Methodist connection," said the Rev. Rick Vance, director of the Center for Men's Ministries. He encouraged congregational men's ministries to use "this material as a way to inform and prepare men in their local churches and communities to respond to an environment that supports and permits gender-based violence."
He estimated that, based on sales, 3,000 to 5,000 men are now involved in the study. "We are also doing the first college-based 'Amending Through Faith' at Trevecca University," he added.
The resources are a joint project of the General Commission on United Methodist Men and YWCA–Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
On Men's Ministry Sunday (date determined by local churches), United Methodist congregations celebrate men's ministries within and beyond their doors.
—Adapted from "Four Hundred Men Now Engaged in Eight-Week Study on Domestic Violence," August 2, 2018