"Go ye into all the world..."

The world is starving for Jesus Christ. We at First Church share the bread of life by mission efforts of our local congregation and through our support of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. There is a place for you in mission. We solicit your prayers, your giving and your active involvement in feeding the world!

Aldersgate Camp & Retreat Center Located in a beautiful mountain setting near Ravenna, KY, Aldersgate Camp is the Methodist camp for the Eastern portion of the Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Church. Children, teens and adults have opportunity to learn about Christ through many outdoor activities. Aldersgate hosts groups year-round and has a full summer program of camps for children and youth. Construction and maintenance assistance is always needed. Contact Lee Padgett, Camp Director, via e-mail at: aldersgate@irvineonline.net You can learn more by clicking on this link: Aldersgate Camp and Retreat Center - Ravenna, KY

John and Katheryn Heinz Missionaries to Downtown Lexington John and Katheryn Heinz are responding to God’s call to serve in downtown Lexington, KY.  They were commissioned as career missionaries with The Mission Society on September 7, 2006. They are both graduates of Asbury Theological Seminary.  Over the past several years, they have experienced the sorrows and joys of joining God in His work in urban contexts.  Lexington is a small city experiencing “big city” dynamics, including increasing diversity, complexity, social problems, and spiritual hunger.  Downtown is a mix of professionals, young bohemians, various ethnic groups, non-Christians, marginalized people, and many others.  Their ministry is to work with Lexington's First United Methodist Church to navigate the changing urban culture, and to learn how to effectively communicate the Gospel in word and deed to this culture.  John and Katheryn will guide church members into city life through community involvement, urban mission experiences, and relationships and Bible study with people from all walks of urban life.  If you would like to be a part of our support team, through financial and/or prayer support, click here to go to our webpage on The Mission Society's website for more information. You may also visit John and Katheryn's personal site at www.downtownpulse.org.

(Formerly Faith Promise) The majority of our missions funding comes through our Faith Promise program. Faith Promise is an opportunity for God to use you for missions. Through prayer, individuals ask God to impress an amount of money the He will provide for mission through them. In early March each year we have Faith Promise Sunday at which time we ask individuals to complete Faith Promise cards so we will know what God is going to do through our church in the coming year. It is important to understand that this is not a pledge. It is the individual's job to continue praying and to have faith that God will provide, in an extraordinary way, the funds for mission. Stories abound on the ways that God has seen fit to bless the faith of individuals. Unexpected funds have arrived, new business opportunities have presented themselves, expected expenses didn't materialize, and the list goes on and on. As God provides, you share those funds with the church denoted for "Faith Promise", and they are channeled through our Missions Committee to the missions you see described here. Faith Promise is a chance to get closer to Christ through faith and share Him with the world through missions!

Estonia For 50 years, starting in 1940, Estonia was occupied by Communist Russia. Ethnic, cultural and religious persecutions were wrought upon the once free peoples. During the occupation, nearly 25% of the population was deported to Siberia. All of Estonia bore great loss, but the church suffered most of all. Anti-Christian Soviet legislation systematically persecuted and closed churches. Many church leaders were martyred. On August 20, 1991 Estonia regained her independence and started the long road back to economic and religious recovery. The Methodist Baltic Mission Center, in downtown Tallinn, was built with funds from around the world and was the first church in Estonia's capital since WW II. The BMC, http://www.bmk.ee/indexenglish.html, was created as a worship center and to house the Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary, http://www.emkts.edu.ee/eng.htm. Several Asbury Seminary professors whose church home is First United Methodist have assisted at the BMTS. Other churches are being reestablished and First United Methodist is helping with the effort. We will send our third mission team to Estonia this summer. This team, made up mainly of youth, will witness to young people in Tallinn. You can be a part of this mission effort in supporting the people of Estonia, the Estonian church and our mission team with your prayers and your financial support for the upcoming trip.

Lexington Rescue Mission Lexington Rescue Mission exists to serve and glorify God through Christ-centered service that meets the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the poor and homeless in Lexington. The mission began as Jim and Becky Connell from Columbus, Indiana, felt led by the Lord to start a a ministry to the poor and homeless in the fall of 2000. Lexington was one of three communities in the region that was identified by the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions as needing a rescue mission. In April 2001, Jim left his job in Columbus and moved to Lexington to start the mission. Four months later, the mission purchased a building on North Limestone Street with the help of a generous gift from a Lexington couple. On November 21, 2001, services started with a Thanksgiving banquet at Broadway Christian Church. Since that time, the mission has fed and clothed the poor and hungry in our community. In March 2003, renovations on the Limestone Street building were completed, and the mission launched its residential recovery program for men battling drug and alcohol addictions. In addition, a Homeless Prevention Program was started to give emergency financial assistance for rent and utilities to those on the brink of homelessness. In January 2004, the mission purchased a 5,000-square-foot building in north Lexington on Glen Arvin Avenue. We received our occupancy permit in May 2005 and opened The Outreach Center. Today, the mission serves free, hot lunches to the public on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at noon, and chapel services are held preceding the weekday meals. Last year, 20,900 meals were served. The Outreach Center also offers a learning center with a computer lab and classroom, a medical clinic, employment services and counseling. These service are case-management driven, allowing us to address the needs of the whole person, and are heavily dependent on volunteers. The mission is an interdenominational Christian non-profit organization that is governed by a Board of Directors and is a member of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions.   See also www.lexingtonrescue.org

Reid and Lola Buchanan Reid, a civil engineer and graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary, and Lola, a registered nurse, are serving at the Ankaase Methodist Faith Healing Hospital in Ghana, West Africa. In response to God's call to missionary service, Reid and Lola will partner with the Ghanaian church to reach the unreached people through their ministry with the Ankaase Hospital. Reid and Lola are sponsored through The Mission Society For United Methodist.

David and Lorene Persons--Congo Dr. David Persons is a United Methodist missionary of the General Board of Global Ministries serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as dean and professor of Biblical studies and missions at the Faculte Methodiste de Theologie in Mulungwishi, Katanga. He is involved with training Congolese pastors for two annual conferences. Lorene Persons is a United Methodist missionary of the General Board of Global Ministries serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She is serving as director of the Women's School of the Faculte Methodiste Theologie in Mulungwishi, Katanga. You can learn more about David and Lorene and their mission by clicking this site: http://gbgm-umc.org/mission/people/personsd.html

Mel and Fran Noah--Brazil Melvin Noah Melvin, son of retired United Methodist missionaries Raymond and Cleo Noah, was born in Pratt, Kansas on August 12, 1944.  When he was six years old, his parents moved to Portugal where they learned Portuguese before heading to Angola, Africa where they served.  They also served in former Southern Rhodesia, present-day Zimbabwe, and Brazil before retiring to western Kansas. Melvin graduated from Asbury College in 1968 and taught two years at Bryan Station High School before he and Fran applied for missionary service with OMS International, INC (the former Oriental Missionary Society).  They first arrived in Brazil in October of 1972. Every furlough has been spent in Wilmore where he pursued two masters and a doctorate in missionology.  At present he teaches inductive Bible courses at the Londrina Seminary and also serves as OMS Field Director, Londrina Seminary Board Chairman and interim pastor of the Airport Missionary Church, the OMS-related national church. The Noahs have three grown children:  Chris, married to the former Jennifer Pike, living and teaching middle school in Louisville, KY; Neil, engaged to be married to Shauna Stewart of Kokomo, IN on June 29, a videographer for the Fayette Co. government; and Jennifer, serving a short-term in Brazil working with English evangelism. Fran Noah Fran was born in Bradenton, Florida on June 15, 1946.  She graduated from Asbury College in 1968 with a secondary education English degree.  She and Melvin were married in December 1969.  She taught two years in the US and a year and a half in Brazil where she worked with missionary kids.  Over the years in Brazil she has served in a variety of ministries:  hostess, mission secretary, mission treasurer, and in women's work.  Presently she is teaching English in the seminary language institute and together with Melvin leads the couples' ministry in their local church.

Larry and Joy McPherson--Uganda  Our main ministry is training church planters and pastors in two-three day seminars each month.  There are five locations for the seminars.  We also try monthly to visit each of the pastors in both the Soroti and Busia areas, where we are responsible.  We also meet regularly with the pastor of our first established church, which is here in the city.  We both are involved in various Christian Education activities in the local church and Larry represents the Mission on the Local Church Council.  I work with the weekly Bible Club to lead the children in games.  Each Tuesday I also work with high school girls in basketball skills.  I also am on the Community Based Health Care Management Committee and we do much counseling.

God's Pantry Food Bank God’s Pantry Food Bank, founded in 1955, is a non-profit organization based in Lexington, Kentucky, dedicated to reducing hunger, providing nutrition education, and improving the nutritional quality of food available to the hungry in central and eastern Kentucky.   God’s Pantry serves a 49-county area as an affiliate of America’s Second Harvest national food banking network. To accomplish this mission, they operate four major programs: ·        The Food Bank acts as a clearinghouse for surplus, improperly weighed, cosmetically imperfect and about-to-expire food and non-food products from donors.  These products are distributed to more than 300 private, non-profit organizations such as soup kitchens, homeless shelters, abuse centers, senior programs, day care centers, and emergency food box programs.  The Food Bank allows agencies throughout central and eastern Kentucky to get food and non-food items that they otherwise would be unable to obtain.  Last year, over 5.6 million pounds of products were distributed to agencies serving those in need. ·        Nutrition Education Programs encourage self-sufficiency among low-income parents through six-week workshops called Super Pantry (conducted throughout the service area) and one-day sessions in an on-site training kitchen.  These workshops teach participants important nutrition and life skills such as budgeting, self-esteem and job readiness.  During each session, parents prepare a meal together and receive the groceries necessary to prepare that same meal at home for their families. ·        The Emergency Food Box Program provides a week’s supply of nutritious food to an average of 900 families a month in Fayette County.  These families are referred by local social service agencies and churches and receive food boxes through a network of six neighborhood food pantries. ·        The Kids Café program is an initiative developed by America’s Second Harvest that provides free evening meals to children at risk of hunger in an environment that is safe, friendly and within their own neighborhood.  God’s Pantry currently operates six Kids Cafes at various sites throughout Lexington.  These programs are a collaborative effort involving churches, community centers, and volunteers from the community. For more information on God’s Pantry’s programs or ways that you can help, please call (859) 255-6592, or visit their website at www.godspantry.org.

Lighthouse, Tallinn, Estonia Lighthouse is a day center for children who are under-privileged, or having difficulties at home (usually with a step-parent) The center offers Love, care and attention regardless of the child's nationality (both Estonian and Russian kids are welcome) One hot meal a day Possibilities to take care of the personal hygiene Indoor activities (bible studies, art classes, English classes, computer games). In the fall there will be music lessons and a class on the Estonian language, which will help Russians integrate into the society. Field trips (museums, the zoo, etc.) Outings (picnics, grill-outs, orienteering games, treasure hunts, riding a boat, days on the beach, etc.) Friends from the Holston Conference treated us to the amusement park for the whole day in June. Sports activities (we used to rent a gym, now we are in the back yard of the building, or in the park nearby) Summer Camps (our own camp on the island of Vormsi hosted 14 kids, 13 scholarships were provided to Camp Gideon in July) On January 12, 2001 the Board of the UMC in Estonia approved the idea to found a non-profit organization affiliated with the Methodist Church. The center was founded on January 17, 2001 and Olav Pärnamets, the Superintendent of the Church was one of the founding members. Right now, our Board consists of the members of the UMC in Tallinn, both from the Estonian and the Russian church. Also our staff members come from both churches. According to the by-laws 2/3 of the Board should be Methodist. We are also subject to present our books to the Annual Conference of the UMC for auditing every year. Being affiliated with the Church provides us with the system of accountability that we enjoy. Being an independent organizations allows us to benefit from the programs offered to such organizations by the state. Visit Lighthouse