News in brief

Southwest Texas giving for tsunami tops $104,000
Some Souper Bowl funds to aid tsunami survivors
Gridiron Warriors to sign names at La Vernia church
Board seeks nominees for outstanding teacher award
UM magazine features Corpus Christi church
Austin church plays host to Feb. 18-19 workshop
Early signup deadline nears for secretary’s conference
14 attend outreach classes on watercolor painting
Gifts to UM tsunami relief surpass $4 million mark
UM executive urges care in giving money online
Methodists across Europe respond to Asian disaster
Houston UM pastor prays during Bush inaugural
Former chief chaplain, 99, dies Jan. 7 in Maryland
Huston-Tillotson College establishes science chair
Online communities link Christians in cyberspace
Opportunities

Southwest Texas giving for tsunami tops $104,000
Gifts from Southwest Texas UMs to South Asian tsunami relief topped $104,000 Jan. 19. And checks were still coming in from individuals and congregations.
That was the word from the Rev. David Seilheimer, Southwest Texas Conference treasurer.
Of the total, $13,493 were contributed during December, Seilheimer said. The rest has come in during January.
“Of particular note is the offering from Bruni UMC,” he said. “It has given $10,000 to this cause.”

Some Souper Bowl funds to aid tsunami survivors
Many church youth groups are using Souper Bowl Sunday Feb. 6 to help victims of the South Asia earthquake and tsunami.
That was the word last week from national organizers of the annual anti-hunger collection. It is received on the same day as the National Football League’s Super Bowl.
Teens in churches across the country—including many UM congregations—collect $1 donations in large soup cans before and after worship services. They then donate the money to any charity of their choice.
In 2004, some 12,750 church youth groups raised nearly $4.3 million for soup kitchens, food banks and other helping ministries in all 50 states and five other countries.

Gridiron Warriors to sign names at La Vernia church
Football fans can get autographs from San Antonio Warriors Saturday at La Vernia UMC.
Players from the Texas United Football League championship team are to sign their names from 2 to 3:45 p.m. in the family life center.
The Warriors are to face the South Texas Heat in a preseason game at 7 p.m. in the La Vernia High School stadium. That’s across the street from the church.
Established in 2004, the Warriors went 15-0 in their inaugural season. They won the Texas United Football championship, the Southern Conference championship and the Central Division championship. The Warriors were named Western Region minor league football team of the year in 2004.

Board seeks nominees for outstanding teacher award
The Board of Church and Society is seeking nominations for its 2005 Outstanding Public Educator Award.
The honor is to be presented during the June 1-4 annual conference session in Corpus Christi. Nomination deadline is March 3.
The award recognizes active UMs who have been teachers of poor or at-risk students for at least 10 years.
The winner receives an expense-paid trip to Corpus Christi to receive the honor. The winner’s school receives a $200 contribution.

UM magazine features Corpus Christi church
The January issue of Interpreter features a report about Grace UMC, Corpus Christi.
An item in the “It worked for us” section reports on how the 1,000-member congregation uses weekly prayer notes to encourage members of the congregation and their friends.
Interpreter is the UMC’s official program journal. It is published eight times a year.

Austin church plays host to Feb. 18-19 workshop
Bethany UMC, Austin, is playing host to a two-day praise guitar workshop next month.
John Standefer is to lead the Feb. 18 and 19 sessions. Hours Feb. 18 are 7 to 10 p.m. Feb. 19 times are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Standefer is to give a free public concert at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 at Bethany.
For more information contact Janet Duke at (512) 426-8344 or janetduke@austin.rr. com.

Early signup deadline nears for secretary’s conference
March 16 is the early registration deadline for the 23rd annual Professional Association of UM Church Secretaries national conference.
The session is scheduled for April 14-16 in Albuquerque, N.M. The program includes sessions on crisis communication and the Igniting Ministry hospitality and public image campaign. A mission project is planned at UM-related McCurdy School.
For more information contact Cindy Myers, First UMC, New Braunfels, (830) 629-1553 or fumcnb@satx.rr.com.

14 attend outreach classes on watercolor painting
Fourteen Nixon-area residents attended a community-outreach series of watercolor classes last fall at First UMC.
Ivan McDougal, a member of Oak Meadow UMC, San Antonio, led one of the sessions.
McDougal has won more than 50 national watercolor awards. He has paintings in the permanent collection at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio and is past president of the Texas Watercolor Society.

Gifts to UM tsunami relief surpass $4 million mark
NEW YORK—Contributions to the UM Committee on Relief for Asian tsunami assistance passed $4 million during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
“We are still opening checks,” said Roland Fernandes, treasurer of the UM mission board, the relief committee’s parent organization.
The $4 million figure includes primarily contributions from telephone and online credit-card donations and checks sent directly to the relief committee.
Fernandes said the figure by no means reflects all the money given through local church collections and forwarded through denominational channels.

UM executive urges care in giving money online
NEW YORK—Online giving came of age for the UM Committee on Relief and for many in the church following the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster.
More than a fourth of the $2 million given to the committee in the first two weeks of the relief efforts came from online credit card gifts.
“Online giving is extremely safe, but there are a few ways in which scam artists can mess up an occasional transaction,” said Glenda Survance, director of information services at the United Methodist mission board. “So we have developed a short list of precautions that donors to UMCOR should follow.”
Use only Web sites that donors know are reliable, Survance advised. Do not use a charitable link sent in an e-mail.
The four addresses for UM gifts are: methodistrelief.org, umc.org, umcor.org and gbgm-umc.org.

Methodists across Europe respond to Asian disaster
LONDON— Horrified by what they saw and heard of the destruction wrought by tsunamis in South Asia, Methodists across Europe have lined up to help in whatever way they can.
Lithuanian UMs collected a special offering that will go to the UM Committee on Relief’s tsunami response.
Slovakian UMs are collecting donations all during January.
In the Czech Republic, where UMs remember the devastating effects of recent floods in their own country, congregations have organized a national appeal.
The story is similar in Switzerland, Germany and other parts of Europe.
A congregation in the north of England is filling and shipping plastic crates called “aquaboxes.” They contain water purification and filter equipment.
An elderly Irish Methodist couple donated their government winter fuel subsidy to those they believe have more need of the money.

Houston UM pastor prays during Bush inaugural
WASHINGTON—The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell asked for God’s blessing on President Bush’s family and administration during the Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony.
As he did in Bush’s first inaugural ceremony in 2001, Caldwell, senior pastor of Windsor Village UMC, Houston, gave the benediction after the president’s address.
After the prayer, Bush, a UM, embraced Caldwell.

UM finance agency buys office building in Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The UM finance agency has closed on the $2.8 million purchase of a building previously occupied by RCA.
The General Council on Finance and Administration is to have its new, consolidated headquarters at 1 Music Circle North. The offices are 27,000 square feet on two floors —about the same amount of space the agency now occupies in its Evanston, Ill., headquarters and Nashville branch.
Built in 1990, the building is to be renovated before staffers move in this summer.

Former chief chaplain, 99, dies Jan. 7 in Maryland
WASHINGTON—The Rev. John R. McLaughlin, 99, died Jan. 7 at Asbury Methodist Village, Gaithersburg, Md. He was top executive of the Commission on Chaplains in the 1950s and ’60s.
The commission was an independent Methodist agency under his tenure. The office was moved to Nashville, Tenn., in 1980 under the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
Before being named to the commission, he served as a pastor and district superintendent in the Greater New Jersey Conference and was a retired Navy chaplain.

Huston-Tillotson College establishes science chair
AUSTIN—UM-related Huston-Tillotson College has established the Kevin Rollins Science Chair.
The chair is supported by an initial $50,000 contribution from Kevin Rollins, Dell Inc. chief executive.

Online communities link Christians in cyberspace
TIPP CITY, Ohio—A U.S. soldier in Iraq watches sermons on live streaming video. A woman isolated by her chemotherapy draws strength from daily e-mails. And members of a Minnesota church use technology to stay in touch while wintering in Florida.
All three are examples of Web ministry through online church communities.
“It’s really a way of ministering beyond the walls of your church—a way of reaching more people than we reach in church on Sunday,” said Mark Stephenson, director of cyber ministry and technology at Ginghamsburg UMC in Tipp City.

Opportunities
Covenant UMC, Austin, seeks a full-time children’s ministry leader. Administrative skills, teaching and people skills are essential. Experience and degree in related area preferred. Contact the Rev. Dick West, (512) 346-3124.
First UMC, Burnet, seeks full-time director of youth and Christian education. Contact (512) 756-2229 or bfumc@tstar.net.
First UMC, La Grange, seeks full-time program/youth director. Duties include coordinating program committees and organizing activities for some 40 youths. Responsibilities could be divided into two part-time positions. Contact the Rev. Suzanne Steves, (979) 968-8322 or fumcsecretary@verizon.net.
First UMC, Smithville, seeks full-time youth director. Responsibilities include planning and coordinating activities for young people in grades 6 through 12, developing and working with parents’ advisory group, and participating in community activities affecting youths.
The South Central Jurisdiction, Dallas, seeks quarter-time director of mission and administration. Application deadline is Jan. 31. Person is primary mission officer for the eight-state jurisdiction. Contact Dalila Cruz, dcruiz1114@sbcglobal.net or (210) 364-8953.
House of Hope in Honduras needs an electrical transformer (25 Kva for 24.5 Kv 120/240v). Contact Tom Brian, First UMC, Allen, atbdds@yahoo.com.

Submit Opportunities announcements to umcenter@umcswtx.org (subject: Opportunities) or fax information to (210) 408-4515. Announcements run free and are edited to follow a standard format.