Churches get envelopes for Nov. 6 offering

Congregations across Southwest Texas should have received special Harvest Sunday offering envelopes in early October.
The envelopes, mailed early this month from the Southwest Texas Conference office in San Antonio, can be used to receive the annual conferencewide anti-hunger offering scheduled for Nov. 6—or any Sunday after that date through Dec. 31.
The Harvest Sunday offering enables Southwest Texas United Methodists to address the needs of hungry people both in the conference area and around the world. The 2004 offering brought in $26,116. That was up from $25,160 in 2003 but down from $27,789 in 2002, $28,462 in 2001 and $28,643 in 2000.
“Response to hunger is not a sprint; it is a marathon,” said Howard Hart-man, anti-hunger coordinator for the Board of Global Ministries. “As the church we are called to be in the race to address the needs of others. …
“In the Southwest Texas Conference being in the race to meet needs of others includes our participation in Harvest Sunday.”
The June 1-4 annual conference session in Corpus Christi approved four beneficiaries for the 2005 anti-hunger offering. Each is to receive 25 percent of the money collected across the conference:
> Timons Ministries in Corpus Christi. This coalition of congregations provides lunches, a food pantry, a clothes closet and a jobs program for its neighbors.
> Food pantries operated by 13 United Methodist congregations along the Texas-Mexico border. This region in the McAllen District consistently ranks as one of the poorest areas of Texas.
> Church World Service disaster recovery programs in Indonesia following the Dec. 26 tsunami. The United Methodist Committee on Relief is working with Church World Service, relief arm of the National Council of Churches, to help feed displaced survivors of the South Asian earthquake and tsunami.
> The liberation and rehabilitation program for child laborers run by the Agra Conference of the Methodist Church of India. This program provides freedom, regular schooling, health care and nutrition for youngsters who had been forced into bonded labor.
Traditionally, Hartman said, one-quarter of the Harvest Sunday proceeds goes to anti-hunger work in the McAllen District. One quarter goes to a project in one of the other six districts. One quarter goes to an ecumenical cause, and one quarter goes to a region covered by the annual United Methodist Women mission study.
The Church World Service work in Indonesia is the ecumenical cause for 2005. India is one of the places UM Women are studying this year.