• Helps recruit adult mentorsfor children waiting for thisspecial relationship.• Helps cover the costs of background checks of vol-unteers and insurance, whileensuring trained professionalsmatch children to caring andresponsible Big Brothers or BigSisters.
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• First UMC, Richardson,has mentors who give their timeand provides funding support.• St. Luke “Community”UMC, Dallas, has mentorswho give their time and otherswho are donors. BBBS was thechurch’s Vacation Bible Schooloutreach in 2009.• First UMC, Plano, UMMen, host an annual Golf eventand provides funding support.• Christ UMC, Plano, hasthree regional BBBS Boardmembers and also providesfunding support.• First UMC, Allen, UMMen made contributions to sup- port the organization.• Hamilton Park UMC,Dallas, has conducted severalBBBS recruitment drives, andmember Dale Long is the only person who has received the National Big Brother of theYear award and Board member of the Year award.• Church of the DiscipleUMC, DeSoto, has conductedrecruitment opportunities andsenior pastor Dr. Ouida Lee is aBig Sister.• New Beginnings ChristianFellowship, Grand Prairie, hasembraced the joint mission toreach the community and Rev.Perry Crenshaw, pastor of thisnew church start, has inquiredabout becoming a Big Brother.And, though New Beginningswill not of
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cially launch until November, it has already be-come a BBBS donor.• Highland Park UMC, Dal-las, has members on the BBBSBoard.• University Park UMC, Dal-las, has members who serve onthe Board.• WarrenUMC hasa history of supportingBBBS, and one of the church’swell known members, Dr. Thal-ia Matherson, is a Big Sister.• First UMC, Wichita Falls,has helped recruit members andin
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uenced the community inestablishing a regional of
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ce,which opened in 2009 with 60mentoring relationships.
Mentoring experience
Dr. Thomas Spann, Profes-sor of Supervised Ministry atPerkins School of Theology,SMU, and a member at St.Luke “Community” recently preached for Hamilton Park UMC’s annual Men’s Day andtalked about his mentoringexperience. He related how hesaw his Little Brother’s teach-er and guidance counselor anddiscovered the youngster hadgotten into some trouble onthe way home from school anda gunshot grazed his head.Dr. Spann continued to work with the boy, who graduatedfrom high school and went on tocollege. He sent Dr. Spann hisgraduation photo, and when the professor looked at the inscrip-tion, it said, “To my Father.”Bristow is clear that the pri-mary goal of BBBS and Amachiis to help the children, but hesees bene
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ts to the church aswell. Sincemost of thechildrenneedingmentorshave no church relationship, oneof the greatest possible gifts is tohelp that child discover a rela-tionship with Christ through thechurch. “I strongly believe themission of the United MethodistChurch; To Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transforma-tion of the world; rums parallelto the mission of Big BrothersBig Sisters,” Bristow says.
What is your agency mission?
The mission of Big BrothersBig Sisters is to enrich, encour-age and empower children toreach their highest potentialthrough safe, positive one-to-one mentoring relationships.
Why is mentoring important?
Mentoring is the act of pro-viding guidance and friendshipto someone who could use arole model for life’s choices anddecisions. By mentoring, peoplecan help others reach goals andimprove self-esteem. Whenmentoring children, volunteersoffer to help build a strong foun-
UM Men, BBBS continue Amachi partnership…
dation for youth as they grow.
How does mentoring work?
Simple. Someone volunteersto develop a relationship with ayoung person, offering supportand guidance. By spending timetogether, learning new thingsand enjoying friendship, thementor helps the young persongrow and dream.Big Brothers Big Sisters isthe largest donor-based vol-unteer network of mentors for youth, a non-pro
fi
t organiza-tion proven to help children of single, low-income and incar-cerated parents beat the odds.“Kids ask faith questionsall the time, and if four mem- bers from each church became‘Bigs,’ we could add four to
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ve percent to the member-ship,” he observed.For more information onBBBS and the Amachi of Texasmentoring program, call ToddBristow, 972-423-9559 or e-mail:
tbristow@bbbstx.org.
Also, visit website:
www.bbbstx.org.
How donations to
Big Brothers Big Sisters
are used
Approximately 30volunteers fromMethodist CharltonHospital participat-ed in “Hearts andHammers,” a one-day project heldSept. 29 to refurbishhomes of personsphysically or finan-cially unable to doso themselves. RoseSimmons of the hos-pital’s engineeringdepartment notedthat volunteers andfamily membersworked together toaccomplish theirgoals. Texas StarLandscaping, My-ers Pest Control andBlue Lines Construc-tion Inc. provideddonations, andCharlton MethodistFood Service cameout to grill lunch forall participants.Participants pictured included Mike Lowe, Bruce Kettler, Kenny Bradley,Rose Simmons, Carl Bledsoe, Rick Walker, Kandy Masters, Carlos Garcia,Greg Frost, Joe Salazar, Scott Redd; Asaf Atias, Linda Lidle, Ricardo Flores,Polo Garza, Cindy Melis, Don Allen, Nancy Hawes, Bob Hawes, Chi ChiIheanncho, Roxie Reyes, Officer Michael Campbell, Lee Kindall, LanceKettler, Abraham Sixtos, Domingo Sixtos,Joe Fox, and Chris England,all of Blue Lines Construction Inc.; Faye Nobles (homeowner), Charlotte(homeowner’s daughter), and Ron Haywood, Martha Johnson, Cyndi Aleem, and Kanokkorn Richardson, all from Food Service.
‘Hearts and Hammers’ Project helps community
Continued from Page 1A
Texas Impact, an interfaithgrassroots religious organiza-tion based in Austin, has an-nounced Rev. Kathryn Rans-dell, who served on the staff of First UMC, Dallas, until her recent move to Canada, is thewinner of its “health justicesermon” award.The contest, which ran for 12 weeks, drew sermons byclergy, lay preachers and semi-nary students from across thestate and denominations.Rev Ransdell’s sermon, preached at First UMC, Dallas,on Aug. 2 focused on the need for Christians to participate in the na-tional discussion about health carereform as part of their ongoingministry to the sick and those inneed. Citing her own challenges, paying for treatment for her illhusband, Ransdell contrasted“the prayers that Christians loveto pray for peace and healing for those who are sick,” with the needfor
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nancial peace, saying “Weneeded the kind of prayers Chris-tians don’t know how to pray.”“As our nation struggles withthe issue of health care reform,it’s especially important thatthe voices of faith communities be
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rmly grounded in theologyand scripture, and not simplyre
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ect partisan rhetoric,” saidTexas Impact executive director Bee Moorhead. “We thought the best way to model that authen-tic faithful witness would be toshowcase the re
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ections of our own wonderful Texas clergy,and wecouldn’t be happier with theresults.”“Ithink it’sabsolutelycritical for the church
Rev. Kathryn Ransdell winshealth justice sermon award
to preach the great biblical textswhich reveal God as the onewho brings justice and insists on justice among God’s people,”said contest judge Reverend BillMcElvaney, a retired UnitedMethodist pastor and professor of homiletics at Perkins Schoolof Theology, SMU.“As Christians, we must careand be part of what is happeningon a national level as policy is de-veloped for health care reform inour country. We must recognizethe fear that resides within us sothat we can allow it to be pushedout of our way so we can con-tinue doing the work Jesus callsus to do,” said Rev. Ransdell.Other contest winners includ-ed: Rev. Mary Spradlin, St. Ste- phen’s UMC, Arlington, and Fr.Jeffrey Walker, St. James Epis-copal Church, Austin; runner-up,English Language, Rev. DanDeLeon, Friends CongregationalChurch, College Station; and
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rst prize, Spanish Language,Rev. Margarita Arroyo, St. JamesEpiscopal Church, Austin.The winning sermons alongwith all the other entries are posted on YouTube.• Helps provide instructorsand instructional materialsfor professional training ses-sions provided each volunteer matched to children.• Helps BBBS professionalscreen, interview, match andmonitor the children and their mentors.
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