AU Initiative Lenten devotional guides arrive

In this 2006 photo, Africa University students select books in the library of this first fully accredited UM-related institution of higher learning on the African continent. For more information, visit the Africa University website at www.africau.edu. BY DR. JOAN GRAY LABARR Editor The "Transforming Lives/Transforming Africa" Lenten devotional guides have gone to press and should be arriving in all NTC churches by the time this issue arrives in mail boxes. These 40-day devotional guides...

Krum UMC holds 'Dare to Dream" groundbreaking

BY JOHN A. LOVELACE Special Contributor The little church that dared to dream outdid itself in 2007. And because it did, 217-member Krum UMC in the Dallas-Denton District, broke ground for its new home -- its first since 1924 -- on a blustery blue-sky Sunday, Jan. 20. Last year, early in the church's "Dare to Dream" first-ever capital funds drive, consultant Don Smith and the building committee set three goals: One they were sure of at $200,000, a challenge of $250,000 and a "very-best...

NTC deacons volunteer to pack food for needy

BY REV. MARJI BISHIR Associate Director, NTC On a sunny winter morning, deacons from all over North Texas joined together to work at the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB). The Jan. 11th event was coordinated by Rev. Jo Biggerstaff, chair of the NTC Order of Deacons. The energetic deacons worked all morning boxing food donations that will end up at one of the 400 agencies that get food from the NTFB, a nonprofit center for food distribution. Later that morning the deacons shifted to work on...

Transforming lives -just one neighbor at a time

Methodist Mission Home (MMH) in San Antonio, Texas, has been serving our churches and neighbors across Texas and New Mexico for 112 years. MMH began in 1895 when a brothel owner, Madame Volino, was led by the grace of God to transform her house into a "Rescue Mission for Wayward Girls." Today, MMH continues to transform lives by expanding its programs and services to meet the ever changing needs of our community through Family Services and the Southwest Center for Higher Independence...