News

IGRC zeroes in on INM fundraising goal

SPRINGFIELD -- United Methodists in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference are closing in on its $2.3 million fundraising goal to Imagine No Malaria. As of Jan. 10, the IGRC was just over $24,000 of its goal with pledges and donations totalling $2,275,973.  This included nearly $1.5 million in one-time donations. A strong push in the month of December generated gifts of $103,000 that flowed through the Conference office and was remitted to the Imagine No Malaria office in...

Jacksonville Grace UMC addressing homeless problem

JACKSONVILLE – It all began with a sermon, a YouTube video and God’s timing. Mike Fender, pastor of Jacksonville Grace UMC, said a sermon on baptismal vows in which members of the congregation were challenged to live out in mission what it means to be support the church with their prayers, presence, gifts and witness.   The following Sunday, while preaching on the text from John in which Jesus is calling his disciples, Fender shared the viral video of Ted Williams, the...

Canteen Run offers help to some of Champaign-Urbana's neediest

CHAMPAIGN – It's about 8:30 p.m. After two hours mainly spent outside in frigid temperatures, volunteers are ready to call it a night. The Salvation Army truck they use has just pulled back into the thrift store parking lot on North Market Street when volunteer driver Dan Davies, 56, gets a cell phone call from a Champaign police officer, saying that a 61-year-old woman needs food. As the truck makes a U-turn for the 2-mile trek south, volunteer Karen Krusa fills three bags with food for...

Springfield Woodside UMC gets vision for reaching poor, needy

“It seems people don’t necessarily remember what they are told of God’s love, but they never forget what they have experienced of God’s love.” (Sjogren, 29) SPRINGFIELD -- Many of our local churches have become invisible to the communities in which they reside.   Woodside UMC, located in the Laketown area of Springfield, was once the center of civic activity in the community. Woodside listed 999 members on its rolls 40 years ago. Today, it lists less than...

Shelter Director a Tireless Advocate for Homeless

  JACKSONVILLE – Homeless advocate Vanessa Tyus understands the needs of her clients who frequent the new Comfort Center housed inside Jacksonville Grace UMC. As a homeless advocate for Helping Hands ministry in Springfield, Tyus returned to Jacksonville to help her community to begin addressing the homeless situation in the greater Morgan County area.   “I started seeing persons from Jacksonville coming to Springfield because there were no services,” Tyus said....

Granite City Gains a Vision for Feeding the Hungry

GRANITE CITY – A vision for caring for a community’s hunger during the summer by providing them a free lunch has become a partnership of church, the school district and several government entities that is growing and meeting the needs by taking ministry to them. Granite City Trinity UMC has embraced such a vision of feeding children during the summer. The congregation, which had been a student pastorate until returning to full-time status in 2009, the congregation began to see...

Illinois Poverty Levels Continue to Surge Upward, New Data Shows

Some depressing statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau Sept. 13 show that Illinois is currently home to more poor people than was the case nearly two decades ago. As the Chicago Sun-Times reports, more than 1.82 million people lived at or below the poverty level in Illinois last year compared to 1.69 million the year before -- percentage-wise, that's an increase of 14.1 percent from 13.2 percent in 2009.   While Illinois' poverty rate is high, it is still lower than the...

2010 Report on Illinois Poverty

People who had the least to start with before the recession were hit first, hit hardest, and will regain lost ground slowest, according to the 2010 Report on Illinois Poverty. Workers in the lowest income group in Illinois had a 1930’s-like unemployment rate of 27.0 percent in the 4th quarter of 2009 while Illinois’ overall unemployment rate was 10.2percent. More than 1.5 million Illinoisans, 12.2 percent of the state’s population, were living in poverty in 2008. An...