News

IGRC launches new partnership in Honduras

As Illinois Great Rivers Conference launches a new mission partnership with the United Methodist Church of Honduras, seven members from throughout IGRC arrived in Honduras on Aug. 18. This is the first of future IGRC mission teams to Honduras. Those on the trip were Madonna Foster (Carrollton UMC), Gregory Gelzinnis (Alton Main Street UMC), Sharon Hicks (Stronghurst UMC), Bryan Lambdin (Springfield Douglas Ave UMC), Donna Schaad (Bloomington Wesley UMC), Ann Wagle (Danville St. James UMC)...

Camping to launch Mission Illinois

Looking for a Mission Trip where all the planning  is already done for you? Mission Illinois is designed for you!   IGRC Camping and Retreat Ministries has announced plans for the first Mission Illinois experience July 22 to 27, 2012 at Little Grassy Camp.   The week will be spent working on mission projects in southern Illinois. All of the planning is done. Youth leaders need only provide transportation to and from the mission sites and chaperones for their...

Death of Pastor's Cousin Leads St. Joseph UMC to Joplin

The Rev. Mark Harris, senior pastor of St. Joseph United Methodist Church, had made all the arrangements to take a mission team from the church to Manhattan, Kan., to do repair work on the campus of Kansas State University. And then, less than a month before the trip was planned, an EF5, multi-vortex tornado roared through Joplin, Missouri, cutting a one by six mile swath of utter destruction. The storm killed 159 people, including Sally Moulton, Rev. Harris’ first cousin. Sally was...

'It's different when you come'

MONROVIA, Liberia --  February 2006 was our first trip to consider a conference to conference partnership. Today nearly 250 people from IGRC have experienced this journey. This is God’s partnership -- not ours -- and God continues to call others to go. Being in Liberia certainly is a “risk taking mission”. Besides the physical challenges of travel on difficult roads and heat, we face the potentiality of contracting malaria and typhoid. Daily life in Liberia is a constant...

LaMoine River District, Canton Wesley works in Tubmanburg on second mission trip

MONROVIA, Liberia -- In January 2011, the LaMoine River District  completed its second mission work team to Liberia to work in Tubmanburg, a 90-minute drive northwest out of Monrovia. The A.B. Anderson UMC in Tubmanburg sits along one route to Sierra Leone and it was heavily damaged and looted several times during the war. In February 2007,  A.B. Anderson, Jr., was clear that the war devastated the town, church and parsonage, but it did not deter their hope. While standing in the...

Mission trip opportunities, UM Volunteers in Mission response

Rev. Matt Henson of Living the Adventure Ministries has made several trips to Haiti and has four trips scheduled for 2011: “On my most recent trip to Haiti, we went up to an overlook area above Port au Prince. The bird’s eye view was very moving, as our group could see the destruction and need for many workers,” Henson said. “We found ourselves pointing to tent cities, homes without roofs, and homes that were in great need of repair. The overlook gave me an opportunity...

Haiti: One Year Later

(Editor’s note: When an earthquake devastated the country of Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, mission teams throughout the United Methodist connection answered the call to go and assist in the recovery. For Champaign New Horizon UMC, sending teams to Haiti had been part of a three-year partnership prior to the earthquake. The year 2010 provided even more opportunities to serve for this IGRC congregation). The year 2010 was both difficult and wonderful New Horizon’s Haiti mission...

Beulah Holiness campers tackle Habitat projects during Mission Blitz 2010

ELDORADO — Campers from Beulah Holiness Campground are directing their mission blitz this year at Habitat For Humanity houses in Saline County. "This year we are teaming up with Habitat for Humanity, junior high, high school and college youth at the camp," said the Rev. Stephen King, pastor at Mason City and San Jose UMC's. On July 27, the blitz team worked on renovating the Habitat house in Eldorado, which was left in a state of disrepair by the previous inhabitants. The...