Special Offering: Curamericas
Bolivia Senkata patients waiting
A special offering for Curamericas will be on Sunday, August 25th. Curamericas’ mission is to Partner with underserved communities to make measurable and sustainable improvements in their health and wellbeing. Curamericas grew out of the Andean Rural Health Care (Consejo de Salud Rural Andino) of Bolivia funded by Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church in the 1990s and expanded to other countries in Latin America. One of the founders, Nathan (Nat) Robison, will be attending the Sunday, August 25th, 10:30 service along with 30 of his fellow Bolivian Methodist MIssionary Kids (MKs). Jeanette Palmiter, one of the MKs, is the daughter of the late Dick and Lila Palmiter, members of FUMC, and Methodist Missionaries to Bolivia in the 1960s.
The Methodist Board of Missions sent dozens of missionaries and their families to Bolivia from 1957-1968, the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti. Many were lay missionaries, doctors, educators, agriculturists, and pastors. The Bolivian government was finally allowing the indigenous population to be educated and cared for but had no funds to do so. The Methodist mission was not to proselytize, but to “Teach a man to fish, and that will feed him for a lifetime.” The Palmiters were teachers first in La Paz, and then Dick was director of 26 rural one-room schools on the Altiplano, 14,000 feet elevation. Clinics, schools, and churches were established and are now run by Bolivians. The life expectancy of an Aymara Indian went from 35 to 50 years during those years!
Every several years there has been a reunion for those missionary families who served in Bolivia from 1957-1968, and this year, the reunion is in the Western U.S. at the Alton Collins Retreat Center. Very few of the original missionaries are with us, but their children (MKs) have carried on the reunion tradition along with donating to Curamericas and this year asking for FUMC’s offering. At the Sunday, August 25th, service the MKs will be joining us to thank FUMC and the Collins Family for their generous past contributions to missionaries, and especially the help given to fund Methodist MIssionary retirement homes and pensions. The special offering for Curamiericas will underscore FUMC’s commitment to on-going projects started by Methodists.. Te damos gracias, O Señor.
How to Give
In Worship
Join us in worship on August 25 at 8:30 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. Special envelopes will be provided in the bulletins, or use a regular giving envelope and mark “Curamiericas” in the memo line.
Online
You can give online through Church Center by clicking here.
To give on our give page. Click the Give Online Now” button, and select “Special Offering” from the drop-down menu.