Praise Seek Worship Trust Thank

Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.
Every moment, thank God.

Sometimes Seeing is Believing

Cheryl Allen leads our Diocesan Medical Mission teams in SC, and some of you may have attended her short-term mission workshop at the ECW conference at Kanuga in June. Listen to what she has to say about United Thank Offering:

"Our spring medical mission team returned tired but happy . . . we were physically tired from the actual logistics of setting up, running, and then breaking down three separate clinic sites. Ah—but happy and spiritually fed from performing work that all of us felt called to be part of! After five years our team has many Dominican friends and to see the light in their eyes when they would first see us, this made all the hard sweaty work worth it."

"While in Santiago we visited a new site. It is not only a church but also an Episcopal Church school that was able to be built because of United Thank Offering money and the work of short-term building teams. It was good to see and be able to work in a site that UTO was a part of. Somehow it helped to “complete the picture” for me . . ."

Paz en Cristo,
Cheryl

Face to Face with UTO in February

The United Thank Offering Committee announces the Annual Face to Face Meeting to be held February 4-6, 2005, in El Paso, Texas. Face to Face is an intensive weekend workshop for new Diocesan Coordinators, and this year we'll meet in sunny El Paso, Texas where Mexican and Texan cultures blend!

Join us February 4-6, 2005 from 6:00 PM Friday through Lunch on Sunday and learn practical "ways and means" for new Diocesan Coordinators, share experiences, and become more effective in your Diocese. Every new Diocesan Coordinator or future Coordinator should attend. The United Thank Offering Committee will reimburse up to $600 per Diocese for travel expense (total whether 1 or 2 persons). A reimbursement form will be provided. Your lodging, meals and materials are all provided by the Committee, and your only cost is your time. For more information, please contact Nilah W. Tripp -- Phone: 505-445-3990 or E-mail routo@zianet.com

Way to Go!

Lauren Frey, a young Episcopal Church Woman in the Diocese of Florida, and a student at Episcopal High School in Jacksonville, recently scored a perfect 1,600 on her Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Way to go!

from The Living Church, September 26, 2004

Whazzup?

In the Diocese of South Carolina, we enjoy a very active formal companion relationship with the Episcopal Church in the Dominican Republic, and in partnership with Western Louisiana and South West Florida. This includes a yearly diocesan medical mission, ongoing exchange marked by consistent visitation and partnering in ministry (from South Carolina to Dominican Republic as well as Dominican Republic to South Carolina — youth, clergy, laity, ECW and acolytes.) Parish-to-parish partnerships are emerging after friendships are formed. Also the diocese provides camp administrators, school scholarships and significant assistance with financing of structures and resources. In addition the diocese has informal relationships with Honduras, Haiti, and Northern Argentina.

Have you ever wondered what the rest of Province IV was up to?

The Diocese of Alabama began an informal relationship with Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1996, which was formalized in 1998. Part of the fruit of this partnership was the establishment of Cursillo in Sao Paulo. The Diocese of Atlanta partners with the Diocese of Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, and Central Florida has been in relationship with Honduras for more than 30 years, producing at least a dozen partnered congregations. The Diocese of Central Gulf Coast sponsors two missions to Guatemala each year, and parishes in the Diocese of East Tennessee continue informal relationships with Haiti. Since 1983, the Diocese of Florida has established about 40 companion parish relationships with Cuba and works closely with Cuban seminarians and other projects. There are some 8-10 exchange visits to Cuba each year, and Cursillo for both men and women was launched in 1999.

The Diocese of Georgia is partnering formally with the Dominican Republic while some parishes continue relationships begun with Belize. When world mission is mentioned in the Diocese of Kentucky, it means Glasgow and Galloway, Byumba, Rwanda. The Diocese of Lexington enjoys a formal companion relationship with the Diocese of Haiti.

The Diocese of Louisiana and Tohoku, Japan, have been prayer partners (informal relationship) since before World War II and continue with occasional visits. In 1999, a team from Louisiana visited in Lango, Uganda, and fund-raising in the diocese continues on behalf of Lango. The Diocese of Mississippi has had a formal relationship with Panama since 1983 which includes frequent visits by each bishop. The diocese inaugurated a Medical Mission to two sites in Panama in November 2001 and provides financial support of Girls’ Home of Panama City. In addition, the diocese has information relationships with Northern Malawi and Honduras, which includes an annual medical mission to Honduras and support of Little Roses.

The Diocese of North Carolina continues a long-standing formal relationship with Costa Rica, and South East Florida has had formal relationships with a number of dioceses in the West Indies (Bahamas, Turks, Caicos Island, and Nassau), as well as a new partnership with the Dominican Republic. The Diocese of South West Florida is very active in a formal relationship with the DR, and Tennessee works closely with Litoral, Ecuador.

In Upper South Carolina, the informal relationship with Cange, Haiti has been extended until at least 2010. The diocese provides approximately $40,000 a year to help with the hospital, medical supplies, etc.; to help education with school supplies; to maintain water system and ship other needed equipment. The diocese also sponsors four medical work trips each year and averages 200-250 operations per year. The diocese also has set up an endowment, "Partnership Cange," to provide annual payments for medicine, hospital equipment, maintenance and salaries. West Tennessee has an informal relationship with Honduras (1974) and recently concluded a six-year companion relationship with Barbados. GEM members are involved in medical/dental construction mission in Honduras.

The Diocese of Western North Carolina enjoys an informal relationship with St. John in the Transkei, South Africa; the work in the Transkei is under the auspices of the African Medical Mission, which is headquartered in the diocese and funded by contributions from many parishes; There are also informal contacts with parishes in the diocese with Haiti, Belize and Honduras.