Friday Night Session

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A Time for Action, General Conference 2000

• A mission initiative of General Conference in
  1992 began a journey that is now the United
  Methodist Deaf and Hard of Hearing Ministries.

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A Time for Action, General Conference 2000

• Beginning with John Wesley, Methodism has a long
  history of commitment to its connection with the
  forgotten communities of our world.
• The United Methodist Churchs connection with
  Deaf, late-deafened, hard of hearing, deaf-blind
  people is a history of forgotten stories and
  forgotten people.

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Structure

• A steering committee was established with an
  assigned staff member of the General Board of
  Global Ministries
• Noemi Fuentes was our organizing staff member,
  followed by Dr. Cherian Thomas, and Niels French.
• Patricia Magyar now serves as our liaison.

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Structure

• Ten Members shall make up the Committee as
  follows

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Structure

• two Deaf (capital Dculturally Deaf)
• two late-deafened
• two hard of hearing
• one deaf-blind
• .as well as

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Structure

• one deaf institutional ministry professional
• two clergy with experience in ministry with
  people who are Deaf, late-deafened, hard of
  hearing, deaf-blind

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Structure

• The Committee strives to be inclusive with regard
  to
• gender
• ethnicity
• jurisdiction
• different sign language hearing abilities and
  various levels of deaf-blindness

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Committee Makeup

• Committee members are from
• North Central Jurisdiction
• North Eastern Jurisdiction
• South Central Jurisdiction
• Southeastern Jurisdiction
• Western Jurisdiction

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President Michelle MartinVice President
Sam CarpenterSecretary Elke Sharma
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Focus in first quadrennium

• Presentation advocacy skills
• awareness workshops at boards agencies
• Becoming resources for
• the General Church, Annual Conferences, faith
  communities, and local churches
• Grants and loan of equipment
• Creating action plans and legislation
• for Annual General Conferences
• Global Deaf Ministries (mission)

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General Conference 2004

• Voted to continue the work of the Committee into
  the current quadrennium
• Supported its work with financial backing and
  assigned staff from Board of Global Ministries,
  Health and Welfare section.
• Continues to expect great things from this
  Committee in years to come.

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Focus in 2005-2008

• Develop Web Presence
• Initiated www.umcsignsofsolidarity.org
• Leader Resources
• Developed 2 hour workshop
• Made equipment available on loan
• Petition to General Conference 2008 add staff
  person in Hard of Hearing ministry. (Did not
  pass.)

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Focus in current quadrennium

• Development of deaf pastors Youth
• Certified lay pastor process
• Communication
• Promotion of Advance
• Global Mission
• Haiti
• Other ongoing work in 13 countries

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Grants Subcommittee

• Decides criteria for grant giving based on models
  from the Board of Global Ministries
• Receives grant applications for projects and
  scholarships
• Reports findings to whole Committee for voting
• Disburses approved grants
• Keeps a record of grant recipients

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Accountability

• The Committee is accountable to
• UMCOR Health of the General Board of Global
  Ministries sharing yearly progress reports and
  evaluation.
• As an Advance, we also report to the Advance
  review committee.

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Advance Special

• Ministry with Deaf People
• Advance 982562-7
• provides opportunities for empowering Deaf,
  late-deafened, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind
  people

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Advance Special

• Projects include
• seed money for new ministries
• global outreach
• curriculum development
• internships
• Deaf and deaf-blind camps
• communication access
• scholarships

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Advance Special

• How to Give
• send a check to your local church with Advance ID
  982562-7 on the memo line
• local church will send it to your Annual
  Conference treasurer
• to use credit card call 888 252-6174
• Thats 888 252-6174

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Advance Special

• See Advance brochure to find out about
• how to give to the Advance
• how to apply for funding your project or
  scholarship needs
• qualifying persons, programs

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Advance Special

• Application forms are distributed through
• general mailings for the Advance
• available from any committee member or the Health
  and Welfare office of General Board of Global
  Ministries
• Forms may be submitted by letter, fax, or email.

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Contact Us

• Consultant to the Committee
• Wineva Hankamer
• ilycul_at_yahoo.com
• Board of Global Ministries
• Health Welfare Staff
• Patricia Magyar
• pmagyar_at_gbgm-umc.org
• Website
• www.UMCSignsofsolidarity.org