In the wake of the massive earthquake in Southern Turkey and Northern Syria on February 6, the Wesley Missions Ministry Team has designated Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as our March mission project.

This earthquake further compounded an already existing crisis for the people in northern Syria who have had to deal with displacement due to 12 years of civil war, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a recent cholera outbreak. Now, people have been left homeless in freezing weather, trying to cope not only with physical injuries but also with major psychological trauma. And prior to the earthquake, 2.8 million people already were living in displacement camps.

Because they already had a presence in that region, MSF teams were able to begin treating patients within the first hours after the earthquake struck. In addition to care provided in MSF-supported hospitals and clinics, MSF is aiding over 30 hospitals in the region through donations of emergency, trauma and surgical kits; medical supplies and laboratory equipment; oxygen producing equipment; blankets and mattresses; and heating equipment. They have launched mobile clinics and sent staff from MSF-supported hospitals to other hospitals, along with efforts to address significant mental health needs.

If you wish to help support the relief efforts of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, you may place your check written to Wesley UMC, with the memo line marked Doctors MSF, in the offering basket using a blue envelope.  Online giving is available at the church website.  We thank you for your love and support of our neighbors impacted by this disaster.                                                                                                                                        

The Wesley Missions Team

Worship is essential to God’s plan of redemption and provides a strategic avenue for God’s entry into an alienated world. An illustration of this is found in the Lord’s Prayer, which begins with worship: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Then, it extends the invitation “…Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9, 10). When we pray in the manner that Jesus taught His disciples, we are first, with worship, reaching into the invisible realm and then, on the grounds of our worship, welcoming the entry of His divine authority, rulership, and power into this world.

At Wesley, we believe that a natural reflection of our love for God is worship. And that worship should invade every aspect of our lives.