In the wake of yet another weather-driven disaster, the Wesley Missions Ministry Team has designated UMCOR’s U.S. DISASTER RESPONSE for the November project.

On September 28, Hurricane Ian swept through a large swath of Florida and moved up the coast causing more devastation in southern mid-Atlantic states. As the fifth-strongest hurricane on record to strike the U.S., Ian caused widespread flooding, devastation of whole communities, massive power outages, and more than a hundred deaths. The Florida Annual Conference is now facing a 20-county clean-up effort.

With a “communities own their own recoveries” philosophy, UMCOR supports local efforts to accomplish immediate relief and long-term recovery. A solidarity grant was immediately awarded to both the Florida and the South Carolina conferences. UMCOR Early Response Team volunteers have been supplying survivors with food, water, shelter, cleaning supplies and have begun cleaning out flood-damaged homes and churches. Volunteers also have been building and installing solar-powered generators. Meanwhile, UMCOR is also working with disaster response coordinators of the conferences on long-term recovery programs and strategies.

If you would like to support this mission, you may place your offering in the offering basket near the sanctuary doors using a blue mission offering envelope for cash, or by writing a check to Wesley UMC with UMCOR-Hurricane Ian on the memo line. You may also mail your check to the church office or use the online giving option at http://www.charlestonwesley.org/online-giving . Thank you for your generous and giving hearts that see the need of those around us.

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.