Our Work in Missions

Bellaire Community United Methodist Church can rightfully be proud of the work that is being done in missions both in our own community and around the world for the Kingdom of God.  Our involvement comes through giving of ourselves in offerings of prayer, money, time and talents with each of these gifts being used to make a difference in the lives of countless people.

Our most basic involvement in missions is our enthusiastic participation in the work in the Ministry Shares of our denomination.  Each church in every conference is asked to do their fair share based on their own relative strength to support the mission work of the general church.  We are pleased that over the years we have been able to accomplish all that has been asked of us and are happy to continue to do so.

Many years ago a need became evident in our community and our Director of Care-Giving, Jean Thornell rose to the challenge.  It was evident that, just as any other community in our nation, we have a problem with hunger; too many families do not have the resources to provide all the food necessary to make it through the month.  Jean challenged the congregation and they responded to her call to create a food pantry in the church.  For many years it was housed in our basement as it went through its small, beginning phases.  The needs have grown over the decades until now the pantry is located in the business district of Bellaire and serving hundreds of families every month.  It is no longer just a project of our church, but is supported by many churches, charitable organizations, businesses and individuals throughout the community.  We continue to play a primary role in the life of the pantry in providing leadership, volunteers and contributions to help the work continue and are blessed to be able to do so.

We also have people involved in hands on mission work with several individuals responding to needs around the globe.  We have Lay Leaders Bob and Yolanda Ayala serving in mission work in Central America once or twice every year.  We have young people serving in Russia and Africa.  Tianne Cole is serving among the Didinga people in Southern Sudan, sharing the primitive living conditions and life style of this remote group to earn the opportunity to share the Life of Jesus Christ with them.  See Tianne's blog of her adventures in mission work on the next page.  Jeff and Amy Brake are a young, married couple working in Tyumen, Russia helping to build a community center and offer educational opportunities for the people of that city.  Along with their work in that setting, they often have opportunities to share the Good News of Jesus Christ as they teach English as they participate in conversational practice groups.  We will soon have a page dedicated to their work as well.

Pastor Carl has been involved in Bangladesh for the past four years, teaching Bible and ministry basics to pastors in remote rural areas of that nation.  His travels every January have afforded many chances to equip these new Christian leaders for the work many of them have just begun.  So far he has taught from the scriptures Judges, Mark, Romans and I Corinthians.  He has also had the opportunities to teach Pastoral Care, Principles of Christian Leadership, Examining the Call of Christ and an overview of the book "Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations."