Here are the latest Mission and Witness news and events,
OR Scroll Down to see past events and stories.

Check back often to find out how you can stay involved in the Mission of Duke Memorial and the life of the community! Contact Reynolds Chapman, Minister of Adult Discipleship and Witness, for more information.

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Durham Churches Unite to Build the Nicholson Family a Home with Habitat

14 local churches, including Duke Memorial, have united to raise $25,000 to build a home for the Nicholson family through Habitat.  Everyone can get involved!  We need donors (checks payable to Duke Memorial, with “Habitat” on the memo line); construction volunteers for Saturday mornings 8:30-11:30 on 3/3, 3/31, 5/19, and 6/30 and Saturday afternoons from 12:30-3:30 for 3/10, 5/19, and 6/30; volunteers to provide child care for construction volunteers or lunch for 24 on 5/19, and those willing to pray and support this project in any other way they can as well!  Contact Dustin.Rawlings@Duke.edu or Laura.Barnard@Duke.edu to get involved!  Help provide Belvalon and her three children (ages 3-13) a home.

 

Annual Vigil against Violence

The Annual Vigil against Violence, sponsored by the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham, is Thursday, March 1.  Come out to this city-wide vigil to remember, and comfort the families of, the 29 homicide victims in Durham in 2011. Brenda James, the mother of homicide victim Randolph James, says, “Each death impacts the community as a whole. We need one another across the board.” Thursday, March 1, at 7:00pm at Shepherd’s House UMC, 107 N. Driver St., Durham, NC. For more information contact Reynolds Chapman.

 

Volunteers Needed for Henderson Towers Community Service Fair

On March 13, from 1-4pm, there will be a community service fair at the Henderson Towers. They asked Duke Memorial if we would be willing to provide snacks for the event. In order to make this happen we need two things: 1) Volunteers to provide fruit, cheese and crackers, chips or drinks; and 2) Four volunteers to manage a table at the event. If you would like to continue to build upon our relationship with the Henderson Towers by volunteering, email Reynolds Chapman at reynoldschapman@dukememorial.org.

 

CROP Walk – April 1, 2012

What is a CROP Walk?   It’s an annual event to raise awareness of and money for hungry people throughout the world. Walkers invite friends to sponsor them on their walk, which begins at Duke Chapel and is about five miles.  A participant’s walk symbolizes the distance a man or woman may h0ave to travel daily in a developing country to obtain food or water, thus the motto…”We walk because they walk.”  CROP Walks have been held in the Durham community annually since 1975 and are amongst the most successful walks in the country.

When will it take place?   Sunday April 1st at 2:30.

Where do the funds go?   CROP Walks help support grassroots, hunger-fighting development efforts of agencies in over 80 countries. CROP Walks provide resources that empower people to meet their own needs, from seeds and tools, to wells and water systems, to technical training and micro-enterprise loans.  And 25 percent of funds raised remain in Durham to assist local poverty-fighting programs like Urban Ministries of Durham and Interfaith Hospitality Network.

What’s our track record?   Duke Memorial has a long history of involvement by young and old alike in the CROP Walk.  In 2011, we raised about $4500.00, which was the best we had ever done!

How can I help?   We’d like to see 100 % of our congregation participate!  You can walk the walk and get sponsors to support you.  You can sponsor a walker.  You can pray for those people we seek to assist or help prepare something generous for walkers on walk day.  It’s also an opportune time to learn about poverty and efforts to fight it.

Need more information?   Forms for walkers will be available soon.  Listen out for announcements and news in the bulletin about CROP Walk.  You can also call Tim Langford or John Legge to get additional information.  Or, check out Church World Service online at www.churchworldservice.org

 

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Volunteer with Interfaith Hospitality Network!

Durham Interfaith Hospitality Network (DIHN) is a nonprofit founded in 1993 with the mission of helping bring stability and support to homeless families. Duke Memorial is one of over 30 local congregations that partner with DIHN to provide shelter, meals, and transportation for homeless familes, while the DIHN staff work with them to create long-term goals for residential and financial stability, employment, physical and psychological health, etc.
Please consider joining our ranks of volunteers to provide meals, overnight assistance, and transportation for our IHN guests. Contact Roger Loyd (roger.loyd@duke.edu) or the Megan Jones in the church office for more information.

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UM Pastors Affected by Hurricane Irene

Since Hurricane Irene swept across the NC coast, many United Methodist pastors have labored countless days with long hours to help restore their communities, churches, and parsonages.  Duke Memorial and other churches in the Durham District devoted the month of November to praying for these pastors and offering help for their families.  Please continue to pray for these weary pastors and their struggling families, and consider how you or your group or class can continue to offer creative help.  Suggestions include a donated weekend at a beach or mountain house for a pastor and family to go for rest and relaxation, the donation of funds for movie tickets for a family to enjoy an evening of fun, or other gifts that can offer renewal.

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A Visit from Our Missionaries

On Sunday, November 27,  Drs. Lynn and Sharon Fogleman gave a presentation during the Sunday school hour. The Foglemans are a missionary couple who we have supported for over 20 years, most recently at the Red Bird medical clinic in Kentucky. They are now transitioning to South Sudan, where they will work for a community-based health care and disciple-making mission.

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 Duke Memorial, Stephen Ministry, and the Military

What’s the connection?
Stephen Ministries has partnered with H.E.R.O.E.S. Care and Operation Homefront, a nonprofit 501c3 organization that provides emergency assistance for military troops, the families they leave behind, and the wounded warriors when they return home.
Stephen Ministers provide the one-to-one, Christ-centered, confidential care to a care receiver (just as they always do). In addition, (after an eight hour training session) they can coordinate access to Financial resources, Employment opportunities through the Military Spouse Corp. Career Network (MSCCN), and Counseling services through Give-an-Hour (GAH), have a network of Psychologists and Psychiatrists who donate an hour of their time each week. Give-an-Hour reports that by August 2011 approximately 6000 Providers have donated 42000 hours of service. If you are a counselor check out GAH and see if you can donate time.
On October 1, a group of Stephen Leaders and Stephen Ministers from the Triangle Area including 4 from Duke Memorial were trained and are now qualified to serve as volunteers with H.E.R.O.E.S Care when military service members are mobilized. With eight military bases in North Carolina and many reserve units, these services are desperately needed and well deserved. We are honored to be able to serve in this unique way.
We ask all church members to prayerfully consider becoming part of this ministry. Is God calling you to serve? Our military families have many needs and there are so many ways we can help in our community. Many companies and local businesses are donating goods and services. Check out any of the web sites for H.E.R.O.E.S. Care, Operation Homefront, Give an hour and MSCCN or talk to Blaine Butterworth, Annette Martin or Howard Pleasant.

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Susanna Lambert on Small Groups

Susanna reflects on how Small Groups at Duke Memorial weave her life together with God.

Small group ministry is the back door
by which God brought me into the Duke Memorial community.

In 2007 we were still fairly new to Durham. A friendly face at a local park (our own Lindy Mathis) invited me to convene with a small group of moms here at Duke Memorial. I had a needy two-year-old and a needier six-month-old and knew very few people locally, so the prospect of an hour or two of kid-free adult conversation was too tempting to resist. As my older son had already won a lottery spot at the Weekday School for the 07-08 school year, it seemed a natural step for me to join a group based here.
I had expected this step would lead to play dates, coffee chats, recipe swaps, and carpools (which it did).
What I did not anticipate was that the incredibly generous, loving, honest fellowship I found would deepen, strengthen, and grow my wilting faith. God had brought me home, through the back door.  After three years in the peripheral Duke Memorial community, I became a member of the church in February 2010.
Engaging in a regular, structured conversation with other Christians is an excellent way to give your spiritual life the attention and priority it deserves. While it is important to learn more about the Bible or how to better incorporate Biblical practices into daily life, as much as my nerd-self loves critical reading and intelligent discourse, I believe the more powerful piece of small group “study” is the fellowship. Sharing prayers and praises with a small group is an amazing way to witness—and be a part of—God’s work happening in the lives around us. What can fortify our faith more than seeing His action with our own eyes? This is what happens in small groups.
John 13:33-35 (NIV) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
We are commanded–not politely invited but commanded–to love one another. Becoming woven together in small groups is one excellent way to obey this commandment while also nourishing our spirit, honoring our God and Lord, and, well, maybe learning something new too.
—Susanna Lambert

Visit the Small Groups Page to learn more about our small groups!

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A Report From the Tornado Relief Team

On May 28, eight members from Duke Memorial braved the heat to help the ongoing tornado relief effort from the April 16 tornados. The team went to the Stony Brook Mobile Home Park in Raleigh, where sadly four young children lost their lives when a tree fell on their home.

The “clean up” is mostly finished and the repair and rehab stage is in full-swing. A very large area in the is park now devoid of trees and homes because many destroyed homes were recently bulldozed. Part of the team was asked to go over the entire park and inventory the 183 lots, noting which lots still had homes on them and of those, which homes still had tarps on the roofs. This survey took some time but allowed the team to talk to a few of the residents and hear some of what they experienced on the day of the storm.

The other part of the team started in immediately on the hot, messy tasks needed to prepare one of the homes for rehabilitation: pulling moldy insulation from under the house, removing nails so new drywall could be installed, and hauling a whole lot of stuff to the two dumpsters across the street (the fun part of this, as the team quickly learned, was driving the little 4-wheeler “gator”). It seemed as if the work was to continue the destruction the tornado failed to do, so new construction could begin. (There may be a sermon in that somewhere!)

Tornado Relief Team 05/28/11 from Duke Memorial on Vimeo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the work at Stony Brook is being coordinated by the very well-organized NC Baptist Men’s Disaster Response Group. The Duke Memorial team was visited at the job site by a couple of the Baptist Men who had noted our church van parked outside and wanted a picture of our team working. We were glad to be representing Duke Memorial!

Hopefully another workday will be organized very soon and another hardworking team will go spend some time helping in this very needed mission. So be on the lookout for announcements about another workday!