UMW Program Updates
For 2021 – 2024, the UMW Mission Priorities will be climate justice and criminalization of communities of color and mass incarceration. These priorities are most relevant in this day and age. When the church reopens, UMW will have some programs to provide more information on these topics.
On April 10, the conference UMW will hold its Conference Mission Action Day, either in Green Bay or via Zoom. The themes for this conference are Racial Inequality and the School-to-Prison Pipeline, which strongly connect with the UMW Mission Priorities. To register for this event, go to the conference website , which also has more details about how the event will be run.
Be sure to put the date for the district Annual Gathering on your calendar; it will be held on Saturday, October 2, in Milton. The speaker will be Reverend Rob Odom, the pastor of Blessed Hope UMC in West Allis. This event will be in person, and it will be wonderful to talk to our UMW friends face-to-face.
On April 10, the conference UMW will hold its Conference Mission Action Day, either in Green Bay or via Zoom. The themes for this conference are Racial Inequality and the School-to-Prison Pipeline, which strongly connect with the UMW Mission Priorities. To register for this event, go to the conference website , which also has more details about how the event will be run.
Be sure to put the date for the district Annual Gathering on your calendar; it will be held on Saturday, October 2, in Milton. The speaker will be Reverend Rob Odom, the pastor of Blessed Hope UMC in West Allis. This event will be in person, and it will be wonderful to talk to our UMW friends face-to-face.
UMW Reading Program
Changes are underway in the UMW Reading Program, all for the best! Some of the changes, summarized below by the Conference Program Resources officer, are highlighted below:
~Another list of books will be shared by April 2021 to add to those featured in the 2021-2022 catalog.
~Faith Talk podcasts can now be counted in the category of Spiritual Growth. (You must participate or listen to two podcasts; three podcasts will count as a Bonus Book)
~Watching movies and documentaries will also count towards the Reading Program. (Recommended are Just Mercy, The Hate U Give, and Pushout)
Two of the books selected for the Reading Program also are quite different, very readable but different! The descriptions summarized below are taken from the Reading Program catalog.
The first book, from the Nurturing for Community category and reflecting the changes in the selection criteria, is summarized below
THE BIRD BOYS: A DELPHA WADE AND TOM PHELAN MYSTERY BY LISA SANDLIN
After a serial killer almost murdered Delpha Wade, the county hospital releases her into the handcuffs of the city police for questioning. She killed the man who was trying to kill her, and she is, after all, an ex-con. But it’s still 1970s Beaumont, and mindsets don’t change along the Texas Gulf Coast. Soon she and her boss, private detective Tom Phelan, are once again on a case. It seems easy – one Bird brother looking for the long-lost other – but it turns out that one brother is a murderer.
If you decide to read the second selection, from the Social Action category, be sure you read the one selected for the Reading Program; there is another one with the same title!
GIRL GONE MISSING: A CASH BLACKBEAR MYSTERY BY MARCIE R. RENDON Nineteen-year-old Anishinabe woman Renee “Cash” Blackbear hears about a blonde girl in her English class who has gone missing. And then another. She begins to dream about blonde girls calling for help; they’re in Minneapolis. She’s never been far from the Red River and she’s never heard of white slavery. Then, suddenly, she’s locked inside a room with the lost girls. She needs to find a way out.
If you have not participated in the UMW Reading Program before, the above two books provide a most interesting introduction.
The UMW Reading Program and Human Trafficking
On Friday evening, March 19, Nancy Yarbrough-Banks spoke about her program Fresh Start, created to help girls and women who are victims of human trafficking. This has been a common subject of books selected for the UMW Reading Program. Some of the books are available in the church library. Other books from the Reading Program in addition to Girl Gone Missing are summarized below:
IN OUR BACKYARD
In Our Backyard invites readers into the lives of human trafficking survivors and the traffickers themselves with true stories. These stories not only inform, but also continue our sturdy of modern day slavery, this time focusing on the United States.
THE FEATHERED BONE
The Feathered Bone, although fiction, really helps the reader understand human trafficking as it portrays a young girl abducted during a school field trip and her survival strategy. At the same time the author shares the feelings and destruction of her best friend who had gone with her into a public bathroom and lost her.
THE DEVIL CAME DOWN TO CHINATOWN
In the late 1800s thousands of Chinese women sailed to America's West Coast. Many of them were enslaved as soon as they stepped off the freighters and were forced into prostitution -- the "green mansion." American prejudice against the immigrant Chinese was ugly and strong, and many of these girls lost hope. Many of them died. But a few of them began to whisper about the "Jesus women." The Jesus women were rescuing and freeing the Chinese slaves, and if the girls could just get word to them... This book is a true story about the courageous Christians who risked everything to help free San Francisco's brothel slaves.
The above books provide a good overview of human trafficking, the people involved, the damage caused, and some ways to help eradicate the crime.
Gwenda Szczygielski
~Another list of books will be shared by April 2021 to add to those featured in the 2021-2022 catalog.
~Faith Talk podcasts can now be counted in the category of Spiritual Growth. (You must participate or listen to two podcasts; three podcasts will count as a Bonus Book)
~Watching movies and documentaries will also count towards the Reading Program. (Recommended are Just Mercy, The Hate U Give, and Pushout)
Two of the books selected for the Reading Program also are quite different, very readable but different! The descriptions summarized below are taken from the Reading Program catalog.
The first book, from the Nurturing for Community category and reflecting the changes in the selection criteria, is summarized below
THE BIRD BOYS: A DELPHA WADE AND TOM PHELAN MYSTERY BY LISA SANDLIN
After a serial killer almost murdered Delpha Wade, the county hospital releases her into the handcuffs of the city police for questioning. She killed the man who was trying to kill her, and she is, after all, an ex-con. But it’s still 1970s Beaumont, and mindsets don’t change along the Texas Gulf Coast. Soon she and her boss, private detective Tom Phelan, are once again on a case. It seems easy – one Bird brother looking for the long-lost other – but it turns out that one brother is a murderer.
If you decide to read the second selection, from the Social Action category, be sure you read the one selected for the Reading Program; there is another one with the same title!
GIRL GONE MISSING: A CASH BLACKBEAR MYSTERY BY MARCIE R. RENDON Nineteen-year-old Anishinabe woman Renee “Cash” Blackbear hears about a blonde girl in her English class who has gone missing. And then another. She begins to dream about blonde girls calling for help; they’re in Minneapolis. She’s never been far from the Red River and she’s never heard of white slavery. Then, suddenly, she’s locked inside a room with the lost girls. She needs to find a way out.
If you have not participated in the UMW Reading Program before, the above two books provide a most interesting introduction.
The UMW Reading Program and Human Trafficking
On Friday evening, March 19, Nancy Yarbrough-Banks spoke about her program Fresh Start, created to help girls and women who are victims of human trafficking. This has been a common subject of books selected for the UMW Reading Program. Some of the books are available in the church library. Other books from the Reading Program in addition to Girl Gone Missing are summarized below:
IN OUR BACKYARD
In Our Backyard invites readers into the lives of human trafficking survivors and the traffickers themselves with true stories. These stories not only inform, but also continue our sturdy of modern day slavery, this time focusing on the United States.
THE FEATHERED BONE
The Feathered Bone, although fiction, really helps the reader understand human trafficking as it portrays a young girl abducted during a school field trip and her survival strategy. At the same time the author shares the feelings and destruction of her best friend who had gone with her into a public bathroom and lost her.
THE DEVIL CAME DOWN TO CHINATOWN
In the late 1800s thousands of Chinese women sailed to America's West Coast. Many of them were enslaved as soon as they stepped off the freighters and were forced into prostitution -- the "green mansion." American prejudice against the immigrant Chinese was ugly and strong, and many of these girls lost hope. Many of them died. But a few of them began to whisper about the "Jesus women." The Jesus women were rescuing and freeing the Chinese slaves, and if the girls could just get word to them... This book is a true story about the courageous Christians who risked everything to help free San Francisco's brothel slaves.
The above books provide a good overview of human trafficking, the people involved, the damage caused, and some ways to help eradicate the crime.
Gwenda Szczygielski