Florida United Methodist Review Online

Amateur radios, Internet improve disaster communications

     The Florida Conference Disaster Response Team is working to build a disaster communications network that will provide local response teams with a reliable means of communication and help people from around the country keep abreast of local relief efforts.
     The network is a combination of the decades old technology of amateur radio and the Internet. It is called AMENradio, which stands for Amateur Methodist Emergency Network Radio. Full Story

Florida leads in welcoming recognition

      Four Florida Conference congregations have been awarded the "Welcoming Congregation" designation by the Igniting Ministry office of United Methodist Communications (UMCom). Nationwide, 33 churches have received the designation, and only the Virginia Annual Conference has matched Florida's mark.
Deann Bogle, a project associate with UMCom's Igniting Ministry office who heads the Welcoming Congregations effort, said interest in the recognition is picking up and several new churches are applying for the status each week. Full Story

Front-line experience transforms chaplain

   As the United States and its allies moved across Iraqi ground forces during the Persian Gulf War, the Rev. Michael Shockley found himself in the unique position of ministering to those declared to be the enemy.
      Shockley was with the troops of the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Saudi Arabia during the Desert Storm ground war, then ministered to U.S. Marines stationed in Kuwait. The experience of ministering to American troops was exhilarating, and it gave him the opportunity to see war's deeper story. Full Story

Prayer journals still on long, strange journey

     More than a year ago, the Rev. Debbie Mak and the members of Fellowship United Methodist Church here started two prayer journals on a trip around the state of Florida. Although the plan was for the two respective journeys to take about a year, the journals seem to have taken on a life of their own and are now only about halfway home.
     The two journals have been as far south as Marathon Key and as far north as Lake City, and between the two extremes they have been part of an evangelistic mission, mourning the loss of a ministry colleague and a nation's recovery from terrorist attacks. Full Story

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In Brief

Youth workers have new site

VOAD holds first expo in Brevard

Personalia

Opportunities

Stewardship center offers tools for finances

School features fiesta and faith in action

Mission board offers training, resource for revitalization

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