Karen Bohn, lay leader of Sebastopol UMC, and her husband Ernie spent Easter with UMVIM (United Methodist Volunteers in Mission) teams from all over the country along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi adding their spoonful of relief from the fury of Hurricane Katrina of last August. "We have a hard time describing the devastation," she reported. "It was overwhelming. We drove along the coast on Easter afternoon and looked at mile after mile of rubble where houses and businesses had been. The United Methodist Church [goes] where the need is! We were told that if it wasn't for the volunteers, nothing would be happening." Vancleave UMC, in the town east of Biloxi, gave their buildings and their time to housing and feeding volunteers.

Mount Tamalpais UMC in Mill Valley, with a record Easter attendance of 351 people, took in $4,400 in an offering, and kept none of it. Instead they divided it among three charities -- Canal Ministries in San Rafael, that offers tutoring to Hispanic children and youth, and counseling for immigrants; its mission team to Nicaragua that will return for a second summer to help build a school and community center in the hill country; and the two people it will send with a medical team to Guatemala this year...

Bishop Beverly Shamana intends to appoint the Rev. Shirley Macemon to New Vision UMC of Millbrae next July 1, following a two-year interim pastorship of the Rev. Jeff Kunkel. The Rev. Macemon currently serves Sunnyhill UMC in Milpitas. Rev. Macemon is known for her experience in education and youth work...The Rev. Nobuaki Hanaoka will leave Bethany UMC of San Francisco on July 1 to take a sabbatical and work on a research project, he announced to the congregation March 19. A survivor of the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, Rev. Hanaoka now feels -- based on a series of recent medical tests -- that the radiation may be having long-delayed effects on his health. On July 1, Bethany will have had three pastors in as many years. The Rev. Karen Oliveto left in 2004, after 12 years, to become an associate dean at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley...

The Bishop intends to appoint Brenda Vaca, a PSR student, to be associate pastor for Latino Ministries at Temple UMC in San Francisco...Temple is also looking to have a Chinese outreach, building on the newly launched Latino initiative. It sees a need for immigrants to learn English, so is thinking about an ESL (English as a Second Language) class. It is also considering bilingual Bible study...Temple is planning to start a Wednesday food pantry to offer free groceries, initially for 50 people, on April 26...

Park Presidio UMC in San Francisco contributes to pastors in Bolivia. The late Claire Beals-Nesmith went to Bolivia when he was Park Presidio's pastor in the mid-1990s. Intermingling with folks in the Altaplano region, he found peasants with diet insufficiencies and pastors who feed and support entire congregations on meager pastor salaries. Park Presidio immediately started collecting donations each month during communion services with an offering plate labeled "Bolivia"...Park Presidio recently initiated recycling of reusable medical equipment -- everything from walkers to wheelchairs. It stores the items until it can supply them to needy individuals who would have difficulty affording them...

Dr. Paul Preston, a member of Crystal Springs UMC in San Mateo, was featured in the January 23 issue of U.S. News and World Report for his pioneering effort in using human robots to train obstetrical staffs for birth emergencies. Dr. Preston, an anesthesiologist with Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, believes that medicine should borrow from other high risk occupations the use of simulators to train personnel for emergencies. The robotic mom and baby Dr. Preston uses can gasp, eliminate, and even respond to drugs injected into their plastic skin. Preston and his team travel throughout California training Kaiser doctors and nurses to communicate well together and respond quickly and appropriately to highly stressful situations without risking harm to any "real" patient...

Sebastopol UMC's finance committee asked its membership to raise pledges for 2006 by $5,000. That was necessary, said finance chair Michael Ost, to keep the Rev. Judith Stone. Church members raised pledges by $12,000. "We tried to keep the campaign topical, unobtrusive, and fun -- or as fun as this kind of thing can be," said Ost. Now the historic old church is going for a new roof and paint job on the most prominent building architecturally in downtown Sebastopol... Round Valley UMC, with an annual budget of about $25,000 on the Round Valley Indian Reservation, coverts its church into the "Heaven-Sent Bakery" every Wednesday. From the homemade goods it sells, it makes $150 to $200 each week. "Enough to pay the bills," says Ad Board chair Annabelle Whipple... Community UMC of Half Moon Bay, after helping the town of Ramoya, Kenya, get a water system in 2004 [click here], and then helping them start a Methodist church, sent them 40 Bibles late last year...

Hillsdale UMC of San Mateo is engaged in a 180-day prayer cycle, with 30 people called "prayer sisters and brothers" leading teams of five to 10 people to pray daily. The teams seek God's guidance not only for the future of Hillsdale, but also for guidance in personal lives for using individual talents for service. Through Pentecost, the teams are meeting once a month for two hours to share and evaluate. The prayer sisters and brothers check in weekly by phone with folks on their team....Hillsdale has hired a new organist/pianist Paul Schrage, who is expert in both music and martial arts. And in music he is equally expert in both classical and jazz, according to Hillsdale music director Mary Lira. Schrage, who has given recitals particularly on the piano music of Franz Liszt in places as diverse as Rio de Janeiro and Warsaw, is on the staff of Foothill College.