Rio Texas Conference - Harvest Sunday 2016
Sunday – November 6, 2016
Or any Sunday that is convenient for the local church

Through this special offering approved by the Annual Conference, Rio Texas Conference congregations will support their district’s designated hunger ministry as well as Food Pantries in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and the Indigenous Women’s Vegetable Gardening and Leadership Project, Guatemala.

Participation in this offering embraces the UMC’s goals of “engaging in ministry with the poor” and “combating the diseases of poverty by improving health globally.”

The 2016 Harvest Sunday offering will be divided as follows:

• 1/3 of the total collected in each district will be returned to that district for hunger ministries there 
• 2/3 of the total offering will be divided equally for: 
   
  • Food pantries in the El Valle District
    Several of the poorest counties in the country can be found in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  In some parts of the Valley, 1 in 2 children go to bed hungry every day.  A portion of the Harvest Sunday offering will be used to help provide food for our neighbors in special need in the Rio Grande Valley, right here in our annual conference.
     
  • Indigenous Women’s Vegetable Gardening and Leadership Project, Guatemala - Advance #3021566
    Forty Mayan women are being trained in organic farming techniques and they in turn will train another 850 more women in their communities.  Benefits of the project are (1) promotion of organic farming, which preserves the land; (2) improved family nutrition; (3) preservation of native food crop species; (4) promotion of women’s leadership skills; and (5) creation of a model of development that can be replicated elsewhere. This project complements the current geographical mission study on “Latin America.”

Congregations will not receive special Harvest Sunday offering envelopes this year, in an effort to send 100% of the funds received toward these urgent needs.  Congregations are asked to send their 2016 Harvest Sunday offering directly to the Conference Treasurer’s office.
Thank you for your generosity toward our neighbors in need.