Cox Chapel

If you would like to make a donation by credit card to help support Vision for Change, please go to the bottom of this page.

Cox Chapel "Vision for Change" 2008 Projects

Last year, our congregation took a bold step in faith by answering the Vision for Change challenge to raise $100,000 to underwrite world-changing work through two local and two global mission projects in the areas of teaching and healing. I am convinced that together we raised nearly $110,000 because we share a conviction that the role of the church is to change lives for Jesus Christ. We proved that Christian disciples will give–and give generously–when they see that the church is fulfilling its mission.

The same challenge arises this year: to raise $100,000 in second-mile gifts to do the world-changing work that Jesus did, the work of teaching and healing. In the area of education, our gifts will support Bea’s Kids, which sponsors four after-school tutoring centers for low-income students in the Carrollton/Farmers Branch, Richardson, and Dallas school districts, and HELPS International, through whom we will help 120 families in Guatemala by providing safe cooking stoves that virtually eliminate risk of fire and burns as well as decrease fuel consumption.

Our local health care project is the Agape Clinic, the city’s oldest free/mission clinic, whose mission is to improve the health of medically underserved people by providing quality community health services in East Dallas. The international project will aid Dr. Alexander Kaminin, a physician and United Methodist minister, in his work at the medical center of Iliok-Koshari, a 25-bed hospital in an area of rural farms and villages in Russia.

I hope that you will join me in this opportunity for each of us to share in the transformative work of God through our financial gifts. You may donate online in the space below, or mail a check to HPUMC, care of Rev. Jeff Hall, 3300 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75205. Please note Vision for Change in your memo line.

Thank you for your prayerful consideration. I hope you will join me in changing the world for the sake of the gospel by making a pledge and giving joyously to the Vision for Change.

Grateful to be in ministry with you,

Jeff Hall

The Medical Center of
Iliok-Koshari, Russia

Alexander Kaminin is a physician, the elected leader of his village, and a United Methodist pastor. The only doctor in the immediate area (and one willing to make house calls), Dr. Kaminin is also the director of a 25-bed general practice medical clinic serving 1600 villagers in rural Russia. Many people in Dr. Kaminin’s village work on local farms that raise cows, chickens and pigs and grow corn, wheat, sugar beets, and sunflowers. Workers earn between $150-$500 a month.

Although life in this agricultural area may seem simple, the needs of the people are not. Many of the 5,000-6,000 patients Dr. Kaminin sees each year are refugees from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and Tadzikistan. The medical conditions the people experience include thyroid difficulties as a consequence of the Chernobyl accident; problems with bones, joints, and vertebrae resulting from hard physical labor; and increased blood pressure.

Having built a church in the village, Dr. Kaminin wants to expand his ministry by offering better medical care to the people who have come to love and trust him. Because the clinic operates on a budget of only $27,000 (US) per year, our gift will allow Dr. Kaminin to purchase urgently needed medical equipment and supplies such as a portable ultrasound machine.

Agape Clinic

The mission of the Agape Clinic, the city’s oldest free/mission clinic, is to improve the health of medically underserved people by providing quality community health services from its location at Grace United Methodist Church in old East Dallas. Every year Agape serves 5,000 patients who have no private or government insurance or access to Parkland’s financial assistance. The need is such that the clinic has expanded both the scope of its services and its hours of operation from one day a week to four days a week.

The clinic’s services and programs include:
Primary medical care for acute and chronic illnesses
Women’s health services
Health education classes
Health screening events for breast cancer, depression, hypertension, cardiovascular risk, and other problems
Free childhood immunizations
Outreach to refugees and visitation to the homebound

Our gift will enable Agape to employ a nurse practitioner who will diagnose and treat patients and assist the volunteer doctors and nurse practitioners who work in the clinic.

Bea’s Kids

After discovering a small boy looking for food in the dumpster when she went to take out her trash, Bea Salazar, a disabled mother of five, began feeding hungry children from her Metrocrest apartment complex in Carrollton in June, 1990. The circle of kids fed by Bea began to grow, and when school resumed, Bea helped the kids with their homework. Her effort grew to a crusade against hunger, illiteracy, school dropout, domestic strife, drugs, violence, gangs, and poverty, planting the seed that would grow to become a nonprofit 501(c)3 agency serving 200 children, primarily Hispanic students, grades K through 12, in low-income apartments.

The mission of Bea’s Kids is to provide educational and personal development programs to children from low-income families so they will stay in school and break the cycle of poverty. Believing in the potential of children, the importance of achievement, and the power of education, Bea’s Kids provides programs, resources, and mentoring so that children can experience academic success. The program also reaches out to parents, educating them on how to create a supportive home environment with healthy boundaries and effective discipline.

Bea’s Kids now operates four centers in Carrollton/Farmers Branch ISD, Richardson ISD and Dallas ISD that offer after-school tutoring and mentoring programs which focus on reading and math skills. With the chapel’s gift, Bea’s Kids can hire a part-time Reading Specialist to help children advance in reading proficiency and create a test to be used to assess skill level and improvement.

HELPS International

HELPS International, organized in 1984, is a nonprofit organization that works in partnership with individuals, businesses, local and national governments to improve health, education, community development, agricultural and economic development in Latin America. HELPS programs are implemented in an integrated manner to help reduce poverty and improve people’s quality of life.

During their mission trips to Guatemala, HELPS medical teams were treating an alarming number of women and children with burns and respiratory illnesses. HELPS found that the cause for these health problems is the way that Mayan Indigenous peoples have cooked for centuries. After a two-year investigation of the factors surrounding use of open cooking fires, HELPS developed the ONIL Stove which replaces the stone fires on the floor of the house. The ONIL Stove has proven to: reduce smoke levels in the dwelling by 99%: increase the cooking surface height, eliminating burns and/or uncontrolled fires; decrease the cooking time by two days per week (per family); save 70% in wood fuel consumption; this allows for both environmental and economic benefits.

With our gift we can change the lives of over 720 people in 120 families of the village of Saquil Grande, a small community about 285 km. away from Guatemala City. Average income for a family of eight is $85 per month. The village has 300+ families; their principal economic activity is agriculture. The people live in very small huts with dirt floors and tile and tin roofs, from which smoke cannot escape. To date, 50,000 stoves have been installed in Guatemala aiding 350,000 people, but the need is 1.3 million stoves to eliminate the open fires in the country.

Item	Description	Amount
VFC08 Donation	Vision for Change does the world-changing work that Jesus did, the work of teaching and healing. VFC will suport Bea’s Kids, HELPS International, Agape Clinic and Iliok-Koshari Medical Center (Russia).	$