The Love Offering is collected within Minnesota United Methodist churches and delivered to the annual conference session. It will be received during the Minnesota Annual Convention held June 18-20 at the River’s Edge Convention Center , St. Cloud, MN.
This year’s Love Offering will include two parts — a financial offering and an offering of names. The funds from this year’s financial offering will go to three projects which are outlined below. The second part of the Love Offering will be an opportunity to offer our prayers, witness and relationships to God in service to the Great Commission.
Funds from this year’s Love Offering will to go:
- 60% to Lao Samphan Methodist Church.
The United Methodist Church’s presence in Laos is growing through the Lao Samphan Methodist Church (“Samphan” means “united”). Rev. Daniel Yang, a Minnesota elder now serving as a UM
missionary, oversees new church development, training and equipping leaders and pastoral support. Yang and other leaders are working to establish a Methodist presence in 17 provinces in Laos, one of the poorest countries in the world. Love Offering funds will be used to further these efforts. - 20% to Volunteer Lawyers Network. Established in 1966, Volunteer Lawyers Network helps provide civil legal services to people living in poverty. All services are provided at no cost. Love Offering funds will go toward the Immigrant Legal Services program, through which volunteer lawyers and staff partner with community organizations to
provide culturally competent services to immigrant and refugee neighbors. - 20% to Volunteers in Mission Scholarships.
Mission trips change the lives of participants by giving them an opportunity to grow in faith and gain a new perspective of the world. Through the United Methodist Church’s Volunteers in Mission program, teams spend up to two weeks working on mission projects domestically or abroad. Team members pay their own way, and the Love Offering helps to offset the cost for first-time participants.
Donations to the 2018 Love Offering totaled $106,000. They went to Puerto Rico Hurricane Recovery Trips (65%) Park Avenue UMC Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools Program (20%), and NUMAS Haus (15%).
We will be collecting the Love Offering on Sunday, May 5. Please put your donation marked “2019 Love Offering” (checks should be made out to Asbury UMC) in the offering plate.