Van 2006

The staff and missionaries of the ”Give Ye Them To Eat” program have some good news to share. We have acquired a 2001, fifteen Passenger Chevrolet Van! For all of the work team members, volunteers and visitors who have ridden in our older mission vehicles, you know how exciting this news really is. As great as this announcement may seem, there is one thing we still need to do: Pay for this mission vehicle! The challenge before us is to raise $10,000 Dollars. We hope you and your congregation can help us.

“GIVE YE THEM TO EAT” is an Advance Special Project of the United Methodist Church. Financial gifts can be sent to the Office of the Advance of the General Board of Global Ministries. Make checks payable to “Advance GCFA.”
Designate your gift: Give Ye Them To Eat - No. 07629A
Send Donations to: GBGM Advance, Room 1400, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115

What does a 15-passenger van have to do with missions? The people served by the “Give Ye Them To Eat” (GYTTE) program do not own vehicles and are limited to bus travel between their villages and major towns. Often it is necessary for them to walk out of their communities in order to catch a bus in a near-by town. A mission vehicle is a necessary tool for a rural development program. The 2001 van will get quite the workout as it is pressed into service with GYTTE’s outreach ministry in south-central Mexico. It will be used in all aspects of the program.

Agriculture, Community and Livestock Development: Groups from many parts of the country come to the GYTTE offices in the City of Puebla where a staff member drives them two hours south to the program’s Tree of Life Training Center in Tlancualpican. Once there the people experience the training course they petitioned, be it in agriculture, community or livestock development. They also visit communities where families have put the technology into practice. By the time they return to Puebla to travel back to their villages they have learned to use a technology that is environmentally safe and appropriate for their communities and resources. They have also learned how to teach these technologies to others. Two training events will take place this month, March, with villagers from the state of Veracruz.

Community & Family Health: The van serves as transportation for the women training as community-based primary health workers. Over a period of eighteen months the women are driven to GYTTE’s Tree of Life Training Center three times for their Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Health Courses. The vehicle is also used to transport health workers to the four regional meetings held twice a year for ongoing education classes. This type of transportation is also needed to carry the teaching materials and health workers to the 4 to 6 medical teams that visit the two rural clinics in the Southeast Annual Conference each year. While hundreds of people are waiting in line to see the doctors and dentists, the women teach preventative measures that address many common health issues. The medical teams and regional meetings for this semester take place between the months of January and May.

Church & Faith Development: The van carries GYTTE’s teaching staff and teaching materials to training events in the three districts of the Southeast Annual Conference. In these workshops clergy and laity learn how to use and teach Christian Education Curriculum developed by the program staff. Age-level teaching and participatory teaching methods are taught so churches can insure learning takes place in the classroom setting. The next workshops will be held in April and June.

The A.W.A.R.E. Program: The 15 passenger people-mover is the mode of travel for the work/study teams and volunteer groupings that come to learn, work and experience rural Mexico. In fact, the van is in use at this time with the last group of the season. Ten volunteers have come from Indiana and Pennsylvania to work with the GYTTE staff by offering their construction skills at the Tree of Life Training Center. Work-study teams come to serve each fall and winter.

At the Tree of Life Training Center the donkeys are great at plowing the fields and terraces as well as for hauling agricultural supplies and tools, but when it comes to transporting fifteen people at a time, between point A and point B, the van does a much more efficient job. Thank you for taking the purchase of this 15-passenger van into consideration in your mission giving.