written by Kelli Reep
February may not sound like an optimum time to travel for a mission project, but the First United Methodist Churches of Bentonville and Bella Vista made the most of the chilly weather when they traveled to Baldwin, LA to volunteer at UMCOR Sager Brown Depot.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is the humanitarian division of the global United Methodist Church and provides resources and volunteer services to people in need. Specifically, it helps neighbors who suffer from natural or human-caused disasters such as famine, hurricane, war, flood, fire, or other events. The goal is to alleviate suffering and serve as a source of help and hope for the vulnerable. First UMC Bentonville, which has been providing volunteers and funds for years, organized a nine-hour trip to UMCOR’s Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, LA the first week of February to organize and verify cleaning, hygiene and menstrual kits, construct wheelchair ramps, assist local nonprofits and grow in their faith as a community of servant leaders. This group was able to fill and verify 1,476 buckets during their week-long stay.
Johnna Kosnoff, certified lay minister and community development coordinator with First UMC Bentonville, helped organize the trip, which included 10 members from Bentonville and two members from First UMC in Bella Vista. She says a north Arkansas volunteer group would travel regularly to Sager Brown the first full week of February every year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sager Brown closed to volunteers as a result and just reopened in March 2023.
According to UMCOR, the Sager Brown Depot collaborates with affiliate warehouses within the United Methodist Relief Supply Network in Alabama, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Donations for supply kits can be sent to or dropped off at the Sager Brown Depot or an affiliate warehouse.
Each year, more than 2,000 volunteers prepare approximately $4 million in relief supplies for shipment from the UMCOR Sager Brown Depot in response to disasters in the United States. UMCOR Sager Brown Depot reaches out to its local neighbors through food distribution, housing rehabilitation projects, and through other community outreach efforts.
“While we were there, volunteers from Georgia and Texas also were helping,” Kosnoff said. “Sager Brown is consistently ramping up its operations to pre-pandemic activity, so we were glad to be a part of that.”
In addition to filling and verifying emergency kits, the volunteers installed 23 shutters on the property, painted, sorted items, and helped other nonprofits with needs in Baldwin.
“A group of us organized the food pantry and clothes closet for a domestic violence shelter in town,” Kosnoff said. “Part of Sager Brown’s overall mission in their community is to meet the needs of its residents wherever possible. The citizens have come to respect what the people at Sager Brown do for them, and they look forward to visiting with them and having some home maintenance accomplished.”
Kosnoff also noted that many of the volunteers from Arkansas received their five-visit pins during their stay, which commemorates the number of times they have helped at Sager Brown.
“One lady, who was my roommate, in fact, went so she could receive her five-visit pin,” she said. “She’ll be 92 in March.”
As much a part of the mission aspect of the trip is its spiritual one. Kosnoff said Sager Brown serves as a spiritual retreat for those who volunteer.
“We had devotionals every evening, which were led by different volunteers from each of the groups in Arkansas, Georgia, and Texas,” she said. “That was really beautiful to just be together in community and have that time together. We had a Vespers service the very last night we were together with the whole community.”
Kosnoff said UMCOR is always in need of volunteers, whether it’s traveling to depots like Sager Brown or participating in activities or fundraising in your home church.
“Churches can get together and build kits and ship them there, or they can raise money and send the funds so the depot can purchase what is needed,” she said. “This is a way to be the hands and feet of Christ and to also grow in community with your congregation and the community you’re serving. It’s just such a beautiful thing.”