ALFRED — The Alfred United Methodist Women met April 10, 2012, at the church with five members present. The meeting opened with the president, Mary Jo Barringer, leading the group in reciting the UMW purpose. The secretary and treasurer’s reports were give. There were 115 friendship calls made.

The prayer calendar birthday cards, chosen by Mary Jo Barringer, went to Yvette Diaz of Millersville, PA. She is a deaconess. Osie Follrod will have the May card.

The president read a communication for Church World Services about providing kits for the Festival of Sharing, which takes place Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012, at Otterbein University. Ohio collects one third of all the kits collected in the entire United State each year. This helps CWS to respond to many disasters here at home and around the world. In the past year, CWS has responded to tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and famine.

A card was signed fro Doris Dillinger. The president read a poem “Easter Joy.”

Janice Weber had the program titled “International Ministries.” The group read the opening prayer and the leader read Matthew 28: 1-10. The members of the group took part by reading the meditation about the bible reading. The leader distributed biographies from the Regional Missionary Initiative. These told about their missionary work in other countries. The Program closed with the group reading the closing Psalm.

Refreshments were served by Janice Weber.

The next meeting will be May 8, 2012.