Solar Oven Partners

This hemisphere's poorest, hungriest people live in areas of Mexico and the Caribbean. We want to make a long-term difference so we have chosen a project for improvement in food resources, health and environment—solar cooking. We are Solar Oven Partners (SOP). Canyon Lake UMC is a partner church.

For more than 18 years, we have sent Volunteers in Mission and financial support to Haiti. Now God has opened new doors in Sierra Leone, the Dominican Republic, both under the umbrella of the General Board of Global Ministries. Like SOP, these projects are church-wide Advance Projects, supported by other conferences as well as the Dakotas Conference. In Arizona, another mission is developing in Navajo Country. 

We have opportunities to send Volunteers in Mission to these missions to build ovens and educate about solar cooking and water pasteurization. 

The late CLUMC Missions Chair Larry Burkhead worked with Haitians to build solar ovens and served on the Advisory Board for Dakotas Conference Solar Oven Partners. Burkhead died in 2017.

As an Oven-a-Month Partner church through our budget, we provide supplies, training, shipping and staff ( that translates into 20 life-changing solar ovens for 20 families each year. Some of our members also support SOP with personal giving.

We support SOP through Alternative Christmas gifts. 

Learn more on SOP's official website or follow breaking news on Facebook. Solar Oven Partners is a United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) project that works to place solar ovens in the hands of the poor in deforested lands. SOP works with the indigenous church and relief organizations to help alleviate human suffering and environmental destruction, following the UMVIM motto of Christian Love in Action!