First United Methodist Presbyterian Church

M A Y 2013
NEW LIFE REFLECTIONS
First United Methodist
Presbyterian Church
In trying to come up
with an article for
this month’s newsletter, and knowing
that in May we celebrate Mother’s day, I
ran across this article
by Leslie Wilson
from Chicken Soup
for the mother of preschooler’s Soul.
I hope that you enjoy.
You might be a mommy if…
Every shirt you own has spit-up on
the shoulder. Must-see TV includes
Barney, Arthur and Disney Playhouse. You carry a diaper bag instead of a purse. You analyze baby’s
bodily functions with women you
just met.
“Sleeping in” is when the
clock reads 6:30 a.m. You never go
anywhere without baby wipes. You
sleep with a baby monitor a foot
away from your head. With each
subsequent child, you’ve progressed
from sterilizing the pacifier to washing it off to blowing on it, invoking
the three second rule, your children
are better dressed than you. You used
to be known by your first name, now
your Jordan’s mommy. You store
five sizes of cloths in your closet.
You call your husband on his cell
phone in order to have a real conversation with him. You go to bed at
12:30 a.m. and get up at 5:00 a.m.
thankful for the extra sleep. Excitement means pampers are on
sale. You consider PBJs and
Cheetos a nutritious meal. You
can change from lounging
sweats casual to night-on-thetown glamorous in three-and-ahalf minutes. “Doing lunch”
means meeting three friends
and their preschoolers at the
McDonald’s play place. Hearing the words, “I’m done,” from
the bathroom sends chills up
your spine. You can pee with
three children watching you and
only two of them are yours.
You spend more on babysitters
than you do on utilities. If you
were trapped for days in your
car, you could survive on the
Cheerios and French fries on
your floorboards. You can tell
what your daughter ate for
breakfast, lunch and dinner by
looking at the front of her Tshirt. You willingly hug and
kiss a kid who has sticky fingers, sweat-drenched hair and
milk mustache. You’re overworked, overcommitted and underappreciated-and you wouldn’t trade your life for anything
in the world.
www. montgomerycitychurch.org
bucket and cleaning supplies – find themselves suddenly
vulnerable. What changes after an event like Sandy is
that people who aren't accustomed to needing help suddenly need help. They have needed to 'muck out' their
homes. So things like the CWS buckets have been greatly
needed."
May 2013
CHURCH WORLD SERVICE BLANKETS+
PROGRAM
As in previous years, our congregation is engaged
in the Blankets+ program. For each $5.00 gift, a
blanket is purchased for use somewhere in our
world. If you wish to give a blanket or blankets in
honor or memory of a special person, simply write
in their name (and contact information, if in honor
of someone) and we will make note of that. We
will complete the Blankets+ program on Mother’s
Day, May 12.
Blankets+ is a special mission opportunity for all
ages. Some 8,000 congregations and groups across
the U.S. hold CWS Blankets+ events, providing
funds to help people in need around the world.
For over 60 years, CWS has worked in partnership
with local communities to identify their needs and
access the resources they need to build the foundation for a more viable future, including:
This brings a reminder that our congregation is also collecting supplies for cleanup buckets. A shopping list is
available in the narthex of the church, or you can hand
funds to one of our mission team (Dave Barker, Rev.
Hankinson, Janet Heim, Joan Smith or Val Spirz) and we
will do the shopping for you. Contents for a bucket cost
approximately $50.00 so consider sharing the expense
with your Sunday school class or other families.
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
The mission team has lost a valuable member this month.
Lavon Colbert has indicated she can no longer serve with
us. We will certainly miss her servant spirit and willing
hands!
However, that means we have openings on the team for
more members. If you have an interest in missions, (no
special skills are required!) simply let us know and we
will be happy to chat with you about what we do. Mission is an important part of our lives as Christians, and
Blankets, tents, food and other emergency supthis may be just what God is calling you to do.
plies in the wake of a disaster
Tools and seeds for refugees returning home to
replant their fields
Wells for families living in drought prone areas
to provide clean, safe water to drink and to irrigate
crops and gardens
Literacy training and microcredit for women struggling to realize their potential.
CWS accounted for blankets purchased in 2012:
9,390 blankets were used in Hurricane Sandy relief.
Additionally, 7,825 blankets were used in the US,
including 330 dispersed in the Missouri Bootheel
area for long term recovery. 4,980 blankets were
distributed in Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
These figures do not account for the international
Blankets+ distribution.
Following is a note from Rev. Tom Goodhue of
Long Island, NY written Nov. 28, 2012, nearly a
month after Sandy hit shore in NY and NJ:
“Those who never thought they would ever need
assistance – say, in the form of a blanket, or a
YOU DID IT AGAIN!
Over the several Sundays of Lent, our congregation gave
generously to the “Help Change the World” offering collected by our children. Your gifts, totaling $645.37, have
been added to the Buddy Pack account. The communitywide committee for this program in the local school system is doing the myriad of paperwork to achieve taxexempt status. We will keep you informed on that committee’s progress.
FESTIVAL OF SHARING
While the Festival is still several months away (October
19), the mission team has made its first delivery of kits to
Columbia. Additionally, supplies were delivered to the
Mel West Container Ministry.
Continued (over)
SAVE IT - DON’T PITCH IT!
Shop sales for cleaning supplies for either the church
food drive or a cleanup bucket
Used medical equipment (crutches, walkers, wheelchairs or even wheelchair parts)
PET NEWS
March 28: 182 PETs shipped to Jordan to go to a huge refugee camp for Syrian refugees.
April 1: 32 Child sized PETs to Chad.
From the PET workshop in Columbia: There will possibly be a PET distribution to Guatemala the end of
May. The distribution partner, Hope Haven International Ministries, is moving into a new warehouse so does
not have the exact dates yet of when it will be, it depends on how the move goes. At this time we are just trying to determine if there are people who might be interested in going to see if we have enough interest to send
a team. If you are interested please email either Susan at [email protected] or Gary at
[email protected].
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Family and Children Events
The Joy Singers did a wonderful job with their musical “I Am A Promise” on the 21st. This is a
great group of kids and youth that put their hearts into their performance along with a great choir
leader, Jan Hankinson. Also great helpers with this were Janet Heim, Terry Hadfield, and Julie
Hankinson. Thanks to all the children and adults that made it a success.
Sunday, May 12—Joy Singers will sing at both worship services for Mother’s Day.
Wednesday, May 22 will be our last Wonderful Wednesday until next fall when school starts. Thanks to all
the many volunteers who have made this a success.
Sunday, May 26—Rev. Hankinson is doing a sermon towards prayer. My group of Wonderful Wednesday
children will have an informal discussion during children’s time at worship services about the “5 Parts of
Prayer” they have been learning along with signing and a little poem presentation.
Sunday, June 2 from 4pm-7pm—District Coop Family Night at United Methodist Church in Hermann, Mo.
This is an attempt to see if area Methodist churches would like to do some children and youth activities together since some churches have a limited number of children and youth. They are going to have a pizza and
game night with several other small Methodist churches in the Montgomery and Gasconade county area. The
group is opening it to all ages this time for a meet and greet. Parents are welcome to go but our youth leaders
will be taking some vehicles to this if the kids just want to go.
Wednesday, June 5—Trip to the Zoo for children and youth. Adults are also welcome if they want to go.
The zoo itself is free but there are plans to buy some sea lion show tickets, train ride tickets, and children’s
zoo tickets for our children and youth. We will try to leave by 8:30 and take a picnic lunch. If you would
be willing to take a car please let us know. I will be putting out a sign up sheet in the foyer soon because to
get discounted tickets for our group, we must order them two weeks ahead.
Tuesday, June 18—Mission trip for the children to the New Florence Care Center.
10:00 a.m. The activities director has asked us to help residents with a craft that she will have and will also
provide materials for the children to do it. I thought we might take a picnic lunch to Grahams Cave afterwards if I can find some volunteers to go with us. Let me know if you would be willing to go with us and
help supervise.
July 22-26—Bible School Event Theme is “Everywhere Fun Fair-Where God’s World Comes Together” There will be a simple meal every night followed by bible stories, discovery center, crafts,
games and snacks each night for preschool through middle school.
If you have questions you can contact Karen Miller, youth leader at 573-564-3131(home), 636-3595757 (cell), or [email protected] (e-mail)
Fabulous Spring Flea Fling Thing will be
held on Saturday May 4th.
Start doing your Spring cleaning and donating unwanted items to the Pairs & Spares for this annual
event. They will have their usual luncheon items
and lots of goodies and treasures for you to find.
Plan on coming out to join them and shop till you
drop inside and outside with the many vendors that
will show their wares.
Spring
Flea Fling
May 4th
FOOD PANTRY
SUNDAY May 12th
The Food Pantry collection for
May will be held on the 12th.
The most needed items at anytime of the year are
Jell-O, Puddings, Mac & Cheese, Cereal, Biscuit
Mixes or Muffin Mixes. This month our featured
items will be canned fruit or meats, jelly, pudding,
jello, Jiffy corn mix, mixed vegetables, Pork n’
Beans, and cleaning supplies. They are always in
need of personal hygiene items, cleaning items or
paper products at any time. While doing your
weekly shopping pick up a few of the items listed
above and drop it in the grocery cart in the Narthex
on the 12th.
The food items collected in February were as follows: 22 boxed dinners, 10 side dishes, 3 canned
meats, 9 canned goods, 4 pasta, 1 pasta sauce, 8
cereals, 5 pancake mixes, 3 bottles syrup, 2 hygiene products, 1 laundry product and 6 miscellaneous items.
We are continually thankful for our congregations
willingness to help out with this mission. We are a
blessed Congregation and the Susannas are proud
to be a part of it.
Thank you once again for making a difference one
can of food at a time.
The Susannas
Susanna Circle
This month we held our meeting at Kathie
Hoette’s home with a good turnout. It was
nice to have Jackie Nobles back from Arizona
and with us once again.
We did not have much business to discuss this
month, but we always find something to talk
about. It’s good to visit with friends. One of
the main topics of discussion was the kitchen
and the progress the plans are making. The
other topic discussed was our upcoming Old
Fashioned Ice Cream Social on July 4th later
this year. We’ll hold it on the parking lot and
the lawn at church. Homemade ice cream will
be the highlight. Also we will be serving cake,
hotdogs, brats, and chips with lemonade and
iced tea to drink. We hope you will make
plans to attend and then stay to watch the fireworks display from the fairgrounds with us.
We meet once a month and encourage any
women of the church to please feel welcome
to attend. The next meeting date is May 9th at
the church. It will be hosted by Beth and
Dear Church Family,
Thank you so much for all your expressions of
love and concern since my accident. I have appreciated the prayers, visits, flowers, cards,
food, calls and offers to help. All of which
have been beneficial to my healing. You are
truly a loving and caring church. May God
bless each one of you.
Marge O. Miller
********************************************
Retirement Celebration for
Debbie Stokes
Thank You Debbie
for your 10 years of
service to our
church!
The Easter Sunday Egg Hunt
Our Newest Member
Terri Broz
Lo
ts
of
Fu
n!
Youth News
The youth have been busy this month. We completed a service project on
April 14th, raking leaves to help a church member clean up her yard from
the winter. We had lots of rakes, gloves, a wheel barrow, and much help to
complete the project.
We also enjoyed a fun event at the Mexico Lanes for a bowling event on
Sunday, April 21st. Strikes, spares, and lots of fun was had by all who
participated.
The Wild Grace Bible Study by Max Lucado has been excellent. We have had 15 youth participating in this regularly. We are learning much about how God reaches out to us and shares
his grace and unconditional love with us.
Our fun event for May will be a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the parsonage from 4-6 p.m. on
May 5th. All youth are invited to attend. We will have dinner and games and lots of fun and
fellowship.
For more information about youth activities please contact Jan
Hankinson or Leslie West, youth leaders.
Upcoming Youth Events:
Wednesday, May 1st - 6:30 p.m. Youth Meeting (planning upcoming events and activities)
7:00 p.m. Wild Grace Bible Study
Sunday, May 5th 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Cinco de Mayo celebration (dinner and games) at the
parsonage
Wednesday, May 8th - 7:00 p.m. Wild Grace Bible Study
Sunday, May 12th - 8:00 and 10:30 a.m. - Joy Singers perform at both services
Wednesday, May15th - 7:00 p.m. Wild Grace Bible Study
Wednesday, May 22nd - 7:00 p.m. Wild Grace Bible Study
Sunday, June 2nd - District Youth Coop Event at Hermann - Family Game Night/Pizza Party
June 15-22 - Mission trip to Mobile, Alabama
***************************************************************************
Important Event Dates & Meetings in April to Remember
Spring Flea Fling, Saturday, May 4
Finance Meeting, Wednesday, May 15 @ 7:00 p.m.
Worship Team Meeting, Monday, May 20 @ 7:00 p.m.
Friendship Dinner, Saturday, May 25 @ 12:00 noon
Trustee Meeting, Sunday, May 26 @
Alpha Celebration Dinner, Monday, April 29th @ 6:00 p.m.
Mark these dates on your calendar!!
Each Wednesday evening offers the following activities at our church:
5:15-6:00 p.m.
Dinner in the Fellowship Hall (the meal is prepared
each week by volunteers and a donation basket is
available to help offset the cost)
6:00 – 6:45 p.m. Joy Singers (for children ages 3 and up) meets in the
Sanctuary (Led by Jan Hankinson, Janet Heim, and Karen Miller)
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Women’s Bible Study – meets in the youth/
young adults room Studying Namesake
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Men’s Bible Study – meets in the Seeker’s room
(Led by Gary Heim and John Fischer)
6:00-7:00 p.m.
Adult Study – meets in the Young Adults room
(Led by Jim and Cheryl Wisdom )
6:45 – 7:15 p.m. Children’s Lesson/Study – meets in the
Youth Director’s room (led by Tammy Robinson
and Karen Miller)
7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Youth Bible Study – meets in the youth/young
adults room (Led by Jan Hankinson – studying
Wild Grace by Max Lucado)
7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Choir Practice – in the Sanctuary
Wonderful Wednesdays
Church Camp Opportunities
The Wonderful Wednesdays will conclude
for this spring on Wednesday, May 23rd,
since this is the last week of the current
school year. They will resume when school
starts. Thanks to everyone who has made
their success possible, especially to
the cooks and the study leaders.
It is time to register for Church Camp this summer. There are lots of great camping opportunities for
ages Pre-Kindergarten (with a parent) - Adult, so
check out the camping brochure and make
your plans to go to camp this year. The
church has scholarship money available to
help those interested. Contact the church
office for more information.
Kitchen Remodeling Plans
After 20 years of talking and wishing for a remodeled kitchen it is finally going to happen.
Our church is 43 years old and any building would need improvements after that amount of
time. There was a kitchen committee formed and there have been many months of discussions.
The committee agreed on plans to remodel using the space we have. The kitchen committee is
made up of Art Hoffman, Jean Jones, Floy Oliver, Valerie Spirz, Rev. Ed Hankinson, Jim Davis,
and the late Juanita Deeker. The plans were presented to the trustees committee and approved.
The finance committee advised of the plans and then the board gave the final approval at this
past board meeting.
The plans are for a new 10 burner double oven stove, vent hoods, dishwasher, bid for electrical work, floor, and a bid for new cabinets. Jerry Schulze has graciously volunteered to install
the cabinets at no charge. Some of the pricing is 6 months old and we realize that prices may
have gone up some. These are the prices:
Brandkamp – cabinets
$10,485
Stove
$ 2,600
Dishwasher
$ 3,780
Central Heating & Cooling
$ 5,000
Stove hoods
$ 2,000
Floor
$ 1,000
Total $25,665
The board approved $10,000 from the Albert McCune fund left to the church after his death.
The Susannas have given $5,000. We need to raise another $15,000 before we can start the remodeling project.
We will start a designated kitchen fund. Please mark you contribution for this fund in the
memo space on your check so it will be credited to the kitchen fund or enclose your contribution
in an envelope marked kitchen fund. This project will take all of us working together to make it
happen. We encourage you to give generously to help make this needed project a reality.
Mission Needs In Our Own Church
Being the new kid on the block at board meetings and com sessions, I have been attending several
different meetings and learning a lot about our budget, finances, and needs. Our budget increases every
year due to many new programs and normal cost increases in general needs--like utilities, food, and
supplies. Right now I am hearing several needs of the church that in my way I consider missions. Our
church is wonderful in supporting missions in foreign countries, some local mission needs, and different state’s mission needs when there are disasters. But now we are looking for some mission needs in
our own church. Some may argue that they are not needs and definitely not missions but please let’s
take a look at this more closely. Some of the ladies of our church are asking for an updated kitchen facility. How does this rank as a mission? This year we have had meals for Wonderful Wednesdays for
children, youth, and adults. This seems to be a great mission in bringing these people together to learn
about God. Having an efficient kitchen facility to provide this need would be a great help to our wonderful volunteer cooks who provide this mission. Also we serve many, many funeral dinners. Some of
the families have made such wonderful comments about this mission to them—providing them a place
to have a quiet setting for extended family and friends after their loved ones funeral. Maybe some of
them have not been in a church that much and it may be the turning point for them to see the need for a
church family. It could be the little push they needed to start attending a church of their own. Also this
year we have provided meals for the Alpha group—a group that helps people who have not been coming to church to learn about God—in other words the mission of bringing new Christians to Christ.
And of course, meals for Friendship dinners, bible school, youth events and fellowship tea are other
times we use our kitchen facilities!!! Wow, that updated kitchen would be brimming with mission
work.
Another need we have is a new roof for the parsonage. Our minister and his wife open the parsonage to youth group parties, Sunday School parties, bible study groups, women’s groups, and many other
church related activities. The church is obligated to maintain our parsonage as any homeowner is but it
is such a joy to do this when we know we are always welcome there. Ed and Jan are doing their part
towards mission work opening their home to groups and sharing their love of God. We need to keep
their home in good repair to carry out this mission work.
The last need we have is repairing the parking lot. Providing good church facilities is always a mission because this is where we hear about God, fellowship with God, teach about God, and support one
another in God’s ways. Our need to keep our facilities in good repair is no different than sending
money to a sister church in Africa or some other church in a foreign country or in the U.S. that is in
need.
We have these three “mission opportunities”-the kitchen, the roof, and the parking lot- before us in
the near future. That is a lot to pay for in the next year or two and costs of maintenance just keep going
up. If we would give some of our mission giving to our church like you would to a foreign mission this
would help these costs. If everyone pitches in a little extra to the church like we do when asked to give
to buckets or layettes or nets or heifer projects or water wells, I believe we could achieve these three
needs of the church without depleting our reserves totally. Even our children could be taught that giving a dollar or two out of their piggy banks to these missions will help give them some wonderful
things to enjoy at their church—meals, fellowship, and fun not to mention learning about Jesus and
God. We would not want to quit giving to other missions like we have done in the past, but let us consider giving part of our mission money to the mission needs of our own church so we can continue to
provide a wonderful facility to bring God’s word to the community.
Karen Miller
Crafters Needed for Making Chrismons.
There are patterns for these
ornaments on the table in the narthex. The
guidelines are that they must be made of white
or gold elements or a combination of the two.
Use beads ,cord, old jewelry or whatever you
may be able to incorporate into the design.
There are several patterns to choose
from and we look forward to decorating our Chrismon trees next
Christmas with your designs.
We can't really express our heartfelt feeling for all
that our church family has done for us in the last
couple of weeks. Your prayers and concern while
Jim was having his health issues and all of your
thoughts and prayers, cards and reception held on
my retirement and above all else your caring
thoughts and prayers for the loss of our dear
daughter Cindy will forever be laced upon our
hearts. We truly will miss you all but promise to
come back often. Thank you just doesn't seem
adequate for the acts of kindness that has been
shown to us.
The next Friendship Dinner will
be held May 25h at noon. If you
are a Senior member of our church
and would like to come share in a
wonderful meal and fellowship
time, please contact
Floy Oliver at 564-3494
or the church office at
564-2134
Jim & Debbie Stokes