Farmville District United Methodist Women

Transcription

1 Farmville District United Methodist Women Fall 2014 SOCIAL ACTION AWARDS GOLD Antioch-Cumberland SILVER Boydton Charlotte C. H. Farmville Main Street New Hope Providence Regular Clover Prospect/Ebony MISSION TODAY UNITS Gold Antioch-Cumberland Bethel-Dillwyn Boydton Charlotte Court House Cherry Hill Farmville Fields Keysville Kingswood LaCrosse Mt. Carmel Mt. Laurel Olive Branch-South Brunswick Payne Memorial Prospect-Ebony Providence Shiloh Silver Antioch-Lunenburg Clover Jamieson Memorial Lawrenceville Main Street Memorial Mt. Pleasant New Hope Rehoboth Salem-Dillwyn Scottsburg South Hill Mission Today Units Crewe Evergreen Grace Mt. Harmony Rocky Mount Shady Grove Trinity/Tabernacle Ward s Chapel READING PROGRAM Total no. units on District= 56 Total no. units reporting= 21 Total no. books read= 790 Completing Plan I = 42 Completing Plan II = 10 Completing Plan III = 4 Completing Plan IV = 7 Total no. completing a plan = 63 Total no. of adult & Youth readers = 173 Total no. of children readers = 4 Total no. of children s books read = 2 Total no. Subscriptions to RESPONSE = 35 Total no. Subscriptions to NEW WORLD OUTLOOK = 17 Most books read: Faye Asal = 35 Antioch/Cumberland Rev. Patricia Neilsen = 29 Cherry Hill Church with the most books read: Cherry Hill = 116 Farmville = 110 1

2 Farmville District UMW 5 & 6 Star Units Star Units (6 Units) Cedar Grove Charlotte Court House Clover Mt. Harmony New Hope Rehoboth 6 Star Units (30 Units) Elizabeth Betsey Davis (District Member) Antioch Cumberland Antioch Lunenburg Bethel Dillwyn Boydton Centenary Cumberland Cherry Hill Crenshaw Crewe Evergreen Farmville Fields Jamieson Memorial Kenbridge Keysville Lawrenceville LaCrosse Main Street Memorial Appomattox Mt. Carmel Mt. Laurel Rilee Circle Olive Branch/S. Brunswick Payne Memorial Prospect/Ebony Providence Salem/Dillwyn Salem/North Amelia Scottsburg Shady Grove Shiloh RAINBOW GIVERS 2014 Loretta Benninghove Keysville Betsy Davis District Member Johnna Fross Olive Branch/Brunswick Mary Fulton Farmville District Treasurer Betsy Hanmer Farmville District President Keysville Zanie H. Jamerson Salem Dillwyn Alice Johnson Farmville District Secretary Olive Branch/Brunswick Shirley Martin Payne Memorial Patricia Neilsen Cherry Hill Geraldine Sanderson Virginia Conference Treasurer Cumberland Marjorie White Payne Memorial 2

3 District President Betsy Hanmer Greetings to all from the Leadership Team of the Farmville District United Methodist Women! I hope everyone who attended the District Day on Saturday, September 27 enjoyed the meeting and also learned more about our national mission project Wesley Community Service Center in Portsmouth. Thank you for your monetary gifts and donations to the Center. We need to have a Farmville District field trip to the Center so you can see your contributions being used. Thank you to everyone that had a part in planning and implementing the meeting. It takes everyone! There were 117 who registered for the Day. I still have some of your packets which contain your program books for 2015 and other important information. Please contact me about the best way to get them to you. If we have to mail them, they will be very expensive. I want you to have them as soon as possible. If you do not have the certificates you were awarded, please contact me. I mailed the ones I had the week after our meeting. Our Advent Day Apart will be at Crewe United Methodist Church on Saturday, December 6. I hope to see a lot of you there. It is a wonderful spiritual time in the season of such busyness. Jane Smith, our Spiritual Growth Coordinator, has planned the program. More information follows in this newsletter. The Leadership Team is planning a Training Day on Saturday, January 31. After the Leadership Team meets on November 1, more information will be available about this. We will give you more information at the Day Apart. All unit officers and prospective unit officers should attend. I will be attending the Conference Annual Meeting on Friday through Sunday, October I have to go on Friday to attend the Executive Meeting. Let me know of any concerns. Please invite me to your meetings. Continue to keep faith, hope, and love in action. You do make a difference in the world. God bless you in your work. District Vice President Hedy Thomas Greetings, Once again God has his brush in hand and is coloring our world in beautiful fall colors. As I sit on my porch, cup of coffee in hand, I am awe struck watching the leaves change daily, and I think of The Heavens Resound with His Praises Eternal, this grand anthem by Ludwig von Beethoven. On August 17th it was my pleasure to visit with the Unit of UMW at Evergreen, UMC. We had breakfast together, I presented the program and stayed through their business meeting. Again, I stand amazed at the dedication to our purpose with these lovely ladies. The 42nd Annual Farmville District meeting was an enjoyable event. The Southside School of Dance students, under the leadership of Joan Tipton, performed a liturgical dance (Psalm 150) of graceful interpretation. Our speaker, John Hatcher, stayed right with our theme, A Calling for This Time, and gave an interesting account of The Wesley Community Center, Inc. of Portsmouth, VA of which he is the Executive Director. The center remains as the only active national mission institution here in Virginia Conference. It is one of our projects which we support. (Continued on page 4) 3

4 (Continued from page 3) District Vice President Rosalynde Robertson blessed us with music and voice, what a gift. Faye Asal, Marjo Mullins, Susan Parks and Doris Schodt served as ushers. Carol Fields served as our Registrar. A big thank you to all who made our day successful. During the business meeting we welcomed the new officers and said farewell to the outgoing officers. A big thank you for a job well done. The lunch served by Blackstone C & R Center was again well prepared and tasty. If you were unable to attend this year please mark your calendar for next year. We will meet on Wednesday, September 23rd, I wish each of you and your families a lovely autumn and a peaceful blessed holiday season ahead. Mark your Calendar!!!! December 6th, 2014 Advent/Day Apart at Crewe UMC in Blackstone, Saturday from 10:00am 11:30am. Special speaker: Mrs. Kiok Cho. March 14th, 2015 Prayer Breakfast at Brian s Steakhouse in South Hill. SOCIAL ACTION Kathleen Mitchell, District Coordinator Many social issues face our world today. United Methodist Women focus on those that most affect our women, children and youth. Over the past several decades, United Methodist Women have been working on women s rights, health care, economic justice, racial justice, public education, support of children s rights and global justice. Our Farmville District s Social Action Priorities for 2014 were Poverty, Environmental Issues, and Human Trafficking. Our units worked on all three priorities this year and I was very impressed with the results and the different avenues followed by our women. We have 56 UMW units in our district and 9 sent in the Social Action Award Reporting Form. That is one more unit reporting than last year. I hope to keep encouraging all units so more reports will be sent in at the end of August Awards were announced at our 42 nd Meeting. Annual CONGRATULATIONS, LADIES for your work! For 2015, there will be TWO priorities for our units to consider: Poverty & Human Trafficking. EDUCATION AND INTERPRETATION Elaine Chipley, District Coordinator HAPPY FALL Y ALL, What a wonderful time of the year! The weather is beginning to get cooler and how blessed we are to live in such a beautiful world!! God certainly is a great artist in the fall.all the reds, gold, purples, oranges. Enjoy the beauty of our earth and remember daily to give thanks to God for all his bountiful blessings. I missed seeing all my wonderful UMW friends at the Farmville UMW District Day. I appreciate Betsy Hanmer s sharing with you the units who have worked so hard this year to complete the items on the Mission Day Form. We have 56 UMW units in our district and we had 37 units complete their forms.66% participation. We were striving for 75%, but we were a little short. However, the good news was more of our units this year were GOLD units. We had 17 Gold units, 12 Silver units and 8 Mission Today Units. This means that more of the units are doing more things to fulfill our purpose as active UMW units. Thanks so much to all of you. I appreciate all your efforts and may you continue to (Continued on page 5) 4

5 (Continued from page 4) Education and Interpretation strive to do all that you can to help women, children and youth here in our state, our nation and our world. I wanted to share with you some of the many ways the units on our district have been involved in this year. I feel this is helpful as perhaps we ll learn some new ways that our own units may be more involved in being Christ s hands, feet, and voices. Most all units contribute kits to conference. Many participate in Back Pack Buddies and collecting school supplies to help local schools. Books were collected and distributed to low income children. Some women help with school tutoring programs and reading to children in local libraries. Many churches held Community VBS. A Sock and Undie Sunday was observed in one unit s church service and the collected socks and undies were taken to local elementary schools. Several units helped with Children s Sabbath Services. Activities such as Bake Sales were held to help local youth. Children were helped in Camp Loud and Clear and All God s Children Camps. Children at Henry Fork and Wesley Community Service Center were helped with various donations and some units bought ducks, chickens, etc. through the Heifer Project. What great ways to help God s children! Some other ways we helped women and families were assisting in Food Pantries, Soup Kitchens, Gleaning, Clothes Closets, Meals on Wheels, Salvation Army, Society of St. Andrews, Heart Havens, cleaning up roadways, Madeline s House, taking food to workers at Free Clinics, and Kingsway Prison Ministry. Sponsoring Green events such as ice cream socials, salad dinners, wedding luncheons, etc. helps to protect God s world that he has asked us to master and manage. Some units actually wrote to local and state representatives and senators regarding such issues as immigration. As you can see the UMW on the Farmville District have been quite busy over the past year. We have helped so many people and we should all give ourselves a great big THANK YOU. We may have small units but we have big hearts and that is what is important. I will congratulate you on your efforts and I know that next year we will continue to be loyal servants and spread God s love throughout our local communities, our state, our nation and our world. I hope to see all of you at our Advent Day Apart. Blessings and Thanks. DISTRICT SECRETARY Alice Johnson Dear UMW Sisters, Last month s District Day Meeting was so much fun for me. I really enjoyed seeing some of you that I only get to see at these District events. Some of you I met for the first time ever even though I knew your name and may have spoken to you on the phone and it will be so good to have a picture of you in my mind when we talk again. Our speaker, John Hatcher, was really a cheerleader for UMW during his speech. It always feels good to be recognized for the good that you do. While we know that the ultimate glory belongs to God alone, we can bask in that praise for a few minutes and use the inspiration to continue to do good works. It s that time of year when we need to think about electing local officers for next year. As soon as you do so, please send me your Local Officer Report and don t forget to fill in the membership information that is requested on the bottom of that report this year. I have already received one report and it feels so good to get that information typed into my computer early rather than having to wait until the last minute and do 56 of them at 5

6 SPIRITUAL GROWTH Jane Smith, Cooridnator once. Thank you so much for all that you do. As the Advent Season approaches, I find myself pondering our UMW Day Apart theme, Rekindling the Sacred, and wondering what changes these thoughts may evoke in my preparations for the Christmas holidays. To rekindle means to revive a light, to set on fire or to animate once again that which brings a sense of reverence to God. Have you ever felt that the hustle and bustle of Christmas makes your spiritual flame a bit weak? Does the secular world drown out the sacredness of the season? When God calls during Advent, I d like to answer like Mary and say, Here am I, your servant to follow your Word. But I may be too busy baking cookies to even hear God s voice. When God calls during Advent, I d like to hear the angels singing the Good News in Bethlehem, but all the noise at the shopping mall may drown out their song. When God calls during Advent, I d like to have the faith Joseph had to accept the unbelievable, but I know the Christmas rush will just bring more stress. Yes, at all ages and stages we need to rekindle the sacred and personally experience the birth and presence of Jesus, our Savior.. So come with me to our Advent Day Apart, December 6th at 10:00am at Crewe United Methodist Church. Mrs. Kiok Cho will be the speaker, and lunch will be served by the Crewe UMW. Grace and Peace. Farmville District Treasurer Mary Fulton Dear Friends and Family UMW Members, I hope everyone is having a wonderful fall. Our year of 2014 seems to be flying by and we will soon be into We had a great showing of remembrance and generosity this District meeting with our Candleburning. This year our total offering was $5, That is a fantastic amount to share with neighbors in need. We also had 11 Rainbow givers this year. The Rainbow givers were down by 4 this year, so if you are thinking of becoming a rainbow giver maybe 2015 is the year for you. We are well on our way to meeting our pledge for this year and with our commitment we can do it again this year. Most of the units will be taking our World Thank You Offering in the fall. Try to remember what you have and what others do not have when you plan your giving for this offering. Of course the Ebola crisis will require a great deal of mission help this year. Please remember that all money should be turned in by the first Friday in December in order for me to close out our books in a timely fashion. I hope all of you have wonderful holidays and a nice time as you celebrate our country and our Lord with your families. 6

7 Farmville District UMW Advent/Day Apart Rekindling the Sacred Saturday, December 6, 2014 Crewe United Methodist Church, Crewe, VA Registration: 9:30am Program: Lunch: 10:00am 11:30am Speaker will be Mrs. Kiok Cho, our Bishop s wife. Offering will go to United Methodist Family Services. Any gifts or items will go to Kingsway Prison Ministry. (SMALL legal pads, toothpaste and chapstick) Lunch will be furnished by Crewe UMW. Please register by November 22, Send names to Ms. Carol Fields 114 Lakasie Drive Farmville, VA

8 Communication Coordinator Marilyn Johnson 449 Nelson Lane Charlotte Court House VA Farmville District UMW Advent/Day Apart Rekindling the Sacred Saturday, December 6,