The. North Shore United Methodist. July/August Article Featured GBOD Newsletter Romans 12, Issue#238

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1 The North Shore United Methodist July/August 2015 I always think of this time of year as the New Year. For United Methodist Clergy many are moving in July and spending their first Sunday in a new church. I m thankful to be your pastor for another year. As I look back on the past year I m amazed at how God has been able to use us, to mold us, to inspire us and challenge us. I m thankful to be part of a church community that is open to change, that moves as the Spirit moves and responds to the needs of the world. We have been all around the world and all over our community. We have been to Haiti, the Dominican Republic and to Africa, we are still serving in Wimberley and Blanco and looking for new ways to help others serve as responders to this community tragedy. YOU have changed the world last year and I can t wait to see what we will do this year. My expectations for this next year are to be more intentional about connecting new people to each other and to ministry and spiritual growth opportunities. I pray that we can move into a deeper level of engagement and participation in the life of the church out in the world. Church should be a great adventure after all we work for the King of the Universe! I pray that we might engage others to commit to creating a message that says, Don t stop your life to come to church. Come to church as the basis of your life. I want the church to be a place where we are not handing out things to do but interacting with others who have creative plans in their hands. I pray for empowered participants not just regular attenders. My hope is that North Shore will be a place that not only tells people about what God promises to do for the world but that we show our community what Christians do every day to make the world whole. Finally, I don t just want members I want partners. To belong is boring. To become, together as a community, is an adventure! So let s go a little farther together North Shore let s be creative, collaborative and curious. May Jesus change us and may he trust us to change the world! Everything seems impossible until it s done-nelson Mandela In Mission With You, Pastor Kim Article Featured GBOD Newsletter Romans 12, Issue#238 August 4th UMM Breakfast Meeting 7:30 am August 4th UMW General Meeting 10:30am August 7th Dinner & A Movie 6pm August 9th- UMW Green Sunday August 10th-14th Youth week August 16th Blessing of the Backpacks and Picnic August 20th UMW Reading Circle 12:30 in the Youth Room August 26th Women s Bible Study 10:30am August 28th First 5th Quarter right after Football Game Pavilion August Ushers 1st Service David & Debbie Dahl 2nd Service Les & Janet Robertson August Greeters 2nd Service Ron Bryant & Jim Hudson We Can Dig It! What would happen if the people of God were to band together for a specific purpose? Could they help alleviate much of the world s suffering? The North Shore United Methodist Church of Canyon Lake, Texas, believes it is possible! This new church start was birthed by Canyon Lake United Methodist Church just eleven years ago and was chartered and moved into its own facility in Posted at the exit of the parking lot is a sign that reads, You are now entering the mission field. This young church has singularly focused on its mission since day one and has lived it out through intentional hospitality, small-group development, community and global outreach, and the practice of spiritual disciplines. The congregation clearly understands its call to acts of piety and works of mercy. Members intentionally look for opportunities to spread the good news, to serve, to help, to heal and nurture others, and to spread love and kindness. The true measure of the faith of North Shore is not how many people attend, but how many serve the least, the last, and the lost. The people there understand that their mission is not to get the world into the church, but to get the church into the world! Recently, the pastor challenged this lively congregation to consider what they could do by giving just the price of one dinner in order to address the issues of poverty-related diseases. One such disease, dysentery, which is caused -- in part -- by the lack of clean drinking water, needlessly takes the lives of many children throughout many parts of the world. The North Shore congregation did not hesitate to band together to find the ways and means to respond, proclaiming, We can dig it! Using their already established tradition of paying it forward through their Christmas offering, they raised enough money to drill two wells in Uganda to provide clean drinking water for both a village and a school, places that had been identified as the most in need. The children of this village and school will soon be able to partake of precious life -giving water that many often take for granted.

2 United Methodist Men Greetings As Summer 15 grinds along, the UMM continues to refine process and reach-out to our NSUMC Young Dads. We have also intentionally sought-out more community engagement projects. Our late-june fundraiser BBQ was a decided success allowing us to pass along approx. $1,000 split between Angels Among Us and the Rhonda Hunter Memorial Fund. Near-term, we will be supporting The Trustees with landscaping work around the Pavilion as well as light construction work to enclose Sharon Watts pier and beam basement (for use by Angels Among Us). As we continue to explore different meeting schedules and expand the UMM s impact on community life, please join me in prayer to lift up the UMM and encourage our attention to The Holy Spirit s vision. In Christ, Fred Music News I'm starting a revolution and I want you to be a part of it. I'm asking the choir to change words in the hymns we sing. Some examples are changing "thee" and "thou" to "you" and "your" in the hymns. Also changing some of the other old english words, like "wouldst" and "hast" to words we use in spoken English It isn t that I am opposed to tradition. I m not. However, there are times when the old language seems to distance us from the message. Changing the words when it doesn't have a negative impact on the rhyming scheme of the poetry helps us connect with the text. If you sing from the projection you may not notice the difference. We change them there where appropriate. If you sing from the hymnbook, like I do, you might need to make a mental note. Shouldst thou hath concern, wouldst thou let me knoweth! U M W UNITED METHODIST WOMEN Next UMW meeting Tuesday, August 4th 10 am The Creative Hands for Missions will not meet in July or August. Our next meeting will be Thursday, September 10 th. We will meet at Carol Bryant s studio for work on craft items. The UMW bake sale in conjunction with the Methodist Men s BBQ on Sunday June 28 was very successful and we were able to divide the money between Angels Among Us and The Rhonda Hunter Fund. July 16 UMW READING CIRCLE Jan Booth facilitating the third Thursday of each month at 12:30 in the Youth Room (the former nursery). All women of the church are invited. The Reading Circle met. In attendance were Carm Andrews, Ruth Carpenter, Linda Franke, Susan Harris, Diane Kunz, and Jan Booth. We talked about Max Lucado's Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make a Difference. Written with engaging contemporary anecdotes tied to scriptural stories, the book is a good companion to our reminders of "You are now entering the mission field; go be the church." For next month the book from the UMW list category of Education for Mission, the Circle selected The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Hope to see all of you on Thursday, August 20th at 12:30 p.m. in the Youth Room! Mission U was a great success July in Kerrville at Mt. Wesley. The studies at Mission U this year are: The Church and People with Disabilities (Social Action study), Latin America: People and Faith (Geographic study) and Created for Happiness: Understanding Your Life in God (Spiritual Growth). Three of our members attended and will be giving our women a report on the studies they attended. UMW women are the best educated faith based group of women in the world. We must be educated to be able to address the needs of marginalized women, children and youth in the world. So plan on coming to the meetings on the first Tuesday of each month and get to know us and our mission, we are much more than a social club! Marty Chrisman 3

3 Children We had a great time at Vacation Bible School! Around 65 kids, 25 youth, and 15 adults enjoyed a great week of fellowship and learning more about God! Thanks to all who volunteered their time and those who donated snacks! It was a whole church effort once again! Mark your calendars for the Blessing of the Backpacks on Sunday, August 16 th! Lunch will be served following the 11:00 service. It will be a day of fun before school starts again! You won t want to miss it! Cross Fit (Followers In Training) is going GREAT! For those of you that are new, Cross Fit is offered during both services for kids ages 4 through 5 th grade. It is designed to be like VBS. Parents drop their kids off in the large room of the Faith center. We meet altogether for music and a Bible story. Then we break the kids into groups and they travel to 3 different stations each Sunday. The stations vary from week to week but include art, cooking, games, drama, and science. Once stations are complete, we get back together in the large room where parents pick their kids up after service. Volunteers are still needed and wanted!! If you are interested in helping please contact me and we will get you involved! Your commitment as a volunteer would be to share your gifts with a small group of kids one Sunday a month! The kids and adults love this approach!! Please make plans to join us! If you have a 3 rd -5 th grader you will want to make plans for your child to join Y.A.C.H.T. (Young Active Christians Hangin Together) Club! Y.A.C.H.T. Club is a group of kids that meets on Sunday evenings for fellowship and worship. A big thanks to Pam & Chris Doepke, and Myra & Darin Zumwalt! This group meets from 5:00-7:00 every Sunday evening. North Shore Youth What a fantastic summer this has been! I am finally recovering from our three weeks of youth craziness and am so proud of all those involved in North Shore s VBS as well as both our two summer U.M.ARMY camps! Our youth ministry continues to grow as we had 35+ students attending our first Youth Week! After each day of VBS, we took our youth on daily fun excursions. From Main Event in San Antonio to water balloon fights at the church, we enjoyed celebrating our youth as they served our community and loved our VBS kiddos so well! We will be having another Youth Week in August and I personally can t wait! After VBS, five of us headed to San Angelo, TX for a week of restoring roofs, building ramps, painting walls, and much much more. Our high school students worked so hard and I couldn t be more proud of them and the leaders they are becoming! After a short 12 hours of rest, we then caravanned with 12 of our middle school students to Mission, TX to work with three different non-profit organizations. Our youth were able to rotate through the P.E.T. Project, the Mission Boys & Girls Club, as well as renovate the local church we were staying at. I continue to be impressed by our students desire to serve with diligence and passion! Make sure to check out photos from our adventures on our Facebook page! As we prepare for the upcoming school year (because the summer is already flying by!!) I am looking forward to 5 th Quarters and getting to cheer on our students at all their events! Be on the lookout for sign-ups and other ways to get involved in this growing ministry! As always, I am here to answer any questions or concerns and ask that you continue to be in prayer for North Shore Youth Ministry! Thanks and God Bless! Melissa Arishita Please let me know if you have any questions about our new programs or suggestions for us! We would love to see more families join our church family so please invite your friends and neighbors! I hope to see you soon!! Sharon LeStourgeon children@northshore-umc.org High Schoolers Come Join us for food, games, music and bon fire. Starts immediately after each Canyon Lake High home game until midnight and it s FREE! 2

4 At the end of each school year, Jan Booth, Volunteer Kids Hope Director, conducts individual interviews with each Kids Hope child who answers eight questions. Here are their responses to the question If you could say anything to your mentor, what would you say? Wes Booth: Thanks for everything you ve done. You re awesome! Billy Daniels: I love you! Bob Franke: I love having him. Nancy Grance: Thank you for helping me with my school work. I really like it when you come. Mike Jordan: You re my best mentor for the whole year! Sharon LeStourgeon: Thanks for being my mentor and for being so nice. You are a really encouraging person that I am happy to meet. Jo Ann Nalley: You helped me a lot [when my mom died]. Dana Naworski: Thank you for being my mentor! Mary Reid: Ms. Mary, you were the best mentor. Bill Wiles: (child not available on day of interviews) Jan Booth: I am going to miss playing pick-up sticks with you. (via School Year Reflections worksheet) August 2nd Communion Offering Backpack Ministry Did you know that there are children in our community who do not have the resources to purchase their own backpacks and school supplies, who go to school the first day with nothing? This year we are supplying any child with the need of a backpack filled with a set of supplies for their grade. If you know of someone in need please call the church office. Women s Ministry Bible Study Mark Your Calendars! Wednesday August 26 th 10:30 a.m. Pastor Kim will kick off this years Women s Ministry with Broken and Blessed by Jennifer Lagrone. We will then pick up the Amazing Collection with Exodus. Broken and Blessed will serve as our Genesis study. A word about Broken and Blessed Every family since the beginning of time has been both broken and blessed. In this six-week study we will embark on a journey through Genesis a book that tells the story of one perfectly imperfect family-from Adam and Eve all the way through Joseph and his brothers. Despite their brokenness, God chose to love them and bless this family so that their blessing might overflow. We will see that God wants to do the same in our imperfect families. You will be challenged to be the change agent in your own family, just as Joseph was in his. And you will know with confidence that every family can be used by God to bring blessing in a hurting and broken world. -Can t wait to be back in the Word with you!- Pastor Kim Marriage Encounter Weekend October What have you done for your relationship lately? Happily ever after doesn t have to be a fairy tale. A great marriage can lead to true happiness. But great marriages take work, and on a Marriage Encounter Weekend you ll develop the tools you need to restore communication, renew your commitment and rekindle your romance. This is a couple-oriented experience comprised primarily of presentations followed by private couple reflection time. It is not a Bible study, lecture series or social weekend. This private and quiet weekend lets you and your spouse concentrate on each other deepening your awareness of each other and the importance of God in your marriage. Weekend presentations include: Exploring Our Personality Styles Communicating Our Feelings Dealing with the Stresses in the World Around Us Learning What it Means to Really Listen Understanding God s Plan for Our Marriage Keeping Our Relationship a Priority And More The focus is on each other as you learn to let the rest of the world fade into the background. For more information contact Bud & Marilyn Good. Or Myra in the church office 4

5 PRAYER MINISTRY Greetings from the Prayer Ministry!!!. We pray all the time, but meet on Sunday mornings at 8:30 AM if anyone would like to join us in the Prayer Chapel in the Education Building. Please stop and say hi to anyone of us. We would be happy to speak to you, take a prayer request or just chat about prayer and how wonderful and privileged we feel it is to be able to take your concerns, joys, praises, etc. before the Lord. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. Psalm 126:6 BLESSINGS - Annie Perez Katie Mason Patti Cahill Susan Fuqua Diane Kunz Joyce Ross Sunday August 16th STEPHEN MINISTRY UPDATE: The month of August has been selected by Pastor Kim to highlight the mission of Stephen Ministry. If you are not really clear about what it is Stephen Ministers do, you ll be happy to hear actual testimonials of individuals who have benefitted from such care givers. During this past year, a lot of behind-the-scenes progress has taken place. A class of five completed the fifty hours of required training, and we have four Stephen Ministers currently assigned to care receivers. Additionally, Kathleen Jones, a member of that first class, is attending the leadership training in July, strengthening our overall team. If you are interested in becoming a Stephen Minister, another class is planned for this fall. Be looking for registration forms in the attendance folders during the month of August. Please see Jimmy or Janeil Adams for more information. and Picnic Come join us as we Celebrate the end of summer Dinner & A Movie Fundraiser Come Join us Friday, August 7th for dinner and a movie. This Fundraiser will help the Mission Team go to the Dominican Republic over Spring Break. Dinner starts at 6pm Movie at 6:30 pm Cost $10 -Pulled Pork Sandwich, Chips and Drink and the movie Do You Believe A dozen different souls all moving in different directions, all longing for something more. As their lives unexpectedly intersect, they each are about to discover there is power in the Cross of Christ even if they don't believe it. Yet. When a local pastor is shaken to the core by the visible faith of an old street-corner preacher, he is reminded that true belief always requires action. His response ignites a faith-fueled journey that powerfully impacts everyone it touches in ways that only God could orchestrate. Spots are still open if you are interested in going on this mission trip. Starting Sunday, July 26th we will have a table in the Narthex where you can pick up a list of school supplies needed this year to hand out to the children in need. Upcoming Emmaus Walks: Men s Walk September 24 th -27 th Walk # 1807 Women s Walk December 3-5 th Walk #1818 (Pastor Kim is Spiritual Director, Nancy Reinecke is Lay Director (Krin Byrd s daughter) Both of these Walks will be held at Camp Young Judea in Wimberley. If you have not attended an Emmaus Walk we encourage you to do so. If you have attended and would be willing to be a sponsor please seek out someone and invite them on this spiritual renewal retreat. Applications are available in the church office. 5