Church address: website: southparkersburgumc.org. Sr. Pastor: The Rev. James Plyburn 1813 Rayon Drive Parkersburg, WV 26101

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1 South Parkersburg United Methodist Church Newsletter To Know Christ and to Make Christ Known Thuse News January 2014 Sr. Pastor: The Rev. James Plyburn 1813 Rayon Drive Parkersburg, WV Church Office: Pastor Jim s Cell Phone: ; Parsonage: Church address: spumc1813@gmail.com website: southparkersburgumc.org Pastor s Message Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated the first Sunday of Advent. Our sons were here and enjoyed participating in the worship service and meeting many of you. We appreciate the warm welcome they received on their first visit to South Parkersburg United Methodist Church. Preparations were made throughout the church and in our homes to once again welcome the Christ Child. The sanctuary was beautifully decorated with trees adorned with names of our church family and handmade Chrismon ornaments with Christian symbols. Poinsettias and candles added to the beauty and reminded us of the reason for the season. Many of us joined together for a special Advent study and time of reflection Finding Bethlehem in the Midst of Bedlam on Sunday and Wednesday evenings and found ourselves gathering for the usual meetings and activities along with extra rehearsals for the cantata and slipping away to Ohio for a wonderful day in Amish country! Tell Me the Story of Jesus was a thrilling way to share the Christmas story in song! It was such a blessing to be a part of this very moving cantata. I am so grateful for the wonderful music ministry at South Parkersburg United Methodist Church! Jennifer and I were excited to welcome you to the parsonage for our Open House on December 15 th and appreciate all who took time to come join in the fellowship that afternoon. If you were unable to attend, please know that you are welcome anytime! We wish to thank you for the many cards we received during the holiday and especially for the generous love gift from the congregation. Thank you, thank you! As we entered Christmas week, it was a delight to celebrate with a special meal, program and Birthday Party for Jesus in the CFC! Thanks to everyone who helped plan, decorate, prepare food, perform, attend, and clean up! The gifts you each shared to honor God s greatest gift Jesus were very special! The Live Nativity on December 23 rd and 24 th was a special treat presented by our youth and college students. Thank you! It was freezing cold, but you warmed our hearts and presented a beautiful witness to our community! The season of Advent our time of preparation concluded with the lighting of the Christ candle during our Christmas Eve service. My hope is that you will always remember the sight of the Holy Family as you came forward for communion that evening a tiny baby God s greatest gift sent for each one of us. I pray that you will remember how we shared the light of Christ in our darkened sanctuary and then stepped outside to take the light into the world. May each of us share the light and love of Jesus in the coming New Year with everyone, everywhere! Blessings and Prayers, Pastor Jim - 1 -

2 United Methodist Women Gearing Up for the New Year Commit to the Lord whatever you do and he will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3 Most of us look forward to Christmas with joy and anticipation. Then, almost too quickly, the New Year abruptly arrives a week later. How to view the coming year? With fresh possibilities, renewed potential or clinging to the familiarity of the waning year? Like it or not, times hurls us forward. The New Year is stretching before each of us like a blank piece of white paper. Time to take advantage of the clean slate the New Year provides and set some goals to work toward. There are goals we can all live with if we willingly step out of the comfort zone. Remember making the goals realistic to your age and stage of life will determine whether the goals are attainable or not. Here are some areas we as Christians can consider: Emotional/Relational Goals (Colossians 3:12-13) Often we may need to work on emotional issues or strained relationships, but continually avoid doing so because of the difficulties involved. Think about Forgiveness extend this gift of forgiveness for an old hurt. Let it go and you will get a sense of freedom because you are no longer carrying a grudge. Patience--we can all use more of this in our lives. Physical Goals (1 Corinthians 6:18-20) Following the overindulgence we all participate in during the holiday season, most of us need to get serious about maintaining his Temple that is our body. Maybe sign up to join a gym, but remember it takes discipline to go or perhaps just deny yourself those nasty morsels that do nothing to adorn the temple. View food as fuel for the machine instead of gratification of the taste buds. These goals are just a few areas to look into as the New Year approaches God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in your life. The United Methodist Women want to thank the church members for helping us send 222 pairs of socks to the soldiers, provide 164 pairs of underwear and/or socks to children, and support the Christian Fellowship class coat campaign with 84 pairs of gloves, 10 hats, and five scarves. Also, we appreciate the support of the cookbook project with the monies to be spent within the church. Join us January 14 at 6:30 in the CFC to plan our new year. Sassy Seniors Sue If you are over 50, then it s your lucky day! You are automatically a member in good standing of the Sassy Seniors. What does that mean? It means that you can attend any or all activity sponsored by the Sassy Seniors. You may decide that you would attend one activity per year or all of them, you can pick and choose. We just want to give you the opportunity to get together to have a little fun. There are no sign ups, just show ups. We have had a lot of fun together so far and hope to see you next year at some of our events. On December 5th, 26 persons from SPUMC headed to Amish Country to see the musical Half-Stitched. This trip was sponsored by the Sassy Seniors and everyone had a great time. We shopped a bit, laughed a lot, saw the musical and then fellowshipped together at dinner. The musical shared a story of a group of mismatched strangers in an Amish Quilting Club as they learned to transform scrap of material into beauty and their fragmented lives begin to take new shape. We learned about some of the Amish Quilts and what they represented, some of the aspects of a Amish Church Service and listened to beautiful parts of the story in song. We will be planning on attending The Confession next year so watch for announcements. We had a blast at our Christmas party on December 27th just visiting, enjoying great food and playing the infamous Chinese Exchange game! Ask Pastor Jim, John Russell and Randy Bradley about Russell Stover Candy! Coming up..february 14, our Valentine party/meeting in the CFC so mark your calendars. Come join us! Phyllis

3 SPARK of HOPE Ministry December was a very busy and exciting month for the Backyard Ministry. As the weather began to get wet and cold our CFC provided our neighbors with a warm, safe place to fellowship and play away from their muddy parking lot. Our neighbors were invited to the CFC to share a meal of chili, fixins and fellowship on the 8 th and some participated in SPARK with Rev Bev. Several families came back on the 15 th to select some of the items contributed by our church family. Thanks to those contributions there were household items, clothing, many warm coats, blankets and even Christmas decorations for them to choose from. On December 21 st we escorted several of our young neighbors to the Integrated Community Services Children s Christmas shop. There the children of each family were assigned a teen volunteer who helped them select appropriate gifts for their family members. A large selection was available for all ages. The gifts were wrapped and sent home with the children so they could surprise their families on Christmas day. This was lots of fun for the children and for us and Integrated Community services provided this service at no charge. Two families joined us for our Christmas Program and Party on December 22nd. The five children who attended with their parents were excited to get to join with the children as sheep in the Nativity Story, then singing and ringing bells. I am sure it was the first time many of them had performed before an audience. Their eyes sparkled as they shared Baby Jesus birthday cake. They got to tell Santa what they hoped would appear under their Christmas tree and held tight to their little bags of candy. On Monday our youth assembled nearly 20 Christmas stockings for all the children. Stockings contained age-appropriate candy, novelties, toys and books including Children s Bible stories and games. After Pastor Jim and Jennifer treated them to lunch, the youth delivered the discretely wrapped stockings to the families. Generosity and the joy of giving were evident this month A family in our church provided Christmas gifts for a neighbor family. Thanks to a little networking and the generous donations of food from the South Parkersburg Woman s Club and the Parkersburg South High School Future Farmers of America we were also able to deliver several baskets of non-perishable food items to some of our neighbors. We shared their joys, a healthy new baby, and a new marriage and sometimes their sorrows, a final divorce, children in the hospital and people having to find another place to live. We were there to listen and remind them of God s love for us all. Our sharing and caring is spreading among our neighbors and making a difference. Many of them now offer things they no longer need to other neighbors who can use them. There is more sense of community than when we started visiting with them and we are seeing a Spark of Hope!! Cathi Back-Pack Ministry The back pack ministry is growing stronger. We We are also working on a way to get bags out if have twelve kids at Fairplains Elementary that we school gets cancelled on a Friday like this past week! deliver bags for children to take home every Friday for We have a plan and will be ready next time!!! the weekend. Your monetary donations continue to come in and Since the kids were out almost two weeks for we appreciate any offerings that are made. Just be sure Christmas break, we supplied each child with two to place the donation in the offering plate and mark super bags to help them through the break. It s hard the check or envelope for the back pack ministry. to imagine that in little ole Parkersburg there are If you prefer to bring specific items to donate hungary kids, but there are! instead of a monetary gift, we will gladly accept them. The school nurse helps us administer the program In the coming weeks look for pictures of needed items at Fairplains and she is also the nurse at Gihon to be placed on the bulletin boards downstairs. In Elementary. She has told us that they have some the mean time, any individually wrapped items are students in need too. So we are moving forward welcomed. In particular, since it is winter, we can use with starting up the program at Gihon too. We don t cans of soup (the flavors kids eat), ravioli, etc. Also, expect as many kids for Gihon but even if it is only hot chocolate packets are a nice treat for the kids. one, we will find a way to help. We hope to start up Thank you for your continued support. It is as big Gihon later this month. a blessing on SPUMC as it is on those we are helping Sam

4 Special Church Council Meeting Sunday, December 15, 2013 Attendees: Pastor Jim Plyburn, Jan Barnes, Kathryn Miller, Jerry Baum, Garry Gumm, Sue Adams, Brent Wilhelm, Kay Wilhelm, Becky Stephens, Brian Lucas, Jim Jonas A special church council meeting was called for Sunday morning, December 15, immediately following morning worship, to vote on a proposal by the Staff-Parish Relations Committee. With the departure of Rev Bev Colombo, SPUMC Minister to Students, January 1, 2014, the SPRC recommends hiring in a part-time position, Jennifer Plyburn, as Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministry, at a salary of $500/mo. Recommendation to accept the SPRC proposal had already been made by a majority of the Finance Committee. Jan Barnes, chairperson of Church Council opened the meeting, then asked Kathryn Miller, chairperson of the SPRC to present the recommendation. BACKGROUND and QUALIFICATIONS: Jennifer Plyburn has a B.A. degree, plus 30 hrs. in Elementary Education and Language Arts from Marshall University. She answered a call to serve Jesus Christ by working with children and youth in the local church and responded by seeking certification in Christian Education and Youth Ministry through the United Methodist Church. Jennifer completed 30 hours of required graduate courses at the seminary level and received certification in both Christian Education and Youth Ministry in June She served as full-time Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministry on the staff at First United Methodist Church in Huntington, WV, for twelve years ( ). She served as Director of Noah s Ark Preschool and Teacher of 4 year olds at Wayne United Methodist Church in Wayne, WV for six years ( ). She was a substitute teacher in Jackson Co., WV for two years ( ). She is a substitute teacher in Wood Co., WV, beginning Fall of Jennifer has always been active in her church, working with children in the nursery, Sunday School, and children s choir. She has taught Sunday School, led Vacation Bible School, retreats, mission trips, etc. She is quoted as saying, it is a blessing to be on this wonderful journey with my husband, Pastor Jim, as God leads us to new places and new opportunities to serve Him among His children! Jennifer Plyburn is currently one of nine certified Christian Educators in the WV UM Annual Conference. She is one of six certified in Youth Ministry in the WV UM Annual Conference. As a lay person, she is not under appointment by the General Board of Ordained Ministry, but they do supervise her certified ministry and she is accountable to them and must seek their approval for re-certification every two years. In this new position of Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministry at South Parkersburg UMC, Jennifer will lead children and youth and all who seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ by providing opportunities for Christian Education through weekly Sunday School classes and ministry programs specifically for children and youth such as Spark and Fire /Youth Group. She will lead and/or recruit and train teachers and leaders for these classes and programs as well as special seasonal studies and programs throughout the year, such as Advent, Lent, and an annual Vacation Bible School program. She will provide information about and encourage participation in Little Kanawha District, WV Annual Conference and General Conference training events, camps, retreats, mission events, etc. of the United Methodist Church. Jennifer will partner in ministry with Pastor Jim to serve South Parkersburg UMC as an answer to her personal call and commitment to serve Jesus Christ. Jennifer will ask for the prayers and support of the membership and those who are faithful to the ministry programs of SPUMC. SPUMC is blessed to have such a qualified individual in our midst. Sue Adams made the motion that church council accept the SPRC recommendation to hire Jennifer Plyburn to be the Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministries in a part time position starting January 1, Jerry Baum seconded the motion. Motion carried by a majority vote. Special session of Church Council adjourned Minutes by: Kay Wilhelm

5 Christian Education Many thanks, for your kind words of support and encouragement, as I begin serving as Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministry at South Parkersburg United Methodist Church. I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve Jesus Christ at this time, in this place, where I believe He called us to be. I ask for your continued support and prayers and invite anyone who wishes to be part of our ministry to God s children of all ages to please contact me! I am excited about growing and learning together, as we share this wonderful journey of faith! In His Name, Jennifer Plyburn Christian Education opportunities for the New Year Children s Church is available for children in Preschool thru 2 nd Grade immediately following the Children s Sermonette during the worship service. Age-appropriate activities and music are planned to follow the theme and scripture lesson from the Children s Sermonette and Children s Bulletin provided each week. 3 rd thru 5 th Grade children remain in the sanctuary for the worship service following the Children s Sermonette. Children s Bulletins are available for use during the worship service and to take home each week. Children in this age group will have opportunities to serve as Acolytes during the worship service. Nursery care is available for infants and toddlers. Sunday School for all ages every Sunday (11:00 A.M. 11:45 A.M.) (All children s classes meet on the lower level of the church building.) Nursery infants and toddlers Preschool Ages 3, 4, & 5 year olds not yet in Kindergarten Primary Kindergarten thru 2 nd Grade Older Elementary 3 rd thru 5 th Grade Youth 6 th thru 12 th Grades (Youth Room Upstairs in the CFC) Young at Heart Young couples and singles (Main floor classroom in the CFC) Pairs & Spares Adult Class (Classroom on West side of sanctuary) Christian Friends Adult Class (West wing of sanctuary) Hustlers Adult Class (Lower level of the church building under sanctuary) SUNDAY EVENING OPPORTUNITIES FIRST SUNDAY Snack Supper, Fellowship & Games 5:30 P.M. in the CFC. All ages welcome! 2 nd, 3 rd, & 4 th SUNDAYS SPARK for Preschool and Elementary children 5:30-6:30 P.M. in the lower level of the church building. NO SNACK SUPPER. Bible stories, activities and a small snack will be provided. YOUTH GROUP for Middle School and High School students 7:00-8:00 P.M. in the CFC with Bible study, discussion, fellowship, activities and snacks. 5 th SUNDAYS Please support our Parish events with your attendance and participation at the host church. OTHER IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER Sunday, January 19 th 3:00-7:00 P.M. Little Kanawha District Youth Gathering at Mt. Pleasant UMC Food, Fellowship, Games and Special Speaker. All middle school and high school youth, please meet in our church parking lot at 2:45 P.M. to ride together to this event. Sunday, February 2 nd SOUPER BOWL OF CARING Our youth will be collecting canned food items and/or money in empty soup kettles before and after church. Please bring your donations to help support this national youth effort held every Super Bowl Sunday to remind us of the needs of those less fortunate. Thank you very much! - 5 -