Like Us On Visit us at st Thursday at the Library 2-4:00pm. 19 Craft Group 6:30-pm

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1 P a g e 1 Phone# Tracyton United Methodist Church PO Box 127 Tracyton, WA Naomi St Bremerton, WA OCTOBER 2016 Like Us On 6425 Visit us at Facebook Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1st 2 World Communion Sunday Susan Vukich Birthday 3 4 Nominations 5:30pm 5 6 1st Thursday at the Library 2-4:00pm 7 First Friday Fest Coffee Oasis 3:30pm Prayer Shawl 2:00pm SPRC 6:00pm Church Conference 7:00pm 11 Finance 5:30pm Church Council 6:30pm 18 SPRC 5:30pm Craft Group 6:30-pm B e n e d i c t H o u s e O c t o b e r 1 7 t h r d Trustees 5:30pm Bazaar Set-up 6:00pm Bazaar 10-4pm Benedict House Our congregation s Church Conference will be held Monday October 17th at 7:00pm, with Rev. Cara Scriven presiding. The business of the session will include reporting on the past year, looking to the coming year, electing committee members and other leaders, and acting on pastoral salary. All professing members of TUMC are voting members of the Church Conference. All people are welcome to attend.

2 P a g e 2 September, 2016 Connexions Beloved Church! From the beginning of the Methodist movement, our connection has been a fundamental. (Or, in the spelling of the day, our connexion which I like even better!) We are a connexion of faith communities (originally, societies, and later, congregations) organized for deployment of preachers and distribution of resources to the places that need them. We aren t a hierarchy with control from headquarters, but more of a web though there s an organizational infrastructure for mission and resourcing and oversight, it s not in control of what we do as individual congregations. In the earliest days of Methodism, the connexion was maintained through letters and publications, and through circuit-riding preachers and superintendents and bishops. Now, though the precise technology changes, the circuit-riding Methodists basic methods continue. I ran into our Bishop the other day, not in the conference office, but in a coffee shop near my house! And we saw our District Superintendent this Saturday at Brownsville Appreciation Day! The technology has changed things. Usually, if I receive a letter from the connexion, it s a copy of something I ve already received by . And some of our best resources both Methodist and ecumenical are available online. Here are some online connexions you should know about. Our two churches: Tracyton UMC s web page is Its Facebook page is Brownsville UMC s web page is Its Facebook page is more complicated ( or you can find it by searching Facebook for Brownsville UMC. Be careful when you search, or you ll end up at Brownsville, Texas, though! I have a Facebook page, but don t put church stuff on it much. I don t initiate Facebook friendships with folks, much, but usually accept friend requests from folks I know. Look me up if you d like. I write to my blog, Wesleyan Grace, now and then. You can find it at wesleyangrace.wordpress.com/. With our Tacoma District: The Tacoma District Newsletter ed monthly, contains a lot of good stuff about our life together in the District. Do you receive it? If not, let me know, and I ll forward the latest to you, and you can sign up. The Tacoma District has a Facebook page. To keep up with things posted there, go to and click Like. Continued-on page 3

3 P a g e 3 Continued-from page 2 With our Annual Conference: The Pacific Northwest Conference some of the best church news work in the denomination comes through our own Conference. See their website at Or go straight to their News Blog page. If you prefer your news via , subscribe to the PNW News Digest. Go to scroll down and click Newsletter Signup. You ll notice you can sign up for a LOT of newsletters, not just this one. One way to be in touch with a lot of what our Conference is doing is to Like its Facebook page, Also, see PnwCamps for, you guessed it, info on Camping! Several other organizations at the Annual Conference level have Facebook pages as well, from Reconciling Ministries ( to Volunteers In Mission ( With The United Methodist Church: Beyond: The UMC s web page is It s a good place to start. One of my go-to pages is When disaster strikes, I go there, and click the red Donate button. For worship resources, I use For a different front porch for the church, see Some United Methodists whose online work I value are Paul Jeffrey, Jeremy Smith, Terri Stewart, and Patrick Scriven, When I m looking for a Bible online, I often use When I m looking for works of John Wesley, I often use When I m looking for conversations on a variety of issues, I might go to the Community area at See also their Mystery Worshipper section, for a great set of questions asked by folks reviewing worship services. What would they say if they visited us? Richard Rohr s Center for Action and Contemplation has a daily meditation that I find fruitful from time to time. See or sign up to receive it by . When I can t read, I can listen. Pray As You Go ( is provided by a British Jesuit community, and provides daily meditation on scripture and our lives (in delightful accents!). We are connected. Even when we don t see the relationships, they re there like the intertwining of plants roots, we are connected. Connected in God s love, connected in shared mission, connected in this beautiful, precious life. One more link. Even if you don t check any of the rest, check this one, a daily meditation by a classmate, Steve Garnaas-Holmes: As Steve says, Deep Blessings. Wes

4 P a g e 4 Tracyton United Methodist Women Would like to thank everyone who participated in the Silent Auction An extra Thank You to Roberta Daniel for doubling her donated time and talent. We are also very grateful to David and Susan Crossland for donating their skills and labor to help with Yard Work Also the Winnie the Pooh Plates found a loving new home. A total of $155 was raised and will go toward women and children s missions! Our Wining Bidders Bob Vukich, Owen Tripp, Tommy Horton and Grace Pugh Trayton UMW Gleaning Table The Gleaning Table is Open! Make sure you check out the Gleaning Table each week. There is always something different to see and share. From spices to cookie jars, from plants to produce if you can use what you see please do and if you can leave a donation to missions that would be a wonderful bonus. Giving items grown or made, sharing the fruits of our labor with family and friends, that is what the Gleaning Table is all about. Consider becoming a pledging member of Tracyton United Methodist Women

5 First Friday Fest P a g e 5 We will be able to continue this monthly mission for a while longer thanks to your generous donations the next first Friday is October 7th. We feed between 20 & 30 kids. Even with sale shopping and discount pricing it still costs between $100 and $150 a month. They are always looking for volunteers and mentors. Check out their web page at or like them on Facebook Any and all financial donations marked Coffee Oasis are greatly appreciated. October Liturgists 2nd DeAnna Gossett 9th Malia Young We are excited to let you know that plans are underway for the 2016 UMC #GivingTuesday celebration! Last year, you were one of nearly 6,000 donors from 27 countries who donated $2.8 million through The Advance to support mission and ministries around the world. Thank you for your faithful giving. On Nov. 29, we hope that you will join with other United Methodists around the world to change more lives. You are sure to find a project that fits your passion and desire to make a difference. The Advance remains committed to sustaining a strong foundation that allows projects and missionaries to build relationships and empower ministries. Over the past years, we were fortunate to offer matching funds to motivate giving. This year, while matching funds will not be available, we remain confident that your supporters will continue their commitment to your ministry. To keep this momentum going, The Advance continues to allocate 100 percent of all giving to the designated project and missionary. This Advent, on UMC #GivingTuesday, Give light, Give love, and Give life through The Advance at With blessings and thanks for your generosity, Thomas Kemper, General Secretary, General Board of Global Ministries 16th Jim Klein 23rd Marge Christ-neveu 30th Susie White

6 P a g e 6 Do the Math By Kathy Bogue, Finance Chair This last Sunday I was one of 43 people who were convinced that the right place to be on Sunday morning at 9a.m. was Tracyton United Methodist Church. Yay church! I bet there are 43 more who would have been there if they could. But hey, let s do some math with our present 43. If every one of those 43 people men, women and children contributed $233 every month, we would continue in ministry without fear of being unable to pay our bills. Oops, 7 of those 43 were children or youth. Let s assume they can each give $.25/week or $1/month. That leaves $278 for the rest of us each month. (Not everyone is able to give that average, and some can give considerably more. This is an average what share will you claim?) So what does this money pay for? A roof over our heads. Heat to keep us warm. Staff who are paid minimal wages to keep our organization spiritually healthy and administratively in order, and our building clean. (Including bathrooms. Think about that for a minute. Thanks Shannon. Really. Thanks.so.much.) It pays for our bulletins, our candles, our grounds maintenance, our building maintenance, our postage, our cleaning supplies. It pays for our share of a connectional system that does far more good in the world than we could do on our own. There is a tacit agreement that we are a traditional church, with traditional obligations. If that is the case, then we should be the very best traditional church we can be. And we should be willing to pay for it. I had the good fortune recently of hearing Brian McLaren talk about his new book, The Great Spiritual Migration. You ll remember that McLaren wrote We Make the Road by Walking, which we studied all of last year. In his new book McLaren describes a shift in our way of thinking about Christianity. 1. From a system of beliefs to a way of living and loving; 2. From a violent God of Domination to a nonviolent God of Liberation; 3. From Organized religion to Organizing religion. Chapter 3, Learning How to Love, has a section called Do the Math. Jesus says Follow me 87 times in the four Gospels. Worship me? None. Name a religion after me? Zero. Recite a creed about me? Nope. Erect buildings in my honor? Not there. None of these things are wrong, McLaren says, but if we succeed at them without actually forming followers of Christ, then we re climbing a ladder that s leaning against the wrong building. That s Page 65. I read it in about 45 seconds. There are 228 pages, equally thoughtprovoking. I could read the whole book in.you do the math.

7 P a g e 7 This year the Backpack Brigade will serve every school in Bremerton and more children than last year at each school. We need more volunteers to pack backpacks. The volunteer time is minimal. TUMC packs backpacks the third Friday of every month, starting in October. It takes under two hours. The more volunteers we have, the shorter the time it takes to pack. If you can help with this ministry to families in need, please call Libby Correll at The backpacks are sent home on Fridays. Children who get free or reduced lunch often do not have sufficient food on the weekends. The food over the weekend is badly needed. Kids Day at the library Thursday October 6th starting promptly at 2pm. Tracyton Community Library invites children of all ages to join them. There s make and take crafts and of course there will be a story or two maybe even some yummy treats. Be sure to come join in the fun! If you need more information call

8 If you have not designated TUMC as your Charity of Choice this year you may have to revisit account/update DON T FORGET TO USE THAT FRED MEYER REWARDS CARD TO HELP SUPPORT TRACYTON UMC! Year to Date Total $ By signing up at igive.com and then doing your online shopping thru the site, you generate a donation for Tracyton UMC for every online purchase you make! If you are an Amazon Shopper there are ways to shop thru igive.com and have your purchases generate donations to TUMC. Think about it...every little bit counts it only takes a couple of key strokes...go to and sign up P a g e 8 Ghost Train Saturday Oct 29th, 5-9 PM We will be collecting candy for Ghost Train an event that supports Kitsap County foster children. There will be a bin at the front of the Sanctuary to collect candy donations until Sunday October 23rd. Pencils and spider rings are popular too. Have you returned your invitation to help at Benedict House? The week of October 17th (Monday) through the 23nd (Sunday) Tracyton UMC volunteers provide the evening meal for the men and children lodging at Benedict House. We need teams to provide, cook and serve each evening. If you would like to help but need assistance financially please see Libby Correll, possibly a benefactor can be found. If you can help financially please mark your donation Benedict House Sign up sheet available see Libby! Each week the children meet downstairs after the Sunday Service! approximately 45 min. We designate the first Sunday of the month as Food Bank Sunday But we gladly except donations anytime. Food Bank August 154 lbs. of food and $345 Total for the year 763 lbs. of food and $1075 Your generosity means a lot to many families. Classes begin soon! Facilitated by Chaplin Ed Carroll Watch for date & time. Everyone is welcome to come!

9 P a g e 9 T r a c y t o n t i d i n g s You can bring them to the church any time we are looking for household & nic/nac type items (no clothing). All proceeds support TUMC Thursday October 27th We need help moving things around and making the church a welcome area for our vendors to set up. Things begin moving at 6:00! Please lend a hand if you can. Tracyton UMW will soon be asking for your donations of Baked Goods and Candy Treats to be sold at the Bazaar. All proceeds for this venue will go toward women and children s missions.

10 Tracyton United Methodist Church PO Box Naomi St Tracyton, WA O c t o b e r T r a c y t o n T i d i n g s T r a c y t o n U n i t e d M e t h o d i s t C h u r c h Worship Time 9:00am We are a multi-generational community growing together in the grace, love and service of God. Children are always welcome. Should you desire, a nursery is available for children 5 years and under O c t o b e r T r a c y t o n T i d i n g s