Welcome to the Online Messenger ~ Carroll s First United Methodist Church

Transcription

1 Welcome to the Online Messenger ~ Carroll s First United Methodist Church 1621 N. Main St. Office Hours: 8:30 Noon, 1:00 4:30 p.m. Look for us on Facebook Carroll, IA Monday Friday Phone: (712) Website: carrollunitedmethodist.org carrollumc@msn.com Next Messenger: March 1st Volume 10 Issue 2 February 1, 2019 FUMC STAFF --- Terry Plocher, Pastor ( ) pastor.carrollumc@gmail.com Suzanne Olberding, Director of Ministries and Financial Secretary Sherri Hoaglund, Administrative Assistant Michelle Caltrider, Custodian Jason Bush, Youth Coordinator Saturday 6:00 p.m. Sunday 10:30 a.m. Listen to the radio for closings due to the weather. We live stream on our Face Book each week if you are unable to come due to weather.

2 WELCOME OUR NEW STAFF First, our new Choir Director, Tami Meiners: I am so excited to be here! I graduated from Northwest Missouri State in Maryville in I taught vocal music for 5 years at Dallas Center-Grimes School District, and then my husband, Alan, wanted to move back to the family farm near Willey. So, we settled on the family farm, and I have been teaching for the Audubon Community School District for the past 20 years. I direct the Jr. high and high school choirs and have enjoyed directing the musicals, jazz choir and show choir. Alan works for Syngenta Seeds in Slater, Iowa and farms in his spare time. I call it his expensive hobby. We have 3 children, Grant (a freshman at Harvard College), Will (a sophomore at Carroll High School) and Lydia (8th grader at Carroll Middle School). I cannot wait to work with this choir, and if you like to sing your praises to God, please join us! Second, Jennifer Swope, our new Bell Director: Mrs. Jennifer Swope is in her third year of teaching, currently serving as the 7-12 director for the Carroll Band program. Originally from Eastern Iowa, she currently resides in Dedham with her husband Tyler and their dogs Diesel and Vise. Jennifer is an alumna of Iowa State University where she graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor s Degree in Instrumental Music Education in December of In her spare time, she likes to cheer on the Cyclone football and wrestling teams, hunt and fish with her husband and father-in-law, and play with her dogs. She is an active performer, currently playing bassoon with the All Strings Attached Symphony and subbing for many gigs in the area. Jennifer is excited for the opportunity to work with the bell choir, get to know everyone at First United Methodist Church, and to follow in Ellen s footsteps. Third, Shelly Madden, our new Financial Assistant: Hi, I'm Shelly Madden. I graduated from Northwest Missouri State in I earned my CPA designated in I worked as accountant for 11 years at a local CPA firm. I have worked the past 14 years at Commercial Savings Bank as an internal auditor/compliance officer. My husband Chad, a veteran, has worked for Farner-Bocken for over 27 years. We have two boys. Cole is a freshman and Chase is a 7th grader.

3 2:23 pm call to prayer every day in February. Prayer should be as common as breathing for the Christian. I call you to special prayer this month, however. I call you to special prayer for our delegates and denomination this month. The Special General conference starts on February 23 (2-23) so I ask you to pause at 2:23 each day this month to pray. (Do as I will do, set an alarm on your phone as a reminder!) The Specially called General Conference will meet in St. Louis to try to come to an agreement on the long running argument within the UMC about human sexuality. Currently, church law forbids the ordination of self-avowed, practicing homosexuals and the performance of same gender weddings by United Methodist clergy. Over the last 50 years that law has been either ignored and broken, or used to beat up brothers and sisters in Christ. Neither is acceptable. We have come not only to an impasse, but a point of crisis. It is possible that the denomination will split over this issue. (That might result in a new denomination or 2 separate but equal denominations under one umbrella.) It is possible that pastors and local churches will have to choose sides (although I pray that is not the case) It is possible that nothing will happen, which might be the worst possible scenario of all. The bottom line is that no matter what happens in St. Louis, I will come to work on the 27 th to continue the work I am doing now. You will come to worship to worship the same God we do now. We will go into the streets of Carroll and our neighborhoods to discover that people are still hurting just as they are now. our mission remains the same. We will still be Jesus hands and feet seeking to love and serve the community and the world. We will deal with the outcome of the conference when the time comes. I ask you then, to keep doing what you are doing for Jesus that is the most important thing. But I ask you to also pray at 2:23 pm every day for the delegates, bishops, and denomination as they meet to seek God s direction for the United Methodist church. Go in prayer and serve God and neighbor in all you do. Because of Jesus. Pastor Terry The general conference delegates from Iowa are Clergy Lilian Gallo Seagren, Katie Dawson, Brian Milford, Barrie Tritle, Diane Wasson Eberhart, Thomas Shinkle Laity Phil Carver (chair), Norma Morrison, Becky Heeren, John Rothlisberger, Darcy Rubenking, Craig Scott The next sermon series. For many people, joy is elusive even in the best of times. Yet Paul can say "I count it all Joy" and "rejoice always" even when his life is a wreck! What are we missing? The book of Philippians has been called "the book of Joy." We will spend 5 weeks studying what Paul teaches about joy in this joy-filled book. Come journey through Philippians and if we dig real deep we just might be able to learn something from Paul's joy that will help us in the darkest moments of our lives. 2/3/2019-Revoluntionary Joy in loneliness Philippians 1:1-11 2/10/2019-Revoluntionary Joy in suffering Philippians 1: /17/2019-Revoluntionary Joy in humility Philippians 2:1-11 2/24/2019-Revoluntionary Joy in temptation Philippians 2: /3/2019-Revoluntionary Joy in anxiety Philippians 4:2-9 SERMON TOPICS Pastoral care is more than hospital visits. I certainly want to know if you or a loved one is in the hospital so I can visit and pray with you. But feel free to call or text for other reasons too. I admit I am not a magician that can make your troubles go away, but I can listen, pray, and support you when you most need it. I can remind you that God is with you always. Besides having no magical powers, I also cannot read minds. I can, however, read texts and answer the phone. Pastor Terry

4 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 1 2 8:30 am Girl Scouts 6:00 pm Worship- Communion :15 am Sunday School 10:30 am Worship-Choir 11:45 am Chili Cook off 4:00 pm German Club 4:30 pm TOPS 6:30-7:30 pm Girl Scouts 9:00 am Staff 11:00 am Accura Devotions 9:00 am Moms Group 1-4 pm UM Kids 4:30-5:30 pm Faith Exploration 5:30-8 pm Youth 9:30 am Friends Breakfast 6:00 pm Worship :15 am Sunday School 10:30 am Worship-Bells 11:45 pm Pizza with Pastor 4:30 pm TOPS 9:00 am Staff 11:00 am Accura Devotions 1:00 pm Color Me Pretty 6-7 pm Mini Methodist 9:00 am Moms Group 1-4 pm UM Kids 4:30-5:30 pm Faith Exploration 5:30-8 pm Youth 6:30 pm WE Team 8:30 am Girl Scouts 6:00 pm Worship :15 am Sunday School 10:30 am Worship-Choir 12:30-5:15 pm Life Serve Blood Drive 4:00 pm German Club 4:30 pm TOPS 9:00 am Staff 9:00 am Sewing Group 11:00 am Accura Devotions 11:00 am Book Club 6:00 pm Lions Club 9:00 am Moms Group 10:30 am Swan Place Devotions 1-4 pm UM Kids 4:30-5:30 pm Faith Exploration 5:30-8 pm Youth 6-7 pm Missions Meeting LAST DAY FOR ARTICLES 12:00 pm Book Club 6:00 pm Worship- Communion :15 am Sunday School 10:30 am Worship-Kids - Communion 9:30 am Messenger Folding 4:30 pm TOPS 6:30-7:30 pm Girl Scouts 9:00 am Staff 11:00 am Accura Devotions 9:00 am Moms Group 1-4 pm UM Kids 4:30-5:30 pm Faith Exploration 5:30-8 pm Youth

5 Gather at the Family Table for the Friends Breakfast on February 7th at 9:30 A.M. Fun times! Meets Wednesday, February 20 th at 6:00 pm CHILI COOK OFF IS BACK!!!! We will have our annual Chili cook-off on Sunday, February 3 rd following the church service. Bring your favorite chili or soup to share, or just come and enjoy all the different soups available. We will be collecting a free will offering to help Jason Bush with his trip to Haiti in late March. PARENT NIGHT OUT The Senior High will be having a Parent Night Out on Saturday, February 9 th from 5-8 pm. This will be a diaper drive. Please bring diapers (size 3-5), wipes or a monetary donation to buy diapers for our local community. Please watch Facebook for a link to register your child. Preregistration is preferred but walk ins are welcome. COMMUNITY EVENTS ->Putt 4 a Purpose, Saturday February 9th from 12-6 pm at Rueter s Red Power 1803 Radiant Road to benefit Carroll Community of Concern Food Pantry ->Free Meal at St. John s Lutheran Church Wednesday, February 13th 5:00 to 6:30 pm. -> Life Serve Blood Drive here Monday, February 18th 12:30-5:15. Sunday Worship is shown on Mediacom Channel 6 and WIN Channel 97.2: Wednesday at 8 A.M. and Sundays at 5 P.M. Look for our sermons on our website: carrollunitedmethodist.org & watch our entire service on Facebook. Come and join us for a time of coloring and crafting at COLOR ME PRETTY. We will meet in the Conference Room by the nursery on Tuesday, February 12th at1:00 pm. Come and enjoy the fellowship! MESSENGER Last day for articles for March newsletter is Thursday, February 21st and we will fold messengers on Monday, February 25th at 9:30 am The first meeting will be on Sunday. February 10th at 12 pm (following the service), in the Confirmation Room. Everyone is welcome to come. We will spend time learning about the church, you can ask questions about the church and sharing concerns. WE Team will meet on Wednesday, February 13 th at 6:30 pm

6 Food Pantry What a great month! With the help of our youth and their Parent Night Out, we were able to donate $250 of items and $60 in cash to the Community of Concerns Food Pantry this month. Thanks so much for your continued faithfulness to this ministry UMW Our winter project is 3-H (Helping Hawthorn Hill in their ministries to persons seeking shelter from domestic violence.) They need new washcloths and hand towels: full-sized deodorant (especially men s), kid s toothpaste, hair conditioner, body wash and body lotion. They do NOT want shampoos, bar soaps or adult toothbrushes. Please be generous in donating any of these items. They may be left in a box in the conference room or brought to our March 6th meeting. We hope to take them to Des Moines in early spring. The Mission Commission would like you to know that four of our members will be going on mission trips this upcoming year. Alison King and Jason Bush will be serving with Grace4Haiti. Alison is a nurse and Jason will help with construction needs at the God s Children Orphanage in Haiti. You will be hearing more about these from Alison and Jason this month and next. Jason s trip is at the end of March and Alison s trip is in April. Samantha Walsh, high school student, and her mother Sonia, will be going in the summer on a mission trip to Peru. Samantha will be caring for children with special needs. Sonia will be teaching English as a second language. Our mission commission would encourage you to learn about their trips and consider helping with their expenses. You can designate on the memo line of your check where you would like to help. Mission commission will be having a Potato Bake after church March 3rd, to raise money for missions. Please keep Alison, Jason, Sonia and Samantha in your prayers. Thanks for your help. VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY St. Anthony s Hospice I volunteer with hospice, because we had wonderful experiences with 3 different hospice facilities with family members and I felt like this was something that I would like to do. It is a wonderful experience to help people into their next phase of life. I work with St. Anthony s Hospice after taking a few classes to learn the best way to assist people. Sometimes I help by going to the patient s house to give the caretaker a break to go shopping or on an appointment. The patient may be in their home, a nursing home or the hospital and you either visit with them, read to them and pray with them, usually one hour a week. It is very rewarding. Also, when a patient is actively dying, and they don t have family members here, you may volunteer to sit with them, sometimes overnight. You usually have a two or four hour shift when you do this. If you are interested in volunteering with hospice, please contact Carmen Schimmer at the St. Anthony Hospice office at Warm Clothing Thank you to everyone who donated items for the warm clothing tree. We were able to donate $1272 worth of clothing items to our local schools to use for needy students. What a truly wonderful blessing! SEWING GROUP will meet on Tuesday, February 19 th at 9:00 am

7 Thank You to Jake Gute for being our Choir Director the last few years. We appreciate all the hard work and time you spent creating a musical time of worship for us here at the church. We would also like to thank Ellen Severin for her many years of service as Bell Director, the bells add beauty to our time of worship. Lastly, we would like to thank Clay Winterboer for his years of service as treasure and financial assistant. You have helped keep the church running. Good luck to all of these individuals as they look to see what God has in store for them now. If you would like a 150th group photo contact church office at We have several 5X7($2), and 8X10($4) available, or You can also download the picture off our website or our Facebook page. New Members: Steve, Angie, Grant & Brynne Agnew Mark Burrow Stacie Gerdes Joanne Jenkins Jacquie Adkins Shelley Maloney Condolences to the family and friends of Janet Sanford We are considering having a class on making freezer meals. If you are interested in attending, please contact the church office. If you have any questions call us as well.

8 Sunday School Revolutionary Joy Art: During the art rotation children will learn that Jesus never leaves us alone by creating an oil picture that shows that Jesus sees our hearts all the time. Drama: During Drama students will learn that grumbling is a choice and God wants us to choose peace instead which in turn is more joy. There are two options. Science: During the science lesson, kids will see how sweetness is better than sour. Or finding joy is better than being sour and upset about things. We will also talk about how complaining is like darkness and we need to be Christ s light. Movie: Children will watch the movie Inside Out and talk about feelings. UM Kids Schedule: February 5 Lesson Week: Slow to Speak February 13 Mission Week: Putting together a survival kit for doctors and possibly nurses February 20th Fun Week: Rec Center ART DRAMA SCIENCE MOVIE FEB K-1 PRESCHOOLL FEB K-1 PRESCHOOL 4-5 FEB 17 K-1 PRESCHOOL FEB 24 PRESCHOOL K-1 February 27 Lesson Week : For Good Reminder: If school would have a late start due to weather and they go till the 3:00 dismissal time we will not have UM Kids. With getting out early already, I am not sure if they would dismiss any earlier for the weather, but if they would, there would be not UM Kids that day. Suzi will always keep you updated by text messaging. Mini Methodist Mini Methodist will be held on February 12th. We will meet from 6-7 pm. We will focus on God s love for us.

9 YOUTH GROUP Youth Group is back in full swing after a couple of weeks off for Christmas break. Last week we went bowling and had a little fun and fellowship and one of the kids even invited a friend to come to Youth Group! Yeah what an awesome job to her! We will continue trying to make our Youth Group as one where hopefully our kids always feel good to invite friends to join them! I would also challenge you parents of our youth to encourage your kids to get more involved in our Youth program and also to encourage them to keep inviting friends to join them! We are called to share the good news and when our kids feel good about telling others about our Youth Group is a God Thing! I have a couple of things that I need to ask help from you our church family for. First off during the youth s time off on Wednesdays, Terry and I had discussed the possibility of having a Youth Council. The Council would be composed of 3-4 youth from the junior and senior high along with 2-4 adults. We would meet once every 4-6 weeks and talk about different opportunities that we could be doing on Wednesday nights for different lessons, service projects, and fun activities for the entire Youth Group. For adults I am looking for a couple of parents along with maybe one or two members of our church family that have helped out with youth in the past to where they might have some ideas we would not have thought of to try. Please reach out to me if this is something that would be of interest to you. A little brainstorming for multiple age groups! The other bit of help that I continue to struggle with is finding a second person to be with me and the Youth Group on Wednesday evenings. Sometimes Pastor Plocher is able to be there but often he has meetings or is on call at the hospital so I would really love to get some of you to step up and help out if you would. Sherri has made another Google Doc that she has made public for people to sign up to volunteer. ( LA/edit) Ideally I would love to find 2-3 people so that the kids were comfortable in talking with whoever is helping out. If you are not sure, try it out just once. You never know, you may love it! I will definitely try and let you know what we will be doing that Wednesday as soon as possible! As a reminder, the Sign Up sheet for Youth Meals is also still out there if that is something you would be willing to help out with. The kids are always very thankful for the meals provided and I am pretty sure those who have already provided meals (Thanks by the way!!!!!!) have also really enjoyed seeing the youth! ( LA/edit) Relentless 2019 Summer Mission Trip Opportunity We are still planning on taking a mission trip this summer, and now have four confirmed youth wanting to go. The dates are set for July 21st-26 th. We have a total of 15 spots to try and fill and the final date to drop spots is March 15 th so please be considering getting on board as this could be the opportunity of a lifetime for your child. If you or someone you know are interested in participating in this summer s mission trip please reach out to myself or get in touch with Sherri at the office. Mission Trips really can change a person s life.

10 Sunday A Worship true story is shown about on why Mediacom we sabotage Channel ourselves, 6 and feel WIN Channel 97.2: overwhelmed, Sundays set at aside 5 P.M. our and dreams, Wednesday and lack at 8 the A.M. courage Look for to our simply sermons be on ourselves... website: and carrollunitedmethodist.org how to start choosing & on Facebook happiness again! Are you happy? It may be the wrong question. Most of us think we are relatively happy, while at the same time knowing that we could be happier -- maybe even a lot happier. Ordinary people and the finest philosophers have been exploring the question of happiness for thousands of years, and theories abound. But this is not a book of Our theory. Resisting February Happiness is a Book deeply personal, is disarmingly transparent look at why we sabotage our own happiness and what to do about it. The Heavenly Bound Book Club The Sacred Acre By Mark Tabb We will meet on Tuesday, February 19th at 11:00 am or on Thursday, February 21st at 12:00 pm at Queen Beans to discuss the book. (This is Dutch treat) Books are available at the front desk. Get your book today and then return it for someone else to read! BOOK REVIEW: On a Sunday in May 2008, an EF5 tornado struck the town of Parkersburg, Iowa, killing 8 people and destroying 250 homes and businesses within 34 seconds. The next day, Parkersburg s beloved football coach, Ed Thomas, made a stunning prediction: God willing, we will play our first home game here on this field this season. One hundred days later, the home team scored a victory on the field they dubbed the Sacred Acre, serving as a galvanizing point for the town to band together and rebuild. Then, early one morning, one of Ed s former students, a young man struggling with mental health issues, walked into the weight room and gunned him down point-blank. What happened next proves that even a double tragedy is no match for faith and love and the powerful choice to forgive. The Sacred Acre shows with stunning clarity how one life well lived can make a lasting difference.