THE SHEPHERD THE SHEPHERD

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1 Worship Next Sunday: Lenten Series: Near the Cross-A Lenten Prayer March 11, 2018 Prayer and Sacrifice Rev. Laurie Gates-Ward Prayers for our Hospitalized and Homebound: Louis Curry - Southwinds Donna Grimes Home Mary & John Welsh Home Carolyn Rochelle Home Nancy Maguire Home THE SHEPHERD THE SHEPHERD Jubilee! 50 Years of Faithfulness Remember Renew Rejoice You will make the fiftieth year holy, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee year for you Leviticus 25:10 Mary Lawson Home Marvin Suit Charlotte Hall Veterans Home Lynn Headley Ass t Living at Hawkins Gate Dorothy & Wayne Bennett Home Janice Reuter - Home Altar Flowers The Flowers today are in Loving Memory of Julie Flinchum from the Good Shepherd Family We Welcome Visitors! We are so happy that you are here today. If you would please take the time to fill out one of the cards on the attendance pad and place it in the offering plate, we would greatly appreciate it. We look forward to getting to know you better and are happy to answer your questions. Look for someone with a red and white badge if you have questions that need answered today. Church Events: Wednesday Night Dinner 1st & 3rd Wednesdays: The next dinner will be March 7th from 5-6:15 PM. Prices: Ages 13+: $5; Ages 5-12: $4; Ages 4 and under: Free. Family Maximum: $20. Menu: Brunswick Stew, Cornbread, Salad, Dessert and Beverages. Wattenford Scholarship The Mary Wattenford Scholarship was established as a service-based scholarship to award the youth of Good Shepherd for their acts of service to the church, community, and most of all to God. Scholarships are awarded to high school seniors who plan to go on to college or some other form of higher education. First-year college students who were not previously awarded this scholarship and are planning to continue their higher education are also eligible to apply. Interested students should pick up an application form at the Welcome Table in the lobby. Applications are due by Sunday, April 8, Wednesday Prayer and Communion During Lent The Sanctuary will be open every Wednesday during Lent from 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. You may come by yourself or with a friend for prayer and communion during that time. Miriam Circle The Miriam Circle will meet Thursday March 8th at 6:30 at Pat Moyer's home. Any guestions call New Beginnings The New Beginnings group will meet on Monday, March 12 at Marie's restaurant on Route 301 in LaPlata for lunch at 12 noon. All retired persons are invited to attend for fellowship and a good lunch. If you have any questions, call Mary Ellen Huff at E. Smallwood Dr. Waldorf, MD gsumcwaldorf 1

2 The Shepherd Page 2 March 4, Hour Famine Update The GSUMC Youth raised $2595 for World Vision to use to meet the needs of children around the globe living in poverty and facing the deadly affects of food shortages. This will enable World Vision to provide for 68 children for 1 month. Thanks to the GSUMC family for your support of this mission project! We hope you will join us in praying for the multiplication of these resources as they are joined with those provided by other Famine groups and that they will bring life sustaining blessings to children. If you would like to know more about offering ongoing support for children, please visit The youth also raised almost $1200 for the Our Place Waldorf Soup Kitchen which helped provide an extra meal prepared by the students and will help fund their regular Monday & Thursday dinners served at GSUMC. Save the Date Ladies it s time to make plans for the annual UMW tea. This year the tea will be held on Saturday May 5 from 12-3 PM. More information will be available soon. Lay Servants Class Lay Servant Classes Open to All Register now for new courses available in our District this spring! Classes start after Easter, but registration closes before that for most. These courses are open to all! Some are weekly; some are over a weekend. A few are in the summer. Current Lay Servants who need classes for recertification will find a variety here. Brochures are in the table as you enter the sanctuary and are online as well. Register at See Linda Flanagan for more information (301) waldorfangel@gmail.com. UMW Jazz Coffee House featuring The Brian Turnmire Jazz Quartet Saturday, March 17, 2018@7:00 PM Good Shepherd UMC Fellowship Hall 305 Smallwood Drive Waldorf, MD Tickets: $15* Unlimited Gourmet Coffee, Desserts and Hors d oeuvres Tickets Available Sunday Mornings Between Services Saturday, March 24 Families with children 5th grade children and younger are invited to join us for all the fun and EGGcitement! 10:00 11:30 Good Shepherd United Methodist Church 305 Smallwood Drive, Waldorf Com Admission is free. We are accepting donations of non-perishable food items for the Food Bank. * All proceeds will benefit Southern Crossing Rain or Shine! GSUMC cannot guarantee peanut/egg/gluten or other allergen free candy. Parents/Guardians need to monitor all candy for their child s safety needs. 2

3 The Shepherd Page 3 March 4, 2018 Church News: Sunday School Mission Giving supports Heifer Project. Two Sundays a month our children s Sunday School offering goes toward supporting Heifer International. This year, the Sunday School donated $900 to provide three water pumps for families/communities who do not have access to clean water. These pumps will provide clean drinking/cooking water, improve hygiene, aid in farming, and free young girls from walking miles to get water each day so that they can go to school. Because we sent the gift on Giving Tuesday, it was matched by another organization, so we actually had a part in providing six water pumps. Thanks to all the GSUMC children and families who have supported this ministry through Sunday School offering. Lay Reading Are you interested in reading scripture on Sunday Mornings? For more information, please contact Rev. Laurie (revlaurie@aol.com). Amazon Smile Turn your online shopping into support for Good Shepherd UMC through SmileAmazon! its is easy to link your existing Amazon accounts to AmazonSmile - just follow the directions on the website. Choose Good Shepherd United Methodist Church of St. Charles City as the charity of your choice and then start signing on to amazonsmile.com to do your shopping. A portion of what you spend will be sent to GSUMC. Prayer Ministry If you wish to receive prayer concerns or to submit a prayer concern, our coordinator, Dan Sansbury (danclaudias@gmail.com). Be sure to request permission to post personal information about others on this prayer chain. To have a joy or concern lifted in prayer during Sunday worship, please write your request in the Prayer Book located on the counter on the back wall of the narthex before worship. Contribution Envelopes: For your convenience, blank envelopes are always available for your contributions in our narthex area. If you have any questions about your contributions, please see the Financial Secretary and counting team in the Parlor each Sunday morning. Good Shepherd United Methodist Church Staff Pastor: Rev. Laurie Gates-Ward, revlaurie@aol.com Director of Discipleship: Carol Wunderlich, wunderlich.ca@hotmail.com Director of Music: Brian Turnmire, brianturnmire@mac.com Organist: Sue Norris, norrisse@hotmail.com Director of Education Center: Carolyn Carter, educationcenter@gsumc.com Church Administrator: Somer Crout, gsadmin@gsumc.com Minister of Connection: Linda Flanagan, waldorfangel@gmail.com 3

4 Saving Today By Alan B. Ward In the climactic scene of the movie Wonder Woman, a plane filled with deadly gas is about to be unleashed on London. Thousands of innocent civilians will die unless someone acts heroically. The only way to stop it is to get onboard and pilot the aircraft to a high altitude where it could be safely detonated. There was clearly no coming back from this mission. Captain Steve Trevor knows this; he volunteers anyway. Steve was the pilot and spy who crash-landed his plan on Themyscira the hidden island of the Amazons thereby setting the plot of the movie in motion. At one point earlier in the movie, he said, My father told me once, he said, If you see something wrong happening in the world, you can either do nothing, or you can do something. And I already tried nothing. Steve was tired of doing nothing. This was his moment to do something and he wasn t going to miss it. Steve Trevor is an inspiration to me because he shows what I wish I was more often. I look at the news headlines and quickly get overwhelmed by all that is going wrong in our world. I struggle to know where exactly God would have me act. I long to do something anything that would make a difference. But too often, I become frozen in fear of doing the wrong thing. My not knowing what to do becomes a convenient excuse for me to do nothing. At the same time, Steve is planning his final mission, Diana (a.k.a., Wonder Woman) is busy battling the individual she thought was the war-god Ares, whom she assumes was responsible for starting the war. When she finds out about Steve s plan, however, she wants to take his place. After all, she s the super hero ; Zeus created the Amazon women to protect mankind. Oh, and Diana also happens to have fallen in love with this particular man during the movie. Steve, whatever it is, let ME do it! No, it has to be me. I can save TODAY. You can save the WORLD. Steve s final line to Diana contains wisdom for us all as we struggle to know where we should act. Sometimes the feeling that we can t save the whole world leads us to hunker down and wait for a super hero to fly in and make things right, or to rescue us and take us away to a better place. However, this scene reminds us that the heroes we wait for are already here. Yes, Jesus is the super hero of God s Story. He s the one that has saved, is saving, and will save the world. But everyday heroes like you and me are the ones that save today. The things we do now count toward the eternal future God is building. When it comes to service, today is the only time we can act. We can t change the past and we can t know with certainty what the future will bring but we can act today. Each time we act to serve, stand up for justice, or enrich the beauty in this world, and each time we share God s love with others, we move a little closer to the mark. For Christians, our mark is Jesus. Colossians 1:15 calls Jesus the image of the invisible God, and 1 John 4:8 describes God s very essence as love. So, another way of saying it, is that our mark is love. At the very end of Wonder Woman as Diana reflects on her experience she says, Now I know. Only love can save this world. So, I stay. I fight, and I give... for the world I know can be. This is my mission, now. Forever. 4

5 Christians have a similar mission or calling. We believe there is a world God is making, and that we take part in its construction. Our prayers, our dreams, and our actions help create it. When I sing the chorus of A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman, I often sing: I think of what this world can be. When God s vision becomes reality. A million prayers are what it s gonna take. A million dreams for the world we help create. This world in which we live is more than our eyes can see. We live in the now as we anticipate the not yet. Every act of love we do today helps to make that invisible Kingdom of God (i.e., the range of God s influence) spread a bit further and become more solid and real in our world. We know that, as a favorite praise song puts it, When it's all been said and done, all my treasures will mean nothing. Only what I've done for love's reward will stand the test of time. That s why we love; that s why we serve; that s why we give and yes, that s why we die whether metaphorically or literally, if that s what it takes. This is our mission now. Forever. So, where does God call you to save today? What gets in the way of you responding to that call? What holds you back from loving more, serving more, giving more of yourself for others? Do you fear what it would cost you to do something? Is it just easier to do nothing? Lent is a good time to contemplate these kinds of deeper questions. Ask God to help you strip away obstacles that block you from drawing closer to God and to others. Perhaps it s a good topic to discuss with a trusted friend, or a small group. Maybe you can hold each other accountable to taking some concrete action(s) during Lent to do your part to help save today. After all, doing something anything is always better than doing nothing. We cannot save the world Lord that s your job, but we can and we must our part to save today. Part of how the world is saved is through the actions of ordinary heroes, ordinary disciples of Christ faithfully and sacrificially serving you day after day over countless years. Help us each find the place you call us to serve, where our great passion and the world s great needs meet. Forgive us where we have been reluctant to follow your call for fear of what it might cost. You model sacrificial service when you kneeled to wash the feet of your disciples. Make us willing to follow your example, to surrender ourselves for the greater good of the world, knowing that the greatest love is the one that lays its life down for friends. We thank you for your goodness and your grace. We praise you and give thanks for all you are. In the names of the Trinity. AMEN 5

6 Good Shepherd United Methodist Church March 2018 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY Holy Communion 5-6 PM Youth Leader Mtg. ( ICC (P) 7:00 Bell Choir 7:15 Staff Parish (P) 7:30 Troop 1780 (FH, :30-8:00 Girl Scouts (FH, 7:00&10PM NA ( 7:00CC Big Show (S,FH) :30 Confirmation ( 5:00 Wed. Dinner (FH,K) 6:00-7:00 Men s Bible Study 6:10-6:40 Cherubs 6:40-7:20 Op. Faith 7:30 Chancel Choir 12-2 Prayer Weavers 7:00 Bell Choir 7:30 Troop 1780 (FH, 8AM UMM Breakfast (FH,K) 7:00&10PM NA (7 ) Daylight Savings St. Patrick s Day :30 GSEC Staff Mtg.( 6-9 ICC (P) 7:00 Swim Club 7:30-9 Troop 1780 Patrol Mtg. ( 5:30 Confirmation 6:00-7:00 Men s Bible Study 7:00 GSEC Board (P) 6:10-6:40 Cherubs 6:40-7:20 Op. Faith 7:30 Chancel Choir 7:00 Bell Choir 7:00 Finance Comm.(P) 7:30 Troop 1780 (FH, 6:30-8:00 Girl Scouts (FH, 7:00-9:00 UMW Jazz Coffee House 7:00&10PM NA ( :00 Trustee Mtg. (P) 6:30-8 UMW Monthly Mtg. (P) 7:30-9 Troop 1780 Committee Mtg. ( 9:00-3:30 Dist. Comm. on Ministry 5:30 Confirmation ( 5:00 Wed. Dinner (FH,K) 6:00-7:00 Men s Bible Study 6:10-6:40 Cherubs 6:40-7:20 Op. Faith 7:30 Chancel Choir 12-2 Prayer Weavers 7:00 Church Council (P) 7-9 Our Place Brd. ( 7:00 Bell Choir 7:30 Troop 1780 (FH, Truth Be Told? 10:00-11:30 Easter Egg Hunt 7:00 NA Celebration 7:00&10PM NA (FH) Palm Sunday Maundy Thursday 29 GOOD FRIDAY ICC (P) 5:30 Confirmation ( 6:00-7:00 Men s Bible Study 6:10-6:40 Cherubs 6:40-7:20 Op. Faith 7:30 Chancel Choir 7:00 Bell Choir 7:30 Troop 1780 (FH, 7:00 Youth Good Friday Worship 9-4 Girl Scouts (FH) 7:00&10PM NA (FH)