We are a Christian community reaching out to others with Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors

Transcription

1 We are a Christian community reaching out to others with Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors Serving this month: Usher: Bill Wiberg Liturgists: Donna Allsup Next Newsletter Deadline March 19, 2017 Sitting on a comma The week before Lent began I found myself sitting on a comma. One of those times of anticipation that can t be rushed. I had recently completed some long term projects, and though there is always more to do, I saw a gap of purpose and meaning before me. Other commas of my life that I vividly recall are: waiting for Christmas each year; the months and weeks and days of waiting before the births of each of my sons; watching the Amaryllis plant in my office grow an inch a day, anticipating a bloom; and now the pause before Lent. But this time it was very uncomfortable. I didn t know what I was anticipating; what was to come Sunday morning, I looked to observe if anyone else was as tense as I felt in the waiting. Some were riding on a dash; you know the dash between their birth date and their death date. They were just going along unaffected by what was before them, either uncaring or just totally undisturbed by the happenings around them. I found a few who were living at the end of short statements, sitting on bold periods, holding on to an apostrophe as they shared by their words and demeanor that there was only one way to do things their way. Some were sitting just behind a semicolon, looking ahead to the multiples of things coming up next. I wanted to be there. I wanted to look ahead, but try as I may, I couldn t get off the comma. I had to just sit there and pause, reflecting back, but unable to look ahead. During worship I stared at the cross and begged God to show me the way, help me off the comma, I want to move forward, I don t feel productive here and I don t know what is coming next. God responded by sending Jesus to me in these words: my peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. We don t always get to choose what attitude/ punctuation we get to hold on to. Our physical, mental and spiritual health each can have a lot to do with where we are at on any given day. But we can choose who we turn to in our uncomfortable and difficult times: the one who Created us, God. Today, I am still on the comma, but I ve living in the pause with a new calm, knowing things will change, maybe not in my time, but in God s. Next Week is Ash Wednesday. I think God has been preparing me to surrender myself to the process that leads to Easter. I now feel ready for it, whatever it is. By the time you read this we will be moving into Lent. Is it well with your soul? Where are you sitting right now? As Always, Pastor Cathy

2 Baby Clothes Needed The United Methodist Midwest Distribution Center sends things that are needed around the world. It is a part of UMCOR (United Methodist Committee of Relief that is one of the first to a disaster (like Hurricane Katrina recovery) and usually the last to leave. It is good to know that even though we can t all go to disaster sights around the world, we still do through this part of our church. Right now they are short on baby clothes. The list includes: Receiving Blankets, Gowns/Sleepers, Onesies and Cloth Diapers. Please bring only these items, only new. This is an opportunity for you to help clothe a baby somewhere in the world that needs you! Pastor Cathy and Bethe Wiberg will deliver them to Annual Conference in June, but we ask for them to arrive anytime between now and June 1. More info can be found at ww.midwestmissiondc.org The Trustees Corner Caring for Our Facilities We are happy to report that the heat vent in the sanctuary has been adjusted to reduce bothersome air flow to the pulpit side of the church when the air conditioning is on. The electrician has installed the new LED lights on the sign in front of the church so it is again visible after dark and less expensive to operate than before. Thanks to Bruce Konkler for coordinating this project. This month we also salute several other handymen who keep things in order and running smoothly around our church. Thanks to Mike Hatch and Bob Renton for cleaning the kitchen trap, to Mike Hatch for replacing the water filter at the parsonage, and to Dick Grundstrom for building a wooden music stand. We are fortunate to have so many dedicated people in our church! Summary of Operating Revenue & Expenses Year to Date as of January 31, 2017 Income $ 13,682 Expenses (11,979) $ 1,703 All bills, including apportionments, are paid to date.

3 St Francis Mission Hats and Mittens With all of your donations, we began February with a trip to St Francis Mission to offer some warm hats, gloves, mittens, scarves and head bands of all colors and styles to the children at the school there. When we arrived they were at recess, playing in the snow with bright pink ears and hands, only a few were wearing something on their heads and hands. Like one of the teachers told us, They go out more than once a day and the mittens don t have time to dry between. Some of the ones you have brought will stay here for them to use when their s are wet. Do you remember those days of wet mittens and mid-winter when you could no longer locate your hat? Thank you for your care for others. A simple way to witness to others back home PBS has produced a series entitled Around the Corner with John McGivern that introduces the communities of Wisconsin. If you type PBS Around the Corner and then find episode 508, Hayward is presented in a 30 minute video. Think about who you can send this to as an invite to come to our area. Maybe they will stay and help us Share the Warmth with Hayward United Methodist Church! Giving Envelopes/ Electronic Giving Boxes of giving envelopes are available and can be picked up in the church narthex. Or consider signing up for electronic giving. This enables an automatic transfer of whatever amount you decide to be transferred each month to the church account. It is easier for you and more stable for the church. A one time form is available at the church.

4 Confirmation Class Our three Confirmation Students will confirm their faith in worship on April 30. We will celebrate their accomplishments as a church with a potluck lunch after worship. All three of them will be attending a trip with their school class to Washington DC during the summer, but the fees for the trip are due in March. You can support this effort for them by donating to the newly established Education Fund. Education Fund Church Council has approved the establishment of an Education Fund to be used like a scholarship fund for children or youth of the church who may be attending a school trip, church camp or other educational opportunities in the future. This is a way for us to enhance the Christian Education we offer here at the church and celebrate the children and youth of the church. To help support this fund mark your gifts HUMC Education Fund. If you have any questions talk to Pastor Cathy. Coming Home to God Ash Wednesday, March 1 st, noon, we invite you to bring a sack lunch and spend an hour eating and reflecting. We begin Lent and go through Confirmation Sunday (Apr. 30) with the worship theme of Coming Home to God. We will reflect on what it is like to come home, that warm cozy feeling of your right place, the joy of getting back to the people and things that you miss; homecoming! The Way by Adam Hamilton The Bible Study Group that meets on Sunday mornings at 8:30am will begin The Way Traveling to Jerusalem with Jesus by Adam Hamilton. If you would like a book, even if you are unable to attend the class, let Pastor Cathy know. Class time will include videos of locations on the journey, an opportunity to travel each Sunday morning to the Holy Lands Worship Attendance for February January February 5 45 February February Sermons & Pictures Online If you are away from Hayward for a week or a month or even longer...you can always find the sermons on the church website. ( Seder Meal Please sign up if you would like to attend a Jewish Passover Seder meal at HUMC on Holy Thursday, April 13th. (Time to be determined later.) Upcoming Worship Themes In February & March Ash Wednesday Service Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Luke 15:11-32 Coming Home to God Lent 1 - Communion Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Deut. 26:1-11 Coming Home: Gifts of God Lent 2 Pastor Barbra Certa Werner, Harbor House, Superior, WI Lent 3 Psalm 63:1-8; Isaiah 55:1-9 Coming Home: Feast of God Lent 4 Psalm 32 Coming Home: Taking the First Steps

5 Plans are being made to hold a 2 day sale out of our church garage, sometime this summer. This will be a true garage sale. Items not allowed will include: Clothing, electronics, kitchen, luggage, picture frames, knickknacks. Suggested items include: lumber, tools, yard/garden, sporting goods, exercise equipment, furniture, lamps, nails, screws& bolts, bird feeders, animal traps. Some items already available include: toboggan, Ice Auger, Weed Trimmer, bicycles. If you have questions about the type of items to be sold, please call Bruce Konkler or Bethe Wiberg. We need a historian for the church. Someone who can update the history book, adding pictures and maybe record some more of the story. If this is a gift you could give to the church, please talk to Pastor Cathy. Daylight Savings Time begins March 12th. Spring ahead an hour! Apr. 28 May 26 June 30 July 28 Book Club Book Club meets on March 31st at 11:15am At Flat Creek Eatery Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen will be discussed. Everyone is welcome! Sister North by Jim Kokoris The Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigs A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure The Hayward Library has copies available each month. Just ask for the Methodist Book Club book. Liturgists and Ushers Anyone interested in reading the liturgy during service or serving as usher, please contact Robin Frame at rframe@centurytel.net or home phone Ruby s Pantry Jan 19 5:30pm Third Thursday of every month at the Wesleyan Church. Sign-up on line at Ruby s Pantry and walk right in. Cost is $20 (plus $1 for online) and you will receive $100 or more worth of food. Share with others what you can t use Men s Group meets the first Saturday of every month. Breakfast and conversation at 8:00 am. Helping Hands If you are in need of help with winter projects, please contact Pastor Cathy. pastor@haywardumc.org or call with your requests for help. Attention all women of the church! Women in Conversation invites you to join us Monday, January 9th.

6 Colle, Dave & Sue Even though Dave and Sue are new members to most of us, they are familiar to some. They were part of the original people in the beginning of HUMC in Hayward. Their children were part of the first confirmation classes. They lived here originally for 18 years and lived in Mercer, WI. They returned in 2012 so have come full circle. They live on Bethel Road. Dave works for Midwest Forest Products and Sue works for Northwoods Craft and Variety store. They have three children, seven grandchildren, and Charlie, a Cavalier Spaniel mix. Dave's hobbies are hunting, fishing, gardening, and coin collecting. Sue likes sewing, knitting, gardening, and miscellaneous crafts. We are blessed to have them back where they started. Rib Ticklers Many people want to serve God, but only as advisors. Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect you couldn t belong. Discretionary Fund/Salvation Army We have been using the discretionary fund mostly to help Salvation Army screen and administer funds to those in need, by sending them a regular amount. Currently that fund only has enough to help them help others for a few more months. If you see this as an opportunity to share, mark your gift discretionary Fund. Thank you!

7 BLACK MAIL (Previously known as: TALES FROM THE BLACK FOREST) WHILE THE SERMON WAS GOING ON A few Sundays ago, while the minister was preaching, a remark was made that brought back a memory from many years past. While I was preaching, I don t think that ever happened for every word spoken in my sermon, I am sure I had my parishioners undivided attention (hah!). But, on this Sunday, it happened to me. Strange how that occurs. The pastor was talking about things that happened in her childhood. Suddenly my mind shifted to I was in the sixth grade. We only had six grades in our elementary school. Our principal found himself drafted (World War II), and our sixth grade teacher was appointed to be the interim principal. 0ur teacher had red hair, was about as short as the students, and she ruled her classroom like a dictator. (May have been why she ruled like a dictator.) When she left the room to attend to her Principal Duties in the principal s office she would appoint one of the students to monitor the room, and on this day she appointed me. She would give an assignment to the class and then leave. Having the last name Black, I was seated, alphabetically, in the front of the room. I was working hard on my assignment and I looked up and saw Bernice talking to her neighbor in the back of the room. I said, loudly enough for the whole class to hear, Bernice, stop talking. Unbeknownst to me, the teacher had returned to the classroom, and was stooping over, unseen by me. She popped up, about as high as the countertop bookcase she was fumbling around in, and said something like, she appreciated my monitoring but she was in the classroom now. The class roared with laughter. I was embarrassed but said nothing in return. Sometimes it is better to say nothing, especially to a dictator. On occasion, however, the monitoring system didn t work. After the teacher was gone for a long period of time we would all begin to talk and the classroom would become a bedlam, and the noise rose louder and louder. When that happened she would threaten to paddle the whole class the next time it occurred. Finally, one time she returned and asked who was talking, 19 of us raised our hands. She separated us, boys from girls, and took us into the principal s office, one group at a time, and gave the girls one swat, and the boys two swats. We boys didn t think that was fair, but you didn t talk back to the red headed dictator. Then, I came back to the pastor s sermon. The pastor was talking about relationships, the relationship with God, and the hymn came to mind, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. The relationship is critical. It spurs our actions. It is what s on the inside that results on the outside. Recently, I listened to a sermon by David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times. He preached in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. in February. Listen to it on You Tube on your phone, or computer. Someone asked him how you respond to those whose lives need to be changed and he replied, and I am paraphrasing, you respond, not with an eye for an eye, but with a caring relationship. One of my favorite quotes in the Bible is where Jesus is reported saying, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and then he adds, love your neighbor as yourself. And, that is how it was with that 6 th grade teacher. In time, she became my favorite teacher. I knew she cared.and I was short, too. Sermon complete. The pastor got the message across. I ll see you in church, in person or spirit. Pastor Black (retired)

8 Hayward United Methodist Church P.O. Box 587 Hayward, WI Mailing Address Goes Here ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED Mark Your Calendars March 1 12:00 PM Ash Wednesday Service March 4 8:00 AM Men s Breakfast March 5 8:30 AM Adult Study Resumes The Way by Adam Hamilton March 11 Spring Ahead- Daylight Savings Time March 13 10:00 AM Women s Group March 14 12:00 PM Trustee s Meeting March 16 5:30 PM Ruby s Pantry Distribution March 19 Newsletter Articles Due March 20 Spring Begins March 24 11:15 AM Book Club NOTE: Pastor Cathy will be on vacation from March 8th-13th.