FIRST Word APRIL First United Methodist Church 1526 East Wooster Street Bowling Green, Ohio 43402

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1 FIRST Word APRIL 2017 Wednesday, April 5, :30 p.m. - Potluck and Family Fun Night* Program: Easter Cards for Shut-Ins/Photo Booth First United Methodist Church Shredded chicken sandwiches, beverages, and table service will be provided. Attendees are asked to bring a side, salad or dessert to share. First United Methodist Church 1526 East Wooster Street Bowling Green, Ohio Phone: Fax: Website: church.office@fumcbg.org JOIN US ON SUNDAYS! 8:45 am Contemporary Worship Service Sunday, April 9, :45 & 11:00 a.m. - Palm Sunday Worship Services at First United Methodist Church Thursday, April 13, :00 p.m. - Maundy Thursday Worship Service at Trinity United Methodist Church 200 N. Summit St., Bowling Green Friday, April 14, :00 p.m. Good Friday Service Featuring St. John Passion by J. S. Bach Presented by The University Choral Society, faculty soloists, and Early Music Ensemble of BGSU. The Passion recounts the final days in the life of Christ leading to his crucifixion. at First United Methodist Church Sunday, April 16, :45 & 11:00 a.m. Easter Worship Celebrations Easter Breakfast served 7:30-8:30 a.m. & 10:00-11:00 a.m. at First United Methodist Church 1 10:00 am Sunday School 11:00 am Traditional Worship Service IN THIS ISSUE From our Senior Pastor 2 From our Associate Pastor 3 Feed the 5000/Food Distribution 4 Community Lenten Lunches 4 Church Softball 4 FUM Bloodmobile 5 Feed My Starving Children 5 Mission Team Thank You 5 Hearth & Chapel 5 UMW Meeting 6 Black Swamp Players Show 6 Bible Reading Marathon 6 Freedom School Orientation 6 VBS Dates 6 Easter Breakfast 7

2 From our Senior Pastor Friends, There s a few things we re celebrating as a church: What a great season of Lent it has been so far! We ve been reflecting on the Gospel texts that tell the story of Jesus life as we journey through this season together. We ve had the unique opportunity to hear the choir lead us through the pieces of Rachmaninoff. We ve also had an incredible turnout at our Intergenerational Family Nights on Wednesday evenings where we ve met many new faces. Throughout Lent so far we ve enjoyed Trivia, Family Feud, and an experiential prayer service. We hope that you ll join us for the remaining weeks! Our children s ministry is growing! With a growing ministry we have growing needs. We d love to deploy you into some ministry opportunities. If you re interested in learning more please contact Stacy Kerr. We are working on a new website! The front door of our church is no longer the actual front entrance on Wooster St. Our website serves as our front door and we want to be able to communicate who we are as a church before our guests even arrive. A big thank you to those who have worked on this in the past and are continuing to help with this in the future. We re working on some new small group opportunities for the fall outside of our typical Sunday School groups. We want to help you be a passionate follower of Christ and we re looking forward to studying together what that looks like for us at First. As a congregation, you made over 380 dozen cookies for our Kairos ministry. Thank you, you re changing lives! Our disaster relief team returned from mission last week. They will be sharing their experience on Sunday, April 23rd during both services. Over 40 families used our facility during the winter months for the ministry of Upward Basketball. A new roof will be installed in our sanctuary during the month of April, a much needed upgrade for our space. Lastly, in the midst of all the things that God is doing, we ve experienced some challenges as well. This year we experienced a shortfall of $60,000 in our pledges. As we ve ended the first quarter we ve realized that this is not sustainable for us, but we believe that God is faithful and that God s people will respond. Would you prayerfully consider how God is calling you to give to the mission of Jesus Christ? Several families have already committed to up their pledges in effort to make up our shortfall. I challenge you to explore how God is calling you to be a generous giver. Easter is coming and in the midst of all that God is doing, we are reminded of the sacrifice and faithfulness of our Lord. That he would come and give his life so that you and I might have life. We hope to see you as we continue in this Lenten season, preparing our hearts to reflect on the sacrifice of Christ. In Christ s Service, *The photos included in the newsletter are from the Lenten Family Potlucks and Fun Nights here at the church. 2

3 From our Associate Pastor The Book of Peter opens with both the indication of who is writing this particular letter and the audience that the writer is addressing. Peter s audience is clearly in exile and scattered from their homeland. This is important for us because we too may find ourselves at times scattered from our Spiritual homes. We may find our physical lives spared from the oppressive rule that causes us to flee our homeland, yet we live in a world that at times forces us to abandon our Spiritual home. For the Christians that Peter is writing to, they are unwillingly living in a time when there is uncertainty and anxiety all around them. Sound familiar? We too live in a time when we want to know the future yet we just can t seem to grasp it. We might be worried about the state of the world, or maybe we are just worried about our own personal lives. In either case, we desire to know what lies ahead and if we could only find out the answer, we would feel better about life. Many of our students face that uncertain future especially as we enter April and approach graduation for High School Students and BGSU Students. There is an excitement for them in what may be next yet they, like us, will also have to face the fear of an uncertain future. Peter reminds us that we have certainty in that God loves us and loves us so much that He has given us a gift in Jesus Christ. It is a gift that nothing can penetrate or diminish no matter what level of fear you may have of the future. This Easter I pray that you will embrace this wonderful gift from God. The everlasting gift of not death, but life eternal in Jesus. A gift in which we can live in the certainty that we have life with Jesus for eternity. Then we shall know our futures and can embrace a life of not looking at tomorrow but looking at the present moment with God. Shalom, Pastor Chris While we all would love that, we know the reality - we don t know what the future holds. We may be able to make educated guesses yet try as we might, we are only making guesses and predictions. Peter knew that Jesus followers were spread out and needed to be reminded of the only certainty we can rest upon. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials. ~ 1 Peter 1:3-6 3

4 COMMUNITY FEED THE 5000 FOOD DRIVE Churches in the Bowling Green area are joining together in a Lenten Food Drive called FEED THE During Lent we are hoping to collect at least 5000 items which will be distributed to all the BG-area food pantries! First United Methodist Church is being asked to collect: Canned Vegetables Canned Fruit Donated items can be dropped off in the designated Feed the 5000 donation box in the Narthex. We will be collecting items now through Easter Sunday. **************************** APRIL FOOD DISTRIBUTION: Helpers are needed for our monthly Food Distribution on the following days: Thursday, April 6th at 9:00 a.m. to help unload trucks & set up. LUNCHES Theme: Loving Our Neighbors Each Week: Different Speaker and conversation on loving in various situations A time for inspiration and prayer A space to connect with other churches in our common life A well prepared lunch. Wednesdays April 5 & April 12 Noon - 1:00 p.m. Trinity United Methodist Church 200 N. Summit St., Bowling Green No reservations needed. Freewill offering will be collected. Event is sponsored by the Bowling Green Ministerial Association. Friday, April 7th at 9:00 a.m. to bag and distribute groceries. Please consider giving a couple hours of your time each month to this wonderful ministry. If you are interested in receiving s about how to volunteer with the food pantry, contact Heather Sayler at hsayler@hotmail.com. Thank you! The church office will be closed on Friday, April 14th in observance of Good Friday. CHURCH SOFTBALL LEAGUE Anyone interested in playing softball on the FUMC team this Spring? A Church softball league starts in May at Carter park and will run to August. Anyone over 16 years old can play. The cost to play for the season will be around $60. The games will likely be on Monday evenings with some double headers. Team practice will start in early April. If you are interested in joining the team, contact Ryan Gierhart at rrgierhart@gmail.com. 4

5 FUM BLOODMOBILE Monday, May 1, 2017 The American Red Cross is holding a Blood Drive here at the church on Monday, May 2, from 12:00-6:00 p.m. To schedule an appointment, please call RED CROSS or visit redcrossblood.org and enter sponsor code: FIRSTUMCBG. HELPERS NEEDED! We are looking for people willing to help with various duties during the bloodmobile. If you are able to help, please call or text Rick Brechmacher at Please consider giving your time to this worthwhile ministry. FEED MY STARVING CHILDREN Saturday, April 22 Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is a Christian nonprofit organization that provides nutritionally complete meals for starving, malnourished, and hungry people. Children and adult volunteers hand-pack meals specifically formulated for malnourished children and then the meals are shipped to over 70 countries around the world. On Saturday, April 22, FUM will be the host site for the BGSU Mobile Pack for Feed My Starving Children. The goal for the day is 500 volunteers and packing over 100,000 meals. All the ingredients, equipment, and training is provided that day. Volunteers are asked to work a two-hour shift where they fill and seal bags at work stations. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the BGSU committee directly at BGSUFMSC@gmail.com. You can also sign up at their website: give.fmsc.org/bgsu. Our Twelfth Hurricane/Disaster Recovery Mission team has returned from the Gulf Coast area. We had the opportunity to serve three of God s families whose homes were damaged by the flood that occurred while we were down there last year and again, by more severe flooding later in the year - families who could not otherwise afford needed repairs. All of the homes we helped repair were on the order of 40 miles from the Epworth Project home base in Slidell. One of our teams replaced floor joists and sub-flooring in a family s home, and the other two teams worked at hanging and finishing drywall in two other homes. Three of our nineteen team members were a part of our BGFUMC church family. Other members of our team were from Perrysburg Grace UMC, Rossford UMC, Whitehouse Hope UMC, Lambertville UMC, Cedar Creek, and Emmanuel UMC in Blissfield, MI. God worked mightily through this team! Thank you for your prayers, and for your financial and overall support! We look forward to sharing our experiences with you. Again, thank you for the love and support that you provided for all the servants on this mission team! God bless! ~ Tom Moyer, Thad Long, and Don Crawford Tuesday, April 25 7:00 pm FUMC Meeting Room Program: Performance by Spoken Images Directed by Keith Guion Hosts: Wendy & Keith Guion 5

6 UMW MEETING Thursday, April 20th 9:30 a.m. - Meeting Room Program: Don Crawford will talk about the March Mission trip to Louisiana. Hostesses: Jan Milbrodt & Betty Jean Anderson Devotions: Judy Hartley BIBLE READING MARATHON Readers Needed It is time to join our community of disciples and volunteer to read the Bible at the Wood Co. Courthouse as part of the Bible Reading Marathon May 1-4. Volunteers from FUMC are needed on Wednesday, May 3rd from 8:45-11:00 a.m. We will be reading from the Book of Acts. Each person is asked to read for15 minutes. Please contact Thad Long (longtha@bgsu.edu or ) with questions and to get signed up to help. Thank you! THE BLACK SWAMP PLAYERS PRESENT - The Dixie Swim Club on April 28 & 29, May 5 & 6 at 8:00 p.m. and on April 30 and May 7 at 2:00 p.m. The show will be presented at First United Methodist Church. This charming story visits with five Southern women on vacations over 33 years. This overcoming of age story shares with these ladies all the joys, sorrows, chaos and love that life brings. Lifelong friendships carry the sweetest of memories, come laugh with us and support your local theatre group! General admission tickets will be available at the door or online at Reserved seats can be purchased starting April 9 at Grounds for Thought at 174 S. Main St. Tickets are $10 / $12. FREEDOM SCHOOL ORIENTATION Sunday, April 23, :00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monroe Street United Methodist Church 3613 Monroe Street Toledo, OH We need many hands to make this a phenomenal experience for the children who come to our Freedom School June 19- July 28. You are invited to the Freedom School Orientation which will give you a taste of Harambe, the singing and dancing experience that warms the kids up for learning every day, an opportunity to explore the many ways in which you may become involved in the Freedom School and to see where all of this dreaming will become a reality! Questions? Elizabeth Rand (erand@monroestreetchurch.org) or call Mark your calendar Vacation Bible School August 7-10, More details to come - 6

7 Amy Miller - Senior Pastor amy.miller@fumcbg.org Chris Walter - Associate Pastor chris.walter@fumcbg.org First United Methodist Church Staff Steve Goyer Treasurer Mark Munson Organist William Schwepe Chancel Choir Director Stacy Kerr - Director of Family Ministries stacy.kerr@fumcbg.org Carol Lenox - Church Administrator church.office@fumcbg.org Amy Peel - Administrative Assistant membership@fumcbg.org Jo Ascunce TrebleMakers Children s Choir Director Nate Kester Leader of Contemporary Worship Audie Christy Custodian Ron Springstead Grounds & Maintenance 7

8 First United Methodist Church 1526 E. Wooster Street Bowling Green, OH RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID BOWLING GREEN, OHIO Permit No. 10