THE HILLTOP NEWS Laredo Dr., Fort Worth, Texas March 15, 2011

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1 THE HILLTOP NEWS 2820 Laredo Dr., Fort Worth, Texas March 15, 2011 The purpose of Western Hills United Methodist Church is to continue the ministry of Jesus by making disciples through faith, hope and love. Tuesday March 15 Meals on Wheels 9:00 a.m. to noon, Food Pantry 6:30 p.m., Cub Scouts 6:30 p.m., Girl Scouts Wednesday March 16 6:00 p.m., Bible Study 6:00 p.m., Jesus In the Gospels Bible Study 7:30 p.m., Chancel Choir Thursday March 17 9:00 a.m. to noon, Food Pantry Friday March 18 10:00 a.m., TGIF Bible Study Sunday March 20 9:30 a.m., Sunday School 10:50 a.m., Morning Worship 12:00 p.m., Children s Coordinator and parents meeting 4:30 p.m., Youth 5:00 p.m., Why Not Now 6:00 p.m., Disciple I Bible Study 6:00 p.m., Financial Peace University Monday March 21 9:30 a.m., ESL Classes Reflections: Now is the time to take our faith seriously in such a way that we avail ourselves of the disciplined journey that the Christian season of Lent provides for us. Reflection, contemplation, assessment, analysis, and evaluation, are all critical terms in our Christian vocabulary that point toward the idea of learning, growing, and maturing in the Christian faith. Reflection is the primary activity that puts us in the realm of theology. St. Anselm of Canterbury ( ) defined one s reflection of God as faith seeking understanding. We become theologians when we seek to understand God. Such reflection best occurs in the context of Christian devotion. Thus, it begs the question, what resources do I have at church that can guide me on a spiritual journey through the forty days of Lent? The Bible and the Upper Room can be those resources. Just think of what happens when we use the Upper Room as a devotional guide. It gives you a theme to reflect upon, a scripture passage to meditate, a story of faith to contemplate, a time of self evaluation to respond to Holy Scripture, and an action to take all of this done using prayer as the way to relate to and commune with God. In addition, there is a Lenten Bible study on Fridays at 10:00 a.m., during Lent. Terry Meyer leads it using Dr. William Willimon s Lenten Bible study entitled, Thank God It s Friday: Encountering the Seven Last Words from the Cross. Then, for Sunday s worship, the sermon theme for the Sundays in Lent will be Jesus: The Fulfillment of Scripture. On these Sundays, with March 13 an exception, because our guest preacher chose his own sermon scripture, I will try to explore the relationship between the Old Testament and New Testament in regard to Jesus our Savior, and attend to the idea that all of Holy Scripture points toward Jesus, his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, and his journey toward his passion, death, and resurrection. Sunday s sermon texts are Genesis 12:1-4a and John 3:1-17. Sermon title is The Radical Nature of our Calling. Take your faith seriously, engage in a spiritual discipline, exercise your faith, and let us develop in earnest our holy habit of gathering for worship. If you do not have an Upper Room as a devotional guide, pick one up at the church. They are available in English and Spanish. On each Sunday in Lent I will seek to greet you in the Welcome Area and share time with you over hot cross buns and coffee. Raul

2 Gifts of Prayer In Sympathy: The John Fant Family, Joan Jefferson Family, Wanda Warburton Family and Tom Wilson Family Current Concerns: Laura Abbott, District Administrator; Janie Bielefeld; Cody Burns, son of Crowley UMC pianist, Janet Burns; Penny Comparini; Warren Dush, Evelyn Jackson s grandson; Ray Farmer, son-in-law of Sue and George Hanson; Littlewolf Goss and Cheyenne; Jane Higginbotham, has cancer; Sherron Hunt, friend of Brenda Mills; Richard Lambing, coworker of Barbara Gormley; Barb Leach; Martin Leimer, father of Tina Alderson; Elmo Livingston; Joy McGlaun, Doug McGlaun s sister; Fred Marten; Bonnie Meyer, Terry Meyer s mother; Bill Mills, father of Brenda Mills; Rubin Mills, brother of Brenda Mills, is recovering from a heart attack; Harry Morton, having tests; James Norton, friend of Ken Brower; Peggy Stephens; Paul Stricklin, nephew of Ralph and Shirley Fagan; Fay Taft, Reta Strack s sister; Lisa Tennison, Jan Fisher s daughter, who has health problems; Joyce Yanaway, Dwaine & Betty Jo Robinson s neighbors friend Supporting My Church Ongoing Prayer List Florine Brooks, Katherine Busby, Kristi Butler, Sharma Castillo, Larry Cornett, Martha Davis, Misty Dush, Anne Ellison, Ted Evans, Robert Ewing, Carl Hibscher, Doug McGlaun, Wilma Moderow, Margaret Moore, Bruce Newman, Bill Newton, Sarah Odom, Eric Paige, Camille Redden, Al Riibe, Zebula Robinson, Debbie Sarnachuck, Josh Taylor, Leanne Roth, Shalamar Stricklin, Kristi Vickers, Tristan Watkins, George Wendt Health and Healing: Military: Sam Brooks, Jason Busby, Sarah Davis, Dan Fagan, Sarah Harris, Angela Herrington, Trinity Herrington, Daniel Kinnibrugh, Danny Martin, Thomas Morton, Robert Newman, Daniel Newman, Richard Ray Owens, Jr., Nicholas Perez, Jacob Rangel, Alex Ruth, Chris Sotello, Cole Teer, Brandon Wilson With Presence Worship Attendance: March 6th: 155 & 22 March 13th: 129 & 16 Sunday School Attendance: March 6th: 75 March 13th: 86 Gifts of Money Needed for General Budget each week: $5, March 6th: General Budget $ 7, Memorials Apportionments Heifer Fund 5.64 Fall Festival T-Shirt The Grace Fund March 13th: General Budget $ 1, The Grace Fund Food Pantry UMCOR Memorials Apportionments 35.00

3 Dear Church Family, There is no possible way for me to fully express the love that I have felt from you during the past months. John loved Western Hills and all of you and so do I. Your calls, visits, prayers, love and concern have been deeply appreciated by my family as we traveled the recent path to John s passing. I want you to know that those of you who came to the hospital and then hospice were recognized by him with no prompting by me. He knew you were there. Thank you for all the food for sustenance, cards to say you care, calls to say what can I do, hugs over the weeks and months, and your obvious love for John as a friend, fellow follower of our Lord Jesus Christ and member of Western Hills United Methodist Church. I plan to be in all the places that John would want me to be and to continue his presence by my presence at WHUMC. Love, Lola Mae Fant For Your Information Please! Before you buy any paint, brushes, drop cloths, etc., on behalf of WHUMC, check in the south storage closet near the southeast door of the Education Wing. We have a lot of materials to choose from. Thank You! The deadline for the next newsletter is Monday, March 28, 2011! C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters A performance of C. S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters will be given at Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm Street, Dallas, Texas on Saturday, April 2 at 4pm or 8pm. The Screwtape Letters is a novel by C. S. Lewis that reveals spiritual warfare from a demon s point of view. It will be funny, provocative and a theatrical adaptation of the novel. Please let Terry Meyer know if you would like to go as a church group. Tickets will run around $38 per individual and if we get a group of 10 or more we can save more. In Christ, Terry Thank You I would like to thank everyone who came to the hospital and waited while I had my surgery. Also, thank everyone for their prayers, cards, phone calls and visits, and those that brought food. Your kindness and thoughtfulness is very much appreciated. We are so blessed to have such a caring and loving church family here at WHUMC. May God bless you all. Jerry Fry Also, thank you all for your prayers, phone calls, and sympathy cards that I received at the time of my sister's death. Anna Fry

4 Open to Everyone During the Sunday school period at 9:30am on March 27 in the fellowship hall, Terry Meyer will give a presentation on his trip with Zoe Ministry, a United Methodist mission, to Kenya, Africa. Zoe empowers orphans to pull themselves out of poverty with the help of local churches such as Western Hills within a three year period. Thank You We would like to give a special shout out to our volunteers for the past few weeks. They have been so wonderful assisting us with youth. Tamera Austin, Dan and Joyce Brown for the wonderful meals; Shalamar Stricklin, Jessica Gutierrez and Renee Brown for assisting with the games and devotional; Dennis and Jeanine for helping with Game Night and providing some snacks (on a moment's notice); Tina Shaw for games suggestions and computer suggestions. If you are interested in being blessed by the youth and would like to help with any of our youth activities, please us ja.freeman@sbcglobal.net Furniture For Sale Silent bids are now being accepted on the piece of furniture as shown below (located in the church office). Please turn in your bids to the church office if you are interested. Bids will be received until March 31st. CHURCH COUNCIL WILL MEET AT 7 P.M. MONDAY, MARCH 28. All meetings of this decision-making body for our church are open to everyone. Minutes of the council's last meeting were printed in the Feb. 8 Newsletter. If you did not read those minutes and would like a copy Joyce Brown at joyce@danbrownart.com. Thank You Thank you to Leigh Leonard for providing the refreshments after worship for the month of February and to Kris Johnson for providing the refreshments after worship for the month of March.

5 Welcome New Members Shalamar Stricklin Youth Corner Aren't you glad it is Spring Break? This week should be a time for visiting with your friends, helping out your parents and even coming to church for some fellowship. Thank goodness we started off the break with a game night Sunday night. James and I ate plenty of pizza, junk food and played a good share of games (I don't think my body is made to do Twister anymore!) We are so honored and blessed to have you with us and we look forward to hearing about what you did this week. See you Sunday! In Peace, Ardis and James Children s Activities Littlewolf Goss On Sunday, March 20, there will be a brief meeting after morning worship service for all parents of children that will participate in children's activities. We are working to form a children's event planning team. We appreciate all input and ideas and want to work together as a team to come up with new and fresh ideas to improve our children's department and events. If you have any questions please contact Brandi Nemec at or call Betty Allison at the church office, Brandi Nemec Mary and Dave Clark

6 Supporting My Church With Service Doug McGlaun Chairman of Trustees If you ever wondered why our building and grounds are maintained in such good condition, you need to meet Doug McGlaun, chairman of trustees. Doug can tell you the answers to some of the following questions: Who keeps the grass cut? Who maintains the flowerbeds? Who fixes plumbing problems? Who makes sure carpets are cleaned? Who trims the trees? Who rakes and bags leaves? Who checks the smoke alarms? Who makes sure we have heating and air conditioning? Who makes sure the building is cleaned? Who makes sure we have insurance? Who maintains our sprinkler system? Who makes sure our building meets safesanctuary guidelines by adding windows to children s classrooms and adding doorways in the nursery classrooms? Other trustees are LaJean Hindman, Larry Morton, Chester Shaw, Bo Brown, Jean Adams, and Lou Strack. If YOU are willing to help with the work of keeping our building in good repair or our yard beautiful, give Doug a phone call at A Service Opportunity Would you or your Sunday School Class like to volunteer to furnish and serve refreshments after Sunday morning worship for a month? There is a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board in the church office July thru December is available! This service involves preparing the lemonade or punch and purchasing cookies (for which you will be reimbursed). Recycle New List! WHUMC will receive funds when the following items are recycled: Please bring only the items listed: The list has recently expanded our fundraising program to include more items than ever before. They even pay for damaged, non-working and non-listed models. Used, Broken or Unwanted Gold Jewelry Cell Phones Ink Jet Printer Cartridges Laptop & Netbook Computers ipads & Tablets Apple ipods & MP3 Players Digital Cameras Digital SLR Cameras and Lenses Digital Video Cameras GPS Devices Radar Detectors Kindle & Sony Book Readers Handheld Game Systems Game Consoles (Wii, PS3, Xbox) and Video Games Range Finders and SkyCaddies Mobile Hotspots, 4G USB Air Cards and MiFi Devices Graphing Calculators Thank you for your continued support of this program!