August. The. Jacksboro Parish. July Attendance. July 2-39 July 9-44 July July July July Financials

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1 2017 August Contact Us Give us a call for information about our Worship Service. Jacksboro Parish 115 N. Knox St. P.O. Box 716 Jacksboro, TX (940) jackparish@att.net Visit us on the web at First Presbyterian Church & Memorial Christian Church: A combined ministry for over 40 years. Visit our website at to stay up to date on our renovations and building project! Give to the PARISH BUILDING FUND, access plans and more each and every week! God is on the move! The Jacksboro Parish July Attendance July 2-39 July 9-44 July July July July Financials Giving: $26, Expenses: $14, Please help the church office stay informed of all schedule and event changes by calling or ing as changes become available. Thank you!

2 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Worship Committee 12 Noon 13 Back to School Party 6pm City Pool First Day of School for JISD Parish Council 12:15p 21 Food Pantry 2:30p

3 The Back to School Swimming Party/ Hamburger dinner will occur on Sunday afternoon, August 13th, beginning at 6:00 pm at the Jacksboro City Pool. We hope you AUGUST 13TH 6PM will help us celebrate the beginning of another new school year for the kids of The Parish! It should be a fun time and the hamburgers/trimmings are always so very tasty! You will be contacted soon regarding what type of food (i.e. chips, watermelon, homemade ice cream, etc.) you are to bring! See you August 13th! submitted by Roxanna Maddox Dear Parish Family, It is with mixed emotions that we share our latest news: Blu accepted the position of Chief Financial Officer for the City of Lubbock, effective immediately. While we are excited for this opportunity, we are saddened at the thought of moving from a place we love so much. This will also mean a year apart for us, so Callie can wrap up her work obligations. We look forward to worshipping with you both this year and any chance we get in the future. With Love, Blu, Callie, Juliana Mae Kostelich

4 CONSTRUCTION UPDATES You may have noticed all the action at the church on our building project! With construction comes changes, and we want to be sure you are updated on necessary alterations to our comings and goings during construction this summer. 1. If you visit the Church during the week, please park BY THE SANCTUARY and then walk over to the offices. This keeps the parking lot in front of the annex and the street clear for construction vehicles. 2. The kitchen slab is about to be poured! Remember, we don t have the usage of the toilets in the hallway that connect the offices to the Fellowship Hall, so please use facilities in the Education wing, or in the Sanctuary. WATCH YOUR MAILBOX FOR INFO ABOUT OUR BUSY FALL SCHEDULE! It s a great time to invite friends and loved ones to The Parish! We say goodbye to our Summer Youth Director, Chris Kahlmorgan, on August 6th. THANK YOU Chris for your dedication, time, and commitment to our youth this Summer. We wish you well on your future endeavors! We are welcoming our new Youth Director, NICK KOONTZ, on August 13th! He will be at our Back to School swim party at the City Pool that evening. Come over and introduce yourself as we welcome Nick to the Jacksboro Parish!

5 LABOR DAY SUNDAY SPECIAL ALL SUNDAY SCHOOL COMMUNITY GATHERING WITH FEATURED CHILDREN S AUTHOR (and former MCC pastor) REV. DR. SUSAN W. DIAMOND OTTER JOE PETE FINDS A HOME is a story for all ages about the importance of friendship and home and at 945 on September 3, join us for a look at the book! We are invited everyone in the community and hope people of ALL ages will join us for this special meet and greet. When Bobby finds an unusual little critter down at the stream he makes the decision to bring it home. But taking care of an animal is a big responsibility. Is Bobby up for the challenge? Read along to find out how Bobby and his family care for a newest little furry addition to their family and learn a few things along the way. Rev. Dr. Susan Ward Diamond is Senior Minister of Florence Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Florence, Kentucky. In addition to Otter Joe Pete Finds a Home, Susan is author of The Daily Grind: God With Your Coffee, a book of devotional observations about life and faith. She has written for several magazines and has a blog entitled, Pastor Susan s Thought for the Day. For more information, visit our website at otterjoepete.com. WHEN: Sept 3, 9:45a WHERE: FUMC Fellowship Hall Books will be available for purchases at this event.

6 WHO ME? Teaching Sunday School: A Rewarding Experience The following is an excerpt from an article at: What, you have doubts about teaching kids' Sunday school? You do not know if you are cool enough or young enough for the kids to relate to you. You are not sure if you are old enough or wise enough to be able to teach kids effectively. You may not have what it takes to keep the children entertained. Your church may not have the budget to create an eye popping multimedia presentation for children's church each week! It is okay, you do not have to have all those "things" to be an effective Sunday school teacher. Kids do not need another cool friend. Children need someone who cares, knows their names, encourages them, makes them feel important someone they can count on who is stable. Above all, kids need someone who has a desire to teach them about God. Meaningful lessons are not the same thing as entertaining lessons. You do not have to be a stand up comic to be an effective teacher. A well illustrated object lesson or science experiment will remain with kids much longer than a lot of hoopla. Multimedia presentations are fine, but they will soon be forgotten. Draw the kids into the lesson and the group, by helping them become part of the lesson. Include the children as often as possible. Allow them to act out the Bible stories, read the Bible passages, draw on the whiteboards, ask questions, and participate in class discussions. Be encouraging. You see it does not matter if you are twenty-two or sixty-seven, kids are not hung up by age. If you have a desire to teach children about God you are well on your way to becoming an effective Sunday school teacher. With prayer, a little practice and some planning you can create a Sunday school environment that will make a difference in a lot of children's lives. So, you want to be a Sunday school teacher, good for you! God has abundant blessings in store for both you and the children! We are currently in need of SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS at Jacksboro Parish for our joint classes with FUMC. We are looking for YOU to co-teach Preschool, Middle School, High School, or even the Friends and Followers adult class. Pick which class works best for you! And with enough volunteers you may only have to teach one class a month or one every three weeks! No matter your age or experience, there is a real need for YOU! Please contact Cindy Hackley, Suzanne Castle or Cassie Wade, if you are interested.

7 MDO Xtreme As we wrap up our first Summer of being open Tuesday/Thursdays, we are reflecting on our favorite moments! June s curriculum was focused on Under the Sea and the children created art about different sea animals, read many sea themed books, and participated in sea themed centers. The MDO hallway was turned into an underwater experience and created such a fun environment for the students! July s focus was Outer Space and the children enjoyed learning about planets, stars, and astronauts! They also had a blast painting fire work explosions and playing in shaving cream!

8 The youth have had a productive July! We started the month working with the Texas Wheelchair Ramp Project in Jacksboro. We had ten youth help build a new wheelchair ramp for a family in the Jacksboro community. I want to give a special thanks to Dianna Stockdale for her assistance with this project in helping coordinate our food as well as helping out on the project site. She also helped in getting our youth to Castaway Cove on July 28th. THANKS Dianna!! We had a good group of 15 youth attend our Waterpark Fun Day at Castaway Cove in Wichita Falls. They enjoyed a fun day in the sun and cool water. I want to take time now to thank all of the Jacksboro Parish and First United Methodist community for your support in my time here with you this summer. This has been a great experience in my life to do what I am passionate about in life and that is working with the youth in our churches. I want to close with two stories that I learned from my mentor the Reverend Dick Lord. The first is always remember your never too good to take out the trash or mow the yard when it comes to service to the church. The church grows because people within our church community always are willing to step up and do whatever it takes to continue to make The Parish and First United a loving and welcoming community. The second is that the hardest word in life to say in not Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but goodbye and when you break down the biblical meaning of goodbye it translates to God Be With You. I close by saying God Be With You my church and thank you for supporting my ministry journey. My last Sunday in Jacksboro will be August 6th and I look forward to seeing all of you that Sunday to say not Goodbye, but God Be With You. Peace and Love Church, Chris Kahlmorgan Jacksboro Parish/First United Methodist Summer Youth Director

9 We are currently enrolling in all age groups for our school year! We offer a well balanced, Christian based curriculum that focuses on academic and developmental milestones for each age. Our school year begins on September 5th, with Meet the Teacher night being August 31st. Classes will fill up quickly, so call (940) to enroll your child! MDO Xtreme Mission Statement To provide a nurturing and educational environment for ages 6 weeks old to Pre-K that promotes social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development through a Christian based curriculum. We strive to encourage each child to explore the world around them, while demonstrating Christ centered characteristics.

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11 From the desk of... Rev Dr Suzanne Castle When I frequent other churches, I like to look at their newsletters. It gives me a great glimpse on how they are living life together. Recently, I had the pleasure of reading an article from SOUTH HILLS CHRISTIAN CHURCH, as they uplifted some words from Dr. Gafney of Brite Divinity School. Here are her words: We have the Spirit of God within us. She breathed us to life with our first breath and she was poured into us at our baptism. And the defining characteristic of that Spirit, of God, is love. God is Love. And God loves. God loves all, without exception. God loves those who hurt and hurt others and God loves those who hate. God loves those we do not yet know how to love, those we do not want to love, and God loves those we hate. Some of us hate. It s hard not to in the crucified and crucifying world. Love is a choice. The question is for us as well. Will we love? Will we choose life and love? What phenomenal words. What hard words. With all the onslaught we subject ourselves to with social media, television, print media and our cultural climate I am moved by these words. We need to help shape a new conversation that is undergirded in love. (If you want the entire article, please see from her June 18, 2017 submission.) We make choices, friends. As we move through the end of the summer, as heat makes our nerves frayed, I hope we all will find the spirituality of love to be our guiding force. Virginia has the slogan VIRGINIA IS FOR LOVERS. That may be true. But right now? The world needs lovers. JUDE 1:2 puts it this way in the MESSAGE version: Relax. Everything is going to be alright; rest, everything s coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!" Suzanne