JESUS IS COMING AGAIN!!!

Transcription

1 The WORD March 3, 2018 Volume 49 Issue 3 Reach up, Reach in, Reach out Reach up to God, Reach in to know God, Reach out in Love Westville United Methodist Church First Sunday March 4th Communion in 10:15 a.m. service Sunday Morning Schedule: 9 am 10a.m Sunday School : Adult Founders Room & Brick Room, Children Basement Fellowship 10 am 10:15 am 10:15 am 11:15 am Worship Service Palm Sunday Mar. 25th Choir Special Music Good Friday Service Mar. 30th 7pm presented by Youth April 1st Easter Sunrise Service 7 am Breakfast 8 am Sunday School 9 am Worship Service 10:15 am JESUS IS COMING AGAIN!!! THE WORD is a publication of Westville United Methodist Church at 154 Main St., P.O. Box 619; Westville, IN (219) *****CHURCH OFFICE HOURS: MONDAY THURSDAY, 3:15 to 7:15 Our Web Address is In order to go green The Word will be ed to you. Be sure to your address to Jane at secretarywumc@csinet.net Printed copies will continue to be available at the church for those who do not have .

2 Page 2 THE W ORD Volume 49 Issue 3 Greetings Westville UMC Family! I just heard the news this morning that Billy Graham passed away. This is a quote from Billy Graham: Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God. This goes along with our sermon series and our study on The Purpose Driven Life during this season of Lent. Imagine for a moment if this life was all there is. What would we have to live for? What purpose would we have in life if this is all there is? Fortunately, this is not all there is to life. We can spend eternity with our heavenly Father. Hebrews 13:14 says, This world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven. What we do in this life, impacts where we will live for eternity and what we will do for eternity. Since I have been reading The Purpose Driven Life, I have been challenged personally. There is a part in this study that says that God wants all of us. God doesn t want 75% or 98% of us (which in other situations would be considered pretty good percentages). This is not good enough for God. God wants all of us: 100%! So, on the day that it talked about surrendering every part of myself to God, I did just that. I have to say that it has been challenging. This isn t a one time commitment and it s done. We have choices to make every day and several times throughout the day. So, I have had to make the choice to surrender to God over and over and over again. This has not been easy. My humanness gets in the way and on some occasions when God has called on me to respond, I admit it, I whined. I am sharing this with you, because I want to be held accountable and not backslide. If you would like to join me in this endeavor, please let me know. When God calls us, and we follow through with what He has asked of us, life can be pretty darn amazing. On the other hand, if God calls us and we decide not to follow through, it doesn t feel very good. I would like to grow in my relationship with Christ and I would like to grow in my faith. Won t you join me? Proverbs 11:28 (MSG) says, A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree. Blessings to you and yours, Pastor Cathy Allison

3 Page 3 Join us in local missions! Here are the Food Pantry items : Mar. 4th - Cleaning products: laundry soap, dish soap, mopping products Mar. 11th Pastas, noodles, macaroni, sauces, Hamburger helper Mar. 18th Canned fruits, vegetables & soups, crackers Mar. 25th Condiments: ketchup, mustard, relish, Mayo, dressings TIME & LOCATION Food Pantry Information: The American Legion is now working in cooperation with the WMC Food Pantry ministry. Please drop off donations of the above mentioned items at the Legion. For those receiving donations, items may be picked up at the American Legion on Thursdays from 4:30 5:30. IMPORTANT REMINDER INFORMATION FOR THE WORD IS DUE BY March 20th IN ORDER TO BE READY FOR PUBLICATION BY March 25TH AT THE LATEST. IT CAN BE ED TO SHEILA MCCAUGHEY, OR LEFT WITH THE CHURCH SECRETARY. Family Life Center is available for rental for parties and celebrations. Contact the church office at for more information. ********************************************************************************************************** Donate flowers for the altar. The cost is $33.00 and the flowers will be ordered by Jane in the church office. ********************************************************************************************************** Save your pop cans and bring them to the church. The money earned from the can collection supports the Heifer Project.

4 Page 4 Men'sBreakfast The monthly Men s Breakfast will be held as follows: When: Saturday, March 17th, at 8:45 a.m. Where: Greenway Café on Hwy 421 in Westville All men are welcome to come and bring a friend. If you have any questions call: Bob McCaughey - at Cares and Concerns Health and Healing Karen Emerich Avery Braden Laura Zajac Joan Ewing Newton Parks Keith Ridgeway Trinity Milner Kim Buchanan Rylee Christianson Kathy Strutz Evelyn Watson Jenifer Skibbe Vivian Tolson Jim Plesky Jean Ravenscroft Steve Swanson The Family of Dean Fager The Family of Bert Lloyd The Family of John Biggs The Family of Mary Fry The Family of Karen King Pat Long Ed Hoag John Coulter Jr Kelly Murphy LaVina Moore Walker Allen Mary Lou Coulter Steve Swanson Tim Stallings Aaron Hale Dakota Looney Tim Travelbee Roy & Ann Gropp Cecily & Greg Eather Tom Bailey PRAYER CHAIN If you have a special need for prayer, the prayer chain can be activated by calling church Secretary Jane Bachman ( ) or Prayer Coordinator Sheila McCaughey ( ) or jaybirds@csinet.net. Thos suffering with addiction, poverty, &/or depression The Care Corner Ellen Keplar Roselyn Reinfurth Wilma Long Jack Bacon Kathy & Jim Howard Ruby White Howard Wikorn Guidance & Protection Brandun Schweizer Michael Smith Korey Cornelis ********** Church Office Hours ******** Monday through Thursday 3:15 to 7:15 pm

5 Page 5 March Dates of Joining 3/7/1999 Cody Buchanan 3/9/2008 Penny Coates 3/23/1986 Amanda Elkins 3/26/1967 LaRue Gilbert 3/9/2008 Kim Glassley 3/9/2008 Nicole Glassley 3/9/2008 Mark Glassley 3/30/1969 Charley Herrold 3/30/1969 Jean Herrold 3/27/1988 Eric Long 3/9/2008 Lisa Luellman 3/9/2008 Bob McCaughey 3/9/2008 Sheila McCaughey 3/9/2008 Cheryl White 3/4/2012 Paul Lawson March Birthdays Adele Lundahl March 1 Renni Stallings March 2 Marsha Elliston March 4 Kathy Hutchison March 7 Kathryn Bartels March 9 Steve Pluimer March 10 Teresa Stowers March 11 Pam McKee March 12 Jim Nichols March 13 Leah Nittner March 16 Carol Bloom March 17 Jane Pawlik March 18 Lynn Davis March 20 Kathy Howard March 28 Bobbie Allison March 31 Sara Jerde March 31 March Anniversaries George & Carol Wyels Westville United Methodist Church Date Worship SS Giving 1/28/ $ 1, /4/ $ 2, /4/2018 $ /11/ $ 1, /18/ $ 1, Give as the Lord calls you to give: be as generous to God as God has been to you! Sunday School Teachers are needed. Teaching children can be a blessing to the teacher as well as the children. Please consider helping with our kids. They are the future of our church.

6 Page 6 Jan. 18, 2018 Church Council Kim Glassley, Phil Koss, Evert White Sr., Kathie Long, Cory Stark, Jan Buchanan, Pastor Cathy, Missy Buehrer, Jane Bachman Devotion: A devotion was given by Kim from Facebook about a young boy and the Pine Wood Derby. Minutes from the November meeting were approved New Business: A presentation was done by Amanda McCuen with the Logos for our 150 year celebration. The 150 year committee chose a logo that we will use on communications that come from the church and on t shirts and more. (We are excited) Finance: Cory passed out the reports for the month December and then a yearend report. Questions were answered. Kathie Long made a motion to use the cookie walk money as stat up funds for the 150 year celebration. Kay 2 nd the motion and it passed. Kim made a motion to approve the online bill pay from our checking account for bills that will be pulled from the account, such as NIPSCO. Kay 2 nd the motion and it passed. It was also noted that all funds should be noted on the counter sheets. Discipleship: Kay Tetzloff Education: NR Worship: The worship team will have a meeting on Jan 31 st at 6:30pm. Nurture: Kim continues to send cards to those that are brought to her attention. Youth: Missy reported that the youth will be doing Blessing Bags on Sunday that people can keep in their car and hand out as needed. Also the youth are planning to attend Camp this summer. Outreach: Kathie Long Outreach/Missions: The committee for the 150 Celebration is meeting regularly, making plans Care & Share: Currently we are serving 48 children each week. Kay suggested that there should be a visual for the congregation to see what is needed for the food bags. Resale: Some more upgrading is happening. Customers continue to compliment the new look at the shop Food Pantry: NR UMW: Jane reported that the annual After Christmas, Christmas party will be Sunday Jan. 28 th after church. There will be a meal provided by Sweet Lou s, a style show from the resale shop, giving of personal care items for the food pantry and the White Elephant gift exchange. Administrative Ministries SPRC: NR Trustees: Jane reported the work in the basement for the water damage has been cleaned up and we continue to work on keeping the water from coming into the basement. The office computer had a major overhaul and is working very well. Thank You to Computer Pros in Michigan City.

7 Page year Celebration Aug 18th and 19th Save the Date Music, History, Food, Games On the 18th we will host a carnival type celebration including an all day no charge barbecue, live music, games, face painting, history on the church lawn and side yard of the Public Library. On Aug 19th at 10:15 a special worship service commemorating 150 years will be held at the church.. April 28th 9-12:00 noon Spring Clean up!! Our community will come together for a clean up of our parks and sidewalks and for those in need Westville Public Servant Workers Appreciation Breakfast March 17th 8-10am There will be Blessings and Breakfast to acknowledge their time and talents. We will need volunteers for the food and helpers

8 Page 8 CRAFT MEETING NEWS: Tuesday, February 13th special speaker, Lynne Jordan, founder of Living Hope Ministries Today, spoke to a group of 13 ladies about how we could help with her efforts to fight Human Trafficking. Lynn has a Rug Project making and selling rugs made from used clothing. At this meeting she showed us how to cut t-shirts into the proper size strips and how to weave. The Resale Shop has taken part in this project by purchasing additional looms and will be donating used material from t-shirts, knit pants and sweatshirts to contribute in the making the rugs. In addition to Living Hope Ministries Today, Lynne donates money from the sale of her rugs to organizations that they know are making a difference by helping girls and women escape human trafficking and abusive homes. They currently donate to International Justice Mission (IJM) and She Is Safe. Lynne was very informative and inspirational. As mentioned last month The international Center for Research on Women, 2011 states: There are over 300,000 underage girls being sold for sex in America. The average age of girls in forced prostitution is between years old. Living Hope Ministries Today exists to help individuals discover (or rediscover) the value of their lives through healing and restoration, while providing tools that assist people in living out their life s calling. The belief is that individuals are born with innate purpose; even though life s circumstances and unexpected events shroud visions, blunts memories, and distances people from their gifts, no one can be separated from his or her value as an individual. STRIPES, a branch of Living Hope Ministries Today, exists to help break the cycle of abuse at home and abroad. Our passion is helping girls and women escape from situations of abuse and exploitation, find a new purpose for their life and experience love of God. We will be meeting March 4th at noon in the Family Life Center to cut strips of clothing to be ready to begin weaving. If you are interested in helping with this project please contact Mary Howard. It is always fun to visit while doing something worthwhile. If you have old t- shirts, stretch pants, or sweatshirts that you would like to donate please contact Mary Howard or Sheila McCaughey.

9 Page 9 Send a Card Ruby White 3304 Monroe St LaPorte, In Tim Stallings P O Box 334 Westville, In Kathy Strutz 151 Spruce Dr Westville, In Jean Ravenscroft 659 Surrey Walk Valparaiso, In Tom Baily 659 Surrey Walk Valparaiso, In Steve Swanson 9044 W 200 S LaPorte, In Kathy Howard 405 E Jefferson St Westville, In Howard Wikorn 1105 W 10th St LaPorte, In Newton Parks 3176 S 1050 W Westville, In Lavina Moore 3176 S 1050 W Westville, In Walker Allen 851 Fairview Ave Westville, In Trinity Milner 851 Fairview Ave Westville, In Rylee Christensen 202 Ave A Westville, In Ellen Keplar 1900 Andrew Ave LaPorte, In MaryLou Coulter 59 S Flynn Rd Westville, In 46391

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11 Page 11 Resale Shop Jan & Jan As we begin 2018 we will be saying goodbye to La Rue Gilbert as a regular team member. After many years serving as a team member, treasurer and board member she has decided to retire. She will occasionally substitute for a shift when needed and will continue to serve on the board. Although she has earned her retirement we are saddened to lose a devoted team member who has faithfully served the mission of the Resale Shop for so many years. Thank you La Rue. Although we lost La Rue we did add three new members to our team. Cleone Colvin and Sunny McKee have been helping on Mondays and decided they were ready to add a shift to their busy schedules. We also welcome Cheryl White to the Resale Shop Team. If we keep adding new people to the team perhaps this will be the year we can even out the hours a bit. One universal complaint from customers are the hours. Most of us have heard customers say something like, I come by and you re never open. The Resale Shop Board has also replaced two valued board members according to our By-Laws this year; Butch Wyels and Erin Nittner. Their positions will be filled by Mary Howard and Peggy Van Meter. The position of scrap-booker will be Pam McKee taking over for Sheila McCaughey. With everyone s busy schedules we are truly blessed at the Resale Shop that so many in our congregation see a need and step forward when asked to take a position or a shift. We had several family emergencies, surgeries and vacations in January and February. Everyone just said yes when asked and even stepped forward and said, when do you need me. We want to thank everyone who took on those extra shifts. This is what makes our Mom and Pop shop a real Family Resale Shop. As most of us know the Resale Shop was started in the fall of Looking for a little history on the shop we found an un-authored article dated In part it said, there were very few people who thought that the project could make it at all, let alone last for nearly 20 years. Well, it is now 2018 and that project, or mission, has lasted for 50 years. To celebrate our 50 th we will be finding ways to thank the community for their continued support over these last 50 years. The team leaders along with Mary Howard and Peggy Van Meter are working on ideas to celebrate this milestone throughout the year. A banner has been put in the front window and periodic drawings of items will be held during the year. The committee is also planning an event for fall. If you have any suggestions or ideas on how we, as a mission team at the Resale Shop, can show our support to the community please let us know. Another article that surfaced as we ve been digging into the shop s history was a note from Team Leader Ellen Keplar who wrote, How can we get more workers, especially in March and August when we turn over for the new season? Some things, as they say, never change. So we again are asking for help in March when we do a seasonal flip. Last fall we had plenty of help as we packed our summer clothes into a truck headed for Texas with needed clothing, prayers and fellowship. Thankfully, we don t have a disaster this year but we still need extra help. Lately we ve been re-writing history with plenty of volunteers to help with extra shifts and positions. So let s begin a new chapter in our history and start the next 50 years with the same adventurous spirit of volunteerism that began the mission of our Resale Shop, but have the additional help to call on when needed.

12 Page 12 The Fish Fry Crew We need your help!!!! Westville United Methodist Church 154 W Main St, Westville, In **Friday Nights Feb. 9-March 30th 4:00 to 7:00pm There are sign up sheets in the hall by the FLC to sign up. Everyone can do something to help: Making desserts, putting the meals together, serving, selling tickets, kitchen dishes, filling the drinks and maintaining the condiments table or just coming to eat and visit with so many people. It is a fun evening. Is that you offering to help? Menu includes: Fried or Baked Pollock French Fries or Baked Potato; Choice of Coleslaw, Mac & Cheese, Apple sauce Drink $9.00 Adults $8.00 Senior Adults $5.00 Children (ages3-10) Free Children under age 3 Also serving: Shrimp Dinner - $9.00 Chicken Nuggets - Dessert United Methodist Women $2.00 Soda Pop Choir $1.00

13 Page 13 At this time we are preparing 48 food bags every Friday Friday Back Packs continue for our kids at Westville School. Thank you for your support!! With Food, Shopping, Sorting and Delivering We are trying to fill back packs with healthy snacks or with foods that kids can make themselves. A donation box will be placed in the Family Life Center for the following donation items: NO GLASS OR BREAKABLES PLEASE. Peanut butter Cheese or peanut butter crackers Cereals (not sugary) Raisins (individual serving plain or yogurt covered) Canned fruit (low or no sugar) Peanuts or other nuts Pretzels, crackers Zip lock plastic bags (sandwich size) Granola or cereal bars (low sugar) Pasta, sauce Any snack packs with 18 carbohydrates or less Any canned meats or healthy dinners that are healthy that kids like MONETARY DONATIONS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME FOR PURCHASING REFRIGERATED ITEMS Thank you for your donations! SUCH AS CHEESE AND FRESH FRUITS/VEGETABLES March 20, 2018 A Day of Prayer An open invitation to everyone! As our country, our world, and often our personal lives becomes more chaotic and uncertain, the Westville United Methodist church is dedicating this day to prayer. This is an opportunity for you to come and bring your concerns before the Lord. In the quietness of our sanctuary you can seek out His peace and listen for His direction. Just you and God. We know the power in prayer and we know that our God is the refuge in these storms we are facing. Feel free to stop by anytime between 8:00 and 5:00 and "take your troubles to the Lord in prayer". Have a beautiful day. Feel free to share. Alete s Prayer Group Heart to Heart will meet at 8:30am during this time also ALL ARE WELCOME TO JOIN

14 March 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat FLC=Family Life Center OEA=Over Eaters Anonymous TOPS=Take Off Pounds Sensibly FLC Rented Lions Resale Shop 1-4 PM 8 2 Fish Fry 4p-7p 9 3 Lions Club Chili supper Resale Shop 9-noon 10 Youth Meet 12:30-2pm Choir 6:30p, 150th Celebration Mtg 6pm 3:00 p.m. Women Walk FLC Rented Tri Kappa 6 p.m. OEA Brick Rm Resale Shop 9-noon Bible Study 6pm Resale Shop 1-4 pm Man to Man 6:30pm Women Walkers 3pm TOPS Meet FLC 5-7pm Church Council 6:30pm Resale Shop 1-4 PM Fish Fry 4p-7p Resale Shop 9-noon 11 Choir 6:30pm Daylight Savings Time Begins 18 Youth 12:30-2pm FLC Rented afternoon Choir 6:30pm p.m. Women Walk 19 3 :00p.m. Women Walk 13 Craft Event 4:30pm 6 p.m. OEA Brick Rm Resale Shop 9-noon 20 Day of Prayer p.m. OEA Brick Rm Resale Shop 9-noon 14 Bible Study 6pm Resale Shop 1-4 pm Man to Man 6:30pm Women Walkers 3pm TOPS Meet FLC 5-7pm 21 Bible Study 6pm Resale Shop 1-4 p Man to Man 6:30pm Women Walkers 3pm TOPS Meet FLC 5-7pm 15 Resale Shop 1-4 PM 22 Resale Shop 1-4 PM 16 Fish Fry 4p-7p 23 Fish Fry 4p-7p 17 Public Servant Appre Breakfast :45 a.m. Men s Breakfast at Greenway 24 Resale Shop 9-noon 25 Palm Sunday 26 Trustee Mtg 6:30pm 3:00 p.m. Women Walk 27 6 p.m. OEA Brick Rm Resale Shop 9-noon 28 Bible Study 6pm Resale Shop 1-4 p Man to Man 6:30pm Women Walkers 3pm TOPS Meet FLC 5-7pm 29 Resale Shop 1-4 PM 30 Last Fish Fry 4-7pm Good Friday Service 7pm 31