The Methodist. Welcome to Chris & Resa Lavicky and their children: Calvin(6), Delano (3) and Katalina (10 mo.) Katalina Marnae Lavicky

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1 The Methodist A Publication of The Seward United Methodist Church 1400 North 5 th Street Seward, NE Church Office: (402) Look for more information about an upcoming Adult Sunday School opportunity on Sunday mornings at 9:30am. We will be reading a book titled "Facing Your Giants". COMMITTEE MEETING TIMES Mon Aug 3 Nurture Mtg 7:00PM - Parlor Wed Aug 5 Witness Comm 5:30PM - Library Sat Aug 16 Capital Campaign 4:00PM - FH Tues Aug 18 BBCDC Board Tues Aug 18 Worship Comm Tues Aug 18 M&O Comm Wed Aug 19 Trustees Mtg Thur Aug 20 Finance Mtg 6:00PM - Parlor 7:00PM - Library 7:00PM - Parlor 7:00PM - Parlor 7:00PM - Parlor Welcome to Chris & Resa Lavicky and their children: Calvin(6), Delano (3) and Katalina (10 mo.) Katalina Marnae Lavicky July 19, 2015

2 Dear friends, Nancy and I celebrated two years in Seward in June. Time quickly marches on! We have been blessed in so many ways over the past two years. I believe God brought us here, and God has had a major role in the blessings we have received. The Seward United Methodist Church has also been blessed in many ways over the past two years. We have come through many challenges as a congregation. There have been some struggles, to be sure. But looking back, we have been strengthened through these struggles, and I look forward to what God has in store for us now! As I look to the future of the Seward United Methodist Church I see signs of great potential. I am going to touch on a few of those signs, but I cannot possibly name them all here. One exciting development is the possibility of hiring a part-time associate pastor. I cannot possibly fulfill all the pastoral needs by myself in our congregation of nearly 700 members. The Staff/Parish Relations Committee is working out the details of the position, and will work with other appropriate groups to ensure a smooth transition. The Nurture Committee has plans to add an adult Sunday School class to our Sunday morning schedule this fall. Our hope is to include people that need a different kind of study than what is currently offered. Our Middle School Youth leaders, Gus and Amy Miller, have retired after eleven years of faithful service. I am sure they will be missed by the youth who loved them and depended on them, as they have certainly touched many lives here. The good news is that Jerry and Mary Meyer will be leading that group this fall. In 2014 the Administrative Council gave the Capital Campaign Committee specific short and long-term goals. Beth Hentzen is now the chairperson of the reorganized committee, and the committee is earnestly working toward realizing those goals. The Trustees have accomplished two major projects in the past two years, along with many smaller projects. My hope and prayer is that they will now be less driven by catastrophic circumstances, and they will now be able to deal with more ordinary maintenance issues. Many other groups and individuals have also been busy with the work of the church. Some have been refining their roles and all have been working to faithfully complete their tasks. People have come out in droves to help with individual projects. Still others have generously responded to the needs of the church in other ways. Thanks be to God! May we continue to serve God as individuals and as a church. May we continue to be faithful to the task of ministry in the Seward area. In Christ s service, Pastor Dale Lambert

3 Worship Schedule 8:30 a.m. 9:30 a.m. Blended Worship Adult Sunday School 9:30 a.m. Youth Sunday School (Starts August 30th) 10:30 a.m. Praise Worship See attached flyer regarding Life Line Screening who will be at SUMC on Thursday, September 3rd from 8-5 PM You are all welcome for Fellowship after each service every Sunday for refreshments and a time to visit with your church family and guests. I want to thank everyone for their kindness to me since I started the position of Office and Finance Administrator. You have all made me feel like a part of the family. I feel truly blessed to be here. Thanks! Sandy Ruether Watch us on Cable 13 at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday And/or 10:00 a.m. Thursday mornings. Monday 7:30 p.m. Library Sunday Mornings - Sunday 9:30 a.m. - Library Watch for New Class Information PRAYERS AND CONCERNS Please remember those who were lifted up in prayer for on-going health concerns. Prayers For: We lift up prayers for T.J. Fraser who has mowed to Ridgewood. Prayers for Beth Brown, sister of Claudia Horton, for ongoing health concerns.

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6 SUNDAY, AUGUST 23rd Rally Sunday at 10:30 am Service There will be a dedication of teachers and then children will go with their teachers for a special activity and snacks. ****We are encouraging everyone to wear T-Shirts to the church service on that day. Check us out on our FaceBook page. Bbcdc.seward@gmail.com Lots of pictures of the kids and activities! Bright Beginnings Child Development Center will be having an Open House on Monday, August 17th from 5-8 PM. This will be a great time to come and meet the new teachers (Shanon and Gretyl), learn more about the Preschool and Pre-K programs as well as fellowship with other families. During the Open House, there will be an Usborne Book Fair to earn some new and exciting books for the Center. The book fair will start August 16th during worship and fellowship time. The new playground area is currently fenced in and work has begun on the internal design of the all natural play area. This will be a great way for the kiddos to discover the world around them. Continue to watch as the work gets completed. Thank you to everyone who helped to make the play area possible with their gifts, service and prayers. All is appreciated. A special Thank-You to Jim Gardner and Connie and Morgan Doehring for assembling the book racks in the hallway and organizing all the books. This will help the teachers utilize all the great resources. Welcome also to the new cook, Carson Farr. He came to the BBCDC from Concordia University and has been preparing the food from scratch and the kids are getting to experience new and fun foods.

7 Mesi ~ di ou mesi! ( Thank you ~Thank you very much! in Haitian Creole) Mission Outeach and UMW thank you for the generous support of the Mission Trip to Thomassique, Haiti. $600 plus many donations of luggage, clothing, shoes, eyeglasses, and volleyball equipment will express God s Love and our caring. The mission group from Seward travels July 27 th August 12 th. Pray for their safe travels. Watch for Facebook posts - Haiti Mission Team NOW IS THE TIME to start thinking about donating to the UMW Annual Four Seasons Bazaar. Jams, jellies, baked items, relishes, soups, salsa Needlework, photography, woodcrafts, ornaments, holiday decorations NEW Ideas.. Always WELCOMED!!! Saturday, November 14, 2015 August 5 th Unit Meeting 1:30 PM Fellowship Hall 19 th UMW Book Group 5:30 PM Maxine Moore's 20 th Evening UMW 7:00 PM 22 nd Sewing Saturday 8:30 AM 26 th UMW Leadership Team Meeting 10:00 AM AND THEN. October 6 th 5:30 PM Annual Guest Event - Soup Supper Guest Speaker Mary Ann Bede will share her theatrical talents as she 'introduces us' to Patricia St. John, an English nurse who spent much of her life as a Protestant missionary nurse in Morocco. You will not want to miss this evening!

8 The Internet, Seward UMC and Social Media We want to let you in on a secret, the world is changing. What, you say you already knew that? The real secret is, Jesus was right, we are made for relationships and companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and Wordpress who have only recently figured out how to become very successful by recognizing this universal human need. I have been stewarding sewardumc.org (a Wordpress site) and to a lesser degree our TWO Facebook pages sewardunitedmethodist and seward.umc starting in April this year. Since then, I have watched from behind the scenes who visits which page on sewardumc.org, how they found us (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook), and who & how many people friend, follow, like, share, tag, etc.. us on Facebook. I thought it a good idea to share some of what I have observed. 1) People who visit sewardumc.org are often searching for either United Methodist Church in Seward or Bright Beginnings Seward aka daycare in Seward. Other than our home page, the Bright Beginnings CDC page currently gets at least four times as many views as any other page. 2) People who first visit the sewardumc.org home page occasionally click on one of the other pages, particularly for the worship times, staff, Sunday School, Music groups, UMYF and Godparents. To generalize, what time are our ministry events, particularly for youth, and who are the people involved with these events. 3) Facebook is VERY good at making contact with people who are or might be interested in what you post. An example, our recent post on the Everest VBS got 257 views and 47 likes (along with several tags) most of which happened within 24 hours. That is nearly viral for events in Seward! 4) Facebook is a very good way to contact people and get those who are interested in more information to our sewardumc.org website. A Facebook post is always followed by a bump in visits to the linked page at sewardumc.org. What does this all mean for Seward United Methodist Church? The Nurture, Witness Committees and the SUMC Foundation have all identified the need for us to improve the sewardumc.org website and Facebook pages. We are starting the process of updating & adding content to the website. Also, we are putting together a strategy to use these relationship tools in our ministry. In order to have a vibrant Internet presence, we need regular, timely new content. We have at least thirty different ministry groups at SUMC so if each provided just four blurbs (short announcements with pictures) a year for the website, we would have one new post every three days! The Internet has become an important tool to reach and connect with people much like inviting a neighbor to church, a friend to VBS or the community to Trunk or Treat. One goal for sewardumc.org and our Facebook pages is to help people connect and build relationships with Seward United Methodist Church. That is not all we can do, more to come next month. Until then, Stay connected, visit sewardumc.org and/or Facebook! Dana Galusha on behalf of the Witness Committee

9 Monthly Budget: $30,134 June 2015 Donations: $21,066 Expenses: $28,275 Donations: General Operating & Mission Shares Expenses: Budgeted Items Only Thank you to all of our outstanding volunteers who help do the many things that need to be done to maintain the church building and its ministry. This includes (but is not limited to) people who serve on boards/committees, maintain the buildings and grounds, bake goods for fellowship, teach our children, light candles, read scriptures, greet or service the welcome center for services, prepare sanctuary for worship, usher, provide flowers for worship, fold programs and newsletters, maintain bulletin boards..the list goes on. Thanks to all of you! Many years ago at Charles Culler Jr. High School, I played chess after school while waiting for basketball practice to begin. I had a worthy opponent at that time named Loren Schmidt. Loren always informed me how many moves I had left before he would checkmate me. These last few moves in chess are referred to as the "endgame". Loren had a gift for the game and could "see" the board several moves in advance. Loren went on to become an internationally known chess master. Looking back on those humbling defeats, the experience taught me that I could apply the same endgame principles to estate planning. But as in chess, I am no expert in the process of long term giving and estate planning. With that in mind, the Foundation Board sought out a professional in estate planning and long term giving to speak to our church. That individual is Anita Crisp of the Nebraska United Methodist Foundation. Please join the Foundation Board on Sunday, September 20, 2015 to welcome and hear the message from Anita Crisp on Long Term Giving as part of Estate Planning. She will be speaking at both services. Brent Jackman Foundation Co-Chair

10 NEW LIBRARY BOOKS 232 YO Jesus Christ, Who did you say that I am? (A set of 8 booklets covering the life of Christ and Resurrection.) Edited by Claude Young, Jr. 266 YO Revolution in World Missions By K.P. Yohannon OR Dear Friend, I'm Here for You With a CD By Stacie Orrico 92 CA Gifted Hands - The Ben Carson Story (Candidate for President in 2016) By Dr. Ben Carson We appreciated the help of the many volunteers and the donations that were made by members of the congregation. Non perishable food & other items were also collected & donated to the FoodNet. The decorations were a wonderful addition to the week & we were fortunate to have been able to share the cost of some of the decorations with St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Lincoln. Jill Eberspacher & Melissa Luebbe 2015 Co-Chairs Thrivent Financial is promoting a program that offers seed money for ministry events and fund raisers in churches. Action Teams offer up to $250 per event to help churches maximize the impact of their programs and minimize the church's expenses. The application process is online and quite easy. If you have an event in mind that could make use of $250 seed money, contact Pastor Dale for more details. Each Thrivent member can sponsor two-$250 Action Teams per year at no cost to themselves. If you are a Thrivent member and would like to make these funds available to groups in our church, please inform the church office now so that we can take advantage of this opportunity. Thank you for your support of the Gideon Ministry. Jean and I thoroughly enjoyed worshipping at both services and having the opportunity to visit with so many people who we have met through the years. Please convey our thanks to the congregation for their generous support through the years. Five Bibles will be distributed by members of the Gideons International to help transform lives through the Word of God. (SUMC donated $231.00) AUGUST PANCAKE MIX - Wes and Jean Skilton PANTRY COLLECTION ITEM

11 Snacks Outdoor Games 35 Kids (Pre-K - 4th grade) 40 Youth/ Adult Helpers Songs Crafts Bible Stories July 14th-16th 2015 VBS - "Everest - Conquering challenges with God's mighty power."

12 Seward United Methodist Church 1400 North 5th Street Seward, Nebraska Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Seward, NE Permit No. 62 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Label AUGUST Issue Church Office Hours: 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. M-F Phone: Fax: umcseward@gmail.com Website: Facebook: BBCDC: ~SEPTEMBER~ MAILBOX DEADLINE Friday, August 21st Submit News by NOON Drop off your article at the office, call Sandy at the church office OR articles to umcseward@gmail.com UMW Local Church Activities Chair persons for AUGUST are: Connie Doehring Nita Goings