PRESIDENT S MESSAGE September Doing a New Thing

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1 Atlanta Marietta District Reach Out Newsletter Fall 2013 PRESIDENT S MESSAGE September 2013 Doing a New Thing Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19 Greetings to all Atlanta Marietta District United Methodist Women! Fall is just around the corner, and I hope that all of you are having a great year in your local units of United Methodist Women! Thanks to all of you for the many ways that you support our mission to women, children and youth as we are Doing a New Thing in United Methodist Women. It has been very exciting to hear about all of your mission projects, exciting meetings, great speakers, and special events that you have been having at your churches. We had a wonderful time at Mission u in Athens at Athens First UMC on July We had good attendance from our AMAR District as we participated in the three classes on Poverty, The Roma of Europe, and The Call: Living Sacramentally, Walking Justly. This was a wonderful event with good teaching, good music, good food, and great fellowship! Thanks to all of you who were able to attend! We are looking forward to our AMAR District UMW EVERYBODY event which will be held on Saturday, September 21, at Smyrna First UMC. Fran White has done an excellent job in planning for this event. We will have workshops on Identity Theft, Healthy Living, and Human Trafficking. We appreciate the wonderful members of Smyrna First UMC for hosting this event! On October 5, 2013, we will have our North Georgia Conference UMW Annual Meeting at 9:30 at Douglasville First UMC in Douglasville, Georgia. Our speaker is Harriett Jane Olson, general secretary and CEO of United Methodist Women. Be sure to register for this event on the conference website at or you may mail in your registration form. A form is included in this newsletter. Instead of doing a hands-on missions project, we will be taking up a special offering to support our National Mission Institutions, and in North Georgia we have FIVE mission institutions! They are: Clark Atlanta University, Murphy Harpst Children s Center, New Bethlehem Center in Augusta, and Wesley Community Centers in Atlanta. We are asking each United Methodist Woman in the conference to donate at least $5.00 to support these mission institutions. You may bring your individual, unit, or district donations to the annual meeting.

2 On Sunday, October 20, 2013, we look forward to seeing all of you at our Atlanta Marietta District UMW Annual Meeting which will be held at Acworth UMC at 2:30. Our speaker will be Deloris Carhee, past president of the North Georgia Conference United Methodist Women. We look forward to hearing from Deloris as she speaks to us on ways that we are Doing a New Thing in UMW. We hope that we will have great attendance from all of our Atlanta Marietta District United Methodist Women. Please make plans to bring a group from your church. On Saturday, November 9, 2013, we will be Doing a New Thing as we have our Atlanta Marietta District Presidents Leadership Brunch at Saint Andrew UMC at 9:00. All presidents are invited to join the Atlanta Marietta District Executive Team as we meet together for our leadership workshop. We will have a delicious brunch provided by the members of Saint Andrew UMW. Information and updates will be presented by members of our AMAR UMW Executive Team. We are looking forward to spending some time with the presidents of our Atlanta Marietta District United Methodist Women. This should be a great time of good communications, good information, good food, and good fellowship. All presidents are asked to be in attendance for this important workshop. If the president is not able to attend, please send someone to represent your local UMW unit. The 2014 UMW Assembly will be held from April 25-27, 2014, in Louisville, Kentucky. The optional Ubuntu Day of Service will be on April 24. This Day of Service will give the opportunity for attendees to go out and serve the community in Louisville. We are hoping that we will have a good group from our district and from our conference at this International Assembly of United Methodist Women. I have had the opportunity to attend several of these assemblies. They are always very inspiring and very enlightening as we learn more about the scope of our organization. It is always good to be with other United Methodist Women from around our country and from around the world. Please go ahead and register for this event as soon as possible. Early registration is $ Please go to the website at: to register and to get further information. Deloris Carhee is heading up our North Georgia Conference Limitless Young Women s Task Force. This conference committee will be a diverse group of young women from each district who will be actively involved with United Methodist Women. They will meet together to discuss new ideas to attract young women to know God better, new and fun ways to experience Jesus through worship, program and events, new opportunities to bridge the gap and be a supportive community with teens, young women, and the elderly through technology, music, history, etc. They will also develop new leaders, new and revived excitement, and give new life to others through Faith, Hope, and Love in Action. We are so very happy to have three young women from our district on this important committee. They are Peyton Dugger from County Line UMC, Desiree Moore from Union Chapel UMC, and Alexis Arnold from Union Chapel UMC. They have already had a meeting at the home of Sue Raymond, our North Georgia Conference UMW President, and have started making some wonderful plans. We want to thank these fine young women for serving on this Young Women s Task Force. I would also like to thank Stacy Hull from Union Chapel UMC who has been very helpful in identifying two of these young ladies and in providing transportation to the meeting! I also want to thank Nadine Lacy and Lynda Teague from County Line UMC for identifying Peyton Dugger as a great candidate for this committee! Thanks so much to each one of you for all that you do for United Methodist Women as we work together in Doing a New Thing and demonstrating Faith, Hope, and Love in Action. We look forward to seeing you at our district and conference events this fall! May God bless you as you continue to serve Him daily.

3 Carolyn Lee Wilson President AMAR UMW DATES TO REMEMBER: September 21, 2013 AMAR District EVERYBODY! Event at Smyrna First UMC October 5, 2013 October 20, 2013 November 9, 2013 April 25-27, 2014 North GA Conference UMW Annual Meeting at Douglasville First UMC AMAR UMW District Annual Meeting at Acworth UMC AMAR UMW District Presidents Leadership Brunch at St. Andrew UMC United Methodist Women s Assembly in Louisville, KY Vice President s Message Reminders: So Simple, Yet So Complex As we come to the close of the year of Doing a New Thing Isaiah 43:19, I am being regularly reminded of the simplicity and the complexity of Jesus answer to the Pharisees when he was asked which is the great commandment in the law. He responded, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself Matthew 22:37. In Vacation Bible School, we were reminded to Love God (wrists crossed on chest/fingers pointing to the sky) and Love Neighbor (thumbs pointing to those on either side of you). And we were reminded, Don t poke them in the eye. My husband, Eddie, and I were also blessed to be able to attend a Great Commandment Ministries Couple Retreat. Pastor David Ferguson reminded us that Great Commandment love comes to us from God first. We then share it with those closest to us and then outwardly with the world. All the telling the gospel is for naught if we don t Do the Book. do as we are commanded. I am grateful to have sisters in United Methodist Women to love me and with whom to be neighbors in sharing God s love in the world. I am excited to see that love shine out to all those who are touched in programs and institutions where our hands, hearts and dollars are used. It is through that love that the world with see our God and our Christ. Let s continue to Do the Book together. Sylvia Robertson, Vice-President

4 Treasurer Kudos to all our Units for a job well done!!! The numbers are in and Atlanta Marietta District did a wonderful job with our Mission giving this past year. You have gone over and above our Purpose of the United Methodist Women. We have the following Award areas for this past reporting year ( thru ): Five Rainbow Women Ten Memorials Three 5 star Units Twelve 5 star Plus Units 24 minutes, 38 seconds of Candleburning I am very pleased to say that we had two 5 minute Units this year. All of this info will be in the Conference Annual meeting program as well as our Annual meeting program. As your District Treasurer, I am so proud of your Faithfulness. God has really been working in the hearts of the members of our Units. Together, we stand to make a difference in the Mission efforts in our world. I will see you all at the Annual Meeting as we celebrate this past year and prepare to work even harder in the coming year. I am always available to you for help in any area. Please call me and we will figure it out together as a team. Blessings to you, Nadine Lacy, AMAR District Treasurer nlacy@bellsouth.net or Historian Please send me pictures or updates on what your UMW Unit is doing. I cannot maintain the history of the District without your help. The Conference Historian has three goals set for this year. The first was to select someone from our District to honor. I chose Louise Young and Sandra Clarke. A book was made of all the Districts honorees and distributed at the Spiritual Growth Retreat at Simpsonwood in May. The second one is a poster for the UMW Breakfast. The only pictures I have to put on the poster are the ones I took.

5 I would like to include all the units when we do a news letter of something for the Conference. send me your information. Please Evelynn Herring Atlanta Marietta Historian herringe@charter.net 1401 Dogwood Circle SE Smyrna, GA Education & Interpretation I hope many of you were able to attend the Mission u Event in Athens in July. Athens First did an outstanding job hosting this event. As always, the studies were wonderful. There were studies on The Roma of Europe and another on Poverty. From the comments I heard, both of these studies were outstanding. However, I went to the one led by Mary Anne Brannon: The Call Living Sacramentally, Walking Justly. It was simply fantastic!! I was deeply touched and inspired by this wonderful study. If you have ever taken a study with Mary Anne, you know we all had a wonderful time. We studied, we learned, we prayed, and we laughed a lot! The Executive Board has voted to have this study for our Mission Study in Mary Anne has also agreed to lead this study. Registration forms will be available later. Mark your calendars for February 8, 2014 so you won't miss this event. As the warm temperatures of summer give way to the cooler ones of the fall, I know many of you will become very busy with various activities. However, make time for some of the wonderful reading available through UMW books. I just finished, Because He Lives Faith, Hope and Love in Action. While some of this true story is heartbreaking to read, it is also one of the most uplifting and faith affirming books I've read. If you haven't read it yet, add it to your must read list! God Bless each of you as you continue the work of UMW! Lynda Teague Education & Interpretation Coordinator Communication Coordinator Message This has been a whirlwind year for AMAR UMW. It seems that everyone is very busy with activities at their churches. I wanted to share an event with you that some of the Acworth UMW was recently blessed to participate in. In September, several UMW members and their spouses, along with other members of AUMC and Associate Pastor Linda Burchall travelled to Baldwin, Louisana to work at Sager Brown. If you re not familiar, Sager Brown is the location where all the kit materials that UMW collects are sent each year for assembly to send out to disaster areas.

6 Baldwin, Louisana is a very small rural town with impoverished residents. We had the opportunity to assemble kits in the warehouse depot, work in the sewing room or work in the community either with the local school children or making repairs to residents homes. There were two other states-texas and Tennessee- who had church members working with us. While we were there, we loaded an 18 wheeler trailer with health kits for shipment to Angola. It was very emotional for all of us as we held hands and our own Pastor Linda led us in prayer that the shipment made it to its designation. Sager Brown has wonderful facilities that provided us with air conditioned rooms and three huge meals each day. Each night, after working all day, our group met for devotional and dominoes. On Wednesday, we were off after lunch, so we took in some of the sites. Our group went to Avery Island where Tabasco sauce is made. AUMC has already scheduled for 12 members of our church to return to Sager Brown next year. If you ever have the chance to serve at Sager Brown, take the opportunity. You will truly be blessed. I have attached some pictures of Sager Brown and I hope to share more with you October 20. I look forward to seeing you all at the annual meeting at AUMC. Becky Tyler hbltyler@comcast.net Photos 1. Storage containers for kits. We emptied these each day as we assembled health kits. Notice that several of the containers say empty. Sager Brown is in need of all types of kits. 2. Playing dominoes at the end of the day. 3. Pastor Linda and UMW members Clydie Williamson and Julia Killimett sewing school bags.

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10 Spotlight on St. Andrews UMW Our St. Andrew UMW is truly blessed to have over 90 ladies active in one of the three circles. All ages learning and growing together in faith. Each circle meets once a month for a program which consists of an invited speaker, a focus on a special community program and need, or a program from our UMW program book. Of course refreshments are a must. Thus far, we have had speakers from Wellspring Ministries, the Wesley Foundation at Kennesaw State University and Our Pal s Place (a pet adoption facility and education center). Some of our circles have chosen to go off site to complete a social action project; such has packing boxes at Project Mail Call. We realize the importance of helping in our own community and in world-wide mission work. Writing letters to service men and women, collecting school supplies, providing summer buckets for Murphy Harpst, participating in MUST summer lunches and even collecting old towels, blankets and treats for our local pet rescue are all a joy. We have also collected items for Rev. Kimberly Sinkfeld s transitional center for women, after hearing her plea at the UMW Social Action Event. Each year we have a Daughter s of Christ Banquet in May. This year our theme was A Taste of the Caribbean: Hope for Haiti. Our menu consisted of various Caribbean foods & beverages. The children loved eating the mango, coconut, etc. We even had coconut water to drink, very tasty for some, not so for others. We learned many factors about our Caribbean neighbors and came away with an abundance of empathy for those that are so poverty stricken. The little ones made Caribbean themed necklaces as a remembrance of this special gathering & created greeting cards for the students at Andrews Christian School in Haiti. This is our church sponsored school. We also collected over $1,000 to help pay the teachers at Andrews Christian School in Haiti. We calendar a fun day each year in which members from all three circles gather for fellowship. We attended the Piedmont Park Farmers Market and then had lunch at the Atlanta Food Trucks on Howell Mill Road. Coming up is our 2 nd Bunco game night of the year. We provide a snack meal, play Bunco and raise money for our mission projects. Middle School students and up can attend. Our craft fair is nearly upon us as well as our annual Women s retreat. Another favorite unit event is our Christmas Tea & Tour of Homes. We begin with a themed Christmas tea luncheon and then break up into groups and visit homes of 5 of our members, all decorated to the nine s for Christmas. I am blessed to be a part of this dynamic UMW group who are definitely on the move. Amy Paine President of St. Andrew UMW

11 North Georgia Conference - United Methodist Women Annual Meeting Douglasville First UMC 6167 Prestley Mill Rd Douglasville, GA OCTOBER 5, :30am 2:00 pm Please Print Name Address City St Zip Phone Church District Emergency Contact Phone Special Needs Check Age Group: Teen _ 20 _ 30 _ 40 _ 50+ _ First time attending UMW Annual Meeting? Yes _ No _ Are you a guest of the Conference? Yes _ No _ The Registration deadline is September 16, $20.00 Meeting and Luncheon, prior to September 16, 2013 Check # $10.00 Meeting only, prior to September 16, There will be a $10 late fee for registrations received after September 16, Make checks payable to NGCUMW. (NO REFUNDS) Registrar: Memoree Emerson, 1045 Chatham Rd, Buford, GA Ph: mo@mccart.com Annual Meeting Agenda: 8:30am 9:30am Registration 9:30am 12:00 pm Business Meeting 12:00 pm 12:30 pm Lunch 12:30 pm 2:00 pm Awards Luncheon Free Childcare will be provided. Deadline to reserve is September 16, Please pack a lunch for each child. Name Age: Dietary restrictions: Emergency Contact: You can now register online at:

12 2014 AMAR UMW Schedule Jan 19 (Sunday ) Program and Exec. Mtg, County Line UMC, 2:00 p.m. Feb. 8 (Saturday) Mission Study, [?? ], 9:00 a.m. ** March 30 (Sunday) Lenten Day Apart, Bethlehem UMC, 2:00 p.m. April Hands on Mission Project, to be decided April 13 (Palm Sunday) Finance and Exec. Mtg., Powder Springs UMC, 2:00 p.m. UMW Assembly in Louisville, KY April August 10 (Sunday) Team Mtg., Hollydale UMC, 2:00 p.m. Oct. 19 (Sunday) AMAR District Annual Meeting, Bethany UMC, 2:30 p.m. Nov. 8 (Saturday) District Leadership and Exec. Mtg., Acworth UMC, 9:00 a.m.