Southeast District Newsletter, February 2015 The President s Message The February Bible Verse is from Matthew 25:40 And the King will answer them, Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. NRSV. I think the message from Matthew 25:34-40 embodies what The United Methodist Women and our predecessor organizations have had as our mission for 145 years. As we prepare to strengthen our organization toward celebrating 150 years, and ensuring the next 150 years of valuable mission to all God s family, it is important for us to remember the Lord your God is going ahead of you Deuteronomy 1:30 NLT and call upon Him always to guide our paths. With 2015 well underway, I imagine a few of us have already faltered along the pathway of keeping new year resolutions if you made them. In my daily devotional readings in early January, I came across a suggestion that would work well for everyone, I think. Instead of promising to do or not do things, a promise to be something might be a better idea. Suggestions were to Be prayerful, Be obedient, Be forgiving, Be faithful. You could add your own to this list, and when we remind ourselves of these promises, rather than finding failure in broken resolutions, we are encouraged to continue our daily walk as disciples of Jesus, being in mission with the family of God. If our organization and the good work that we do is going to continue for another 150 years, leadership of our organization is an important part. We have great and faithful leaders from national through local units, and I am so thankful for each of you who are a part of this leadership. There will be several openings coming in the 2016 SE District Board, and I encourage all of you in the 67 local units of our District to say YES when you are asked to fill one of these openings. Many of the positions require little special training, and the current board members are always so helpful in passing along materials and knowledge to help any new officer. Remember that the Lord Your God is going ahead of you and that he will guide our paths as we work to Be his disciples. God s Blessings prayed for each of you. Mary Taeger, President 13803 Beaverdale Rd West Burlington, IA 52655-8570 319-572-0115 (cell) mktaeger@gotsky.com Greetings from your Vice President Spring will come! As Vice Presidents we back up our President and work with all the other Mission Coordinators. At St. John's in Davenport the 2015 calendar is filling up with all of our activities. I grew up in a very tiny church (Arthur, Iowa UMC will be closing the doors June 2015). Since we were small everyone in MYF got to be an officer. I find it wonderful the training UMW does to help the officers and coordinators learn to lead. So, if you are asked do say YES! I hope all Locals are working on their Mission Today form. I have used the "Prayer Calendar" at Local and Circle meetings. I've written to my birthday missionary for several years now. Katie Petersen is working in Williston, ND. with the oil works there. UMW reading program has wonderful books. Check your local library for titles. I want to thank my flock of UMW locals. It is a joy making those connections. I got to go to supper with the McCausland gals. Contact your shepherddess to have her come and visit. (see pg 5 for your Shepherdess name & contact info.) Catherine Litwinow, Vice President 2585 Hunter Rd. Bettendorf, IA52722 litwinow62@msn.com
An Introduction from your new Secretary I think I m ready to become the new secretary for the Southeast District of United Methodist Women. I hope I ll be able to do a good job. I am not new to being a district officer as I became district treasurer in 2001 and then communication coordinator for a couple of years before becoming conference treasurer and then conference communication coordinator. I just completed 2 years as president of my local unit at St. John s UMC in Davenport. Mid-October 2014 I retired from working as administrative assistant at the St. Ambrose University Library for almost 22 years. My husband died in September of 2000 and my two daughters are grown women. My older daughter, Kay, currently lives in Waterloo and has blessed me with 4 grandchildren and her daughter provided my one great grandson. I wish they lived closer to Davenport. My younger daughter, Megan, and her little house-dog moved in with me this fall. She isn t here very many daytime hours, but I do enjoy having the dog for company. Two of the things I like best about UMW are meeting and making friends with women from our District and around Iowa and providing support for the many United Methodist Women s missions around the world and the 3 we have in Iowa. I look forward to getting to meet new members and renew acquaintances with friends I ve not seen for a while in our District. Please make note of my corrected email address, which was published earlier incorrectly. Kathy Byers, Secretary 1232 Dover Street Davenport, IA 52803-1923 byersmkathy@sau.edu Meet your Mission Education & Interpretation Coordinator Hello, I am looking forward to being back on the UMW District Board. Missions will be a new position for me, but I look forward to the challenge, and hope I can do as well as Carol Jean Nelson has done. I m sure glad we live in the same town for the many questions I ll have. I have served previously on both the Muscatine District and Conference level on the Nominations teams. Perhaps some of you remember that I have been song leader at several events district wide and also at the Fall SOCM. Boy, those are old names aren t they? Hard to train an old dog new tricks! It was so good to see so many familiar faces at Mission Day in November. I m looking forward to being involved again, now that I have retired as an adult educations instructor. Now I ll have more time to devote to Missions. As I write this I m hearing about the winter storms expected on the East coast this week. I pray that you are warm, safe and healthy. I m glad I left my home state of NJ 40+ years ago. Peace and Blessings be with you. Sally Barrett, Coordinator for Mission Education 1107 Grand Avenue Keokuk, IA 52632-4128 barretts@mchsi.com 319.524.2220 Greetings From Membership Nurture & Outreach Thought for the year: Keep in touch with God; stay tuned to His voice. You may have a plan for the day, but God may lead you in a totally different direction if you are sensitive to the Holy Ghost. Be brave enough to flow with what you feel in your heart God wants you to do. Listen for the voice of God to lead you. Be determined to walk in the Spirit and stay in the flow of God s leading each day. (From a devotional book by Joyce Meyer). JUST A REMINDER: Presidents and/or Membership Chair, remember to complete your membership form for 2014 which was in the President s packet given out at the District Meeting on Sept. 13, 2014. If you were not there, hopefully someone picked it up for you or you received it in the mail. The form is on pink paper. You need the number of new members and the number deceased, moved or dropped from your membership for a final total on the form (due January 31, 2015). Please mail, e-mail or give me a call with your information. I do have an answering machine. Thanks in advance for getting your total membership number to me. We continue to urge all the shepherdesses to attend any of the District Executive meetings. Hope to see you at them. Again, in this newsletter you will find the Shepherdess List for 2015. There are some corrections that have been made on it, so please look the list over for your Shepherdess information and set up a time with her to attend one of your local meetings. CONTINUE TO KEEP IN TOUCH WITH GOD! Blessings, Joan Salts, Membership Nurture and Outreach Sec y 2223 185 th Street Fairfield, IA 52556-8701 641-472-5651 jjsalts@iowatelecom.net
New Nominations Chair shares updates A late "Happy 2015" to everyone. By the time you receive this issue the executive board will have held its first meeting of the year. I am sure that as you have read this issue you have noticed some of the changes in personnel. Secretary: Kathy Byers; Education & Interpretation: Sally Barrett; and Chairman of Nominations: Carol Nelson. The position of Communications Coordinator is temporarily being filled by President, Mary Taeger, enabling "V & V" to be printed as usual. Thank you, Mary. At this time it is a hope of all board members that this temporary solution will soon be filled. A recommendation has been made and a willingness to take the position has been voiced. Hopefully the next issue of "V & V" will be her first issue of many more to come. It has been said, "The one sure constant in life is change." The district board is continually changing and growing as the years go by. We grow in our knowledge of mission, the world, human nature, the government, the church and in our relationship and commitment to our God and to you. What is true of life is also true of the board -- always changing. While the personnel of the board has recently been changed, it will be changed again due to its nature. Other members of UMW will be needed to fill more positions later this year. The length of most office positions is just two years with the option to renew for two more years in that same position with the opportunity to serve two to four more years in another office. Normally it takes a year to learn the position and become comfortable in it while serving at the same time, so we do encourage officers to stay through the second term more rewards than work after you ve become familiar with the position! The next positions needing to be filled by this July for the 2016 Board are Membership Nurture & Outreach and Vice President, one 2015 and one more 2016 positions on the Nominations Committee and others might also open up, as we never know when changes in a person s circumstances might occur. The Executive Board positions are not difficult to learn or do. They do require time and some travel. Having access to and some knowledge of the computer and e-mail is helpful. Joining the board gives you the Opportunity to grow, become stronger, have rewarding friendships and experiences and travel the world (of Iowa), all within a loving community. The nominations committee, is always looking for people to serve. Will you? See you this April for Day Apart in Mt. Pleasant. God bless you and yours in all that you do. Carol Nelson, Chairperson of Nominations 715 Cleveland Ave., #7 Keokuk, Iowa 52632 (319) 524-3125 carlnel.nom15@gmail.com Information from your Treasurer Welcome to United Methodist Women 2015 Loved, included, accepted, invited, wanted, worthy, needed... these are words of inclusion, belonging, and WELCOME our United Methodist Every Pledge is so Important Women focus for 2015. This year s pledge service program in the program booklet invites us to celebrate the many ways that our Mission Giving is extending the welcome of Jesus Christ, in our own communities, across the country, and around the world. Generally, our unit treasurer gives this program, but in her absence, I offered to take her place. This program spoke to me in so many ways. If your unit does not already use the program book, I suggest it is well worth the money spent to attain interesting, informative, and insightful program material. This year s pledge service program gave an overview of where and how our United Methodist Women Mission dollars are welcoming others as God calls us to share with all of God s children. It was an easy, understandable, and succinct way of sharing the impact and importance of our Pledge to Mission. I encourage each unit to review and share this program sometime this year. My personal challenge to each of you this year is to plan to give to all five channels of Mission Giving Pledge to Mission, Special Mission Recognition, Gift to Mission, Gift in Memory, and World Thank Offering. As the closing hymn of the pledge service Here I Am Lord suggests: Here I am, Lord.... I have heard You calling in the night. I will go Lord, if You lead me. I will hold Your people in my heart. The Lord IS calling and leading each
of us to go and hold His people in our hearts. One way we can welcoming all God s children is with our dollars for missions. Blessings to all holding you in my heart, Cindy Seberg, Treasurer 1510 150 th Street Mount Pleasant, Iowa 52641-9270 Cell (319) 750-2081 cseberg50@gmail.com Info from your Coordinator For Social Action Hello ladies, Here we are well into 2015. I need the time to slow down a little, not enough of it to get the things done that I need or want to do. I believe we have some new Social Action officers this year. As soon as I have an email address for all of you I will be sending out new information. If each of you would let me know what your interests are pertaining to Social Action I will send you things on that particular issue or issues. If you don't have an email address possibly you could receive information on your church's computer or maybe a friend's or your public library. There seemed to be some problems with getting updates and information on the issues last year because some of you didn't have a computer and that is ok. As much as I would like to mail all of you information on all of our issues I just can't. It would be too time consuming, as well as more costly for postage and paper. All of you are very important to the work we are trying to do but we have to work together to achieve our goals. So please send me an email address that I can use to get updates to you. I hope I will have a chance to meet each of you over the next year. Blessings to you all, Susan Tennant, Social Action 307 9th St West Point, IA 52626-9784 ba10it@iowatelecom.net News from your Spiritual Growth Coordinator The Southeast Iowa District UMW Day Apart will soon be here. It will be Saturday, April 11, 2015 at the First United Methodist Church in Mt Pleasant. I hope you will plan to attend and listen to our good speaker, Michael Zahs. My husband and I were present at one of his programs recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. The flyer for this meeting is included in this newsletter, so please share it with others in your church. It will be a good day of worship, learning and fellowship. We often wonder how we will find time to attend extra UMW meetings and to work at the mission projects. We just need to remember that to get off of the pews and out of our church buildings can lead to spiritual growth. Sometimes it is small growth steps and sometimes we make big impact steps. We should try to inspire each other because we all work together on our faith journey. If we can give encouragement to each other and accept prayers and compassion from others, that also is spiritual growth. I pray that we always look for hope and love and pass it along. Be yourself who else is better qualified? Linda J. Hoy, Spiritual Growth P O Box 276 Richland, IA 52585-0276 319-456-6581 Greetings from your Program Resources Secretary Dear Readers, Day Apart in Mount Pleasant, April 11, will be here before we know it. And when you come for that event it is a good time to get the new Mission u study books: Finding Joy in Christian Living and Latin America. Also please pick up your reading report forms for the June 30 reporting deadline, return all your unit s checked-out books...and check out some new ones! Thank you very much. We send sympathy to our Washington unit in the loss of their program Resource Officer, Sharon Merz, and we welcome their new officer, Barbara Kessell. Be A Reader Blessings, Hazel Wheeldon, Program Resource 20701 231 st Street Sigourney IA 52591 641-622-3077
barretts@mchsi.com Carlnel.nom15@gmail.com byersmkathy@sau.edu
********************************************************** Registration 9:00-9:30am April 11, 2015 Panel Presentation, Breakouts Storm Lake United Methodist Church 211 East Third Street Storm Lake,Iowa Luncheon $7.50 Reservations to Pam Milbrandt 712-732-7600 **************By April 6, 2015**************
Saturday April 11, 2015 At The First United Methodist Church 309 N. Main Street Mt Pleasant, IA 52641 Guest Presenter Michael Zahs Mr. Zahs is a retired Iowa History Teacher after dedicating 35 years to his profession. He is a noted Iowa Historian, Preservationist, and sought after speaker. You will enjoy our few hours together! 9:00am: Registration and Coffee 9:30am-2:30pm: Music, Communion and Program Lunch: $8.00 at registration Mt. Pleasant First United Methodist Church Call your reservations by April 3, 2015 to the church office at 319-385-1740