Newsletter April 2018 Vol. 16, No. 4

Newsletter April 2018 Vol. 16, No. 4 My St. Mark s Family, As we celebrate Easter and head into April, it looks like Spring might finally be here! The Easter season should be filled with new growth, warmer weather, and blossoms on the trees. I d like to invite you to be a part of our Easter season worship series- Be Our Guest! We ll be talking about hospitality for the next few weeks. What does it look like to be a truly warm and welcoming congregation? God asks us to welcome neighbors and strangers alike. As scripture says in Hebrews, Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. You probably remember your first Sunday at St. Mark s. Were you welcomed with kindness? Do you feel called to greet new friends with radical hospitality? How can St. Mark s live in to our call as caring disciples who welcome everyone? Be our guest- and find out! Strength and Wisdom Pastor Justin INSIDE THIS ISSUE NEWS /ANNOUNCEMENTS 2 CHILDREN S MINISTRIES 6 BIRTHDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES 7 YOUTH 7

April, 2018 Dear Church, It is with a heavy, but hopeful heart that I write this letter to my beloved church family. Differences of opinions have recently erupted into very strong reactions! It is regrettable that we seem to have lost our way to being a family of caring courageous disciples of Christ, in which we can treat each other as HE would have us do, with love and respect for our different viewpoints. It doesn t matter where you stand on the issues; God s love and grace are meant for ALL! The hopeful in my heart is standing on the rock of God s word that HE can bring healing and wholeness. I Timothy 2: 1 & 8, I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone... I want men everywhere to life up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. This is a call to PRAY!! Pray fervently; pray every day; pray for each other, our staff and ourselves!! Pray for God s awesome Spirit to work in us. Hebrews 4:16, Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Will you join me in this?? Will you pray every day from Easter to Pentecost?? Will you pray in your secret places as well as together?? Will you covenant with me to pray for all of us in our church family?? Let me know if you will join me in this 40 day call to prayer for St. Mark s. May God bless and heal us all, Peggy Lootens, Lay Leader St. Mark s Task Force Report April, 2018 from the desks of the co-chairs: Peggy Lootens, Lay Leader Chad Morris, chair of the Administrative Council Because recent discussion of bringing a preschool/childcare to St. Mark s has generated diverse and sometimes fervent opinions about God s plan for His church, on March 13, our Charge Conference adopted the creation of... a task force for the prayerful consideration of this topic. Peggy and Chad were named to be the co-chairs of this group. An e-mail to the St. Mark s membership and a 2 bulletin insert on 3/13 requested nominations to serve on this St. Mark s Task Force (SMTF). We received many names to consider, which shows the willingness of our caring courageous disciples to step up to the plate to serve. That s a very good thing. Because of this strong interest, the church s charge that we include diverse perspectives in the constitution of the group and the need to keep the total number manageable, we discerned that it would be best to exclude church staff and non-members from the SMTF proper. We selected 6 people to serve with us. From that awesome list we also are blessed to have made contact with several people who have clear experience in preschool/ daycare administration and planning, whose input will be appreciated. The SMTF met for the first time on March 28 to begin planning the strategies for moving forward to meet our charge. We will hear from people with experience in the field and study many documents, including the building plans adopted by St. Mark s in 2012, materials gathered by church staff and the VA State Regulations for establishing such a ministry/ business. The SMTF will give frequent updates to the Administrative Council and our St. Mark s family. Everyone is invited to share your suggestions and concerns with them through their e-mail (stmarkstaskforce@gmail.com). SMTF group consists of: Dwight Gay Steve Hamblin Marie Hannah Denise Shields Peggy Lootens - co-chair Chad Morris - co-chair Judy Morris (no relation that they know of) Noel Olin Justin White - ex officio We ask for you continued prayers as we proceed to humbly serve our community of faith at St. Mark s. St. Mark s Prayer Chain St. Mark's has a very faithful and busy Prayer Chain with 42 members actively praying for shared concerns. This group gladly receives all requests for prayer. If you would like to serve with these faithful "prayer warriors", we would be happy for you to join us. We handle all requests and updates by email. You only need to provide your name and email address to be included in this very important and rewarding

ministry. If you have needs that we could help you pray for, feel free to call on us. To join our ministry or to request prayer, you only need to contact Becky Arthur, St. Marks secretary, 992-3030, stmarksumcdaleville@gmail.com or Diane Glazebrook, 966-4113, ictinker@rbnet.com. Picnic at the Park You spoke, and we listened! As St Mark s continues to grow we often look around and realize that we don t recognize some new faces. In order to get to know each other a little bit better we are planning to have a meal together every fifth Sunday of the year! April 29th is our first Fifth Sunday Fellowship. This special lunch will be held at Troutville Park directly after the 11 am service. St Mark s will supply plates, cups, napkins, silverware and fried chicken. If your last name begins with A-L please bring a side, M-Z, bring a dessert. This promises to be a wonderful time to meet new friends, play with children, sit in the sun and share great food! a support group open to current 5th grade -high schoolers,, moms and ladies up to age 125. Our focus is self and community through God's will. The next meeting BACK TO NATURE is at Claytor Lake State Park on April 7 at 1:30. Please RSVP to Becky Gay at reach2sky14@gmail.com by April 5th to learn about our collaboration with the food pantry in that area and admission for this event. An Afternoon Tea in honor of Mother's Day is being hosted by Girl Power. ALL are welcome on May 5 at noon in the Family Life Center. Bring your mom, neighbor, friend or come meet someone new. A full tea will be prepared and served by the teens of Girl Power. Please reserve your seat for this special afternoon of celebrating the women in our l i v e s, b y c o n t a c t i n g reach2sky14@gmail.com no later than May 1. Women s Daytime Bible Study Our next Women s Bible Study Session will begin on Tuesday, April 10th at 10 am. We will continue to meet in the sanctuary. We will be studying Joshua, Winning the Worry Battle. This is a six weeks course with an introductory lesson, so we will meet April 10th-May 22nd. Women s Evening Bible Study Women s Thursday Evening Bible Study continues to meet at 7 pm each week at the home of Edna Nicely. If you d like to know more about this study please call or email Edna Nicely (540-558-2790 or edna.nicely@gmail.com). God n Food We will be having our first God n' Food small group Thursday April 5th at 6 pm, Family Life Center. If you love to cook and eat would love to have you. Everyone is to bring a mug for a mug exchange. We will be planning future meetings and what we would like to do in our God n' Food gathering. See you soon. Please RSVP to Patty Unroe puchef@yahoo.com Scrapbook Fellowship Forming Do you have pictures and mementoes in a drawer somewhere and you have never been sure what to do with them? Then come scrapbook with us. If you are a veteran scrap booker, great! If you have never scrapbooked a day in your life, great! We can help you get started. Our first Scrapbook Fellowship Meeting will be Thursday, April 19th from 9 am-2 pm in the Fellowship Hall. You can come as early or stay as late during that time as your schedule will allow. Bring your lunch with you if you plan to stay the whole time. If you need direction on what to bring with you to start, contact Susan Wagner at susanbwagner59@gmail.com Choral Cantata If you were not here on Palm Sunday and think you missed the cantata, good news!! You didn t! The cantata will be presented on Sunday, April 8th during the 11:00 worship service. Please come and enjoy! Financial Update The wonderful missions and ministries of St. Mark's are only possible because of your support! Through March 11th, our giving was $68,891 toward the annual budget goal of $451,763. We need everyone to do their part to meet our goal! 3

Sharing the Mission: Update I have so enjoyed hearing the stories of the groundbreaking on the Family Life Center (FLC) back in 2013. The faith and courage that St. Mark s showed to take on this new adventure in ministry is inspiring. The FLC is a great facility, which is used by St. Mark s ministries or community groups nearly every night of week. If you are like me- and wasn t here back in 2013- you might wonder how this was accomplished. When the FLC opened in September of 2014, the total cost of construction was $1.8 million. Since then, the congregation has faithfully paid down the debt on the FLC to just under $900,000. The friends and members of St. Mark s have cut the debt in half in just under 5 years- Praise God!! Thank you to everyone who has been faithfully fulfilling their pledges toward the FLC s construction and debt payoff. New contributions are, of course, always welcome as we seek to reduce our debt in a timely and efficient manner. If you have any questions about the FLC and the building fund, please don t hesitate to contact me or our finance team. Pastor Justin Upcoming TAME events Look for these future TAME events: Mother s Day, May 13th: Muffins for Mom We will be having coffee, juice, and treats in the narthex to honor Moms. Pick from our selection of sweet treats to give to your Mom, wife, or that special lady in your life. You can surprise them with something yummy and help TAME also with a donation. Doughnuts for Dads We can t leave the dads out so on Father s Day, June 17th, we will feature doughnuts along with some baked treats to surprise your father, husband, son or that special fellow in your life. Of course you can pick out something for yourself as well to give you a treat. Pickin N Lickin Get your best homemade ice cream recipes out to try to win the competition for best ice cream. The congregation will vote on their best while enjoying some yummy ice cream. This event will feature music by Jeff Hollandsworth s band. What could be better than ice cream, blue grass music and good company. Watch for the date of this event. Handcrafted afghan by Julie Gladu to be raffled off in the future. We thank you Julie for your donation that took many hours to produce and will find a special home. The TAME acronym means That all May Eat. We are blessed to have many new faces at St. Marks but we wondered if they might have some questions about TAME. We are a ministry of St. Marks focused on hunger ministries, the largest and most expensive being the Stop Hunger Now meal packing event in the fall. One fall morning we meet in the FLC to pack over 31,000 meals that go to food scarce areas around the world. We usually need to raise about $9000.00 dollars pay for the food and the shipping to the countries where the need is the greatest. We have local ministries as well. We are a sponsor of the Roanoke Rescue Mission s Drumstick Dash in the fall. We donate to the Botetourt Food Pantry that supplies food to residents of the county in need. We are a small group so would love to have new members. Join us for our next meeting. Thank You from Operation: Easter Bunny My charity, Operation: Easter Bunny, is now wrapping up its ninth year of collecting Easter baskets for children throughout the Roanoke Valley. This year I m excited to share that my charity collected over 480 Easter baskets! The baskets are being distributed this week to the all the Backpack Buddies recipients at all seven Botetourt County Elementary Schools, as well as Bonsack Elementary School in Roanoke County, and Herman L. Horn Elementary and W.E. Cundiff Elementary Schools in Vinton. They are also being distributed to The Botetourt Food Pantry, Roanoke Carilion Children s Hospital, Teen Challenge in Fincastle, the Roanoke Rescue Mission, and the Salvation Army Turning Point Shelter. So many people helped make Operation: Easter Bunny possible. First, I would like to thank Church of the Transfiguration in Fincastle, Orchard Hills Church in Bonsack, St. Marks United Methodist Church in Daleville and the Buchanan Fountain and Grill (formerly Swinging Bride Café), for being Easter basket drop off locations. I couldn t have done this without them! I would also like to thank the many groups and 4

organizations that made significant Easter basket donations to my charity including Circle of Mary at Church of the Transfiguration, Girl Power youth group at St. Marks United Methodist Church, the Home Shopping Network in Blue Ridge, Trinity Episcopal Church in Buchanan, and the Read Mountain Middle School National Junior Honor Society and Mrs. Sally Rondeau. My special thanks to Botetourt County Schools, Principal Tim McClung, Mrs. Sprinkle, Mrs. Witt and especially the Central Academy Middle School Student Council Association for sorting and delivering baskets by school bus to four of the Botetourt County Elementary Schools. Thank you also to Pleasant Hill Baptist Church and their mission team and the Roanoke Rescue Mission and Rev. Natalie Kline for transporting Easter baskets to schools in Botetourt County, Roanoke County, and Vinton. I want to thank everyone who supported my charity either by donating an Easter basket or making a monetary donation and making Operation: Easter Bunny a huge success. Happy Easter everyone! Sarah Hamblin, age 14 Founder Operation: Easter Bunny P.O Box 919 Daleville, VA 24083 OperationEasterBunny.org Facebook: OperationEasterBunnyVA Lawn Care Team St. Mark s has a wonderful, dedicated group of people who maintain the lawn. The team needs more people to step up and volunteer. When you sign-up you will be assigned to one of our crews which are placed on a rotating schedule. If you would like to be a part of this awesome team please contact Mark Lee @ 992-2082. Lawn mowers are provided! 42nd Annual Christmas Fair December 1, 2018 New Team Members Wanted Over the many, many years (coming up on 42!), our St. Mark s Christmas Fair has been a wonderful extension of our Church family to raise funds for many different projects. We made many payments on the old Sanctuary (which is now our Fellowship Hall), pledged and paid on the Family Life Center, paid for parsonage repairs, church furnishings, and so much more! We have a wonderful team that pulls it all together but we are few in number. As many hands are needed to make each year a success, we are looking for volunteers to help us in many different capacities this year. DO NOT WORRY -- we are not going to drop the whole thing in your lap! But we would love to have some new trainees! Our Committee works together very well and we do enjoy the work and would love for new faces to join us! We know it is early, but we start early so please think about it and let us know if you might be interested. We would love to talk with you and let you know what areas we cover and what you might be interested in. Please contact Nancy Hamblin (992-5505) or Mona Tolley (992-3496) for more details. KITS FOR CONFERENCE Each year, United Methodist churches are encouraged to gather items for KITS that we take to Annual Conference in June. This year our Virginia Annual Conference takes place at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, Virginia, on June 15-17. Our KITS, along with those from across the state, are then transported to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, Louisiana. There are several KITS that can be made. This year, UMCOR is specifically asking for School and Health (Hygiene) KITS. For many years, St. Mark s has placed a special emphasis on SCHOOL KITS to benefit children in other countries who have no books or school supplies. Members of our United Methodist Women and friends are working to make the tote bags and have also collected items to fill the bags. If you would like to help by providing items or making your own KITS, we welcome them! We also welcome financial support to help UMCOR with the shipping of these KITS. Checks may be written to St. Mark s United Methodist Women. All KITS must be returned to Church no later than Sunday, June 10 -- as we have to get them counted, packed, and ready to go before Conference starts on June 15. If you have questions about the bags or any of 5

the KITS, please see Nancy Hamblin (992-5505) or Mona Tolley (992-3496). Thank you for being a part of this great and global ministry! ** An Information Sheet listing all the items needed for the School and Health KITS is available on the table in the Narthex. All items included in the KITS must be new and must contain only the items listed. ** CHILDREN'S MINISTRIES "Down at the Pond" The FROGs and Tadpoles have hopped into spring! Last month, the Younger FROGs made Easter cards and the Older FROGs made cross hangings for the Shepherding Ministry. We also continue to collect tab tops for the Ronald McDonald House of Roanoke. Thank you for your donations for the Backpack Buddies program and $175 for the Heifer Project!!! Our children bought Heifer International almost 6 schools of fish fingerlings! 71 children have attended FROGs and Tadpoles so far during this school year! Looking ahead to April, FROGs and Tadpoles will meet on Sunday, April 8th and 22nd, which will be our last regular FROG and Tadpole meeting for the school year. It will also be the last time the FROG store will be open this school year, so don t forget your FROG dollars! The FROGs and Tadpoles will sing on Mother s Day Sunday, May 13th during the 11:00 Worship Service, not April 29th as earlier published. Please mark your calendars for this important date and please invited your family and friends to come to this service! Family Egg Hunt Rescheduled! The Family Egg Hunt has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 8th at 4:30 pm before FROGs and Tadpoles. We will begin in the Sanctuary at 4:30 prompt! BYOB (Bring your own basket) and plan on finding lots of treats! Once the egg hunt is over, parents may take their child s basket of treats and leave their FROG or Tadpole in the Sanctuary. Please feel free to invite friends, but if they stay for FROGs and Tadpoles, their parent must fill out a registration form first. Looking Ahead to Vacation Bible School All children ages 3 through rising 4th graders are invited to Cokesbury s Rolling River Rampage Vacation Bible School program this summer! Rising Fifth and rising Sixth graders are invited to be a part of our Service Squad during VBS. Vacation Bible School and Service Squad will be held Sunday, July 15th through Thursday, July 19th from 6:00 to 8:30 each night. Registration will begin later this month, but mark your calendars now! Wanted: River Guides who want to discover the Word of God with children! Vacation Bible School can have a powerful and positive effect on a child! At Rolling River Rampage, we will help children experience the ride of a lifetime with God through missions, dramas, crafts, games, science activities, music and lots of fun! Adults and youth are needed for this church-wide ministry to the children of this church and this community. Qualifications are: a love of children, a desire to reach out to children and share the love of God with others and a sense of humor! There are many and varied opportunities to serve, so please prayerfully consider doing so. Contact Lee Ann early to make sure you get to volunteer in the area you prefer! Please contact Lee Ann Critz at leeanncritz@yahoo.com or at 580-3905. Join us in the fun at Rolling River Rampage! Creative people needed for VBS Decoration Creation! We particularly need people interested in working on decorations prior to VBS and help decorating in the days before VBS! Please consider helping, as this is always a lot of fun! To find out more, contact Lee Ann Critz. 6

youth news youth news Birthdays Anniversaries Youth Events and News: There will be no youth events on April 1st or 4th. Sunday Youth: If you are between 6th and 12th grade come join us as we meet from 6-8 pm for Bible Study, Fun and Fellowship. We ll see you there! Youth Council: April 15th: Youth council 5-6 pm in the Youth Café. Bring your hopes and dreams for the Shipyard! Bring your calendar! And bring awesome ideas for what you d like to do on Sunday evenings in July! We will be planning the summer on April 15th! As always, you do not have to be an elected member of youth council in order to be a part of these meetings. We want to hear everyone s great ideas. April 22nd: Monthly mission at the Brian Center! Meet at St Mark s at 2 pm so we can drive together (or meet us there). It s Earth Day so plan on being outside and gardening with the residents. Even if it rains we ll get our hands dirty planting seeds inside! Each month the Shipyard has a special mission project during which we leave the church in order to go and be the hands and feet of Christ in our community. We would like to ask for our church family s help for our May Monthly Mission. In May we hope to bring diapers to the Blue Ridge Women s Center. The Blue Ridge Women s Center is a facility in Roanoke that helps women who need extra care after finding out they are expecting. At the Center parents can receive counseling, prenatal care, parenting classing and even clothing. We would like to help stock their shelves with newborn and size 1 diapers, wipes and diaper rash cream for their tiniest clients. Would you like to help us? Starting on April 15th we will start the diaper drive in the narthex and the entrance of the Family Life Center to support the Blue Ridge Women s Center. Please bring diapers, wipes, and cream between April 15th and May 6th. Newsletter Deadline is the 20th of each month Bulletin Deadline: Thurs. 9 AM St. Mark s United Methodist Church 19 Cedar Ridge Drive Daleville, VA 24083 Phone: 540-992-3030 Website: www.stmarksmethodist.com 7 E-mail: Rev. Dr. Justin White: justinwhite@vaumc.org Becky Arthur: stmarksumcdaleville@gmail.com Lee Ann Critz: leeanncritz@yahoo.com Erin Huddleston: StMarksErinH@gmail.com Michele Richardson: stmarksmusicminister@gmail.com

April 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 Sunrise Service 7 am NO Youth Group Easter Sunday 2 Church Office Closed 3 Cub Scouts 4 Adult Fellowship Luncheon 11:30 am NO Youth Group No Handbells 5 God n Food 6 pm 6 7 Girl Power goes to Claytor Lake 1 pm See Ad 8 Cantata @ 11:00 worship Family Egg Hunt 4:30 pm FROGs and Tadpoles 5-7 pm Second Sunday of Easter 9 UMW 7 pm UMM 7 pm 10 11 Out to Eat 11 am Cub Scouts SPRC 12 Trinity Outreach 5 pm (Norman s Team) 13 14 15 Youth Council 5 pm Third Sunday of Easter 16 17 18 19 Scrapbooking 9 am 20 21 22 Youth Mission 2 pm FROGs and Tadpoles 5-7 pm Fourth Sunday of Easter 23 24 Cub Scouts 25 26 27 28 29 All Church Picnic 1:30 @ Troutville Park See AD 30 Fourth Sunday of Easter

April 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 Sunrise Service 7 am NO Youth Group Easter Sunday 2 Church Office Closed 3 Cub Scouts 4 Adult Fellowship Luncheon 11:30 am NO Youth Group No Handbells 5 God n Food 6 pm 6 7 Girl Power goes to Claytor Lake 1 pm See Ad 8 Cantata @ 11:00 worship Family Egg Hunt 4:30 pm FROGs and Tadpoles 5-7 pm Second Sunday of Easter 9 UMW 7 pm UMM 7 pm 10 11 Out to Eat 11 am Cub Scouts SPRC 12 Trinity Outreach 5 pm (Norman s Team) 13 14 15 Youth Council 5 pm Third Sunday of Easter 16 17 18 19 Scrapbooking 9 am 20 21 22 Youth Mission 2 pm FROGs and Tadpoles 5-7 pm Fourth Sunday of Easter 23 24 Cub Scouts 25 26 27 28 29 All Church Picnic 1:30 @ Troutville Park See AD 30 Fourth Sunday of Easter