ARMA/GRACE/MULBERRY
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
AUGUST 2009 NEWSLETTER
8:00 am Worship Service -- Mulberry
9:30 am Worship Service -- Grace
11:00 am Worship Service – Arma
Church School – following Children’s Moment -- Arma
COME WORSHIP WITH US!!!
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Pastor Don Foster’s Contact Information: 620-347-8336 (office)
P. O. Box 489 620-249-4313 (cell)
Arma, KS 66712 620-347-8540 (home)
Email: def@ckt.net
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THE HEALING OF MEMORY
As a pastor I share many private and personal conversations with others. I am honored that people trust me enough to share. The conversation I share with you is with someone who lives elsewhere. You do not know his name. I am not betraying confidence by sharing this conversation with you.
He said when he was a small boy he was frightened and intimidated by his father. When his father would speak to him, he could not respond. Instead he would stutter and try to speak but he could not. This would make his father angry and he would whip him to try to make him talk. There were times when his father actually beat him so badly trying to make him talk that his mother would have to soak the shirt off his back because of the dried blood. He said when he was about nine years old he decided that if his father did it to him again, he would kill him if he could, but he knew that was wrong, so he ran away from home. He got a job and started living with another family and never again returned home. He is an older man now. He has carried that ache for many decades. His father died. He said he went to the funeral just to be with the other members of his family but he felt nothing and that bothered him because he knew he was supposed to feel something. His question is, “What do you do with a memory like that?”
What would you have said? How would you have handled it?
In the first place, you cannot hide the fact that it happened. You cannot excuse, rationalize, analyze or in any other way get rid of the reality of the experience which happened to you. You may try to push it down like a rubber ball under water, but eventually it is going to pop up.
The only way I know of healing the aches of past memories is forgiveness. It is the conscious decision to give up the practice of being an emotional garbage collector and letting it go. That is not easy. It is important, out of your heart, that you be willing to say, “I do not want to carry this pain any longer, so I am going to set you free, so I can be free from my past, and claim the present possibility of a joyful life.” Notice I did not say excuse, or forget, or rationalize. I said forgive. That means changing one way of feeling for a new one.
One of the amazing by-products of being willing to set another person free of their guilt of what they have done against you is that you also get free from your self-righteousness and that can be a real burden at times. The cross is a reminder that God did not give you what you deserved either. God gave your grace, love and forgiveness and freedom in his son, Jesus Christ. We abort the whole process, he says by parable and lesson, when we will not accept our own forgiveness or we will not forgive others, or when we think we are so good we do not neet it. “Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God . . . Let bitterness, wrath, clamor, stander be put away from you and also your desire to get even . . . “ Instead “be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you . . . “ If you want to be fre. Life is too short to do it any other way. There are so many burdens to be borne, why not lay that one down?
Pastor Don Foster
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GRACE NEWS
PRAYERS:
Please keep Kathryn George, the Trebars, Wilrose Bough and Jill Goodwin’s Uncle Steve in your prayers..
Our Condolences to Barbara Engelhardt and family on the passing of her sister, Vera Little. She will be greatly missed by family and friends. Please keep the family in your prayers.
Our fund raiser will be a BAKELESS BAKE SALE in the month of AUGUST>
AUGUST BIRTHDAYS
Aug 1 Jim McDaniel
Aug 3 Norma McCabe
Aug 7 Les Eurit
Aug 16 Rick Goodwin
Aug 17 Kelly Wright
Aug 19 J. B. Standley
Aug 22 Rev Don Foster
Aug 23 Kelci Williams
Aug 27 Shannon Lynn
AUGUST ANNIVERSARIES
Aug 1 Jim & Della McDaniel
Aug 1 Joe & Debbie Grisolano
Aug 6 Frank & Emmaline Rodich
Aug 28 Dick & Jeanine Rogers
AUGUST GREETERS
Aug 2 Mike Seely
Aug 9 Jim McDaniel
Aug 16 Norma McCabe
Aug 23 Susie Taylor
Aug 30 Emmaline and Frank Rodich
PLEASE SIGN UP TO BE A GREETER!!!
God is our loving, reliable guide for life.
Howard Coop (Kentucky)
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ARMA NEWS
DATES TO REMEMBER:
Aug 12 Administrative Board, 7:00 pm
AUGUST BIRTHDAYS
Aug 2 Agnes Doue Aug 22 Don Foster
Aug 5 Alan Roberts Aug 26 Nancy Dungan
Aug 7 Jenifer Morey Aug 26 June Harris
Aug 13 Susan Polhlopek Aug 27 Kenneth (K.C.) Cameron
Aug 15 Susan Herrell Aug 27 Bill Kovacic
Aug 15 Louise Kovacic Aug 28 Nadine McDonald
Aug 20 Debra Cummings Aug 30 Betty Brunk
AUGUST ANNIVERSARIES
Aug 6 Tammy & Gerald Wayman
AUGUST GREETERS
Aug 2 Rae Ann McNamara
Aug 9 Nadine Comley
Aug 16 Youth
Aug 23 Nadine & Jim Jones
Aug 30 June & Phil Harris
U.M.W. NEWS
U.M.W. will not meet during July and August. We will resume with regular meetings in September.
FINANCE COMMITTEE
The Finance Committee wishes to report that $164.00 was collected in our coins in June 2009 and they were designated for Vacation Bible School. June 2009 financial information follows and all bills have been paid.
Income June 2009 $4,060.28
Expenses June 2009 $4,616.15
Elevator Update –Last month we reported that the Trustees are gathering information on the costs for an elevator for our church. We continue to get donations for this project. Since 2007, several thousand dollars have been designated for the “Elevator Fund” and are in the Memorial Fund. During this “quiet” fundraising period for an elevator, any donations are appreciated. It is also a time when donations toward an elevator could be made in someone’s name or in honor of someone. It is hoped that in the near future, more specific information will be available.
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Chicken Dinner that includes scalloped potatoes, slaw, dessert and drink.
Workers are still needed – please check the sign-up sheet in the Narthex.
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United Methodist Church U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Arma/Grace/Mulberry ARMA, KS 66712
P. O. Box 489 PERMIT 6
Arma, KS 66712-0489 NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
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