Men's Breakfast
The United Methodist Men’s Breakfast Monday, November 2, at 7:00 a.m. All men are invited to attend.

Food Collection
UMYF will be collecting food for the Gray County Food Bank. Please bring your items to the church November 1st through November 15th. Thank You!

Cindy says . . .
We are putting Pastor Kent's college visitation schedule together and need our college students' addresses and phone or email addresses. If you have a college student and have not given this information to the church office, please do so as soon as possible. You can contact the office by calling 855-3363 or emailing cevinger@ucom.net.

Honor our veterans
Veterans Day, which is November 11 each year, is a holiday to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism and willingness to serve and sacrifice for our nation’s common good.
   Christians follow the Prince of Peace, so war is a dilemma that often challenges people of faith. Some Christians are pacifists, while others believe in a “just war.” Many believe that the goals of freedom, justice, equality and democracy are worth the cost required.
   Whatever individual Christians decide about any given conflict, most Christians believe that men and women who strive to make this world free of tyrants are to be respected. As Winston Churchill said, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
   Thank you to all the men and women who served or are now serving our country.

The Cimaron United Methodist Church 2009 Budget is 198,987.00
Offering needed to meet annual budget:
     Weekly: $3,827.00        Year to Date Needed (10/25/09): $164,561.00
Actual Offering for Budget: Year to Date Offering (10/25/09) 156,772.21

Click here for the latest information on the Bridges to the Future campaign.

United Methodist Women News

United Methodist Women Meeting
The United Methodist Women will be meeting on Wednesday, November 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall.  Music will be provided by Erin Littrell. The program will be given by Sam Scott, who will talk about self defense. Devotions will be given by Bonnie Swartz. Hostesses for the evening are Judy Crick and Bonnie Swartz.
   Please bring your World Thank Offering boxes to the meeting.
   Childcare will be available at this meeting and future meetings.
   The Pheasant Hunter’s Dinner will be held on Saturday, November 14th. Please contact Carla Bowman if you can help in anyway.

  UMYF News

The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays will quickly be upon us. It is hard to believe, but it is that time of the year when we start to plan some of the holiday service projects the church participates in. Thanksgiving is only a few shorts weeks away and with that in mind, the Gray County Food Bank will be putting together their annual Thanksgiving baskets. Our youth group will be trying to put more of an emphasis on giving back this Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Our UMYF lessons have focused on using our God given gifts to serve the church and our community, being a trustworthy friend, and being willing to open up our hearts to those in need. The youth would like to ask the congregation to participate in a food drive for the Gray County Food Bank. Please bring your donated food to the church anytime between November 1st and November 15th. If you have items you would like to have picked up by the youth group, just give Jonnalee a call at the church. A few of the items needed at the food bank are:  sugar, flour, canned fruit, canned soup, cereal, juice, cake mixes, spaghetti and spaghetti sauce, and Jell-O. They do not need cream corn or green beans, as they have plenty of those items. Thank you for joining us in this service project; we are blessed with such a giving congregation.
   It is that time of year again to fill college care packages. This year we have 23 college students and 2 in the military. We are collecting items from the business around town, if you would like to add something to the packages, just call the church and I would be happy to pick it up. A sign up sheet for homemade cookies is also at the church if you would like to help in that way. The college students enjoy these packages immensely and the meal that Kent treats them to is much appreciated! The youth group will put the packages together on November 8th and Kent will deliver them that week.
   Youth Group kids:  mark your calendar for November 1st. UMYF meeting time will change, we will meet at noon (immediately following church) instead of our usual evening time. Please bring a brown bag lunch or money to run out to Subway and grab a sandwich. We will eat together at the church and then head out to take digital shots around town to use as background images for the new church video screen. Bring your lunch and a digital camera, for what is sure to be a fun afternoon! Enjoy the fall season.
Jonnalee

A Day of Gratitude and Friendship
Most Americans, learning about Thanksgiving’s origin, hear or read about the destitute Pilgrims who suffered greatly during their first bitter winter in America. Many Pilgrims got sick, and half of them died.
   What we don’t focus on enough is the fact that Native Americans took pity on the Pilgrims. They befriended the newcomers and gave them food. They taught them how to survive the vicious cold months.
   Then, when the earth grew warm again, the Indians taught the Pilgrims how to grow various crops and how to store any surplus. It was primarily because of the natives’ friendship and helpfulness that the Pilgrims began to eke their way from disaster to fruitfulness.
   It’s no wonder that when the Pilgrims had their first successful harvest, they invited their Indian neighbors to celebrate with them. The natives didn’t come empty-handed. They furnished venison, wild turkeys and probably vegetables from storage. It was, more or less, a potluck affair. The Pilgrim leaders prayed gratefully at the occasion.
   We can be confident that an unseen but not unexpected Guest was very much present that day.

The beginning of Advent
November is the month of Thanks-giving, but it often also includes the beginning of a new church year. This year, November 29 is the first Sunday of Advent. The season of Advent is about Jesus, the Word, “coming.” It’s about anticipating and preparing for Christ’s arrival.
   God comes to us in many and various ways. He speaks to us through the prophets and saints. He comes and speaks to us when we are listening. He comes in the beauty and mysteries of nature. Most of all, God comes in the person of Christ, speaking to his listeners face to face.
   Pastor Edmund Steimle put it this way: “The Christian story is a story of God coming into the middle of life, of our lives, opening the dialogue with us.”
   That’s what Advent is really all about: God visiting the earth in person to speak with anyone and everyone who is ready to do so.