The Forester

May-June, 2006 Forest United Methodist Church Vol. II, No. 3

Women’s Bible Study Re-convenes

The Women’s Bible Study group of Forest UMC will convene one more series before summer sets in. The classes will be held in Fellowship Hall at 7pm, on the Mondays of May 1, 8, 15, and 22. There will be no class on Memorial Day (obs.). Pastor Bryan Ton will teach.

The individual lessons will be:

May 1—”Canons to the right of us! Canons to the left of us!” or, “How did that get in there?” The class will look at the measure of acceptability for inclusion in the Bible.

May 8—”The library on my desk,” a look at the types of materials in the “Book of Books.”

May 15—”Do you really want to waste your time?” A look at how a good man’s good name has been used for no good purpose in the DaVinci Code, and other such materials.

May 22—”In English, please.” This class will look at the history of the English Bible in its many variations through the years.

The series is open to all women interested in learning something a little different from the run-of-the-mill Bible study. Bring your favorite Bible, and a friend!

All Aboard!

VBS to be a Community Effort

All Aboard for Vacation Bible School! The train leaves the station Monday, June 19th, at 6 pm and returns at 8:30 pm. VBS will be held each night, Monday through Friday, June 19-23. Trains will be the theme for this multi-church effort to bring VBS to Forest and the surrounding area. Forest Baptist Church, Forest United Methodist Church and Union Baptist Church are combining their talents and resources to reach kids for Jesus. Kids in ages from pre-school through 6th grade are welcome to get on board.

Our conductors at FUMC for VBS information, donations and volunteering are Peggy Suhre and Nancy Beavers. To date, VBS still needs a teacher for K-1, a person to do games and teacher aides. Donations of money, cookies, refreshments and craft supplies will be welcome. Check with Peggy or Nancy for sign-up. If you have any train items that could be used for decoration or visual aids, please consider loaning them to the VBS effort. This train is bound for glory!

June 19-23,

6-8:30pm

“Hat Lady” highlight of

Mothers’ Day Brunch

The annual Mother-Daughter-Friend brunch has been scheduled for 10am, Saturday, May 13, in Fellowship Hall. The featured program will be “The Hat Lady,” Ardith Talbot.

Reservations may be made by contacting Maxine Ogle (249-2019) or Judy Trenary (249-2971) before May 11.

VBS Prayer Packs available

VBS Prayer Packs are available in the Forest UM Church library. Even if you can’t ride the Train, you can pray it through to destination. Please consider adding your prayer power to this Train journey for Jesus.

UMW Events

May 13—Mothers’ Day brunch.

June 6—general meeting at the church, 7pm, Leader: Maxine Ogle; Hostess: Christy Unger.

July 27—Senior Citizens meal; no general meeting; School of Christian Mission.

August 1—general meeting at home of Joan Smith.

Thank-you Choir

The Forest Choir will soon be concluding its 2005-06 season. I would like to thank all who participated in this year’s services for their dedication, skill and enthusiasm. Special thanks to Peggy Suhre, director, and Elaine Henderson, pianist. Those who sing, pray twice!

—Bryan Ton

Coffee Shop open

May be a bit awkward, this. I want to announce that the Coffee Shop will once again be open for business beginning Monday, May 8, and thereafter from 7-9am. But the board hasn’t given its official okey-dokey. But the sign-up sheets are available for you to volunteer. See what I mean? —Bryan

Congrats!

Forest UMC has received congratulations from our District Superintendent, Rev. Michelle Cobb, on our participation in the North Indiana Conference’s efforts to be a “tithing” conference.

Thank-you, Forest UMC, for your tithe and other support of District and Conference ministries.

Foresters at D’Iberville: or Connecting Within the Connection

Foresters Brenda Spray and Judy & Mack Trenary have all returned from their short-term mission trips to D’Iberville, Mississippi. Much of D’Iberville was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in November 2005. Heritage UMC (located in D’Iberville) is the base of operations for building a volunteer center to be used to house volunteers working in the area for the long term clean up and assistance needed. Currently, volunteers are sleeping in the church. Bishop Michael J. Coyner announced in February that the North and South Conferences of the Indiana United Methodist Church would take on this project in coordination with the Seashore District of the Mississippi Conference of the UMC.

Judy and Mack spent two weeks at the project. One week, Judy cooked; the second week, she worked with drywall. (And yes, gals, the week of cooking was more strenuous than the week of drywalling and construction.) Judy was impressed by how marvelous it was to be working with people who truly wanted to help and the gratitude of those receiving the help. She was also impressed by the mission mind-set of Heritage UMC. Although it is not a financially rich church, Heritage opened its doors and its resources to the public of the D’Iberville area two days after Katrina passed through. This included keeping its day-care operation going and purchasing generators so that there would be a facility with power operating as a shelter for the many left homeless. Heritage now is the staging area for volunteers; housing, feeding and organizing their efforts to help.

Brenda Spray worked for several days doing assistance assessments for homes in the area. This effort was high in people contact. Brenda was impressed by the graciousness, friendliness and gratitude of the area people she met. The assessments determined the level of current damage at each home and what was the immediate need for each dwelling. This information enabled the volunteer effort to be organized and constantly ready for the next step of assistance.

Donations can be sent to the Seashore District Volunteer Center Project, Indiana Area United Methodist Foundation, 1100 West 42nd St., Suite 210, Indianapolis, IN 46208. Note on the check Seashore District Volunteer Center. One-hundred percent of all proceeds will go to this project. All gifts are tax deductible. You can view the weekly progress at D’Iberville by visiting www.inareaumc.org Brenda and her co-traveler, Margaret Sheets, have put together a program about their experience. (photos courtesy of inareaumc.org)

Sanctuary Prayer 9:30 –10 each Sunday

Each Sunday morning in the Sanctuary from 9:30 till 10 am you may see me kneeling at the rail or walking around the pews talking to myself. Except I am not talking to myself but to God. Just as the ushers, greeters, Children’s Church teacher, Choir, accompanists and Children’s Moment teacher all contribute to the Worship Service, so do the pre-service prayers in the Sanctuary help support and add to our Worship Service. This may be a new and unfamiliar spiritual exercise to some of you. It is called “prayer walking”. Prayer walking is one way to acknowledge and seek the presence of God in a specific location; in this instance—our Sanctuary. I pray for God’s presence in the service, for those participating in the service and for those attending the service. That is why I walk around the pews, into the altar area, the overflow rooms and the foyer—to bathe in prayer every area where people come to encounter God’s presence on Sunday morning.

You are welcome to join me in this “prayer walking”. Thank you for conducting your sanctuary activities before 9:30 and after 10 am so that I can prayer walk this space. -Bev Ton

-30-