Alegent Health center for Healing Ministry presents Ministers of Care, Monday, September 29th from 6:30-9:30pm and Monday, October 6th, 6:30-9:30pm, at Mercy Hospital, Council Bluffs, Classrooms A & B. This free training is for persons who wixh to volunteer to provide spiritual care for the sick, homebound, and bereaved within their congregational setting. The intent of this program is to act as an educational resource to encourage spiritual support for any person whose life is touched by suffering. To register or for more information call Karen at (712) 328-5050. All registrations are due by September 22.

Wednesday Potluck Dinner will be held the first Wednesday of September (Sept 3rd). Come one, come all!! Bring something to share and enjoy the great fellowship. Drinks and utensils are provided.

The Finance Committee would like to hold another Talen Show and Action to raise funds for the building loan. We have tentatively set November 16th as the date for the event. We are currently seeking leadership help with publicity, arranging talent, lining up foods, and other items to be auctioned. If you wiould like to assist in any of these areas, or if you have a talent you would like to share, or if you have something you would like to donate to the church to be auctioned, please contact Roy Smith (298-8570) or Pastor Michael (296-6905).

Once again we will be having a Root Beer Garden during the Carnival. We will have it open on Friday and Saturday from noon until 6:00 pm. We need church members to help staff the booth. A signup sheet will be in the back of the church.

Cherub Choir (children's choir) will begin practice on September 3 at 6:30-7:00 pm. The Cherubs will sing on the first and third Sundays of each month durin the 10:45 am worship service. Contact Pam Osthus or Donna Glynn if you have questions.

Rae Jean has e-mail capabilities on her computer in the church ofice. If you would like to send information for the Newsletter or Bulletin, feel free to e-mail items to her. Our new e-mail address is "fumcplattsmouth1@juno.com"

A baby shower will be held in honor of Jamie Dorsey on September 21st at 2:00 pm in the Church Fellowship Room. It is an open invitation to all those in our congregation. It is also helpful to know that the baby is a girl.

Thank you to everyone who donated to or helped in anyway for the UMW Rummage Sale which was held last weekend. As always, it is appreciated.

I would like to say thank you to everyone for their prayers, cards, phone calls, and concern after I had my surgery and during my recovery. I would especially like to thank all the volunteers who sat in my place while I had to be off work for four weeks. It is great to be back.

Please be aware that the church has one phone line. So if you call and either Pastor Michael or Rae Jean are on the phone, the message for the voice mail will come on, giving you the impression that we are not here. Please feel free to leave a message or give us a call later.

The word energy crunch has once again hit First United Methodist Church! What a shock it was to open this month's utility bills. As Roy Smith reported last month to the congregation, we knew that our gas bill had risen from $200 per month to $605. That was somewhat expected, all last winter we were using their ga and not paying the entire bill. We are now making those monies up with a higher budget amount. Hopefully, we will be closer to the correct amount this winter.

The big shock came when the church received it's electric bill. We have been running very close each month to the budgeted amount. We had only a $9 difference. The month of August is settle-up month and you must take your bill to a zero balance. That also means you pay for all that you use for that month. As all of you know, the heat has all air conditioners running to the limit and the church is no different. After services we turn the thermostats to 80 degrees, but we still have a very large church building and it costs to cool. This month's bill is $921.92. Our budgeted amount was only $426.35, so we were almost $495.57 over budget.

Besides the immediate need with our utility bills, we need you to prayerfully consider helping the church economically throught the rest of the year. Starting in September we will also have an increase in our electrical budget amount of $83 to $509.30, and with gas at $605 you can see a real need.

We have been successfully paying all our bills each month throughout the year. That has not always been the case. We should take great pride in all that we have accomplished.

The summer has passed us by, and now as we settle into fall, we are again going to be looking for volunteers for jobs needing to be done before the winter settles in on us. My summer has been a busy one, with much absence, so I would like to apologize to those who have not received my personal "thank yous" for volunteer jobs you have done. Those I can think of off the tope of my head are:

I know there are jobs done and names not mentioned, and I will think of them as time goes, so please know that you are appreciated just the same.

Speaking of work, FALL WORK DAY has been set for Saturday, September 20th. We will be either painting or cleaning windows on the inside, or we'll need many goods hands for that. Outside...well, a lot more dirt work. Much of it pertains to preventing further leakage in the building, but we would also like to dig up the area between maintenance to that area. Needless to say, we will need a lot of manual labor to get the jobs done in good time. Please mark your calendars for this day and graciously volunteer.

We will need at least two new members on the Board of Trustees for 2004. Please prayerfully consider joining us in keeping the building and it's grounds maintained. If you're not sure what our board does or is all about, please attend one or more of our meetings before the end of the year and learn about us.

Please call me with anything you may notice and needs to be done with the building. I will maintain a list and advertise for volunteers on a monthly basis. This will allow us to keep up with our maintenance much more efficiently. Once again, thanks to all who notice things and help out.