Lay Leader's Report from
Church Conference
(Lisa Weber)
Three Rivers First United
Methodist Church is alive and well. We went through a slight slump in our giving and
in our attendance, but through the efforts of many devoted and caring individuals,
different things were tried and we are now on the upswing. We took a van load plus
two car loads to the Brush Country Awards Celebration in January. This was the most
that we have ever had participating, from our church, in this event since it began.
We are currently making plans to host the event in the year 2000.
We continue to serve the elderly and shut-ins in our community through
the Agape Meals and the Senior Citizen Dinners, which are each held once a month.
Through the unselfish efforts of our church members, many senior citizens in our
area are well taken care of.
Through our outstanding group of United Methodist Women, we offered and
continue to offer, singing telegrams for Valentine's Day or other special occasions.
They also had a Joe Scruggs Concert as another fund-raiser. Through these
projects, they are able to help provide various things for our church, such as a new stove
for the parsonage, an icemaker for the church kitchen, and new tablecloths for the
Fellowship Hall.
We have a very dedicated Sunday School Staff who are always trying to
encourage new members to attend. This year we have started a new Children's Church
program. Children between the ages of 2 and 5 learn, in their own Children's Church,
why we do the things we do in church.
Each Wednesday our church and the Good Hope Baptist Church provide a
lunch meal and short devotional at the Jr. High School. This is very well received
by approximately 50 Jr. High students of all faiths and by some who have no church at all.
In this day and age it is a relief to know that God is really still in school.
We had a large number of students from the Lutheran and Methodist
churches attend Sea City Work Camp in Corpus Christi. We also sent two adult
sponsors with this group.
We had 11 members participate in the Toys for Tots Talent Show.
They did a spoof on this Little Light of Mine. Embarrassingly enough, the
group came away with 1st place in the Adult Division! That night someone in the
audience asked what time our services were because they said it looked like we had fun!
We not only helped with a very worthy cause, but we gained another family for
Christ!
We have enlarged the churchwide prayer chain. It is activated
anytime there is a need. When a call was put out to our members for help with our
financial struggles, they answered the call and came forth with additional funds.
We have started yet another new church service. Currently we have
three worship services each Sunday. This helps alleviate time constraints some of
our parishioners had before and has helped raise our Sunday worship from 100 to 110.
These are not only numbers, these are people coming to worship the Lord. The
more in number, the more soul saving, kingdom builders we are reaching.
Although we did not take a bus load, we did take 13 members to the
Great Methodist Gathering. Each of those 13 members made the commitment to bring at
least 1 person to Christ this next year.
We continue to have very
active participation in the Emmaus Walks. The last women's walk for the Windmill
Emmaus Community was led by our own Debi Bledsoe as Lay Director and Pastor Bill Duke as
Spiritual Director. We have three members of our congregation on the Windmill Emmaus
Community Board of Directors.
Possibly the biggest single accomplishment of this church this year is
the birth of the new church baby! Bethany Alice Duke was welcomed to this world on
September 21, 1999. She is truly a gift from God.
All of these accomplishments and all of the many other ideas that our
church members have had to spread the Good Word, or to help raise funds for good causes,
no matter how crazy they seemed, have all been very graciously supported by Pastor Bill.
He has been a great sport, whether we dressed him up as Cupid
to deliver a singing telegram to the principal in front of 400 elementary students or by
upstaging him and then knocking him off center stage while trying to sing "This
Little Light of Mine", he was always willing to work with us. His many fine
talents, both behind the pulpit and otherwise, are greatly appreciated by this
congregation.
In
His Service,
Lisa
