Vernon United Methodist Church
Our Newsletter

APRIL 2009

ROBERTA'S REFLECTIONS

A third of all we know about Jesus life on earth comes from the last week of his life. We know that he gathered with his followers in a large room in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover meal. The Passover festival had been celebrated for about four-thousands of years. It celebrates God freeing the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. The Seder meal is symbolic and educational; it shares the story to the next generation.

At the conclusion of the meal, Jesus added two more symbols. He took a loaf and wine and said, "Eat and drink all of this, for this is my body and blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sin." It was at the Passover Seder that was born our sacrament of the Lord's Supper, Communion or The Eucharist.

Leonardo da Vinci, in The Last Supper, depicted the point at which Jesus announces his impending betrayal. In their faces we can see ourselves. Some, like Judas, advance our own lives and careers at the expense of others. Matthew used his education to share the Gospel. James and John were prideful until Jesus told them that to be great you had to be a servant. Nathaniel could not believe that "anything good" could come out of the nowhere town of Nazareth. Clearly, he was prejudiced.

"Doubting Thomas" got a lot of press over the years for his doubting of Jesus' resurrection. Perhaps we should also chant, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." Then there was Simon the Zealot, a terrorist by today's view. He was part of those who would do anything to get the Romans out of Israel and the Jews back in leadership. He had a hard time swallowing the entire message of Jesus, "Love your enemy. Pray for those who persecute you." Andrew brought in his brother Simon Peter, but never got notoriety.

Judas was so impatient with Jesus. He contrived a situation where Jesus had to show his power. Our schedule is not always God's schedule. We are impatient also and try things on our own. Simon Peter was impulsive. He promised Jesus that even if everyone else deserted him, he would not. He denied Jesus three times in order to remain on the safe side of persecution. We too, have to really count the cost of Discipleship.

Rev. Roberta Williams

LENTON SOUP, SANDWICH AND STUDY

The Lenten Soup, Sandwich and Study group has one more meeting on Thursday April 5 starting at 6 pm. Please contact Phyllis or Lempi if you are able to help out with set up, meal prep and clean up and contact Jim Haag if you have any questions.

Kathy Jo Winters

HOLY WEEK SERVICES

Maundy Thursday Service - April 9, 7:30 p.m.
Downstairs in the fellowship hall.
Good Friday Service - April 10
Wesley UMC, East Hartford.
Easter Sunrise Service - April 12, 6:00 a.m.
Fox Hill Tower at Henry Park.
Traditional Easter Service - April 12, 10:30 a.m.
VUMC.

NATURAL CHURCH DEVELOPMENT
ACTION PLANNING RETREAT

The members of the NCD committee with our mentor Pete Schilling, had a productive day on March 21 focusing on our identified goal of improving "Passionate Spirituality". We talked about developing an atmosphere for folks that want to get closer to God and discussed several ideas on how this might be accomplished in the service and in meetings. The first change that has already been made is that the choir is sitting in the front pew to bring them closer to the congregation. Other possible changes are having Pastor Roberta and the liturgist also move out of the altar area during the service. Logistics are being worked out and your feedback is appreciated. Some other ideas that we came up with are to start up more small groups, where members can more freely share/vent/pray and schedule Family/Town Hall meetings where people can openly share and discuss whatever is on their minds about church issues, like what happened to getting air conditioners or upholstering the pews.

The dedicated members of the NCD committee are Phyllis Goehring, Shirley Howe, Bob Mattern, Carl Tyler III, Laurie Tucker, Roberta Williams and Kathy Jo Winters along with our guide and mentor Pete Schilling. Feel free to speak with anyone on the committee if you have questions or ideas on how we can all work together to make VUMC a stronger more spiritual church.

Kathy Jo Winters

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

The Christian Education Committee met on March 8th to talk about classes for children and adults and to plan for the future. The children's classes, which meet during the service, are working on activities in preparation for Easter with a focus on the miracle of Easter morning. The adult class is meeting prior to service on Sundays from 9:15 to 10:00 a.m. and the participants are enjoying and learning from the Upper Room and the Serendipity Bible as their guides for weekly discussions. Both classes are open to all. For questions about the children's class please contact Lydia Dingle or Kathy Jo Winters. For questions about the adult class please contact Dave Howe.

The committee has also been discussing arranging some short term classes in addition to the weekly classes. Suggestions include a day time class and a book group. The next Christian Education meeting is scheduled for 11:45 on April 26th and is open to all. Please see Pastor Roberta or Kathy Jo Winters with questions or suggestions.

Kathy Jo Winters

TRUSTEES

Roof project status report:

As you may have noticed over the last couple of weeks, the crews have come back to work on the remaining portions of the lower roofs. New roofs are complete over the kitchen and boiler rooms, leaving the repair of the siding and gutters to be completed. Then some final clean-up around the yard and they will be finished. We should have the final accounting of the bills in April, so by next lamplighter, I will be able to give a final report on the finances along with what monies are remaining in the accounts.

If you remember from last month's lamplighter, I mentioned that once spring arrived, the trustees would be planning work weekends to clean-up and spruce-up around the place. Keep your eyes opens and ears alert to announcements regarding those activities in the coming month. Many hands make light the work load.

As always, if you should find something that needs fixin', make sure you let one of the trustees know so that we can take care of it. Remember, this is your house also. Let's take great care of it - for we have been entrusted with a great gift.

Jim Haag

NOTE FROM THE NCD PRAYER WARRIORS

The prayer warriors continue to actively support the Health Team. We are encouraged by the results of their recent planning retreat and encourage every member of the church family to keep the Health Team in their daily prayers as the Team begins to implement their recommendations for our church.

Dave Howe

NEW ENGLAND ASSEMBLY OF THE LAITY

Looking for an enjoyable and refreshing 'time-out' from the stress of your daily life? Then you need to attend the 56th gathering of the Assembly, which will be held at the Marist House in Framingham, Massachusetts, Friday afternoon, July 31 thru Sunday Noon, August 2. Highlights include music, singing, uplifting worship, small group sharing, and lots of friendly fellowship. The guest speaker is Rev. Curtis Brown, Director of Congregational Development, who oversees the Natural Church Development process in our conference. The theme is "Stretch Out Your Hands" in love, invitation, and service. Registration information is available at church. See Dave Howe, the Assembly Registrar, if you have any questions.

Dave Howe

FINANCE

A Year of Challenge!:

The first two months of the year 2009 are behind us and the financial challenge has grown larger as we look at the deficit in the Program & Ministry and Fuel Funds. As noted in last month's report, some of this deficit was expected, but unanticipated furnace and elevator repairs, plus increased utility costs have caused it to be much larger than anticipated. We hope March. April, and May will be 'friendlier' months for our financial picture. We will continue to monitor costs very closely, but we need everyone to give as generously as they can in the coming months to put these deficits behind us With God's help and our commitment, we can do it!

Fund balances at the end of February, 2009, are as follows:

Dave Howe

CHURCH COUNCIL/LEADERSHIP TEAM
MINUTES FOR 3/18/09

Attendees:
Dave Howe, Lydia Dingle, Bob Mattern, Rev. Roberta Williams, Carl Tyler III, Jim Haag, Colleen Morgan

Urgent Committee Business (Bob):
Dave shared that financial we are about $600 below the plan, due to unexpected expenses, so he asked all committee leaders to take care in spending over the next few months.

Leadership Team (Bob): Bob led a review of the tasks that were collected for Evangelism and Nurture. It was felt that since the NCD Health Team is having their planning retreat this Saturday, we would wait and see what Evangelism ideas will come from them, but we raised some ideas like contacting new town residents and updating our brochures. So we concentrated on Nurture and developed these action items:

Action Items:

· Dave will contact Phyllis Goehring & Lempi Hannaford about leading a team to organize the April 19th potluck luncheon for a presentation by the New Orleans Disaster Recovery volunteers. It will be right after the worship service.

o Jim, Dave, and Bob will work on a poster and of course, the presentation material.

· Roberta volunteered to do monthly Communions for those that cannot attend our worship service, such as Billy McLellan, Nancy & Dick Tyler, Lil & Tom Eastman, Nancy Gay, and Pat Haag. Dave volunteered to go with Roberta to see Billy and Colleen offered her help, if needed.

o Dave also volunteered to create a Care Basket for the Eastmans.

· Carl III will develop a Publicity Checklist with a comprehensive list of advertisement options with contacts, phone numbers, websites, etc. The list will also include samples ads to ensure all information is included. This can be used for the upcoming May 2nd Community Supper and the May 16th Community Breakfast.

· Roberta will talk to Kathleen about whether someone from our church would be allowed to attend the 12-Step group meetings as an ambassador from the church to evangelize.

· Lydia will provide cards to send to our college kids, away from home, especially Jessica Ebrahimzadeh in Australia.

NCD Update (Kathy Jo):
No new activity, but there will be an action planning retreat on March 21st at Wesley UMC. Action Item: Roberta will revise the NCD Prayer Team's prayer and include it in our weekly worship service during the Concerns & Celebrations prayer.

Community Voice (Bob):
Kathy Jo shared that a church member is concerned about the consideration the State of CT is giving to allowing liquor to be sold on Sundays. Action Item: Roberta offered to author a letter that will have places for signatures of church members/constituents. Done so now she will mail it.

New Ideas:
A new idea was shared at our Lenten study to host a meal for the needy.Several thought it was a good idea, but no one volunteered to run it. It was suggested to bring to the Leadership Team and that it might be an Outreach activity.

Next meeting:
May 20th at 7:00 p.m., if needed - TBD.

Bob Mattern

MISSIONS

UMBRELLA MONTH at VUMC:
Our umbrella tree popped out quite a few branches!! Thank you to all who contributed. Your generosity will be much appreciated by those standing in "April showers".

APRIL -FILL THE PANTRY! During the month of April VUMC will be collecting non-perishable items for the Tri-town Pantry. There will be "shopping lists" available if you would like a reminder of the items needed. However, if you think about the basic items you would like to have on your own shelves, you can't go wrong. Canned fruits and dessert mixes are always a nice addition too

Four Corners Native American Ministry:
Sunday, April 26th, is Native American Sunday, one of the United Methodist Church's special Sundays; therefore it seems appropriate to share with you the latest news we have received from the Four Corners Ministry - a Navajo cooperative parish of the New Mexico Annual Conference.
"We are only a few days away from receiving our first mission team for 2009, and despite the economy causing a few cancellations, we have a very full year of mission teams scheduled. Moreover, we have recently announced a new construction project for the summer-a parsonage at Ojo Amarillo U.M.C.-which will begin in late May.
As your faithful service demonstrates, there are many ways to support the mission work of the Four Corners Native American Ministry, and we are proud to call you among our friends and supporters.
As we enter the season of Lent, may God bless your journey to the Easter Resurrection."

Where else do your mission dollars go?
What do you think of when you hear about victims of torture? What happens to those victims who survive? The Center for Victims of Torture, located -guess where? -in Minneapolis, Minnesota-is dedicated to helping torture survivors heal from their wounds and reclaim their lives. This work takes place not only in the Congo, in Central and Eastern Africa, in Jordan, in Myanamar, in Europe, but also in Minnesota, in Nebraska, in Arizona. The Minneapolis-St Paul area has many African and Hmong survivors of torture and newly arriving refugees from Myanamar and Bhutan. These refugees are dealing not only with the trauma of torture but with culture shock as well---unfamiliar climates and foods and traditions. For more on the work of the CVT, read the storycloth newsletter available in the fellowship hall.

Camp Aldersgate:
The 2009 brochures are here. You may not have children to send off to camp this year; however, you may have a friend, relative, or neighbor who is looking for a great place to send a child or a place for a family camp experience. Take a brochure and pass it on! Scholarships are available.

Volunteer Opportunities:
Camp Aldersgate work camps.
· Trailblazer Camp: April 24-26
· Aldersgate Cleanup and Work Weekend: May 15-17
Volunteers can come for a day or for the weekend.

Good Friday Walk:
The annual walk is scheduled for Friday, April 10th. Please support our VUMC walkers with your pledges - and prayers that their bodies are as willing as their spirits.
VUMC has been asked to provide a few of the items to sustain the walkers (juice, grape jelly, small chocolate bars, hard candies) There is a sign up sheet in the fellowship hall if you are able to donate any of these items.

Fall Mission Trip to New Orleans Area for Hurricane Recovery

Skip and Mary Ann Danforth will be leading another group of teams south this fall. The weeks are November 1 to 7 and November 8 to 14.

There will be three teams organized. On November 1 to 7, we will stay in Slidell and work either along the north shore of Lake Ponchetrain or across the bridge in New Orleans. On November 8 to 14, there will be two teams: one in Slidell and the other staying in the town of Dulac, LA a small, isolated community out on the bayou southwest of New Orleans. For the first week, we would ask you to deal with Dick and Jane Thompson at 109 Washington Street in Manchester, CT 06042 (1-860-647-7099, spotanpuff@aol.com). For either of the groups on the second week, contact Skip and Mary Ann at PO Box 1747, W. Chatham, MA 02669 (1-508-430-0778, KiteSky@comcast.net). However, if you have trouble reaching either family, feel free to contact the other.

You will be expected to arrange your own transportation and pay about $250 toward registration, room, board, team van rentals for our time there, and other minor expenses.

Let's keep our college students in our thoughts and prayers. Remind them that they are very much a part of our VUMC family. Drop a note or card to them occasionally.

Rebecca Mattern
167 Highland Street- Apt#3
Worcester, MA 01609

Stephanie Curtis
Living & Learning Center
Box 117
633 Main Street
Burlington, VT 05045
Email: UscuttingXedgeED@hotmail.com

Jessica Ebrahimzadeh (this semester she is in Australia!)
Unit 31 Kooloobong
Northfields Ave
Wollongong, NSW 2500
Email: je972@uow.edu.au

Michael Cappiello -attending Univ of Hartford
71 Vernwood Drive
Vernon, CT 06066

Red Cross Blood Drives:
For an appointment to donate, call 1/800-GIVE-LIFE (448-3543)
More than 600 blood donations are needed EVERY DAY in Connecticut!

The next meeting of the Mission & Outreach committee will be Thursday, April 16, at 7PM at VUMC. These meetings are open to everyone.

Lydia Dingle

APRIL SCRIPTURES

APRIL WORSHIP SCHEDULE

GREETERS

LAMPLIGHTER DEADLINE
MAY ISSUE

Please submit (preferably by e-mail) any articles you have for the Lamplighter by Thursday, April 30th. Articles not received by 4:00 p.m. on that date will not be included in the newsletter. Thank you for your cooperation.
Roger White - editor, pro tempore
E-mail: vumcnews@sbcglobal.net

The space for this web site has been provided courtesy of the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church.