Vernon United Methodist Church
Our Newsletter

JULY/AUGUST 2008

ROBERTA'S REFLECTIONS

My oldest cousin in Rockport, MA, just retired from a "big job" that no one was exactly sure what he did. My other cousins are putting their kids through college or marrying them off. One of my college friend's brother just took is 30th job as a civil engineer and moved again, this time to Alaska. He is learning to cook with reindeer meat. My brother-in-law has retired twice, from the same job. Now he teaches Disciple Bible Study and reads books on tape for the blind. Thirteen clergywomen from our conference retired this year. Some were my friends.

It seems that time is marching on for all of us. Kids grow up. Bodies grow old and malfunction. Friends and loved ones pass away. If we are smart we are making our wills and picking out plots. I have mine next to my grandparents. I call it my "underground condominium."

The realities of the end of our mortal life are all around us. What then shall we make of the time we have left? Christ offers us abundant life on earth as well as eternal life.

Some believers just drag through life waiting for the big reward of eternal life. They have missed the half of the reward by not connecting strongly enough on this side of heaven. As we fortify and remodel the church for the future, let us fortify our lives with the power of the living Christ so that we may have abundant life - right now!

Rev. Roberta L. Williams

CHURCH PICNIC

Mark your calendars for Sunday, July 20th. The church picnic will be held at the Dingles - 102 Campbell Avenue. Bring your whole family for a day of food, fellowship, and fun. This is also an opportunity to invite someone to "meet the church" on an informal basis.

FINANCE COMMITTEE

Let's keep on truckin'!

As we near mid-year, we are encouraged that we continue on our budget plan. A very successful public supper on May 19th was a big help. We will be looking at a different budget as we move into the second half of the year, to account for the joint charge relationship with Wesley Memorial. The transition should go smoothly. So, let's all look forward with hope and excitement as we begin this new journey together.

The year is half over and here we are on the edge of summer. We had an unexpected challenge with a water heater that needed replacement, to the tune of nearly $2500, but we have weathered that storm and now have a source of plenty of hot water in the kitchen to boot. I expect the 100% club members to perform at their expected best, so meeting summer expenses should not be a problem; barring 'surprises'.

The loan for the roof construction project has been secured and we will be receiving a check in the amount of $70,000 very soon. Now, let's hope that construction will begin soon.

God still continues to bless us with the funding to meet our needs. We will continue to be the best stewards that we can be in administering those funds.

Fund balances at the end of May 2008, are as follows:

Dave Howe, Chair

PRAYER WARRIORS OFFER A
PRAYER FOR OUR CHURCH

The Natural Church Development team of Prayer Warriors offer our church family the following prayer for daily use as we proceed with the NCD process:

"Let it be our covenant to support our church Health Team and our church leaders in this effort; that we will search foe wisdom and encompass a spirit of cooperation as we move forward Let us pray for our church and the impact that it can have in our community, and let us all open ourselves to God's guidance and honor Him throughout this process. Most of all, let us be optimistic and excited about the prospects for our church."

Dave Howe - CPW

NATURAL CHURCH DEVELOPMENT
HEALTH TEAM REPORT

Great News!! Our NCD survey results are back. It is amazing how "typical" to New England Methodist Churches we came out. How great to see our strengths, empowering leadership, loving relationships and gift based ministry. While all areas allow room for improvement, we should concentrate on our lowest area, passionate spirituality. No surprise that this was the same low point for the average N. E. Methodist Church. Now your health team would like all of our members to give us any and all ideas that you may have to help us improve our "passionate spirituality".

Do you want to learn more about it? Please come to our Pot Luck "cold" luncheon on Sunday July 13, 2008 following our regular church service. Hope to see you there.

TRUSTEES

Status Report on the Roof Project: Pelletier Builders has had its current project extended thru to the end of July, so that pushes our Project back till the 1st of August. Yes, it is disappointing, but in the grand scheme of plans, we can still work within that time frame. I will keep everyone informed as time passes. The town has reviewed and granted a building permit.

Remember though, we still have lots of other plans in the works for this summer to coincide with our new roof and Social Hall floor. So keep your ears open and look to volunteer to help when the call goes out for painters.

WORSHIP COMMITTEE

The heat of the summer may be upon us, but so is the spirit of the Lord as we continue in praising, singing, and worshiping the Lord together throughout the coming days of summer. So I encourage everyone to join us every week.

Should your vacation plans take you away from us for a little while, I would like to challenge everyone to go visit a new church wherever you may be. We all talk about what a delight and a blessing it is to have visitors - well go and be a blessing to others. And when you come back, bring a bulletin, an experience, or some thoughts on their worship service and let me know what you found to be uplifting.

This would be especially helpful for the NCD committee as they make plans on possible ways to address how we might increase our inspiring worship services. That was one of the two low characteristic catagories. Remember that this is a church wide effort, so keep praying and searching for ideas, comments and suggestions on how the worship committee could help in developing more passionate spirituality and inspiring worship opportunities.

Please, whenever you are away from your church family, pray for us and remember we will be praying for you!

May everyone have a safe and happy summer!

Jim Haag

MISSIONS

Tri-Town Shelter/Cornerstone soup Kitchen
Our intrepid shoppers (Renee, Kylie and Sierra) have been really busy!!!
The Soup Kitchen now has a whole slew of new kitchen utensils - paring knives, serving spoons, spatulas, etc - as well as paper goods and condiments and cleaning supplies.
The Shelter: Not only did our trio do their annual shopping for needed items for general use, this year they went shopping for special "Birthday Bags". A number of gift bags were put together with items for residents having a birthday while living at the shelter. Bags were put together for women, for men, and for children in different age groups. Kylie and Sierra were happy to advise on and pick out items for the children's bags!

Hockanum Valley Community Council (HVCC)
The Elder Services program is in need of volunteers to visit with the elderly and also to drive them to medical appointments. If you would be interested in volunteering, please contact Michelle Leonowicz at 872-9825, ext 16

Heifer Project Hopefully you are now (or will be shortly) in possession of a "selection" sheet. We are asking each of you to assume that you have $500 to spend and to select the animal(s) you would choose. We will then combine everyone's "votes" and make our selections. You might want to pick up one of the World Ark magazines from the table and read up on the different animals and their importance to the people who receive them.
Note: We have also received separate gifts for: 2 collections of bees, a trio of rabbits, some chicks, and a flock of feathers.
The coin jar is now open for our new Heifer Project collection so keep on bringing in those empty refundable bottles & cans!

Foster Child
We have renewed our sponsorship of Elube James in Malawi, Africa. This will be our last year of sponsorship of Elube as she will be graduating from the program.

Summer Camps:
Through your Mission committee, VUMC will be sponsoring two children in the local area for summer camp: one camper for Summer Highlights and one camper for Camp Newhoca.
Vernon Parks and Recreation works with Social Services to select the children.

Mission Garden:
The garden is growing! We have tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, peas, carrots, yellow squash, acorn squash and lots of beans!
If you could give a little time as a weeder, waterer, or picker, please let me know.
We can work around anyone's schedule -even an hour of your time is appreciated. (Help with the flower gardens is also appreciated)
The vegetables will be taken to either Tri-Town food Pantry or Cornerstone Soup Kitchen.
---If you have a vegetable garden of your own and have a few too many of anything-both of these organizations would be more than happy to accept your extras.

Floods - Tornados - Fires - Earthquakes
It seems no day goes by without hearing about or seeing the results of yet another of these events. Your Mission committee is using a large portion of your gifts to aid in the recovery efforts after these disasters. If you feel the call and are able to contribute more financially to these efforts, you may simply place your contribution in an envelope and mark it "UMCOR Disaster Relief" We will see that it is forwarded.

Following is information on some of the volunteer work going on through the Methodist Church. If any of these areas are of interest to you, please contact me or the contacts listed in the information.

Volunteers in Mission Although we will be working on Katrina recovery for years to come, we cannot forget the Midwest and its floods. Here is contact information for various ways you can help.

Marion, Iowa:
Trained volunteers are invited to serve at Marion, IA. To schedule your team and volunteer - go to http://fumcmarion.org/Flood/floodhome.html and follow the directions listed there. Please let your conference UMVIM / Disaster Response coordinator know that you have a team responding.
(this group is coordinating efforts for Cedar Rapids, Palo and Olin)

Coralville UMC, Iowa:
Bryan Clark is coordinating the Flood Relief operations for Coralville United Methodist Church. They have space in the church to house overnight volunteers and buckets full of cleaning supplies to assist in the cleaning effort. There are some teams from our church heading out into the community to begin the process of cleaning up, but more help is needed. Contact Bryan at Coralville United Methodist Church 319-621-0385 or bpc621@gmail.com.

Cedar Falls, Iowa:
The Prairie Lake Church in Cedar Falls, IA is now hosting work teams in cooperation with Samaritan's Purse. The church has on site housing and food services and room for additional teams to join them and work in the relief efforts. To make arrangements for your VIM team, please contact Connie Erpelding at 319-266-2655.
Submitted by Dave Stackpole, UMVIM Coordinator for the New England Conference Email: vimnecumc@charter.net or dstackpole@charter.netPhone: (603) 465-7885

Red Cross Blood Drives:
For an appointment to donate, call 1/800-GIVE-LIFE (448-3543)

Thursday, July 3rd, from 9:30a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Court House Plus, 47 Hartford Turnpike,
Vernon/Manchester line
Tuesday, July 8th, from noon to 4:45 p.m.
Ticket Network, 137 Bolton Rd, Vernon
Friday, July 11th, from12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Vernon Manor, 180 Regan Rd, Vernon
Monday, July 14th, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Stop & Shop, Route 30, Pitkin Rd, Vernon

Summer is the time when blood is needed the most and the hardest time to collect it.

Mission & Outreach is taking a summer vacation from "formal" meetings; however, we will continue our work on your behalf. As always, if there is a concern or area you would like to see us address, please contact me or any member of the committee.

Lydia Dingle

JULY SCRIPTURES

JULY WORSHIP ATTENDANTS

JULY GREETERS

AUGUST SCRIPTURES

AUGUST WORSHIP ATTENDANTS

AUGUST GREETERS

LAMPLIGHTER DEADLINE
SEPTEMBER ISSUE

Please submit any articles you have for September (preferably by e-mail) by Friday, August 29th. Anything not received by 6 p.m. on that date will not be included in the newsletter. Thanks for your cooperation.

Roger White - editor, pro tempore

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