Vernon United Methodist Church
Our Newsletter

OCTOBER 2008

ROBERTA'S REFLECTIONS

Out of the blue this summer we got a call about selling our church property. This particular offer dissipated as quickly as it appeared. However, it has instigated an awakening within the congregation about our future and the fact that God is actively leading us. We have met with Evelyn Johnson Moore, the chair of the consultants from the annual conference. She led us in a wonderful exercise to look at our options. They range from "do nothing" to "sell," and take the assets to: a merger in an existing church building, or merge and relocate into a new church with a merged congregation, or sell and build a new church with our existing congregation. She reminded us that whether it is in six months or six years, there will be another offer on our highly desirable property and we should have more information under our belt.

This pastor's message is not about the church property. It is about trusting God with our personal and congregational lives.

As a teenager I lived three miles from Fenway Park. There were twenty-six restaurants and twice as many stores, plus the subway, within walking distance of our parsonage. Since 1982, when I began ministry, I have stressed about where, when. and what kind of church I might be appointed. Coming from an urban area, I was apprehensive about my first appointment to ex-urbia, (aka. "the boondocks").

Mansfield MA was a town with cows and no grocery stores. After a day of hanging drapes in an apartment the church rented for the clergy, I tried to order a pizza only to find that there were no places in town that delivered! I felt like Red Riding Hood...out in the woods. I fretted about living so "far from everyone and everything". Then my brother, his wife, and wee little children moved to the next town. God had a plan. Because of a low interest loan from a family friend, I was able to replace my 1962 VW Bug and purchase a townhouse and keep it for twenty years. God had another plan for my highway safety and retirement resources.

The town was growing and we began to explore with the Bishop options about selling our 100 year old, land locked, moist basement, edifice and building a new church. When the Baptist church across the street burned due to faulty electricity, our District Superintendent said jokingly, "They got the wrong church". The conference trustees would not loan us money to buy land and rebuild. We missed the real estate "window of opportunity" in the 1980's when you could by 10 acres, and six months later sell 5 and recoup your total expenses.

We went to a farmer who was a disgruntled member of the church. He had inherited (note "paid nothing for") four-hundred acres of land. We asked if he would give us six acres to build a new church. He said "No." Two years later he fell from a haystack and died at the age of fifty-six.

We asked a delightful, elderly, parishioner if he would will us his eight acres to build a church and parsonage. He said his will was written and he had given all his money to his daughter who's husband was an executive at Pfizer. They lived in Greenwich CT. He left the church one-thousand dollars in his will which "matured" a year later.

A decade later, Violia Gettes, who lived in town housing with multi-colored afghans, and a knitted doll to hide her toilet paper died and left the church $100,000. Her gift enabled the congregation to purchase a parsonage. The town has quadrupled since 1985, the old church still stands, a new church has yet to be built, and the congregation still looks to God for guidance.

Now, I said this was not to be about selling or building. It is about trusting God and seizing opportunities that God sends our way. They may be out of the blue, not the usual kind, or something we are afraid of, but if they are from God, they will be great! We have to have the faith to seize ministry opportunities.

Rev. Roberta L. Williams

THE PARABLE OF THE RICH FOOL
Luke 12:13-21

13Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."
20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' 21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

FINANCE COMMITTEE

Nearing the Home Stretch:

The story at the end of August is that we are still in good shape relative to our financial plan. Our 100% club members came through in August, so we are back in good shape there. We are beginning to pay construction expenses for the roof, along with mortgage payments against the construction loan, so we will be seeing a fall-off in the Building/Renovation Fund as time goes by. That is to be expected.

Plans for the Fall financial campaign have been completed and this will take place during the month of October and will feature 'Stewardship Minutes' during worship on October 5, 12, and 19. It's time for all of us to begin thinking about how God may be calling each of us to respond to Him with our gifts. As you know, our focus is not on a budget, but on helping persons improve their relationship with God, through those private chats with Him. His desire is to bless those who respond to Him, but He expects more than our leftovers; He expects our first fruits. Talk to Him. He'd love to talk to you!

We're looking forward to another time of fun, fellowship, and financial reward from the Apple Festival on October 4th and we expect to have another one of our famous pot roast suppers in November. Both of these help to build up our financial reserves for those cold winter months.

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

Dave Howe, Chair

WORSHIP COMMITTEE

Aahh! It's that time of year once again. You can feel the cool crisp air, there's the smell of apple pies cooking and the baseball playoffs are just around the corner. So what could be better?

I must admit that I am a little surprised to hear several comments about how people like the "new" worship location. This situation sure makes us get up close and personal with each other. Our God is awesome - He takes a seemingly negative experience (prolonged delays in our sanctuary project) and turns it into a new positive experience. Let us make sure that we praise and thank our Lord for His watchcare over us during this time and all the time.

Some upcoming worship events for you to keep in mind are Communion Sunday. We will once again serve communion with the bread and the individual cup up front and have you place the empty cup in a basket as you return to your seat. During communion, we will also be participating in World Communion Sunday as we celebrate the Eucharist with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. Keep an eye out for a special bulletin insert regarding this celebration. There will be a special offering envelope available should you want to participate monetarily.

Laity Sunday is October 19th. If you remember, we had some new visitors last year. I think their names were Thelma and Jim Bob. The rumor I hear is that Thelma and Jim Bob liked our church so much they told some of their cousins about us - so don't be surprised none iff'n some new folk don't shew up that there day.

I asked earlier, what could be better? How about worshipping with us on Sunday mornings? There is always a reason to praise God and we can always make room for more.

TRUSTEES

Roof project status report:

If you are like me, I have been a little disappointed by the lack of activity on our roof. Unfortunately, that was the risk we took. I have been assured that they are scheduled to return on Monday, 10/6/08. Again, God has taken care of us - we had a hard rain storm in early September and another forecasted for the end of this month. So let's pray for really good weather in October so that they may complete their work in record time. The delays have eaten into our contingency fund some - we have had to pay rental on the dumpster, scaffold and port-a-potty during the month. We still need to get thru the framing portion of the work before we know how much money is left before we decide which other projects we want to tackle.

Keep in mind Jeremiah 29:11. "for God knows the plans he has for us, plans for our good and not for evil, to give us a future and a hope." Our part in all this is to keep on praying and having faith.

MISSIONS

Tri-Town Pantry (860)872-7890
October is one of the months VUMC makes a special effort to support the Pantry with a food drive. The slow economy, high fuel prices, etc. have also affected people's ability to put food on the table. In one month alone, the pantry had 45 new requests for assistance.
All non-perishable items are welcome. Lists are available for needed items - but just think of your own pantry and what you would like to see on those shelves. Don't forget the special areas of babies and pets.
The pantry is always looking for volunteers to help with filling monthly grocery bags, stocking shelves and bagging produce - just a couple of hours a week is fine - If you are able to help out, please call Martha Boyle at 872-9825.

Cornerstone Soup Kitchen (860)871-1823
VUMC will be serving at the soup kitchen on Wednesday, October 29th.
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--Both the pantry and the soup kitchen have expressed their thanks for the fresh vegetables we have been able to provide from the mission garden.
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Sharing, Inc - the Good Friday Walk:
No - it's not yet time for it. However, a note about the 2008 walk: the Rockville Walk brought in $13,623 of which $4,541 was given to the Tri-Town Shelter. VUMC had several walkers and also contributed to the snacks and drinks as well as having some people at the rest/check points.

VIM to Slidell
Three VUMC members - David Howe, Jim Haag, and Bob Mattern will be joining a team going to Slidell the first week of November. They will be helping in the rehabbing of homes in this area devastated by hurricane Katrina - and again by this year's hurricanes.
You will soon see those boxes of delicious Munson's chocolate bars. The proceeds from the sale of this candy will be given to our VUMC team to take with them to use as needed.

Speaking of hurricanes---

Texas Annual Conference Hurricane News Update
Texas Annual Conference is accepting recovery trained ER teams for some of our more devastated areas, but we are also accepting long term clean up teams for those areas that are ready now. Teams can stay in various churches and need to be semi- self-sufficient…. we do have gas now, stores are open in most areas so teams can buy food products. It will depend on the area they go to. Galveston Island is to be open next week for clean up teams but ER teams only will be allowed there. Surfside and Freeport are in desperate need of muck out teams and debris removal. Volunteers need to register online, www.txcumc.org then we call or email them back within just a day or so.

God's Creation Calendars:
We are off to a good start! The original order of 25 wall calendars and 25 pocket calendars has been sold or spoken for - another 25 wall calendars will be available October 1st. Remember we can order another carton of pocket calendars (or wall calendars) if we can be sure of selling at least 13. In addition to the calendars being a way to pass along God's message, proceeds from the sale go to support of our special mission projects such as Heifer International and summer camp for local youth.

Dankawali:
You may remember that Rev Ron Jackson's foster son, Kewulay Kamara, was working on a documentary about the people and village of Dankawali. Ron has given us 2 DVD's from Kewulay: one is the history of the people and the other is a brief view of the school which the people of the village are working toward. -VUMC is mentioned for the support which we gave to this project.
We are working on getting the equipment to show these DVDs to the congregation.
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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!
Monday, October 6th, 1:00 to 6:00 p.m.
First Congregational Church, Rte 30, 695 Htfd Turnpike, Vernon
--In memory of Gail Slicer

Saturday, October 18th, 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
St Joseph Church, Rte 83 & West Rd, Rockville
--sponsored by: Knights of Columbus
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The next meeting of the Mission & Outreach committee will be Thursday, October 16th, at 7PM at VUMC. These meetings are open to everyone.

Lydia Dingle

SCRIPTURES

OCTOBER WORSHIP ATTENDANTS

LAMPLIGHTER DEADLINE
NOVEMBER ISSUE

Please submit any articles you have for November (preferably by e-mail) by 6 p.m. on Friday, October 31st. Anything not received by that date will not be included in the newsletter. Thanks for your cooperation.

Roger White - editor, pro tempore
E-mail: vumcnews@sbcglobal.net

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