'Community' Tagged Posts

'Community' Tagged Posts

Helping the Community

Dear FUMC Family,     I pray that you are staying warm and healthy. The winter has been long, dark, wet, and cold. And many persons have stayed in and grown discouraged.     At our church, we are going to try to bring our community out and together for one day – Tuesday, February 27, in our third annual Pancake Day. This year all proceeds will go to our local Helping Hands Clinic, which serves the poor.     We will serve, as our guests, more…

Reaching the Community

First Church Family,     I pray that you are weathering the winter cold this week. From Friday night through most of the day Sunday, the temperature in our area will not move above freezing. We pray for the poor and homeless among us. We made a large financial donation to Yokefellow Thursday, helping our ministry partner serve the poor.     FUMC was richly blessed in 2023. Your stewardship enabled us to fund all of our church’s ministries and finish in the black for the…

Bless This Meal 2023

First Church Family:     The holidays are just around the corner. Here are a couple of reminders of things that are coming up:     Saturday, we will provide 125 families with Thanksgiving meals. Even if you haven’t registered as a volunteer, your spirit will be raised if you swing by the church sometime between 10:00am and 1:00pm on Saturday to experience the gift of giving.     Sunday morning will be the first time our “Groovin’” kids playguitars/ukuleles/buckets/African drums for us in worship. Jon Beal and…

Great Commandment

First Church Family,   Wow, winter finally got here! But it’s only fall… oh well, I enjoy all of the seasons in our beautiful county!     Over the past weeks, we have had a number of visitors at the 9:00AM service who were camping/RVing in our area for a couple of weeks enjoying the beautiful autumn colors. After last Sunday’s service, a couple named Tom and Sue, who had been with us two weeks (actual names are different to protect privacy), waited their turn to have a…

Back-to-Church Sunday

First Church Family:     I pray you enjoyed the Labor Day Weekend, the informal last weekend of summer vacation. I stayed around Lenoir but did take some time off on Monday.     We enjoyed a great summer season at First Church. Our Vacation Bible School was both well done and well-attended, the work on our Habitat for Humanity house moved forward, and our combined worship services felt good and were also well-attended.     When we combine services like that, our overall attendance drops…

September News

First Church Family: I pray that you are enjoying the end of summer. Though of course time moves on, this summer has seemed to move most quickly. Teachers and school staff members are already on the job, and local public school children are in class as of Monday, August 28. Our prayers are with them. For the first time, earlier this year, we made the decision to combine services across the summer at 10:00am. That of course did several things:…

Happening @ FUMC

First Church Family:     Wow, what a week it’s been!  I know it must seem that I begin much correspondence in such a way, but it is true.     Last week, we shared God’s love with both children (45 of them) and youth and adult counselors through our Vacation Bible School program: “Stellar.”  All involved marveled at God’s creation of the vast and wonderful universe!  And all learned stories of Jesus: with Zacchaeus, with the people who welcomed the Master into Jerusalem on Palm…

VBS Sunday and Luncheon

First Church Family:     What a week it has been! Our church has been filled with children singing, dancing, playing, enjoying snacks, and doing crafts.     Our Ericka Murphy, Tara Blake, and Jon Beal, along with numerous volunteers and additional staff: Danny Clark, Kay Lanier, and Joseph Franklin have done an amazing job leading our 2023 Vacation Bible School!     Forty-four children have attended and loved every minute of it. The theme for the week has been: “Whenever darkness comes, or challenges come, or…

Important UpDates

First Church Family:     I pray that you are enjoying the summer sunshine after the rains of previous weeks as much as I am.     Please note the following important updates:     1) Our food drive for Yokefellow has been wildly successful. Our initial goal was to collect and donate 1,100 pounds of rice, pinto beans, and peanut butter so that our ministry partner could feed the poor this summer when needs are greater.     As of the end of last week, you had brought…

Volunteer Opportunities

First Church Family:     I pray that you are enjoying the summer in these beautiful foothills. God’s bounty is rolling in from the farms and family gardens. The seeds planted this spring have turned into vegetables and fruit.     Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians, and turns the conversation into a promise of eternal life: What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow,you do not sow the body that is to be,but a…

Community Outreach

First Church Family:     Please notice the offerings below, in relation to Yokefellow’s Drive-Thru Food Drive on Saturday, and also the request for volunteers on July 14 for the Blackberry Festival.     I’m planning to be a part of both of those efforts and hope we have good First Methodist responses.     Also, please know that we continue to be needed (especially on Saturday mornings) to volunteer at our Habitat House project (2614 Friendswood – off of 321A South).     This Sunday…

May News

First Church Family:      Last year about this time, we began a conversation about the need for housing in our county. Our Pete Kidder, Caldwell Habitat for Humanity executive director, helped us come to understand that: · there are houses within a mile of our church where families with children live on dirt floors. · more than 7,000 houses in our county are heated by portable kerosene heaters and by opening the oven. · 7,764 families in our county spend almost one-third of their total income…