Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?
Friends,
You may hear this and other fave songs and carols this weekend at the 5th Sunday Christmas in July picnic. “As the weather outside is frightful!” and hot, the event will be held inside in the Fellowship Hall. Food will include hot dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers, salads, chips and Christmas cookies, sno cones, plus watermelon! Remember, you’re never too old for a pom-pom snowball fight! If you’re in town, this is the place to be after church THIS Sunday. Come! Get messy and have time to know someone better, encourage another’s dreams and support them when things aren’t going so well. It’s the time of enlarged hearts for Grinches and all the rest of us, too!
God is so good! Community UMC, with our lay leadership and congregation’s focused intention, some great guest preachers, and hard-working, independent staff, has had a pretty calm and fruitful summer. We’ve honored Pastor Erik’s need for renewal time away—had some new visitors coming and becoming engaged along with stable attendance in worship—and didn’t burn down the building while he was gone! Thank you for doing your part!
Here are some of the highlights:
Courtney Bundy joins the staff as the Director of Children, Youth and Families on August 1. We waited a long time for God to provide leadership for this area through our church. Let’s warmly welcome and support her!
CDC has a new 14-passenger bus on the way, which will enable them to include more opportunities for community and church families in before and aftercare. Crystal Spalding is grateful to all who helped make this happen.
With revisions, reducing labor costs a slight amount and a specific list of equipment, the contract for the Sanctuary Lighting and Video project was signed! The next step is to get the orders rolling for the equipment. Trustees are also actively preparing for work in the Sanctuary by arranging for removal of some pesky interlopers living in the belfry and walls (bats and bees, respectively). If we are very lucky the installation may be ready for the 50th weekend (which is the hope).
Church Council and Finance teamed up to expedite financial assistance for Fowler UMC in Annapolis, where Pastor Jerome Jones (Pastor J) was reassigned by the Bishop as of July 1. In a destructive hate crime, they suffered property losses of about $100,000. Rebuilding and replacement will only partially be covered by insurance, so in addition to prayer support, a unanimous agreement was reached to release the balance sheet funds for community and cross-racial use that had been offerings from the use of our facility by Wilson. Fowler was presented a gift in their worship by Candis Milbourne and Charlie and Carol Moore on Sunday, July 16, in the amount of $10,800.
I, for one, am looking forward to August 1, when Pastor Erik will be back in the office and likely bubbling over with wonderful stories to share!
Merry Summertide and enjoy the rest of your “lazy days”,
Barb Julian, Lay Leader
