Oh, my! What a summer of accomplishments and hopes! There is so much to be grateful for among this fellowship of believers. God is doing new things and bringing new people into relationships with CUMC:
We are welcoming guests and regularly attending friends and families;
We are being blessed by summer special music and loyal choir voices for worship;
The A-V team is receiving new practitioners and seeking others willing to learn the behind-the-scenes part of live-streaming all parts of the worship services and encouraging our online congregation;
This year, On the Case Vacation Bible School served nearly 80 children every day from the CDC and our church, including about 30 children who were entirely new. It was a labor of love in sharing of the good news about Jesus in story and fun, modeling and learning for our leaders, and many blessings, too;
Church Council was in consensus about accepting the proposed hybrid plan for pew-chairs with pews to add flexibility and accessibility in the sanctuary at their meeting of June 27;
The ZIM VIM team, with help from the Baltimore-Washington Conference, generous support from this congregation, other churches, friends and family, have financed the $200,000 for our school, greenhouses and other projects in Zimbabwe; and,
All generations celebrated the 5th Sunday Messy church on June 30 with an outdoor bouncy house, corn hole, water games, ice-cream floats, and an incredible variety of delectable picnic foods.
Have I told you lately how proud I am to be part of the community at Community UMC and to be your Lay Leader? Well…I really am!!
I’d like to close this pondering with a favorite poem by Mary Oliver, entitled “A Summer Day”.
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean —
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention,
how to fall down into the grass,
how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed,
how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
It’s a great question to engage with, especially when that life is given, sustained, and inspired by God in Christ Jesus. Have a wonder-full, joy-full, health-full, fruit-full and hope-full summer. You are blessed. Be a blessing!
Barb Julian, Lay Leader
