Celebrating Grads

Congratulations to all of the graduates with ties to Peoples! If you know someone who has graduated that is missing from this list, please contact the pastors.

Graduates from SPHS from Peoples UMC:

Jonathan Lyons – will be studying communications and playing lacrosse at USM Gorham in the fall.

Patrick Morrison – has been excepted to the entrepreneurial program at SMCC, though is considering waiting a semester and working at a relative’s dude ranch. Patrick is also graduating from Portland Arts & Technology High School (PATHS).

Other grads formerly from Peoples:

SPHS: Meghan Granell, Becky Braley, Joanna Pike; Cape Elizabeth HS: Katie Yosua; Gray New Gloucester High School and PATHS: Justin Harvey

Merrill & Pat Kaiser’s daughter, Pamela Kaiser is completing her Ph.D. in African American Literature at the University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee. She is defending her dissertation at the end of June so please keep her in prayer!

Congratulations to all!

New-Church Directory Coming Soon

A team led by Marlene Tordoff is putting together an updated, phone and address directory, done in-house! This will enable the church to keep the directory continuously updated and provide flexible design. This directory will also include photographs, which assists newcomers and others to learn names and faces in the church family. Chuck & Joanne Kamilewicz have been photographing folks the last several weeks - what a great team they've been!

As an option, Chuck will also offer packages of photographs for your purchase. Profits from this project will help defray the church deficit. If you have not yet had your picture taken, please email Susan Angell or call her at 799-8340 to schedule a timeslot. Thanks for your help.

Yard Sale and Strawberry Festival

Barbara Nelson and Chris Bowker have generously volunteered to run our church yard sale and strawberry festival this year on July 7th. They cannot, however, do it alone. We need the items filling your closets, garages and attics. We need your soups and baked goods. We need your time and strength for setting and cleaning up. Please contact Barbara for yard sale items and help and Chris for offers of help with food. This is always a fun and successful event, but it needs you.

Free Bowling for All

Come join us for a free afternoon of bowling on July 8th at Yankee Lanes in Portland at 1PM. This is a fun event for all ages, whether you bowl a perfect game or can’t even pick up the ball. Please call the pastors at 799-6814 to RSVP

Celebrating Sunday School

Rosemary Herd along with an excellent team of teachers, helpers and leaders including Andy Folley, Linda Wade, Betty Smith, Chris Ward, Wealthy Harvey, Karen Jennings and more, put together an exciting year of Sunday School for our young people. We had fifteen children who were often in attendance in addition to four little ones who will be soon joining the ranks with their older siblings.

Next year's program will be even more exciting with a new curiculum. We may even have a new schedule to make Sunday morning easier for families. The important part is that most of our new curiculums require breaking the groups into smaller age groups. To help support these additional classes, we will need new teachers as well as more students. We would like to see an minimum attendance next year of twenty. To this end, every one that reads this should think of two families that you can start inviting to church. We already have a basic pamphlet available in the back of the sanctuary that you can use to share what is going on at Peoples with your friends and famlilies. The ministries of our church will only reach more people if you invite them in.

Thanks again to the teachers and kids of our Sunday School for a great year even as we look for an even better one next year!

Calendar Planning

The time has come for us to develop the church calendar for 07-08. Please consider joining us for the Church Council meetin on June 12th at 7:30pm. This is a good time to celebrate what the church has been doing in the last year and look for exciting ways to expand the ministry in the year to come. Pray about this time and if you are not able to attend, share your feedback, ideas and most importantly what you hear from God in your prayers about our ministries in the new year.

June Worship Teams

June Worship Leader (Lector Coordinator, Chris Ward):
Rosemary Herd

June Ushers (Usher Coordinator, Charlie Lyons):
Art Tordoff
Charlie Lyons

June Nursery Schedule

"Jesus loves the little children" and so do we. Thank you to all who serve in the nursery during morning worship!!! Kathy Brann, Curtis Coughlin, Ellen Dunn, Andy Folley, Teresa Folley, Doreen Gay, Linda Greer, Karen Jennings, Betty Lane, Betsy Morrison, Barbara Nelson, Becky Snoddy, Betty Splettstoesser, Pastor Jamie and Pastor Gwyneth

Some of our regular nursery folks are unable to serve as they are recovering from surgeries/illnesses, so we could really use a few extra hands. In addition, summer can be difficult to schedule with vacations.

As you see from the list above, some of the nursery workers have small children, others have older or even grown children. If you feel a tug to serve, please let Barbara Nelson or Pastor Gwyneth know so we can initiate the background check process. Thank you!

June Nursery Schedule
6/3 Becky Snoddy & Betty Lane
6/10 Betty Splettstoesser & Ellen Dunn
6/17 Betsy Morrison & Curtis Coughlin
6/24 Betty Lane & Kathy Brann

June Birthdays & Anniversaries

Birthdays

8 Teresa Folley
10 Eliza Jane Chace
10 Earle Harvey
10 Danielle Seidl
13 Charles (Chuck) Kamilewicz
15 Drew Folley, Edward Greer, Kara Kenney
17 Michael Gray
20 Rosemary Herd
23 Rebekah Gray, Richard Matthews
24 Samantha Foote, Janice Huelin
25 Karen Jennings
29 Mariah Bowker
30 Grace Corey

Anniversaries

11 Danny & Linda French
12 Ryan & Sharon Wade
14 Jamie & Gwyneth Arrison, Doug & Linda Greer
17 William (Bill) & Cynthia Beddie
24 Maxwell & Bonnie Brown
27 Robert & Janice Huelin
29 George & Glory Dunn
30 Alan & Doreen Gay
30 Jonathan & Luann Farley

Girls Night Out

Linda Wade suggested a girls/women/ladies night out, not to do church business but just to have fun. This first group met at the Portland Art Museum on Friday night, including Rosemary Herd, Amy Wellington (first time out since surgery!), Linda Wade, Chris Ward, Kathy Brann, Betty Lane and Pastor Gwyneth. It was a great time! If you have suggestions for more fun trips, please contact Linda, or run with the idea yourself! One idea discussed was a sunset cruise around Casco Bay. Stay tuned ...

Trustees and SPRC Join at the Parsonage

On May 20, members of Trustees, Walter Greer and Chuck Kamilewicz met up with members of the Staff Parish Relations Committee, Claralee Street and Becky Snoddy to walk through the parsonage with the pastors. Some may not realize that the church owns the house next door, and that's where the pastors live. It's a beautiful house with lots of class, but also getting up in years so it's important for the church to keep up on maintenance. Annual parsonage inspections are required by every United Methodist Church, and that they meet basic living standards established by the denomination. Our parsonage is in surprisingly good condition, and only a few minor repairs were noted. Thanks to Walter, Chuck, Claralee and Becky for your ministry, and for all of the Trustees who will be coordinating repairs!

Bean Suppah - Tidbits of Behind the Scenes

Submitted through Email by Susan Angell

Did you know that people take beans, molasses, etc. and bake those beans at home. Barbara and Tom buy all the supplies. Charlie Lyons makes the time to pick these bean up where they have been bubbling away and cooked to perfection.

Did you know that Chris Ward and anyone she can convince/connive into to joining her, comes in around 2:30-3:00. The tables have been set up by our Boy Scouts with dishes and silverware. Chris' crew garnish all the tables with salt and pepper shakers, sugar, paper cups, butter and cream. Belle Graney comes in early to get those huge coffee urns perking.

The pie person (Chris Bowker pictured here) comes in at 4:00 and cuts those pies that are received. This is probably one of the better tasks because left over crumbs of pies from cutting are the property of the cutter and if you ever tasted the excellent pies our people bake, you know that is a very good thing. When I sub for the cutter, I make sure that lots of crumbs don't make it to the plates.

Has any one heard of the "Hostess with the Mostess", Pearl Mesta? Well, we have our own Pearl and her name is Hillie Cass who arrives at 4:00 too and she meets and greets our customers, taking them to their tables, making sure they stop at the pie table and smoozing with the crowd. Maryann Wheeler comes in along with Hillie and is our cashier extrodinaire.

What happens to the left overs? The kitchen people place them in Oakhurst containers donated by Tom Nelson. Belle Graney used to pop those in her car and take them to charitable organizations. Now, they are set aside for the Sunday night Gathering people for their repast. Nothing goes to waste! Very, very, rarely some of us are forced to take home a piece of left over pie. It is one of the sacrifices I am willing to make for the good of the cause now that Bill Beddie is no longer here to do it for us.

Our last Bean Supper before Summer will be held June 16. Come on down and join the fun!

Tri State District Pre Conferencing

The pastors attended the annual district meeting to prepare for Annual Conference. Pictured in the photo are two familiar Peoples people, Rev. Bill Beddie and Rev. Wanda Stahl (leading the discussion). Annual Conference will take place June 8-10 with Merrill Kaiser attending as our Lay Member to Annual Conference, and Earle Harvey attending as an Equilization Member (lay members to balance the number of clergy and lay people who vote). The pastors will also be attending the clergy session on June 7. The biggest topic at Conference this year will be electing delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conferences.

Farewell to Maryjean

As many of you know, the church is under a tight budget crunch. The Staff Parish Relations Committee (HR for the church) has made the difficult decision to eliminate the position of Church Secretary. Maryjean Raymond has served faithfully in this position 30 plus years and will always be considered part of the Peoples family. Her last day was May 11. We will miss you Maryjean.

Luncheon To Discuss the Budget

About 25 people stayed after the service on May 6th to hear about our church's budget situation and discuss ideas for turning it around. We discussed the budget from the top - the pastors' package down through the building expenses, mission shares, administrative costs and down to our meager spending on ministry. We found a few areas of potential savings in utilities and administrative costs and a few fund raising ideas. In short, it is clear that the budget will only be balenced by an increase in the amount our members bring forward to share together as a church family. We discussed what our budget might look like if we were all tithing - that is bringing the first 10% of our income to hold together. The result could be as much as a $40,000 or more surplus that could be going to new ministries or even helping out members in sudden need. The bottom line, is that God has blessed our church family with enough resources to more than just support our local church. Rather, we have enough to have an abundance of ministry. With this attitude of abundance, we are asking for every regular giver to increase their pledge by 1% of your annual income. This should raise an additional $10,000 in just the second half of this year. So far, only a few people have turned in specific pledge increases, but these few amount to almost a quarter of that goal. If we all bring together a full portion, we will be growing into an attitude of abundance that will carry over to our other ministries of reaching out. I am sure this change can bring about growth, not just in financial stability, but especially in our spiritual lives as we learn to depend more fully on God.

Community Fair; Another Great Year

This year's community fair was another wonderful time with food, games, and booths all around Ellis Hall representing agencies in our community that are seeking volunteers. A Big Thank You goes out to Rosemary Herd, Earle Harvey, and Art Tordoff, as well as many other folks who helped plan, organize, advertise, set up and take down. Plans are underway to host the next event in Fall 2008 !

Hank Dunn and Linda Greer showing off their casts. Both attended the fair even though recovering from recent surgeries!

Heifer International Presentation

If you didn't attend this past Sunday's Worship Service, you missed a treat. Merrill Kaiser and Rosemary Herd gave a presentation on Heifer International and the children dressed for the occasion. Ellen Dunn led the choir in song.(See pictures)

Heifer International is an organization whose mission is to make a difference in the lives of struggling families around the globe. Globe banks and calendars were handed out to those who wanted to participate. The idea is that each day you see how fortunate you are by looking at the calendar. It will tell you to count certain items in your house. For example, on a Thursday, you count the number of eggs in your refrigerator. For each egg you count, put 5 cents in the Globe bank. The more fortunate you are, the more you put in your globe bank. With a number of people doing this, farm animals can be purchased for families in need.

In the pictures, who can you identify? Sammy, Isaac, Nathan, Caleb, Samantha, Melinda and Sawyer. The costumes were on loan by Andy Foley's mother.

For more information, see Merrill Kaiser.

Thank you to all who participated in this ongoing project.