Summer 2012 at Peoples UMC
A church often reduces the amount of
activity during the summer that is usually generated during the September through early June
program year and that was no different here at Peoples. That is not to say that
the church was without activity as will be noted in this addition to the blog.
As you will read and see
many activities did take place and were designed to appeal to all ages.
Garden committee
During the summer months some members
of the garden club put in time trying to stay ahead of the weeds in the
memorial garden. One addition to the church that was of benefit to the
gardeners was the addition of a water tap on the side of the church near the
garden. This certainly helped, when used, to keep flowers alive and beautiful
for most of the summer. As one observer of the garden it can be a very restful
place nestled between Ellis Hall and the church building in spite of the heavy
traffic often found on Broadway. We thank those members of the garden committee
for their efforts in maintaining the meaningfulness of God’s love in the form
of floral displays.
Shawl Ministry
While no meetings were held during
the summer months the life of this activity continued to bring comfort to
members of the Peoples Community as well as many who would be patients at Mercy
Hospital, in particular. In June, 30 Heart pillows were trundled off to Mercy
Hospital’s Breast Cancer and Radiology departments to be distributed to
patients who have had Breast Cancer and other forms of cancer treatment. Nearly
300 of these pillows have been distributed since this arm of the Shawl Ministry
was begun only a few years ago. With this many pillows distributed it is a
testimony for the number of folks, mostly female, but some males also who have
suffered from forms of breast cancer. The knitting of shawls for grieving or in
need people related to the church has been ongoing and again some of these
shawls knit with Love have been distributed during the summer months. Some
responses have been received by the Ministry and it is heartwarming to hear
some of the stories of recipients. The work of the hands of the women who have
participated in this ministry have brought many blessings to many folks, some
that we all know and some that we do not know at all.
Well advertised and led by Fred Wade
a group of faithful servants spent a week or a day at Portland’s Root Cellar
located on Washington Avenue at the base of Munjoy Hill. They led a number of
activities for the children of the area who are frequent visitors to the Root
Cellar. The Root Cellar is a faith –based Christian organization that has
served that area of Portland for many years.
In the past we have served a meal four times a year to area residents
who frequent The Cellar. Some of the women of the church have also supported
the Christmas Angel program that distributes gifts to children. Our gift
contributions at the Hanging of the Greens program at our church in early
Advent also supports that program. We appreciate the efforts of those members
of Peoples who have been engaged in any or all of these efforts that support
the mission of Peoples and of the Root Cellar. We encourage all members of any
age to support those worthwhile mission projects that have engaged members of
Peoples church in the local community as well as missions that are away from
here.
Talents Challenge
The Finance Committee early in the summer
made available small amounts of money to members and friends of the church
designed to encourage members to earn more money for the church by doing
something, building something or in some other way encourage the original
talent money to grow. The idea comes from the Parable of the Talents found in
Mathew 25: 14-30. During the summer people who took the challenge engaged in a
number of activities such as lawn mowing or running a yard sale. Others made
food, articles etc. that would be sold as part of a special Talent Challenge
Sale run by Kathy Brann on the last weekend in August. What was not sold then
was available the next week at the Big Yard Sale run by Barbara Nelson and
Betty Splettstoesser and a fine supporting cast. While the design was to make
money for the church these events also illustrate how people of the church can
come together and have a good time. The money from the Talent Challenge is
being channeled into payment of the cost of renovations that have taken place
in the sanctuary.
Vacation Bible School
A new theme seems to be available for
Vacation Bible School every year and this year was no exception. The Veggie
Tales program based on “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” led to a greater
understanding of the Bible in a different way for the children who attended.
Again, a number of folks from the church membership could be seen participating
including Carol, Kathy, Tom and Kelly. The film clips that were shown in church
to encourage attendance also informed adults who were attending what the
program was all about before it took place August 20-23. It was interesting to
see that some of the young folks who had at one time been youthful attendees of
VBS were now among the ranks of the teachers.
Sunday School Carnival
Ushering in the new Sunday school
year began with the annual carnival held on September 8. Over 40 children were
in attendance and most enjoyed riding a pony or seeing the Spark’s Ark show on
the parsonage lawn. Free food in the form of hot dogs and popcorn coupled with
drinks were successful while the cotton candy machine was not as successful at
producing long lasting candy on a hot and muggy day. Games and crafts were also
part of the activities available for attending kids and their caretakers. Andy
Folley was again in charge of the event but many other adults helped the day
run smoothly. Both the VBS and Carnival appear to be great lead-ins for the
Sunday school year.
God TV
Were you in church for the summer
sermon series called God-TV? It was interesting to see how many themes could be
attached to the titles of, in some cases, long ago, television programs. Tom
led the series off in early July with a film clip of the Groucho Marx show,
“You Bet Your Life”. This was followed over the next several weeks by other
sermons by a variety of people in addition to more by Pastor Tom. Kelly’s,” So You Think You Can Dance”
followed in week 2.
In the third week we heard a sermon
titled, “Faithful Companions” based on the relationships especially of the Lone
Ranger and Tonto presented by Art Tordoff. In other sermons Rosemary used the
old program “Discovery” as the basis of her presentation and Merrill used “M.A.S.H.”
as the base of his sermon. Tom hit a number of other TV programs in his
remaining messages including “The Twilight Zone”.
Perhaps we have not included all of the important activities that you may have participated in over the course of the summer of 2012. If that is the case please feel free to send me a thought or an article to place on the blog. There are people who do read blogs and are sometimes encouraged to be a part of the action by saying, "I would like to do that or to be part of that church family."
