The Bladen United Methodist Charge
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Making Disciples, One Person At A Time
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Bladen Charge NewsThe Gospel Sing with Mercy’s Well,
brought a lot of praising, celebrating, seeking and praying.
It was a big blessing to many folks.
Blessings abounded to all those who attended The Women of Worth Conference in Whiteville on January 20 & 21. If you are interested in another Women’s Conference, Ocean View Baptist Church in Myrtle Beach will be hosting a one day conference on September 22 with Renee Swope. Renee is the author of “A Confident Heart” and is also with Proverbs 31. Registration is now open at www.ovbc.org by clicking on Upcoming events.
Quick, but large thanks to all the folks who are distributing their “wealth” by organizing the Children’s activities at all 3 churches. Especially, thank you, to Kari Freeman of Live Oak for organizing the Children’s Lock-in. All the kids had a wonderful time (adults too!). We are all looking forward to the next lock-in. Thank you to everyone who participated in our Children’s/Youth Sunday! Also, thank you, to the organizers of the Pioneer Club and the “Let’s Talk” and Co-mission programs for youth.
Fall Festival Everyone had a great time at the Fall Festival. A special thank you goes to the Young Adult Sunday School Class for the awesome production of “Samson and Delilah”.
In September, Windsor collected 95 boxes of macaroni and cheese for the center
and Janet delivered them this week. The Director of Bladen Crisis Center, Kathy Page thanked Janet for our outreach, love and support for the center.
The Spaghetti Dinner and Auction for the fire victims was VERY successful! At last count there was over $12,000 and donations were still coming in. We are ever so grateful to anyone who supported the event in any way and particularly to the organizers and kitchen crew! The Live Oak Community has been truly blessed.
The VBS at Windsor was also a huge success. There were over 130 people there on Wed. night. The kids and adults all had a great time singing and hearing about Jesus. If you missed the Windsor VBS, fear not! You will have another opportunity to attend a VBS.
Also upcoming are the Stop Hunger Now program, Sept. 17th at Live Oak. We need 40 volunteers from our charge to pack food. It will be approximately from 8am to noon. This is a wonderful mission and wonderful opportunity to help starving people world wide.
The Live Nativity is still on the horizon. A lot of our sets and costumes were damaged in the forest fire so the event will take a lot of extra effort this year. We are determined to press on though. Please keep this event in your prayers. It has been a blessing and ministry to thousands of people over the years and we would like to continue in that tradition.
There are two other ongoing items that I would like to mention. The first is the Bethlehem Bible Study on Revelation. Please come out and join those folks! The second is the rotation of preachers at Purdie UMC. My family and I attended this past weekend and were very blessed to be able to hear our Associate Pastor Tyrone Mathis, deliver a sermon that touched the lives of many people in attendance. The church is small but full of the Holy Spirit. Please consider attending one Sunday to support our ongoing effort there.
Please Pray!for those returning to school, educators and students. Please Pray! Those who have been affected by the fires still need prayer. The ‘clean up” journey has just begun for most of them. Please Pray! For our Pastoral families. Please Pray! Shut- ins, those who are without food, without rest, without the knowledge of Christ’s love.
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Windsor ~Woo Hoo!!! We just recently received a check from the Duke Endowment for $150,000 for the new Sanctuary and $17,500 for a grant to supplement the supplies and food for Wednesday Night Dinner and Sunday Morning Breakfast ministries. We serve Jehovah Jireh, the God Our Provider and we are seeing Him at work.
Live Oak ~ Surely you heard the cheer last week when we received the Duke Endowment check for $150,000 for our fellowship hall! We are so excited to know we will now be debt free. God has indeed blessed us. With renewed enthusiasm, we will put the fellowship hall to good use doing God’s work!
Among the blessings: James and Brittany Murphy and Larry and Stacy Griffin! Both couples were married this June! Liam Freeman was baptized in Live Oak. Congrats Liam and the Freeman family! The ongoing summer Bible Study at Bethlehem has surely been a blessing. Patrick Murphy, a gift from God, and Duke, has come to be with us for the summer. Purdie United Methodist Church has partnered up as a satellite sister church of the Bladen Charge United Methodist Churches. We will be sending speakers there on Sundays! The money came from Duke Endowment! Our ERT training went well according to those who attended. We’re so happy to be able to reach out to others in need. We even have seen all these blessings and others amid hardships for our church family.
Our biggest hardship was the forest fire that is still going, burned 3 our church family’s homes, and damaged many others. This is such a hardship for those families, and such a blessing too. There were no lives lost and the possessions can be replaced. One of the ladies who lost her home said “We may have lost our home but I will NEVER loose my faith” via her Facebook page. I have read/heard such encouraging words for her and the other families who have been touched by this loss. Please keep encouraging them by planning to attend or donate to: a spaghetti dinner and auction for those affected by the fire on July 16th from 5 to 8pm. Please come out and show your support.
Please also keep our shut-ins, those who are injured, those who are depressed, and those who are just plain suffering in your prayers. Please keep praying for all those who have been touched by the storms. People away from their families...some for the first time!
Another mission event is the Stop Hunger Now event which is scheduled for September. Several volunteers will be packing food to feed hungry people throughout the world. We’ll be raising funds for this event throughout the summer.
There are different seasons in our lives where change comes. Sometimes it is a welcome, exciting change. Other times it can be devastating and sad. ONE THING, THOUGH, NEVER CHANGES- THAT IS GOD'S NEVER-ENDING, ALL POWERFUL LOVE, COMPASSION AND RENEWAL. This is the Spring of the Year, where flowers bloom, we can smell the fresh cut grass and feel the cleansing wind of God's kiss on our face. God has brought our church and community here in Ammon into this season in a mighty and powerful way. He has taken some from us and brought new ones into our midst and through it all, we find HOPE, FORGIVENESS and most of all, LOVE.
Words cannot express all of the gratitude from the church and community for all of the people that have taken their time and resources and provided meals for all of the Events, especially Funerals in the area and for shut ins and the sick and most recently all of the victims of the tornado in Ammon that has affected so many families in our community. Mrs. Loretta Harris is our new Kitchen and Food Coordinator and wanted everyone to know how blessed she feels to be a part of this great service and that she wanted everyone that has been involved how much it is appreciated. The following businesses were also involved in helping with this effort after the tornado: CAPE FEAR BBQ AND CHICKEN FROM ELIZABETHTOWN AND FAYETTEVILLE; PIZZA HUT IN ELIZABETHTOWN; DOMINOES IN ELIZABETHTOWN; FULLER'S IN FAYETTEVILLE.
Also, thanks to the Windsor United Methodist Men and Women, the Virginia Disaster Relief Team and the Ammon Volunteer Fire Department for their efforts in the clean-up and everyone else in the community that came to help out after the tornado.
IThe McMillian Family would like to thank everyone who has prayed for their son, Timothy Spencer through his stroke and recovery and for Lisa after the accident. God surely heard your prayers and prayers and blessings go out to the Hunsinger family from White Oak in their difficult time.
~ We’re continuing the Season of Lent and looking forward to all the Easter activities.
--Support Sarah Colleen Smith Donation Fund: New Century Bank , 6390 Ramsey Street, Fayetteville, NC 28311 Please make checks payable to Sarah Colleen Smith Donation Fund.
~Please also keep our shut-ins, those who are injured, those who are depressed, and those who are just plain suffering in your prayers. Go be a blessing!
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` Live Oak Cookbooks are in. Anyone wanting to purchase one can contact Janice Humphreys at 323-9557 or email liveoakrecipes@earthlink.net Cost is $15.00, checks can be made out to Live Oak UMW. Anyone wishing to mail their request and payment can send it to Janice Humphreys, 5859 Mack Simmons Rd, Fayetteville, NC 28312 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ If you have not filled out a commitment sheet, please get one and fill out. Not only is it a great tool to know what gifts you have to help the church & community, it also allows us to update records in the office.
If you have any news you would like to share and be posted,
please e-mail to Dee/Robin at rrkml@bladencharge.com
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