Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church
May 2016
The Spire
Sometimes it just seems that the needs of the world are too great, the political and social problems too complex and twisted, and the resources needed are too scarce to make any real difference. Sometimes I just feel so helpless in the face of such overwhelming odds that I want to just give up, bury my head in a book and pray that God does what only God can do. Of course, the longer I stay like this the more likely my frustration will turn into despair and then indifference. So each year, I make mission work a priority in an effort to shake off the cold indifference and get inoculated against affluenza. I’m not any closer to solving the world’s problems and Heaven knows the problems in Haiti are beyond my ability to describe here, but I’ve learned that if you go looking for what’s wrong you will surely find it, but if you’re willing to take the time and look closely, get your hands dirty so to speak, you’ll begin to see the seeds of hope are being planted all over the place, and that makes all the difference! In the midst of the chaos and poverty that is Haitian society, there is a real strength emerging to never give up. Despite having their country decimated by earthquakes, corrupt politicians and years of neglect, restoring hope in a better future is providing the strength needed to bring change. Even here in Mineral Wells, we’re restoring hope and sowing seeds in the lives of those decimated by abuse, financial earthquakes or simply years of neglect. I am incredibly proud of all the outreach projects here at Mt. Pleasant UMC. It is clear to me that restoring hope in a broken world is a core value of this community. Our message is clear: God is not done with us no matter the scars we bear or the problems we face. Last week, for example, I met a young woman Sara, not her real name, who came looking for help in a time of crisis. Her life as a single mom has been a personal struggle to overcome low self-esteem, isolation, and abuse. Yet she refuses to give up and continues to find ways to protect, feed and provide the best life she can for her two boys. Her story inspired me, but even more so is her desire to restore hope to other single moms facing the same challenges she did. We have met a couple of times and are beginning to sense God’s timing and Spirit is beginning to move. I believe that Sara can speak to these silent sufferers, draw them together and restore hope. If you feel called to be part of the conversation and restoring hope, please let me know. Who knows what we can do together! “Ministry means the ongoing attempt to put one’s own search for God, with all the moments of pain and joy, despair and hope, at the disposal of those who want to join this search but don’t know how. Therefore, ministry in no way is a privilege. Instead, it is the core of the Christian life. No Christian is a Christian without being a minister.” H. Nouwen Blessings,
1 Ron & Delores Bibbee~Michael & Jane Duckworth
16 Hunter Sheppard
2 Mary Springer~Ashlynn Eagle
17 Addison Deems
3 HR & Jodi Lockhart~Whitney Williams
18 Kevin Offenberger
4 Linda Bargeloh
19 Gerald & Deb Caltrider~Zach Smith
5 Steve McCoy~Whit Parrish
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6 John & Peggy Grygiel
21 Hunter Parrish
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8 Kristi Anderson
23 Ron & Paula Flannery~Betty Deem~Betsy Moore
9 Heather Beeson~Ruth Ann Sheppard~Ty Sheppard
24 Bob & Diemma Parker
10 Jason Caltrider
25 Ralph & Ann Somerville~Sarah Schwendeman~Guy & Melissa Tornabene
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26 Brian Moore~ Chris & Brenda McKnight~JB & Heather Skidmore
12 Eric Sheppard
27 John Province
13 Larry & Alice Reeves
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14 Kevin & Betsy Offenberger
29 Sami McKinney
15 Jeff & Melanie Matheny
30 Nick Perkins
Mark your calendars! We are preparing to welcome St. James UMC from Tampa, FL to our church at the end of June for a week of mission and outreach in our community. I (Steve) have worked with the St. James mission people for many years and I’m really excited for you to meet them, experience their irrepressible joy for life, faith and serving others. They are scheduled to arrive on June 26th and stay in the church until July 3rd. I am currently in the process of identifying local projects for them and I could really use your help. Here’s how… 1. Communicate! If you know of someone that needs some home repair, no matter how extensive or minor, please let me know so the project can be evaluated and added to our list. 2. Rise Up and Reach Out ! Be a part of the team by showing up and helping out. All projects will be overseen by experts in construction, all materials, food, transportation provided. The only thing lacking is your desire to make a difference!
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April showers bring May Flowers (water lilies) Landscaping around the Church will start the first part of May. New carpet for the conference room and offices has been installed. Thank you Dave and Joyce Mendenhall for the donation. A new coat of paint (not all the same color) has been applied to each room. A Really BIG thank you to all the volunteers. New shelves and a computer hutch for Pastor Steve. Thank you United Methodist Women. A new desk has been ordered for Elaine. Things look a bit different in the offices. Take a look and let us know what you think. Now the fun begins, sorting through all the stuff we found. Figuring what stays and what goes. Soon to be installed: a new, more powerful projector for the sanctuary. Thanks to The Foughts for their considerable donation to help us with the purchase of this projector. We will be implementing a fundraiser for the remaining balance. Please contact one of the trustees with any concerns, problems or issues. And you are always welcome to any of the trustee’s meetings. We usually meet @ 7 pm the on the first Monday of the Month.
The Trustees
Why Teenagers Are NOT the Church of Tomorrow – Greg Steir
Did you ever notice that throughout Scripture God seems somewhat determined when it comes to using young people to accomplish some of his most significant purposes? He used a teenaged Jewish girl named Esther to save a nation from certain destruction. He used Josiah, the boy king, to launch a national revival. He used a shepherd boy named David to defeat a giant and trigger a significant military victory. He used Jeremiah, the young prophet, to bring down his wrath on a disobedient nation. In Jeremiah 1:6-7, the young prophet wrote about his own inhibitions about God using him in such a significant way at such a young age, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth. But the Lord said to me: ‘Do not say, I am a youth. For you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.’” But it’s not just in the Bible where we see this divine propensity toward using the “way too young”; we also see it in church history. During the 1st Great Awakening in the United States, Jonathan Edwards wrote, “The Revival has been chiefly amongst the young.” In 1859 during the Great Welch Revival, one witness reported, “One of the most striking characteristics of the movement was its effect on young people and even on children. The youth of our congregations are nearly all the subjects of deep religious impressions. Very young people…children from 10 to 14 years of age, gather together to hold prayer meetings, and pray very fervently. In many places, the young people hold a prayer meeting of their own, and these sometimes proved instrumental in bringing the powerful influences of the revival to that particular locality. The majority of all converts of the revival…were young people.” Why has God always seemed to use the really young or the really old or the really poor or the really unlikely? The answer seems to be hidden away in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” What does all of this have to do with the teenagers in your world and your church? Simply this: if God has a propensity to choose to use the young to advance his message and mission, then we should, too! We all know that the vast majority of people who come to Christ do so before the age of 18, so why aren’t we investing more to reach that demographic? Not only are they more open, but they are more able to spread the gospel. Teenagers can take the gospel further faster than adults. The average teenager has at least 100 online and face-to-face friends and has 100xs more influence on
Why Teenagers Continued
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those friends than a stranger has! If teenagers can be inspired, equipped, and unleashed to share the gospel in a clear and compelling way, our communities can be reached for Christ. But you must be willing to call them and coach them. You must be willing to pray for and push them. Teenagers are NOT the church of tomorrow, but the church of today. As soon as they believe in Christ, they are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ and are given a gift to use and a message to preach. They don’t become members of the church when they can tithe big and serve on a committee, but when they believe in Jesus. The future is not when these teenagers grow up. The future is when these teenagers show up. The future is now! About Greg Stier Greg Stier is the Founder & CEO of Dare 2 Share Ministries. He has a reputation for knowing and relating to today's teens in unique and effective ways. Because of his 20+ years in youth ministry, Greg is widely viewed as an authority and expert on teen issues and adolescent spirituality. Over the course of the last 15 years, Greg has spoken to well over 300,000 teens in major venues across the nation and heard countless stories of their struggles and triumphs.
We are women with a Purpose! "United Methodist Women shall be a community of women whose purpose is to know God and to experience freedom as whole persons through Jesus Christ; to develop a creative, supportive fellowship; and to expand concepts of mission through participation in the global ministries of the church.
The United Methodist Women would like to thank everyone that supported this year’s yard sale. A special thank you also to those that volunteered their time to work, donated yard sale items, donated baked goods for the bake sale, donated hotdog sauce for the hotdog sale, and helped with set-up and clean-up. All items not sold at the yard sale were boxed and donated to a mission for the homeless. This year's yard sale was very successful and we are pleased to report that we made a total of $2,643 to support the ministries and missions of the Church. We hope you will be able to join us for our next meeting of the United Methodist Women on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. We will discuss future mission support, upcoming events, and other projects.
There are many summer camps to be a part of this summer. Below are the ones that the WV Conference UMC are organizing: Radical Discipleship Academy of Appalachia (RDAA) The Radical Discipleship Academy of Appalachia is a twelve-month spiritual formation experience for youth. After the initial summer week, participants are a part of a covenant group that meets monthly over the next 11 months to continue learning and growing together, and to help participants begin leading in new ways in their church and community. The program is currently accepting applications for the 2016-2017 program year. Early admission deadline is May 6, with a reduced cost of $350.00. Our final deadline for applications is June 24, with a $400.00 tuition. The program launches with a week at Spring Heights, July 24-29, 2016. All rising 9th-11th graders are eligible to apply. For more information, visit : http://www.springheights.org/radical-discipleship.html. We have a few youth in our church that have experienced RDAA. If you have any questions about this you can see those youth, Madi Matheny, Ian Schmidt, and Jared Schmidt or myself, Amanda Eagle. Rally on the Mountain Rally on the Mountain is the NEW Conference Senior Youth Camp that in the past was held at Weslyan College. This year it will be held at Snowshoe Mountain July 14-17, 2016. This event is designed for youth entering Jr Highgraduating seniors in High School. With room reservations each person receives a wrist-band which gives them access to Snowshoe’s incredible activities: zip-lines, euro-bungee, pools, kayaks, canoes, lake games, and a free bag of balls at the golf range! Each day begins with a Morning Rally which consists of youth led devotions and wake-up songs led by the band. Gary Shockley the sand artist will kick-off covenant group time by sharing art based around the day’s theme and then participants will break up into covenant groups. Morning and afternoon time will be devoted to workshops (youth will choose which workshops to attend) and each evening will close with a Night Rally which is a worship experience. Amanda is currently organizing a group from our church to attend!! Let her know soon if you are interested in going! Crossroad Camps Camps are offered every summer at the UM Crossroad Camp for students in our district that are going into 3 grade through senior in HS. The camps are always well attended by our church and our children ALWAYS come home in LOVE with their experience there. If you would like to know a student’s perspective, ask around and it won’t take long to find someone that has great stories to tell!! Older Elementary Camp (2nd- 5th grades) Camp is July 17-20 (Sunday pm –Wednesday pm) $55 Middle/Senior High Camp is July 10-15 (Sunday-Friday, noon) $90 See Amanda for applications. We can also email you a copy and they are available at the Welcome Center and in the church office. Deadline is June 30.
Amanda Eagle
304-482-0535 or eagle_amanda@yahoo.com
Some pictures of our Youth in Action!
News from Mt. Pleasant Preschool
Hard to believe it is May and we at the preschool are finishing up another very successful preschool year! It seems like yesterday we were welcoming their bright and smiling faces, and now we are preparing to say our farewells and best wishes for new adventures. April brought us butterflies! Our children learned about the life cycle of the butterfly as they observed our caterpillars transform into chrysalises, then emerge as beautiful butterflies which were set free to lay eggs an continue the cycle. We feel sure a few of them stopped in our own back yards! Our three year old class spent the month of April learning about safety at home, in the car, and how to call 911 in case of an emergency. We finished the month with a visit from the Mineral Wells Volunteer Fire Department and a visit from Officer Hans from the Wood County Sheriff’s Department. For some added fun, we also enjoyed a tour of Sweet Frog and got a yummy treat! We have also been preparing for our annual Mother’s Tea Party coming up on May 5. A special day, just for moms, is planned to show our appreciation for all they do. The children are excited to perform some songs and poems, and to treat their mother’s to a special snack that they have helped in part to prepare. We will wrap up the school year with Butterfly Day, the Four Seasons, and an end of the year party. We are ecstatic to welcome back all of our 3 year old class in the fall for our 4 year old Kindergarten Readiness Class! The four year old class completed their way through the alphabet and celebrated by making pizza for letter Z! Along the way, we took some time to enjoy a fun filled day touring Pifer’s Service Center. Now we are busy with several special projects and preparing for their upcoming graduation on Thursday evening, May 24. We could not be prouder of these children as they head off to Kindergarten in the fall. As with every child that walks out our door to a budding future, a piece of our heart goes with them. The preschool year may be ending, but we will be back for one week each summer month for Summer Camp! This year’s themes are Mad Science, Disney Adventures, and Pioneer Days. We would like to take this opportunity to add many thanks to Pastor Steve, Elaine, and all of Mt. Pleasant UMC for the unwavering support to our preschool program the whole year through. With special thanks to Linda Bargeloh, (And John, of course!), for all she does to keep our preschool in great running order! We truly appreciate all that you do for us! Thank you to Charlotte Valentine and Kevin Offenberger for helping with our graduation program each year. Last, but certainly not least, THANK YOU to our wonderful Mt. Pleasant Preschool families! We are blessed beyond measure to have you all! Jacque Henry Amber Bagley
May 2016 Acolytes 8 15 22 29
Ashlynn & Luke Eagle Maddie Archer & Allie Smith Faith & Curtis Miller Gabi & Rylee Davis
Bread Bakers 8 15 22 29
Ann Mayhew Carol Dobson Roger & Jodi Hodges Rose Armstrong
Children’s Church 8 15 22 29
Betsy Offenberger & Lisa Smith Melanie Matheny & Janet Beeson Susan Whited & Christie Schwendeman Linette Gedon
Greeters ~ 8:15 am 8 15 22 29
Pearl Buchanan & Janet Hinton Dave & Betty Jo Pryce-Morehead Bob & Debbie Sheppard Dave & Jan Bargeloh
Greeters ~ 10:45 am 8 15 22 29
Greg & Elaine Cappadona Mike & Leslie Coe Rick, Connie, Josh Dellinger Kevin, Tina, David Evans
2016 Joyce Meyer Conferences Information available at the Welcome Center There are some ladies from the church planning to go. If you are interested, please call the church office: 304-489-1965
We had a great pack on Wednesday, April 20. Kaylynn Lantz brought her MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group. We had 2 groups, 1 group in the morning and 1 group in the evening. We were able to pack for 4 weeks. The ladies and kids were having fun packing bags that day. One young lady was so touched by the outreach program that she is going back to her church to see if they can help a school start a program. They also had a food drive and brought in food to help our program. Thank you Kaylynn for asking and being willing to help with this outreach program. May will be our Krispy Kreme donut sale. Please have your order turned in by Sunday, May 15. Delivery date will be Thursday May 19. Glazed ~ $8 a dozen Raspberry filled, Crème filled, Lemon filled and Chocolate iced ~ $9 a dozen This was a great fundraiser last year. I hope you will support it again. If you would like to take orders at work there are larger order forms available in the office and on the Sound Booth. August 6 will be our 2nd Golf Tournament. Please mark your calendar now. Get a team together to play that day. If you would like to sponsor a hole, help with lunch, drive a water cart, help with sign-ins that morning, just let me know. This was a fun experience last year. So come play golf, enjoy some fellowship and laughter that day. Pray for sunshine. Last year it was cold and rainy. There will be a flea market in June. DTBA You may purchase a spot outside for $10 or inside for $15. The youth will provide hotdogs that day. An auction will also be held in July . DTBA You may donate good used or new items, (please no junk). No clothes. You may also donate services such as lawn mowing, cleaning windows, changing oil, cleaning a home, babysitting, cookies, a home-cooked meal, and cakes. We did this type of auction many years ago. It was a great success. The auction will be held at Mineral Wells School. If you would like to help with advertising, getting donations, help set up, and tear down. Let me know. I will have a meeting soon to plan for this event. The youth will also be serving refreshments that day. I want to thank Linette for doing the Premier Jewerly Show. It was a great success. Thanks to everyone that purchased jewelry and to Kelly Williams for the wonderful brunch that day. Sak Pak will receive $500 for that showing. If you were unable to attend or buy jewelry that day, don’t worry this is a fundraiser we will have again next year. Well, it’s hard to believe that there is only 3 weeks of school left. We started with 120 kids and are end-
Sak Pak Continued …. ing this year with 97. The drop is due to families moving to another school district. We will be packing for the summer weeks again this year. For summer, we will be able to pack fresh fruits and vegetables. So if you have a garden and would like to donate food please let me know. I received a call from the nurse at Edison Middle School. She is also wanting to start a program feeding the middle schoolers. I met with her to let her know how our program operates. A pastor contacted me and they have started a program serving Vienna elementary. He told me last week that the principal from one of the middle schools also wants to start a feeding program. It is so exciting to see this ministry grow. My goal would one day not have to feed children. This would mean that the parents could afford to feed their children. Until then will you help support this outreach program? Our funds are getting very low. I know that God, with your help, will provide for these children to be fed. I want to say thank you to everyone that has helped pack, deliver bags to the school, contributed food , helped with fundraisers, supported this ministry with money and prayers for the kids. This program could not continue to go on without each one of you sharing the gifts you have been. You may contact me by text or phone calls ~ 304-481-5064. Thank You! Sherry Hinton
We will not be meeting on Mother’s Day ! We will meet on May 15 and will finish up on May 22 before summer begins. Our starting date for fall is yet to be determined. Please check our Facebook page and the church bulletins for new updates and information throughout the summer. We are currently working on a project with the United Methodist Women’s group to put a style show together for the fall. More information regarding this event will follow at a later date. A special Thank You to everyone who participated in the Talent/Variety Show in April and to our Bell Ringers for Mother’s Day!
2016 Avg Weekly Attendance YTD 2015 Avg Weekly Attendance YTD 2016 Avg. Weekly Offering YTD 2015 Avg. Weekly Offering YTD 2014 Avg. Weekly Offering YTD
Sunday School 72 46 General $6,413 $6,391 $6,723
1st Sv 2nd Sv 71 150 63 126 Designated $899 $1,471 $923
Total 221 189 Total $7,312 $7,862 $7,647
A Top Reason Why People Give to MPC Reason #1: Making an Impact: People give generously when they know their gifts are making a real difference. Think about what happens when natural disasters occur, people see and feel the need and are motivated to give knowing their giving is having an impact in the lives of real people. Your gifts to Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church touch lives all the time, in so many ways. What motivates you to be generous?
Women’s Care Center Dear Friends, Thank you for being a part of our “Baby Bottle Boomerang”. Your church brought in a total of $1,956.42! God certainly has blessed our ministry of saving and changing lives through the generosity of people like you! “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.” Phil. 1:3 Janet Kimes, Executive Director
304-489-1965
mtpleasantumc2014@yahoo.com
www.mympumc.net