UPC Communicator
March 2019


Ash Wednesday 
March 6th - Ash Wednesday Dinner at 6:00 
& Service at 7:00pm

Please join us for the Ash Wednesday dinner from 6:00pm-7:00pm with the service to follow at 7:00 p.m.   All are invited to receive ashes, communion and enjoy a beautiful service of silence, song, and readings.

YOU ARE INVITED to the Newman Center at 12:10 on March 6 to participate in an ecumenical celebration of Ash Wednesday as we enter into Lent to prepare for the coming of Easter.  Rev. Sheri will be participating with Father Rob and other ministers from the Laramie Ministerial Alliance in this service.  If our evening service at 7:00pm does not work for you to attend, please consider joining us at 12:10 on Wednesday at the Newman Center.
 
ASH WEDNESDAY
You might think that I am weird for saying this, but Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite services in the Christian year. It is not a depressing service. It's a service of opportunity for you to come and meditate on the upcoming Lenten season, to embrace who you are as a child of God, to acknowledge your brokenness and to seek strength, both from God and from this community. There is an old song called "21 Guns" by the band Green Day and the lyrics cause me to stop and think about the struggles of being human, of feeling broken. There is a line that reads, "Your faith walks on broken glass." How true is that in our lives and in our faith? A Christian journey is not a journey walked on fancy, smooth floor. That is not how Jesus, himself, lived his life. It's a journey walked on dirt roads, uneven floors, and around obstacles. It is real. It is human. And it is very often broken.   Walking a Christian journey allows us to be broken. It allows us to confess our sins and our shortcomings and our brokenness on a daily basis and still be assured of God's love and grace in our lives. So Ash Wednesday is an opportunity to pause in our walk of faith and allow us to be broken and to remember that God's grace redeems us. These ashes are a sign of grace. We wear them on our foreheads and on our hands because despite the mistakes we have made, we know that God forgives us always and God will put the pieces back together. -Rev. Sheri 
GIFTS FROM THE HEART DISASTER KITS
Hygiene Kits and Education Kits for Gifts from the Heart for Disaster Relief.  The needed donations for the kits are the following: School Kits: blunt-nosed scissors; 70-count spiral notebooks with 200-210 pages (no loose-leaf paper); 30 centimeter/12-inch rulers; small pencil sharpeners; large erasers; boxes of 24 crayons (no more than 24); and pencils with erasers. Hygiene Kits: 16"X28" hand towels (no fingertip or bath towels); washcloths; wide-tooth combs; nail clippers; bars of soap (individually wrapped); toothbrushes; large band-aids.  CWS adds toothpaste immediately before shipping. The Puerto Rico service trip participants witnessed these kits being used and understood the importance of this project.  Please join us for a lunch and assemble the kits event on March 10 at 11:45 in the North Lounge.  This is a great opportunity to learn about helping others in times of need as we assemble the kits together.  
LENTEN BOOK STUDY
The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem 
Sundays (beginning March 3) 4:00 p.m. Wednesdays(beginning March 13) noon
We hope you can join us in the North Lounge!
RELAY FOR LIFE - April 26, 2019
This event  is a  community-wide effort held at UWYO that raises money for cancer research and services.  We form a UPC  team, raise some dollars and team members take turns walking around a track or designated path. Each event is 6-24 hours in length and each team is asked to have a member on the track at all times to signify that cancer never sleeps. Cancer patients don't stop because they're tired, and for one night, neither do we.  We would love to have a coordinator for this team to work with the Mission committee to pull a team together for this excellent cause.  Please contact Nancy Lick or Pastor Sheri if you have an interest in this ministry. 
Mary Marth Circle
Mary Martha Circle will meet Wednesday, March 20th at 12pm at Perkins for lunch.  We will continue our study, God's Promise, I Am With You by Amy Poling Sutherlum.  Janice Shuster will  lead the circle in discussion of Lesson 7 of tracing God's promise of "I will be with you".   All women are invited to join us for lunch, prayer, study and fellowship.  Please let Lois Irving, 
742-3130, irving.ll2u@yahoo.com,  or Janice Shuster,
745-3132,  jmshust@outlook.com   
know if you are planning on attending.  We hope you will join us.
Vacation Bible School
Save the Date!   UPC will hold  VBS  on June 17-21.  9:00-11:30 am - More information coming soon!
Family Promise
           UPC will be hosting Family Promise March 17-24.
           As always the sign up board is located outside the sanctuary.  The online sign up is available at:  https://www. signupgenius. com/go/60b0848a5a62cabf58-host
           We will be hosting a family of four.  A single mother and her three children. 
Please sign up to help, if you have not volunteered in the past please contact Jennifer Painter at:
spainterdc@gmail.com or 307-343-0603 or Michelle Harris at  michellemaemh@hotmail.com or 307- 460-0275 to receive volunteer training.

Family Promise updates:
2019 numbers so far:
 828 volunteer hours from host and support sites
 289 bed nights provided
 4 families (15 guests & 10 kids)
 3 staff members (Director, Case Manager, Van Driver)
 2 interns
 1 work experience volunteer

Exciting news:
The two families we hosted at UPC during January have both been able to move into apartments in Laramie.  It is great to see so may success stories for the program.
Family Promise hosted the second annual  Trattoria  Promessia dinner and auction on February 16th. Roughly $10,000 was raised for Family Promise efforts in Albany County.

Needs:
The day center is currently in need of shampoo and conditioner.

Upcoming events
Family Promise is hosting a free Family Budgeting Class on Thursday March 14th, 6 pm at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 107 S. 7th St.  Please share this information with anyone you feel may benefit from the class.
March Care Cart
  The Laramie Youth Crisis Center (DYCC), a program of the Cathedral Home for Children, strives "...to protect and preserve families by providing a variety of services which strengthen and help youth and their families build the skills they need."  LYCC provides emergency and shelter care for youth through the age of 17, a 24-hour hot line, and professional support for families.  It is an alternative to jail and detention for children while providing a "time out" to prevent the escalation of their problems.   LYCC is open 24/7 throughout the year and does not charge for their services.
  LYCC is again asking for our help in providing materials for youth activities geared for youth between the ages of 12 and 17.  Although they serve girls as well as boys, the majority of their residents are boys.  Materials representing  violence and aggression should be avoided.  They can also always use all toiletries except for toothpaste and toothbrushes.
 
Needed Items:
Jigsaw puzzles
Books for tweens and teens
Age appropriate coloring books
Erasable magic markers
Colored pencils
Craft kits
Sketch pads
Watercolor paints
Glue sticks
Construction paper
Board games
Deodorant
Shampoo
Hair conditioner
Dental floss
Mouthwash
Skin lotion
Combs
Brushes
LEGOS

Adult Education Class
On Sunday, April 7, at 11:45 a.m., UPC will be hosting a session on the Downtown Clinic.  Our guest speaker with be the clinic's director, Pete Gosar.  We'll learn about how the clinic fills a critical gap in services in our community and the scope of what they can offer.  UPC has been closely involved with the clinic for several years, so this is our chance to understand how our donations of time, food, and money are being put to use.
OFFICE HOURS
The church office will be open Monday, Wednesday, 11:00-1:00 and Friday 12:00-2:00.  Pastor Sheri will be in the church Monday-Thursday 9:30-4:30 on a regular basis.
Reports & Session Minutes
The UPC Session Minutes and reports can be read at our website at  upclaramie.org/minutes/
Church Contact Info
To contact the church staff click on a name below.

Rev. Sheri Fry        Rev. Sheri Fry

Clerk of Session      Carole Hertz

Church Office or 
Nikki Rogers           Nikki Rogers

Children's 
Ministry                   Michelle Harris

Music 
Ministry                  Lorinda O'Hashi
The Season of Lent
Wisdom marks our foreheads with ashes as we leave the season after Epiphany and begin the journey through Lent. She intuits what these forty days may hold in store for us and tries to prepare us. Remembering Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, she knows the trials, temptations, and vulnerability one encounters in seeking to reflect, to shed, to open oneself, to prepare. She remembers the wounds that come.
 
Giving up something has become central to our understanding of Lent. But we must ask...whom stands to benefit, God, our neighbor or us? "Giving up something" for Lent is a way to make space in our regular routines to allow God to do something new in our lives and perhaps there are other things which God wants people to give up besides food...give up fighting, judgment, behaving badly, and putting oneself before everyone else to name a few; and instead to care for and serve others.
Giving up is transformed into another kind of action...giving out...serving other people after the example of Jesus himself.  
 
Just in case you need some ideas:
 
*Fast from hurting words and say kinds words.
*Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
*Fast from anger and be filled with patience.
*Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
*Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.
*Fast from pressures and be prayerful
*Fast from bitterness and fill your hearts with joy.
*Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others
*Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
*Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.
 
This forty-day season is a time to reflect on one's journey of faith, to examine our relationships, and to become a part of the story of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and the cross. It's a great time to step out of regular time and into God's time.
 
I will be posting on UPC's Facebook every poems/or list of daily practices for each day that might be a meaningful way to help clear out room for God to come hijack your day a little bit. We look for a posture of openness in which something new is thought about and becomes possible.
 
May this Lenten season bring you grace, peace, and light in the darkness.
ATTENTION All!
I am seeking people who would be willing to be on this year's Committee to help reconcile the Church's financial books. This committee looks at signatures, matches checks written to the month's register from the bank and other kinds of needed checks and balances. It doesn't take a great deal of time I am told. If you would be willing to help please let me know (742- 5681), tell me at church or call the church and leave a message by March 10th. At our FOC meeting on the 11th we will pick a time and day to do this work. Thank you so much for your consideration. Dona Coffey
Stated Clerk of the Presbytery position needed!
The Presbytery of Wyoming is seeking applicants for the position of Stated Clerk of the Presbytery. This position maintains ecclesiastical records and conducts ecclesiastical business on behalf of the Presbytery and ensures that Presbytery operates in accordance with the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The Stated Clerk also communicates pertinent information with the Presbytery.
 
This is a paid, part-time position, 15 hours (average) per week. The position is accountable to the Presbytery Council with a cooperative relationship with the General Presbyter.
 
A cover letter and resume are requested by April 15, 2019 to Melinda Brazzale, Moderator, Wyoming Presbytery Council, 616 Shaun Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82009, 307-256-0506, or to  mlbrazzale@gmail.com
 
Questions can be directed to Melinda Brazzale or Steve Shive, General Presbyter,  steveashive@gmail.com or 307-262-9454.  Please see link below for job description.

LOGOS
Another year of LOGOS is set to wrap up.
March dates to remember:
March 6 - NO LOGOS - Ash Wednesday
March 10 - LOGOS Sunday 10:30 service
March 13 - final LOGOS of the 2018-2019 year.   Move up night.  A ll current 5th graders are invited to join the current mid highs for LOGOS starting at 5:20.  They will wrap up the evening at 7:30.   All incoming kindergartners, as well as other elementary age children who want to check out LOGOS are welcome to join us at 3:30.   Elementary age children wrap up at 6:15.       
March 29-End of the year volunteer event.       LOGOS volunteers will celebrate the year.  Watch for the invite.
Marcia's Closet Reminder
DON'T FORGET UPC NEEDS "STUFF" FOR THIS SUMMER'S GARAGE SALE.  PLEASE TAKE YOUR DONATIONS TO MARCIA'S CLOSET IN THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE CHURCH BY THE NORTH DOOR.
 
Did you know?
 
If you have clean, usable clothing, Mission members sort the donations to contribute to 5, now 6, different entitities:
  • New clothing with tags is used for Community Holidays in December.
  • Warm clothing is stored for the University of Wyoming's International Student Giveaway in late August.
  • Tweenie and teen clothing is donated to the Cathedral Home (also, clothing that can be used as costumes for their theatricals).
  • Clothing is donated to the Clothing Cottage
  • Saucy and sexy (you know it when you see it) as well as slightly dirty and worn clothing is donated to Goodwill.
  • Starting now, some clothing will be sold at the upcoming UPC garage sale.
REBEKAH CIRCLE
We will meet Thursday, March 28th at 10:00 am at Linda Sheets home.  Her address is 5120 Prairie Dr.  We will be discussing chapters 7,8,9 and 10 in the book "Boundaries."  Please join us for great food, fun, and fellowship.
Summer Camps
We are very fortunate we live in an area where there are a number of faith based summer camps available for children, youth and families. Below is some information regarding three great options.
 
Table in the Wilderness - http://www.twmcamp.net/
Open Kids camp ages 8-11 July 7th-11th, 2019 - $229/Per camper & $159/ Per Sibling.  Drop Off 3-4pm on the 7th / Pick up 10-11am on the 11th.
Open Middle School Camp ages 12-15 June 17th-21st, 2019 - $229/Per Camper. Drop off 4-5pm on the 17th and Pick Up 9-10am on the 21st.
You can register your camper by emailing (Email: twmcamp@gmail.com) us with their age, gender and full name (and your email and phone #) to get them on the list for camp.

Camp Story has been a favorite of UPC kids for years.
On the website, you will find a full brochure with all the camping options available.  C amps are available for children 5-18.   Registration is available on the website.
 
On the website, you will find all the information for multiple camping options.   Camps are available for children 5-18.
Registration is available on the website.
 
Many of the UPC children have attended the above listed camps. We hope they choose to attend again this year. Parents whose children want to attend can work to arrange carpooling with other UPC families as they have in the past.
If you have any questions please contact Michelle Harris. If you would like parent input on any of the camps their children have attended please contact Hillary Utton, Matthew & Jennifer Painter, and Nikki Rogers for their thoughts.
SUPPORT THE SUMMER YOUTH MISSION TRIP
Support the June youth mission trip by coming to Applebees on April 13th from 8-10am. Tickets will be $8 and will be on sale at the end of March.
Calendar of Events at UPC
For a full calendar of events click here         
ONLINE GIVING
UPC is pleased to offer online giving opportunities.  For more information click  on-line giving  

United Presbyterian
Church

upclaramie@gmail.com
307-742-2061

Christ's Love in Action