Waterville UMC NEWSLETTER

March

Waterville UMC News, 2020

Dear Church Family,

In Joshua 24:15 we read, “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

As Joshua proclaimed he and his house would serve the Lord faithfully. When you are in your devotional time do you ever ask how God wants to use you in service? There are many ways to serve. One upcoming opportunity is Theatre for the World.

Theatre for the World is one of our mission emphasis for the month of March. There are many opportunities to serve during the play, “A Little Piece of Heaven” on Friday the 20 ^th , Saturday the 21 ^st and Sunday the 22 ^nd .

On Saturday evening the Youth of our congregation serve a Lasagna dinner to assist in financing their summer mission trip. There are three areas of service for the youth and Theatre for the World. One is making a pan of Lasagna and/or cookies for the Lasagna Dinner. Second is making cookies to be served each of the three performances of “Fools.”

Please consider as one of the highest priorities is to pray that God will bless the play. A second priority is to invite friends and families to the show. All will be blessed.

What other ways is God calling each of us to serve. As we continue to move towards a new building we will have an opportunity to minister to all those who are working on the building. Keep watch as we complete these plans.

Finally, as we all reflect upon our relationship with God each day let us ask God and ourselves if we are serving as God desires. My hope and prayer is that each of us can proclaim as Joshua did, “me and my house will serve the Lord.”

Blessings,

Pastor Mike

Finance & Stewardship

Facts, Figures, FYI’s

Financial Documents: Beginning in April our primary method for sending financial update letters and Quarterly Giving Statements will be by email whenever possible and by US Mail only when necessary. This decision was based on our continuing efforts to increase efficiencies and reduce administrative costs. Thank you in advance for your understanding and support.

Giving Envelopes: As a reminder, using your numbered giving envelopes not only helps the counters as they process the weekly offering but also the accuracy of your giving records. This especially true if the total amount is split, for example General Fund & Capital Campaign. In addition, you only have to write one check for the total amount. Just note on your envelope and on the memo line of your check.

Please contact Tom Wiggins, financialsec@watervilleumc.org if you have any questions about anything related to finance, stewardship or the Capital Campaign.

9:00 Adult Bible Study

9:00 Prayer Time

10:30 Worship service

Who's coming with you to be able to experience the blessings God has given us at Waterville UMC!

MARCH

FREEDOM SCHOOL

June 15-July 24

What is Freedom School? The Children’s Defense Fund’s answer to ending the cradle to prison pipeline A safe place – at no cost to participating families – for children to learn, grow, play and serve during the summer.

Sixty children from the Toledo community and the neighborhood around the Monroe Street UMC participated in the Freedom School last year. This year is the districts 4 ^th year in partnership with the Monroe Street Neighborhood Center to be a part of Freedom School.

How can we help?

Volunteer opportunities:

Serve as a tutor

Serve in the breakfast/lunch room

Serve as a chaperone

Volunteers to check in each morning and check out each afternoon

Volunteers to listen and help children learn to read

Monetary donations

$1000 provides a scholarship for 1 child for all 6 weeks

$500 provides a scholarship for 1 child for 3 weeks

$167 provides a scholarship for 1 child for 1 week

Sunday School

"Project with a purpose"

Sunday School kids made fleece scarfs to donate to Susie's Coats.

Thank you kids for reaching out beyond the church walls for this awesome mission.

Click here for...A Thank You from Susie's Coats

Operation

Christmas Child

Collection this month

Quality craft supplies, books, stickers, cars, puzzles, tea party items, balls, jacks, you-yo's, balloons, silly putty, noisy toys, jump ropes, harmonicas, stuffed animals 10 inch or smaller.

MARCH PRAYER FOCUS

Racism

The Sunday Morning Prayer Team meets in the Sanctuary each Sunday morning at 9:00 AM. Our mission is to intercede through the power of prayer for other people locally or around the world who need our prayer Support.

The prayer team is asking for the support of the rest of the congregation to join them in praying specifically for the the Prayer focus of the month.

March’s Theme: Racism

Weekly Topics:

1.) March 1 – Definitions of Race and Racism

2.) March 8 – Racism from Various Resources

3.) March 15 – FACT 1: Racism is a Sin

4.) March 22 – FACT 2: We Are Made In God’s Image And Are All The

Same Human Race

5.) March 29 – FACT 3: We Are To Love and Treat All Others As Equals

Prayer for our March Theme

Lord allow us to righteously intercede for those that are racist and need to learn more about your infinite love. Please give them your wisdom so they will understand that we are all the same. That we must show kindness and love to all others, even if they appear to be different from us. That racism is a sin. That racism plays directly into Satan’s deceit – it divides the world, causes doubt about you [God] and it separates us from you [God]. Please hear our small group prayers and with strong faith let us have a positive effect on the world.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR PRAYER FOCUS

"THEATRE FOR THE WORLD"

Presents

A Little Piece of Heaven

By Mathew Carlin

A lasagna dinner will be put on by our youth, before the Saturday performance at 6:30 pm to help support their 2020 Mission Trip.

Theatre For The World

HELP WANTED:

Like any project, we will need volunteers to help in a variety of ways. We are in the process of putting a team together, including leaders and helpers. Many of you have been a part of our team in the past and we hope you will once again join us on this new adventure. We will need help in such areas as ushers, food collection, cookie making and refreshment attendants to serve them during intermissions. You can sign up on the bulletin board to help for just one performance, two or all three. Please help support our efforts by adding your name to the signup sheet on the hallway bulletin board. Contact Tom or Karen Wiggins or the church office with any questions.

Performances for A Little Piece of Heaven are on Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21 @ 7:30 pm and Sunday, March 22 @ 1:30 pm.

We look forward to another opportunity that God has given us to serve and we ask you to please prayerfully consider where you may assist in this effort to reach others…… Thank you!

Theatre For The World

After taking some time off to re-charge, we are happy to announce our next

Mission/Outreach project. We will be presenting a comedy by Matthew Carlin entitled A Little Piece of Heaven . Performances on Friday, March 20 & Saturday, March 21 @ 7:30 pm and Sunday, March 22 @ 1:30 pm. It is the story of a little collectibles shop where folks find things from their past that have been missing for a long time.

There is no charge for admission. However, a freewill offering and donations of canned food & non-perishable food items will be accepted at each performance, with all proceeds going to support the Anthony Wayne Food Pantry and the AW Community Food Ministry.

In addition, a lasagna dinner will be hosted by our youth, before the Saturday performance. This will help support their 2020 Mission Trip. More details below.

Like any project, we will need volunteers to help in a variety of ways. We are in the process of putting a team together, including leaders and helpers. Many of you have been a part of our team in the past and we hope you will once again join us on this new adventure. We will need help with stage crew, set construction, ushers, food collection, cookie making & serving them during intermissions, publicity, etc. Please add your name to the signup sheet on the hallway bulletin board or see Tom or Karen Wiggins with any questions.

This will be our 13 ^th production and we thank you our patrons for all your prayers, support and encouragement. Your contributions have helped support our local food pantries, as well as fully funding two water projects in Africa and the purchase of farm animals for needy families in Central America. Since we began Theatre For The World in 2006, we have raised $32,348 and collected over 1,224 bags of groceries. God has blessed our efforts and we hope to continue adding to our totals.

We look forward to another opportunity that God has given us to serve and we ask you to please prayerfully consider where you may assist in this effort to reach others.

Church Office

Co-Manager – Part Time

The Waterville United Methodist Church is seeking a part-time church office co-manager. The job qualifications include strong computer skills, must be proficient in MS Office Suite, proficient in working with social media (Website, Facebook, Twitter), administrative secretarial duties (answering phones, scheduling appointments, greeting guests, etc.). A detailed job description is available by contacting Charlene Monroe. Interested applicants should email their resumes including a reference list by March 15, 2020 to Charlene.Hansen@live.com or mail to Waterville United Methodist Church, c/o Charlene Monroe, 102 N. Fifth St., Waterville, OH 43566. The Waterville United Methodist Church is an EEO/M/F/D/V employer.

EASTER FLOWERS

It is that time to order Easter Flowers. They will be $8.00. You will have your choice of Lily, Hyacinths, or Tulips.

Please fill out the envelope that is located in the pew attendance pad, place your money in it and place it in the offering or drop it off in the church office.

How Great is Our God

CHRIS TOMLIN

Click here or the picture to view

SAVE THE DATE FOR VBS

JULY 13-16

JESUS POWER PULLS US THROUGH

If Gathering

Thank you!

Thank you to those who participated in the IF Gathering 2020, February 7-8 live-stream, one and a half day women's conference from Dallas, Texas. We were blessed with hearing from Jennie Allen, who was the organizer for this event which is in its 7th year. Other speakers were Beth Moore, Jada Edwards, Bianca Olthoff, Sadie Roberts, Ruth Simon, Jo Saxton, Anne Voshamp.

We were blessed to have Matt Gingery and Seth Hudson assist us with live worship until we joined the live feed worship with Christy Nockels and Jon Reddick. .

We are grateful to those who prepared food for the luncheon as it was well received. Kudos to Paul Malta, Marvin Davis, Jerry Robinson, Tim Monroe for serving the women at lunch. We had a total of 47 on Friday night including nursery attendants and helpers. Saturday we had 53 in attendance with children, nursery and lunch attendants. The participants at the event felt we were warm, welcoming, grateful for the childcare and luncheon.

We plan to host another IF Gathering 2020 to allow others to attend who were not able to. Watch for the new date.

Committee members were Charlene Monroe, Cherl Malta, Stephanie Shelton, Terri Gingery, Sandy Clark and did a super job of organizing the event.