Weekly Messenger - April 8, 2022
Making and nurturing disciples of Jesus Christ to serve the community and the world
PASTOR ROB'S MESSAGE
Holy Week for Busy People

APRIL 10-17 2022 Holy Week is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. Holy Week follows the final events in Jesus' life as he heads to the cross and is an invitation for all disciples across the centuries to join him in that...

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genevaumc.org
UPCOMING WORSHIP SERVICES
Our Services are in-person and livestreamed
Worship Service airs live on our Website and YouTube at 9:00 am and posted later to Facebook .
Go to the Worship Page on our Website to find more information about future services.
Sunday Worship Service - April 10, 2022
Experience the last week of Jesus’ life through engaging drama and worship.
BLESSING TABLES FOR APRIL 10
This week's blessing tables themes include Meet & Greet the Pastor's table with member of the Missions Committee and a Theatre round table with Jami Johnson and Kathleen Dytrych.

If anyone has a hobby or if anyone wants to highlight a church activity or committee just email Keith Bowgren at kbowgren@gmail.com.
Get ready to have your Picture Taken!
Get ready for our Easter themed Photo Booth that we will have set up in Fellowship Hall on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Plan to snap a picture and share social media and tag UMCG. We will also be taking your picture with our camera and can email them to you.
Tri-City Maundy Thursday Service - April 14 at 7:30pm
Join Batavia, Baker Memorial and Geneva United Methodist Churches in a shared worship experience centered around Jesus' Last Supper. This unique worship service features congregational participation in the liturgy while seated in the round. This service will take place in Fellowship Hall.

UMCG Good Friday Service - April 15 at 7:30pm
This traditional Good Friday Service held in the UMCG Sanctuary will feature modern reflections on what it might have been like to be there the day Jesus was crucified. We will sing, listen and reflect together on Jesus' suffering, death and crucifixion.  This service will also be livestreamed.
CHILDREN AND YOUTH
CHILDREN'S MINISTRY UPDATE
Julie is still looking for empty Easter eggs to put the treats in. If you can help on the day of the event, pleas contact Julie Popplewell.e
YOUTH MINISTRY UPDATE
College Care Package Items Needed
The youth ministry is asking for donations of items to go in the college care packages. We are in need of the following items and you can drop them off at the church office. Also you can choose to make a financial donation if you wish. Items needed:
  • Granola bars 
  • Gum 
  • Other treats
  • Please nothing with nuts in it.

Good Friday Dinner and Service Project for Youth
Friday April 15 from 6:00-8:30pm

The youth will gather in the parlor for dinner and to pack care packages for our current college students. We will also dig into the story of the Last Supper in surprisingly compelling and interactive ways. Following dinner, the youth are invited to attend the Good Friday worship service in the Sanctuary. Sign up here.
On Sunday, April 24 we will once again partner up with Baker Memorial UMC and Batavia UMC. This time we will meet at Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles for some park clean-up, a bag lunch, and a bags (a.k.a. cornhole) competition.

This event will be from 10:30am-12:30pm after service on Sunday morning. Sign up here - tinyurl.com/tricityyouthbags. 
For more information contact Mike Crain, mike.crain@ministryarchitects.com
EVENTS AND SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
Submit information each week by Wednesday at 12pm for inclusion in Bulletin Announcements or the Weekly Messenger.  Please use the submission form that can also be used for adding items to the calendar and reserving rooms. This form can also be found on the sign-ups page on our website. You may also send them to communications@genevaumc.org. Information sent to this email goes to Carolyn, Debbie, and Lorie. 
SPECIAL CHURCH COUNCIL MEETING APRIL 12 AT 7:00PM
The Executive Team is calling a special Church Council meeting for Tuesday April 12th, at 7:00 PM, to discuss additional information that we have gathered from Lombard Mennonite Peace Center (LMPC) and Ministry Architects. This includes answers to question from our last meeting as well as additional information and workshop options from LMPC.
This meeting will be a hybrid meeting with an in-person meeting in the Parlor at the church as well as a Zoom option for anyone who cannot meet in person. Click here for the Zoom link.
THE RUMMAGE and BAKE SALE is around the corner! Mark your calendars for the following dates and be ready to dive into a week of fun, fellowship and serving some great needs in our community.
Set up: Monday, April 18 – 6pm Meet in Fellowship Hall
Donation drop offs: Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19 & 20 – 9am to 7pm
Bake Sale donations: Please drop off in the Library on Thursday, April 21.
Sale Dates: April 21 6-8pm, April 22 9-5pm, and April 23, 9am to noon
Clean Up: April 23, Noon to 2:30pm
Volunteer Opportunities: the entire week of rummage! Please sign up on-line or on the sign-up sheets in Fellowship Hall on the Women’s Ministry Board.
Large Items: If you are in need of having a larger item picked up, please call Lorne Tweed 908-723-2617.

We are anticipating a huge amount of donations again! For this reason, we would like to ask you to donate only items that will be highly saleable. At the risk of sounding ungrateful…please be picky about what you bring! Nothing dirty, dusty, torn, broken. Not only do clean items sell faster, but we can actually charge more for them! There are items that we can’t accept such as TVs. monitors, entertainment armoires, car seats, mattresses and cribs. We truly appreciate the generosity of this amazing church family! The need for affordable household goods and clothing has never been greater. People continue to struggle and we pray that in some small way we can help them. Plus, much of the money we raise goes to local charities, who have really felt the effects of this pandemic. Thank you, in advance, for all the donations and support we get during rummage week.

Rummage Sale questions: Jenean Larsen 847-707-6598, Bobbi Alderfer 630-272-944 or Wendy McKeehan 630-310-9861
Bake Sale/Food for Volunteers questions: Joan Hansen 630-251-4628
APRIL IS EARTH MONTH AND CREATION CARE HAS SPECIAL ACTIVITIES PLANNED FOR EARTH DAY WEEKEND!

Earth Day is Friday, April 22. The Creation Care Team is planning a collection and sign up day on Sunday, April 24.
We are asking you to bring any of the following:
• Styrofoam for recycling
• Broken crayons
• Bread tags
• Corks
  • There will also be unsold books and DVDs from the Rummage Sale to deliver, and we ask that members sign up if willing to transport to recycle centers.
  • On that day there will be sign-up sheets to deliver the Styrofoam to Dart in North Aurora and the newspaper and towels to Anderson Animal Shelter in South Elgin.
  • Creation Care would like to help build a vegetable garden at Hesed House. In order to do this, we need volunteers to help build it and do the planting. We will go as a group. Please sign up if you would like to share your gardening skills.
  • During Earth Day week, we encourage any individual or family who is doing something for Earth Day to take pictures and send to video@genevaumc.org.

Please consider helping out. As Dr. Seuss wrote in The Lorax fifty years ago, “Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
For More Information contact Sharon Reed.
GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP THURSDAYS MAY 5-19 FROM 6:30-8PM
When the funeral is over, loved ones have gone home, dishes are returned, where does grief go? Where can we turn, and who understands?
In the past two years we've not been able to gather to support one another - now we can.
UMCG invites you to three sessions to help you in your grief journey. Linda Tamlyn and Linda Nauertz will be our facilitators.
To sign up or for more information contact the church at 630-232-7120 or Rev. Mary Gay McKinney at 805-508-2055
PRACTICE: SERVING
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO SERVE DINNER AT HESED HOUSE ON MONDAY APRIL 11
Our church serves the evening meal, breakfast, and bag lunches at Hesed House on the 2nd Monday of each month. Upcoming Dates include April 11, May 9, June 13 and July 11. We do not yet have anyone signed up for these dates.

Anyone who serves on the dinner crew must be 12 years or older and fully vaccinated. Dinner crew volunteers are needed from about 6:15pm until around 8:30pm at the Hesed House, 659 S River St. in Aurora. More information and sign-up at this link Sign Up Genius. Note that you also need to register with Hesed House and links for that are on the sign-up page.
WORLD RELIEF COLLECTION OF GIFT CARDS EXTENDED TO MAY 8
For Easter Sunday we are seeking donations of gift cards to give to refugees through World Relief. They are asking for gift cards from Amazon, Aldi, Goodwill, Target, or Walmart. They will be blessed in church on Easter Sunday.

You can order gift cards from Amazon, Target, or Walmart through SCRIP. You can make your gift by check or cash through our church offering plates on 4/3 and 4/10. Write checks out to "UMCG SCRIP", and mark World Relief on memo line with the type of card you want purchased. You can also contact Mardel or Jim McNally by phone (630/845-3367) to order the cards, and drop off your check before 4/10.
NEW INFORMATION
MIDWEST MISSION COLLECTION EVENT NOW ON SUNDAY, MAY 8
Collect & bring emergency relief supplies for Midwest Mission Distribution Center.

They have updated the sizes of the cleaning items they are requesting as well. This collection is for flood buckets.
  • Liquid household cleaner 16-40 Oz
  • Liquid dish soap 14-32 oz
  • Liquid laundry detergent 32-64 oz
  • NO Spray bottles or pump bottles.  

Donations can be dropped off on the table outside of the library prior to May 8.
PRACTICE: PRAYER
GOOD FRIDAY PRAYER VIGIL
From 9am-3pm our sanctuary will be available for prayer.
Enter by the West Doors.
Come any time during this six hour period marking the hours Jesus hung on the cross. Stay a while or just a few minutes.
Volunteers will be here throughout the day to make sure that no one is here alone.
Return at 7:30pm for our Good Friday Service.
PRACTICE CENTERING PRAYER STARTS APRIL 28 AT 1:30PM
Centering Prayer is a form of prayer in which we quiet ourselves in the presence of our Lord. It can happen when we are alone and when we are with others.
Pastor Rob and others will share more about the practice in our beginning sessions or "sits" together. Plan to arrive a few minutes before our start time. We will end after thirty minutes
Come and check it out beginning Thursday, April 28 from 1:30-2pm. Contact Sharon Anderson, Pastor Rob Hamilton or Pastor Mary Gay McKinney for more information.
PRACTICE: SHARING
TODAY: Get ready for our Easter themed Photo Booth this weekend (and next) Plan to snap a picture and share social media and tag UMCG. (More info above.)

ANY TIME: Write a review of UMCG on Google or other social media pages.
  1. Here's a link to our Google review page. You will need to sign-in to your Google Account to write a review.
  2. If you are a Facebook user here is a link to Facebook Review page for UMCG. On the left it will ask "Do you recommend United Methodist Church of Geneva?" "Click Yes and enter your post.
PRACTICE: GIVING
Prepare a Lenten offering to be given in an Easter offering envelope.
Commit to a denomination (penny, dollar, quarter, $5, etc.) of money and each week. Make an offering using the giving guide each Monday.
Next week: As Jesus makes his way to the cross, make a contribution for every cross you own. 
SALVATION ARMY FOOD NEEDS FOR APRIL
  • Rice and Rice-aroni
  • Sweet cereals
  • Boxed dinners (hamburger helper, pasta-roni, etc.)
  • Boxed pasta (rotini, penne, shells, etc.),
  • Canned peaches and pineapple
  • Peanut butter
  • Coffee,
  • Fruit juice
  • Canned tuna and other canned meats (stew, hash, spam, etc.)
  • Laundry detergent.
Please drop off items in the Donation Station.
SUPPORT UKRANIAN RELIEF
NEWS FROM THE UMC COMMUNITY
The NIC Annual Conference will take place June 8-June 10, 2022. Registration opens on April 4. More information is available here.
Prairie Central eNews is here.
The NIC weekly eNews is here.
The Download the NIC Reporter for April here.
ACCESS THE UMCG DOCUMENT CENTER
UMCG has a hidden page on the website for our church family to access called the Document Center. This includes our committee roster, communications submission forms and in the future, our committee agendas, reports and minutes.
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211 Hamilton Street
Geneva, IL 60134
Phone: (630) 232-7120
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