Vol 5 No 8 - Determined Ladies

It will be a first for me this weekend, the first time in my career that I will have the opportunity to preach for United Methodist Women's Sunday.  In a world where we are told that everything needs to change, that keeping up with the times (or, more accurately, being ahead of the times) is crucial to how we can stay 'relevant' in the world, that it will take boldness on the part of everyone in every aspect of society to 'think outside the box' (although you could make the case that using that cliche is NOT 'thinking outside the box'), there is no more relevant lesson to draw upon than the lessons of the founding of the ministry of the United Methodist Women.

Few people realize, or even care, that if you want to talk about the courage of being cutting-edge and doing things beyond societal norms, exceeding expectations and causing a little controversy in the process, the United Methodist Women have been pioneers for well over a century.  Some of the earliest roots of this movement can be traced back to 1869 when The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society is formed in Boston, MA at the Tremont Methodist Episcopal Church.  These ladies gathered for missional purposes, and in November of that same year sent Isabella Thoburn and Clara Swain to India as the Society’s first missionaries.

As part of the message from Jeremiah 1:4-10 this Sunday, we will be looking at why we allow ourselves to think that God cannot use us for mighty things.  Come and worship with us as we draw upon the historical example of the ministry of the United Methodist Women to hear what God has to say to us from the prophet Jeremiah.  I promise you this:  It will be a UMW Sunday to remember.  If you think you know what UMW Sunday is like, think again.

See you Sunday!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 7 - Mission Recap

Wow.

Once again, you have answered the call to be God's faithful people in assisting others in a time of desperation.  Last week's Mid-Week Message put out the word about how United Methodists can help answer the call to assist in the relief efforts in Haiti, specifically through a special offering we would be taking Sunday for UMCOR's work in Haiti.  Later last week, you heard about the opportunity to participate in the assembling of health kits during Sunday School last week.  You also were reminded of how through our regular bi-weekly mission to Sager-Brown we can help process and ship kits that have come in from across the connectional church.

Well, here are the numbers, so far:

1) We assembled 245 kits through the supplies provided for the Sunday morning effort, not including those kits brought in already completed by others in our congregation.

2) We have seen over $2,000 raised in last week's Haiti Advance offering and other donations that have come in to help provide even more health kit supplies.

3) Through our regular UMCOR mission yesterday, we assembled or verified for shipping over 500 additional kits to go to Haiti.

For those of you keeping score at home, that's over 750 people in Haiti who will eventually be holding and using supplies handled and prepared by you, not including the use of the funds by our missionaries on the ground there to impact even more lives.

On a similar note, part of my responsibility as your pastor is to prepare annual reports on a number of areas of ministry to submit to our district and conference.  I am pleased to announce that through communion offerings and other generous donations, we went through almost $5000 in our helping hands fund, all of which is used to help the needy here in Morgan City.

I could go on and on about the faithfulness of you all to answer the missional call (for this is just scratching the surface), but let me say that reflecting on this past week's efforts for Haiti (and those of you who were unable to attend last week's service will have the opportunity to contribute to the Haiti Advance this week) and looking at our helping hands support this past year (which was a record, increasing from last year by over 20%), I could not be more proud or pleased to be your pastor.

Let's keep up the good work.  There is a world who needs to hear about and receive God's grace - and you have impacted so many lives already.  Let's see how many more we can impact in 2010.

See you Sunday!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 6 - 100% Relief

The people of the United Methodist Church have a long and storied history of providing relief in a number of ways to people across the globe who have suffered great tragedy and loss as a result of natural disasters.  Since the horrific events of January 12 in Haiti, our United Methodist Committee on Relief has been making plans to get to Haiti as soon as possible to assist in the relief efforts.

To this end, there are two ways you can participate almost immediately in helping to ease the burden felt by our friends in Haiti:

1) Attend worship this Sunday (January 17) and participate in the special offering that will be taken up to support UMCOR's work in Haiti.  Due to the faithfulness of the United Methodists throughout the year, you can rest assured that 100% of any contribution you make to this special offering will go directly to assisting the people in need.  Through other offerings and regular giving, UMCOR's overhead is already provided, thus allowing any special offerings such as this to go completely towards relief.

2) Attached to this e-mail is the list of supplies that go into a health kit that is provided to people in need through our Sager-Brown Supply Depot just up the road in Baldwin.  More than a few from our congregation are involved in this ministry through our bi-weekly mission on Thursday mornings.  Part of what we do there is assemble health kits to be used in places like Haiti.  Due to the strict regulations concerning shipping and customs restrictions in other countries, it is important to follow this list EXACTLY as printed.  If you are one of our friends who is not a resident of the Morgan City area, you also send a check for $12 per kit to us and we will make sure that those funds are provided to our friends at Sager-Brown for supply purchases.

As the situation develops, we will have more information about teams and other ways in which to get involved in helping out this country that has been absolutely devastated.

**************

One other note - please don't forget about the Ecumenical Prayer Service observing the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that we will be hosting NEXT TUESDAY at 6:30PM.  Sponsored by the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese of the Catholic Church, this will be a great time of fellowship and worship with people from other Christian traditions.  A light reception will follow in our fellowship hall.

See you Sunday!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 5 - Atmospheric Changes

It's just pretty darn uncomfortable now for so many.  Especially considering what has happened over the past couple of weeks, and into today, none of us can help but feel drastically affected by how our atmospheric changes have had such an impact on our lives.  You could definitely make the case that the change in the atmosphere we are experiencing has global, and indeed cosmic, ramifications.  We must take time to make extra preparations to account for these changes, and adjust our thinking and attitudes accordingly.

The arctic cold blast that our nation is in the midst of these days?  Yeah, that's a big deal.  But it's not what I'm talking about.

Today, dear friends, is Epiphany.  The day on which the church traditionally celebrates the appearance of the wise men to the baby Jesus, acknowledged as the first acknowledgement by the outside world of the existence of the Christ child.

As I mentioned earlier, the events of the past couple of weeks, the celebration of the Christmas season which ends today, has dramatically altered our lives, and the life of the world.  Just by writing today's date, you can see the impact of the Christ child on the world.  Through the appearance of Christ in the darkness, our world changed forever, as sin met its match.

You think some bitterly cold weather radically makes life uncomfortable?  Imagine the message we as Christians spread to others - that life is found in Christ, not in us.

Remember that after seeing the Christ child the wise men changed their planned course home - how has experiencing the Christ child changed your course?

See you Sunday!

Lamar

P.S.  Neighbor, long-time member, and former custodian John Nope passed away yesterday afternoon.  Visitation will be from 6:00-9:00 tonight in our sanctuary, and from 10:00-1:00 tomorrow.  Services will start at 1:00.  Please keep Lois and the rest of the family in prayer.