Wesley United Methodist Church 2200 Phoenix, Fort Smith, AR 72901 www.Wesleyumcfs.org February 2020 Newsletter
From Pastor Zeke Page 1 From the Desk of Pastor Zeke Demonstrating God’s Love “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” - 1 John 4:7 The top 2 of the Christian faith- love God and love your neighbor- seem simple enough on the surface. When you get down to the nitty gritty of it, it is really tough. It can seem almost impossible to love God when everything is falling apart and God seems absent or at the very least apathetic to your woe. Have you ever shaken your fists at the sky and asked God “Why?” and God was silent? Reconciling faith with suffering may be the hardest work in one’s faith journey. I don’t have a simple plan as to how to go about this. The work is tough and requires a tenacious faith and some thick skin. Even now, I struggle with this myself. It certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. Also, when your neighbor is hateful, hurtful, egotistic, self-righteous, vindictive… it is hard to love them if not almost impossible. It is one thing to shake your fist at the sky at God but it is another when you know exactly what a person said or did and your trying to love them anyway. Faith begins where certainty ends. Faith itself is a gift from God. It is a gift from the graciousness of God for us to weather life and its storms. In part, we demonstrate God’s love with how we go about living our lives. The greatest testimony one can offer is the way they live their life. Actions do talk louder than words. When we gather on Wednesday to prepare our backpack food for the elementary we are demonstrating God’s love. You probably will never know one kid who receives a backpack but you are choosing to love anyways. When you do this, you demonstrate God’s love. Actions do not purchase God’s love. Actions testify to the love of God found in each of us. Actions become the hands and feet of Christ. Actions are faith in motion. Actions of love confront the darkness of our lives. For some, being a mere consumer of God’s love is just far enough with faith. For others, those seeking a deeper relationship with God, actions of love demonstrate and testify to the presence of God in our midst. It is in those individuals that the world becomes a better place and others have the potential to be blessed through us. In February, the love month, choose an avenue where you can demonstrate the love of God. There are tons happening just within our church. Let that work become an action of faith. In doing so you will not only demonstrate the love of God but you will also be transformed in the process. - Keep the Faith Strong, Zeke Wesley UMC Newsletter February 2020
UMW News, UMM Valentine Banquet Page 2 United Methodist Women FAITH · HOPE · LOVE IN ACTION NEWS & ACTIVITIES The Morning Glories will meet on Tuesday, February 18, at 10:00 a.m. in the Rock House. Wanda Clark will give the Devotional, Doris Cruce will present the Call to Prayer and Self-Denial Program (ladies, remember - we give an offering during that program), and Betty Reather and Wanda Clark will be the hostesses for the Salad Pot-Luck Lunch that will follow the Program and Business Meeting. We invite you to come join us for this time of inspiration, food, and fellowship! Evening Stars will meet February 10, at 6:30 p.m. in the Rock House. Please join us for an evening food and fellowship. Thank you to Wesley for donating 126 items to children from Carnall Elementary. Thank you to the children for helping hang the items each week. United Methodist Men will host their Annual Valentine Banquet on Sunday February 9, at 6:00 p.m. at Cavanaugh UMC. Choice of NY strip or grilled chicken. Please specify temp preference if ordering steak. $30/couple, single ladies are free. If you are interested in attending please sign-up on the sign-up sheet in the narthex or contact Denver Dunn at 918-839 -1254. Please have your food order in by Monday February 3. Everyone always has a great time, with amazing food and great fellowship. We hope you can join us! Wesley UMC Newsletter February 2020
Music Ministry Page 3 Greetings!!! Greetings Wesley UMC Family! I want to speak about my vision for worship. I see worship as more than just singing and music. To me, worship is a state in which you want to be in the presence of something more than anything else. If there is something you want in your life more than anything, that is what you worship. When we have a worship service, it is a visible manifestation of this desire to be in God's presence. Music and singing are manifestations of praise, the outward display of our desire to be in God's presence. As we outwardly engage in praise, we invite God's spirit to inwardly be present with us. To me, this is the inherent beauty of bringing in the light at the beginning of each service and then carrying that light with us as we go back to the world. This is why music is so important to me personally and why I highly value our singers, ringers, soloists, and Deborah; I feel that it is the purpose of all our music ministry to help manifest praise and welcome God to sit among us each time we gather. I hope that our music has been and continues to be a blessing to each and every one of you. I also want to thank all of those who give weekly of their time in helping to bring something special into our worship. Yours in Christ, Shane Sanderson Wesley UMC Newsletter February 2020
COOL Sunday Lunch, Facility Use Page 4 FACILITY USE Our Building & Usage Sunday ~ Lunch Do you usually go out to lunch after church and Sunday School? Join us for a soup/bean lunch February 23 beginning at 11:45 a.m., and contribute to our AC fund what you usually spend for lunch and tip. This could greatly benefit the Wesley AC replacement fund and in addition you can have a great lunch & fellowship time! What else can you do to help with this Cool Sunday Lunch? We will need contributions of crackpots of soup/beans and desserts. We will also need help setting up the dining room, making coffee and tea, and clean-up after the meal. Mexican Cornbread, crackers, and beverages will be provided by One Council members. We will have a sign-up sheet in the narthex. Please sign up to provide soup/beans or dessert and a job duty to help with this great event. We had a great time at our last Cool Lunch and helped put a nice dent in our AC Unit fund. We hope you can join us! PLEASE READ & TAKE NOTE After those meeting in the Rock House smelled gas, our plumber found a major gas leak in the line under the floor. The gas has been shut off & we cannot use the house until a new line is installed from the meter to the house & one under the house that is connected to the heating unit, water heater & stove. The repairs are scheduled to start February 4th. Please do not remove any supplies or equipment from church property without first contacting the church office. If you need to use the facility for any reason you MUST let the church office know first so they can put it on the calendar. Whoever puts in the requests is responsible for returning the items and/or making sure the facility is cleaned after use & items put away. The food in the Food Ministry room is to support our Blessing Box ministry & for those who contact us requesting food assistance. Please do not take food from the room without first letting someone know. We must report each month the amount of people served & approximate amount of food given. Wesley UMC Newsletter February 2020
Missions Page 5 On January 25th about 20 people from Wesley, Carnall Elementary and the community joined together to pick turnips during our Community Turnip Harvest at Carnall Elementary. We picked roughly 700 lbs of turnips that day. I cannot thank each person enough who came for taking time out of your Saturday to come help. The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is beginning to make plans for the future. As soon as they decide what the spring crop will be, they will get the ground prepped and ready for planting. Wesley UMC Newsletter February 2020
Cub Scouts Page 6 Pack 19 got back into the swing of things after a well deserved holiday break, though the weather did cause some rescheduling of plans. Scouts from the Arrow of Light den planned and executed a cleanup service project at Spradling Park in Fort Smith. Scouts have sold Blue & Gold Meats twice in order to raise funds for a new aluminum Pinewood Derby track. That goal was realized this month with the delivery and assembly of our new high quality track. This new track will serve the Pack for many years to come. The highlight of the month was our pack birthday party for Granny Gail Swearingen who turned 80 years young. Thanks to Christal Powell for the yummy birthday cupcakes. As always all children are invited to visit Pack 19 at 6:00pm each Tuesday and try Scouting for themselves. Yours in Scouting Best, Justin Cates Wesley UMC Newsletter February 2020
UPCOMING EVENTS Feb 5 Wed. Bible Study @ Cavanaugh 6:00pm, Wesley Hand Bells 6:15pm, Chancel Choir 7:00pm Feb 6 Thurs. One Council 6:30pm Feb 9 Sun. UMM Valentine Banquet @ Cavanaugh 6:00pm Feb 10 Mon. Evening Stars 6:30pm Feb 12 Wed. Bible Study @ Cavanaugh 6:00pm, Wesley Hand Bells 6:15pm, Chancel Choir 7:00pm Feb 18 Tues. Morning Glories 10:00am Rock House Feb 19 Wed. Bible Study @ Cavanaugh 6:00pm, Wesley Hand Bells 6:15pm, Chancel Choir 7:00pm Feb 20 Thurs. Young @ Heart 6:00pm Fellowship Hall Feb 23 Sun. COOL Sunday Lunch 11:45am Fellowship Hall Feb 26 Wed. Bible Study @ Cavanaugh 6:00pm, Wesley Hand Bells 6:15pm, Chancel Choir 7:00pm February Birthdays 5 - Wanda Clark 10 - Trefana Christian 11 - Rebecca Jensen 11 - Chelsey McKenzie 11 - JoAn McMullin 15 - Rhonda Hamm 25 - Joe Collinson 26 - Jo Bateman 26 - Taylor Dunn 28 - Emily Patterson Anniversaries 1 - Jerry & Lois Wade If you would like to submit any info to be published in the next newsletter please send info to Carrie Miller at carrielynn12983@gmail.com Wesley UMC Newsletter February 2020
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