reeders hope · willing to resume’ serving, please contact barb giffels (greater love members) at...
TRANSCRIPT
1
FEATURED INSIDE... Page
Worship In August 3
Bible Study 4
Sunday School 5
Birthday’s This Month 10
Pastor’s Desk 11
The Monthly Newsletter of Reeders United Methodist Church
— AUGUST 2020 —
Reeders Hope
Returns during worship beginning August 2, 2020. See Pg. 4 for more details.
BIBLE STUDY
BEGINS
August 12th - October 28th (Wednesday’s at 7:00pm) See Pg. 8 for more details.
2
Serving In August
Pastor Jeff’s Appointment Hours: Tues. & Thurs. 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Sunday 12:00 to 2:00 pm Joan Purdy’s Hours:
Tues./Wed./Fri. 9:00 am to 5:00 pm To schedule an appointment with Pastor Jeff please call the church office or contact Pastor Jeff directly at 570-234-7111 or [email protected]. While scheduling an appointment is preferred, drop-ins during the appointment hours are welcomed. In the event of an emergency need for a pastor, regardless of the day or time, please do not hesitate to call or text Pastor Jeff at 570-234-7111.
Pastor’s Weekly Schedule: Pastor Jeff has a normal weekly schedule he will be following, but he emphasizes that he is flexible based on situations as they arise. Pastor Jeff will be at the church: Sunday through Thursday Sunday: Worship Service and
Appointments Monday: Follow-up on Sunday Service
and preparation for next week’s service/
Special meetings Tuesday: Office Hours for appointments Wednesday: Home and Hospital
Visitations Thursday: Office Hours for appointments Friday: Day off Saturday: Pastor’s Sabbath
Due to the Covid-19 restrictions and the fact that not everyone has felt comfortable returning to church for worship, the following individuals have been serving on Sundays. Greater Love: Barbara Giffels Pauline Snyder Arlene Frailey Paul Schmid Ushers: Scott Hower If you are a member of a Greater Love or an Usher Team and are ready to return to worship, and are willing to resume’ serving, please contact Barb Giffels (Greater Love members) at 570-421-6344 or Scott Hower (Ushers) at 570-629-0597 and let them know.
Reeders is in need of people with time and talent to volunteer at Reeders. Immediate needs are for Media Team to help audio and visual aids (power point/gotomeeting) for the services. If you are interested serving or would like more info, please talk with Pastor Jeff.
3
Worship In August
August 2nd COMMUNION Guest Pastor
Reverend Keith Price The “Secret” of Contentment
Philippians 4:10-13
August 9th History and Direction
Revelation 2:1-7
August 16th Making God Laugh
Isaiah 55:6-9
August 23rd Measure What? Galatians 5:16-25
August 30th Listen, Trust, Do, and Listen
1 Kings 19:1-18
ON-LINE WORSHIP
SERVICE UPDATE
In-person services have resumed Sundays at 10:30 am at Reeders. Please follow standard CDC recommendations by wearing a mask and practicing social distancing. Music and hymns will be a part of the worship service, however, we ask that you not sing out loud but meditate and sing them in your heart. For those who are not ready to return to worship, the weekly message will continue to be available on-line at 10:30 AM through the following sources:
Reeders UMC Sunday Worship On your computer or smart phone go to:
https://global.gotomeeting.com/ join/162128141 or the church website www.ReedersChurch.org/ Worship from Home
or
Dial in using your phone. 1 (571) 317-3122 Enter Access Code: 162-128-141
You should try to connect a few minutes early so you are sure to be connected when worship begins.
These numbers and access codes will remain the same for every Sunday. Recorded Sunday Worship Message: Recorded copies of the service will be also be available on YouTube. The YouTube link will be available on the church website at www.ReedersChurch.org during the week following each service. The links will also be archived on the church website for your viewing and listening anytime.
COMMUNION AND
GUEST PASTOR
REV. KEITH PRICE
On August 2nd we have communion and
we will also be welcoming Reverend
Keith Price as our guest pastor. As
many of you know, Rev. Price is
originally from Reeders and he gave his
first message at Reeders when he was
18 years old. Since then, he and his wife
Sarah have visited and Keith delivers his
annual message to the Reeders
congregation. We give God thanks, that
the tradition continues.
4
Returns during worship every Sunday beginning August 2, 2020. It will be held in the Fellowship hall. The children will be encouraged to practice social distancing and will be requested to wear masks. For now, there will not be a snack provided. All children over the age of 3 (who are potty trained) through grade 6 are welcome to attend. The Pastor will announce dismissal for Children’s Church during the worship service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Joanne Palmer or the Church office for more information.
August 12 thru October 28
Wednesdays at 7:00 PM Bible Study on Worship
Pastor Jeff will be conducting a Bible study on the subject of worship. The Bible study will meet every Wednesday night at 7:00 pm and will be both in person (in the sanctuary) and via GoTo Meeting. Through 12 lessons, we will do a survey through the Bible on the subject of worship and in the course of the survey derive basic Biblical principals for worship and how they connect to worship styles that are occurring in the church today. There is no cost for the course, all you need is your Bible. If you have any questions concerning the Bible Study, do not hesitate to contact, Pastor Jeff at [email protected] or call 570-234-7111.
ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASSES Available online
There are 2 adult Sunday School Classes available online every Sunday and everyone is welcome to participate.
1) 9:00 am Adult “Tea” Class studying Acts Of The Apostles Teacher - Patrick Roberts
Access through gotomeeting/Code 162-128-141 or Dial in using your phone. 1 (571) 317-3122 Enter Access Code: 162-128-141 2) 9:45 am. NeXt Generation Class (Studying Ephesians) Teacher Lorelle Battle Zoom – Meeting ID: 764 9893 6269 Password: 8ZNJ4X
Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/76498936269?
5
Pantry donations can be deposited in the bins in the Lobby to support the PVEN Food
Pantry.
ATTENTION SUNDAY SCHOOL PARENTS!!!
Until a date is set when Sunday School classes will resume, there will continue to be a box outside the main door of the church with activity packets for the Sunday School students (Pre-K thru 5th grade) from their teachers.
You will receive an email when the materials are updated. Please continue to stop by and pick up the packet for your family/student. The younger students will need help finding their packets. The materials in the box will be updated regularly.
We miss you all and hope that we will be able to gather again soon and would love to see your completed projects when we are together again.
Reeders Sunday School Teachers
Your faithful, continued, giving has allowed Reeders to meet it’s basic financial requirements during this very unusual time. Please continue your faithful giving by using the following options to make your contributions: 1) Go to the Reeders UMC website at
www.ReedersChurch.org home page and select “GIVE”
2) Download the mobile application “GivePlus+” and select Reeders UMC
3) Drop your contribution in the black mailbox on the right wall outside the main church entrance.
4) Drop your offering in the basket on Sunday mornings at the back of the church when you return to worshiping in person.
MISSIONS UPDATE
Word of Life /Nelson & Cheryl Buchanan
Dear Friends and Family,
We hope this finds you health and safe. We are praying for you all during this time.
Our ministries continue to run almost as normal in that Taiwan has reported zero virus cases since the beginning of May.
We have 23 signed up for our SYME summer term. Nelson has been able to help the WOL Indonesia team get an online English Café up and running there and now 80 young people join the sessions every week.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support!
6
August Collection “School Supplies”
Examples are - crayons, notebooks, pens, pencils solar calculators, etc. Take advantage of “back to school sales” to purchase your OCC donations for August. Drop them in the donation box in the church lobby any time during the month of August.
FINANCE COMMITTEE MESSAGE
“Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
Psalms 27:14
Since mid-March, question marks ended many of our sentences. Will the COVID-19 virus wane soon? Will school start the end of August? Will stock prices recover? Will there be any lasting physical impacts on those who contract the virus? Will the Church have enough money to pay the bills?
Rejoice, the Lord has provided Reeders United Methodist Church with the finances we need. By the end of June 2020, thanks to the tithes, offer-ings, and gifts of parishioners and oth-ers, 95% (of 6-month total) of the Gen-eral Fund Budget was given. The Church was able to meet all financial obligations. Better yet, thanks to gen-erous gifts, 100% (of 6-month total) of the Benevolence Budget needs were collected and dispersed to missions all over the world. As promised in Philip-pians 4:19, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” The church that gives to missions will have its own needs supplied!
In Psalms 27:13-14, David re-joiced as he trusted God and was de-termined to endure. “I am still confi-dent of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
Praising God for your faithful-ness and perseverance!
Linda Mikels, Finance Chairperson
John M. Frailey Celebration Of Life Service
A Celebration of Life Service will be held at Reeders UMC on Saturday, August 15th at 1PM. Dr. Jeffrey Weber will officiate. Due to COVID-19 uncertainties, if you are planning on attending the service, please RSVP to [email protected]. The service will also be broadcast and recorded via youTube Live.
7
INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING WHILE PRACTICING SOCIAL DISTANCING?
The Garden of Giving is a beautiful place to volunteer with plenty of outdoor social distancing. The hours for volunteers are Tues thru Saturdays from 9:30-12:30. There are additional hours and needs during main planting and harvest seasons. Volunteers can be any age and any skill level.
They also need people to repair their lawn mowers or have basic landscaping or carpentry skills to build steps up to a shed.
If you have any questions about our experiences with the Garden of Giving and would like to consider volunteering, please feel free to contact Joanne Palmer or Joan Robbins.
2556 Rising Hill Drive Saylorsburg, PA 18353 https://www.thegardenofgiving.org [email protected] (570) 402-1282
FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING
The Finance Committee will meet at the Church on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 at 6 PM for the purpose of establishing the General Fund budget for 2021.
If you lead a ministry that is funded by the General Fund budget or if you pur-chase supplies for a Church function un-der the General Fund budget, place a list of your funding needs in the Finance mailbox in the Church office no later than Sunday, August 16, 2020. If you have any questions or concerns, contact Linda Mikels at [email protected] or 570-629-3906.
Due to the ongoing concerns concerning “gathering” during the Corona virus, the Church Leadership has decided to cancel this year’s annual picnic originally scheduled to be held on August 30th. While this was a disappointing decision, the decision was made in order to protect the health and welfare of our congregation. Hopefully all of these events that we are missing this year can be planned for next year and there will be other opportunities to “gather” together again in the near future.
Plans to restart AWANA in the new school year have not yet been finalized. They are awaiting decisions from the school districts regarding their reopening plans since that will impact the delivery of this program. Please continue to check the church website at www.ReedersChurch.org for updated information on this program.
8
Please note that the Cambell’s Soup label program has been replaced by the “Box Tops For Education” program. Please collect the Box Tops from many of your favorite products (watch for the boxtop symbol). Each boxtop is worth .10 cents. Earn bonus box tops while you shop with the Box Tops Bonus App at BTFE.com/bonusapp.
UMW uses the money received from these programs to fund our mission projects. Thank you for collecting these items to support our efforts.
MISSIONARY OF THE MONTH Chosen People Boris & Irina Goldin 241 East 51st Street New York, NY 10022
We continue to collect pantry goods for PVEN.
The PVEN donation bin will be placed on the church porch by the main entrance on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
Fridays from 9 am to 5 pm. Drop your donations off anytime those days or on Sunday if you worship in person.
They continue to need financial contributions as well as the regular food pantry staples (i.e. cereal, condiments, vegetables, rice, noodles, etc.)
Eric Robbins 1th Allison Elmire 8th Kathleen Andrews 9th Beth Derrick 11th Troy Rispoli 12th Matthew Rispoli 12th Lee Munch 14th Jill Lawley 18th Lorelle Battle 21th Burl Galucci 21th Angela Loysen 21th Keegan Long 27th Hannah Loysen 27th Christine Ellis 28th James Ellis 28th Elijah Hernandez 29th Samantha Hernandez 29th
9
Pastor’s Desk The old man sat in the chair quite comfortably. He had a scattering of wisps of gray hair covering his balding head. He had become pleasantly rounded over the course of the years. There was a hint of a mischievous glint in his eyes. He wore a large red flannel jacket over his shirt, because he was always cold, even though to others it seemed warm. He was sitting in a large house, watching a football game on TV with the volume too loud for younger ears. Every now and then he would clench his fist in a jerking motion, and he would tighten his mouth and let out an “hmm,” as his team failed, once again, to perform as he felt they should. Play after play went on, and he would reach out to a can of cashews on the end table next to him and scoop up a handful and eat them. By halftime, he had drifted off into a pleasant slumber with a gentle snore. His four sons and daughter, and his ten grandchildren saw him as a good nature man, who had earned a lot of money as a medical doctor. Little thought, if any was given to his years growing up in a home for boys, where from the age of seven, he worked a farm, ten to twelve hours every day, except for Sunday, throughout the Great Depression. Likewise, almost totally forgotten were his three years as a soldier in the South Pacific fighting and surviving through six major battles, as American forces fought from one bloody island to the next, with each battle being more brutal than the previous. Neither were the years of his being a victim of the polio epidemic and his struggle to walk again, ever really recalled. The old man saw that God had carried him through so much and instead of recalling the pains and sorrows of the times past, he recalled how God had blessed him in ways he could not imagine. His was a quiet faith. His children and grandchildren were focused on the present and their own pessimistic view of the future. So they could not see the faithful hope that comes from knowing all that God had accomplished in the past.
Throughout scripture we read about the great wonders that God does for His people. God’s love is evident throughout a myriad of hardships and disasters which more than equal anything we personally have experienced. Through scripture, God speaks directly to us, as he shows His love and cares for us. Continually, from, “In the beginning. . .” in Genesis 1:1 to “The grace of Lord Jesus be with God’s people, Amen” in Revelation 22:21, we see that God desires a personal relationship with us. In parallel with this message of sacrificial love and relationship, scripture shows us how often we have forgotten God and all that God has done. In the midst of our narcissistic forgetfulness, hope is lost.
We are living through sweeping historical events, but our God is beyond these events. We are promised, that God “works all things together for the good, for those who love God and are called together by His purpose” (Romans 8:28). The validity of Romans 8:28 is seen in the evidence from scripture and in the lives of so many around us. As Audrey and I have been meeting this wonderful congregation, we have been struck by all that God has done for everyone and for Reeders UMC as a whole throughout its history! In case, you do not realize it, in these few short weeks, to us you have shown yourself to be an incredible congregation, loving and affirming, caring for one another, and uplifting. Our hope is found, not in the sin filled events of this world, but in the Truth of Jesus Christ. Pastor Jeff Weber
10
NEED HELP FINDING EMPLOYMENT?
Go to the Commonwealth Workforce Development website and gain access to training assistance and job openings that you can apply for on line at https://www.cwds.pa.gov. Create a user name and password and develop an online resume’ and apply online for jobs that are posted. If you need assistance to set up your online account, you can contact:
PA CareerLink Monroe County 2937 Route 611 Merchants Plaza Tannersville, PA 18372 570-620-2850
Reeders United Methodist Church P.O. Box 187
2167 Route 715 and Church Road Reeders PA 18352
Contact Information:
Phone: 570.629.1712 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ReedersChurch.org Pastor Jeff Weber Email: [email protected] Phone: 570-234-7111
The Church Office hours are 9 am to 5 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
If you need pastoral services, please contact the church office at 570-629-1712 or [email protected] or contact Pastor Jeff anytime directly at 570-234-7111.
Did you notice drafts and leaks of cold air last winter. Are you noticing drafts, leaks, mold,
or other issues that need fixing now? If so, Monroe County Habitat for Humanity (MCHFH) may be able to help by providing low-cost, deferred payment, volunteer-based home repairs. Projects may include: Roof Replacement, Insulation, Heating Repair, Tree Trimming/Removal, Window and/or Door Replacements and many others. Income limits apply. Go to www.HabitatMC.org/Services/Home-Preservation for more information or contact them at (570) 216-4390.
COVID-19 SAFETY PRECAUTIONS THAT THE CONGREGATION IS REQUESTED TO FOLLOW WHILE WORSHIPING AT
REEDERS 1) Please wear a mask at all times. If
you forget your mask, the church will provide one.
2) Please practice social distancing by staying about 6 feet away from others. Please respect the areas that have been tapped off by not entering them.
3) Do not congregate before or after worship inside the church.
4) Hand sanitizer stations are available - please use them freely.
5) Please refrain from singing for now. Listen, meditate and let your heart be moved by the music.