Seniors

2020

Jacob Scheihing Lucy Tyrrell

Macy Jones Max Rosson

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First United Methodist Church 600 E. Okmulgee Muskogee, OK 74403 918.682.3368 fumcmuskogee.org info@fumcmuskogee.org Reverend Mike Smith Senior Pastor

Our Mission Commitment… To be Christ’s disciples to others —

within our church, our community, and around the world – and to

diligently strive to make our church exciting, vital and alive.

Join Us For Worship! Sunday Mornings

9:00 am Contemporary Worship 10:00 am Sunday School 11:00 am Traditional Worship

The Gathering Grounds Coffee Shop

Sundays 8:30—9:00 am And 10:00—11:00 am

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Pastor Mike’s Pondering

Do You Know How to Eat an Elephant?

When I first began to discern a vocation as an elder in the UMC I had to

consider the added challenges that went with this new second career

job. I was married with four children. How would I attend school and pay

the bills? Would I have enough time to take care of my family, my job,

and my studies without neglecting any? What about my own physical,

emotional, and spiritual well-being? Could I take care of myself

adequately?

Having a good mentor to discuss major changes in life is very important.

At that time in my life, Rev. Stan Warfield was my mentor. He was the

senior pastor of Broken Arrow FUMC then. I have never forgotten his

simple guidance.

He asked me, “Mike do you know how to eat an elephant?”

Well, I had eaten many things in my life

(even many of my own words at times)

but never an elephant. So, I said to Stan,

“No, I have to say that I don’t know how

to eat an elephant.”

Stan’s reply was, “One bite at a time,

Mike, one bite at a time.”

I took one bite at a time. Then after chewing and swallowing each bite, I

took another. It took many years, but I finished eating that elephant.

However, before you can hope to finish eating that elephant you have to

begin with the first bite.

IN-SANCTUARY WORSHIP TO BEGIN MAY 31ST

(Read Pastor Mike’s “Ponderings Article” for more details)

Continued on next page.

Covid-19 has been serving up a few elephants recently. Our world has been chewing on some of this

elephant meat for a while. We know there are more bite to come, but we do not know how big a bite to

take or how many more bites are to come. Nevertheless, we got to eat this elephant. It is not going away.

The bite our church must consider, now, is how do we move forward returning to some kind of in-

sanctuary worship. Yes, we never stopped worshiping, but we had to alter it greatly. Online worship is an

acceptable surrogate, but it can never adequately replace in-person/in-sanctuary worship.

Our Church Council has served to be our Transition Team discussing and determining the size of our first

bite back into in-sanctuary worship. Through our past two meeting, we have decided to begin worship in

our Activity Center on May 31. May 31 is also Pentecost Sunday,

the birthday of the Church. It seems fitting to begin this new

birth on Pentecost Day!

I will be posting more information about our return to in-sanctuary worship on the home page of our

church’s webpage at http://www.fumcmuskogee.org. I will also be posting a video message on our

church’s Facebook page.

What you need to know now:

1) Online worship will continue. It will be a permanent companion with our in-sanctuary worship,

2) We will be meeting in the Activity Center at 9:00 am (only one service at this time). This is a temporary

solution to give us more space to adequately social distance and to have enough room to seat everyone in

one service,

3) We ask you to bring your own facemasks. We will have some facemasks to handout if someone forgets

but supplying facemasks for everyone each Sunday is expensive and supplies are limited,

4) We will be using only the north Activity Center door entrance and the eastside main door entrance.

By-the-way, when I was eating the elephant as I prepared for ordained ministry, the one constant that

kept me eating one bite at-a-time was God. Despite the hardships and weariness and the constant

demands of life and all the accompanying worries and fears that come with that territory, God was there

to chew with me and even for me when I felt I could not chew any longer. I discovered God can even take

elephant meat and make it taste good.

Church, God is with us, one bite at a time!

You have to begin with the first bite.

The Food Pantry is unable to purchase supplies from our regular vendors at this

time. We can accept donations from individuals and some may consider a financial

donation to offset the costs of extra shipping, etc. from alternate sources. Please

put “food pantry’ in the memo line of your check or include a note.

Food pantry is open Monday through Thursday from 1:00-3:00 and in need of help.

The demand for food is higher than usual. If you wish to volunteer, please call the

church for contact information.

SYMPATHY AND PRAYERS

Sympathy and prayers for Hardy Clark and family for the loss of Donna Clark.

Also remember the family and friends of Nancy Mclure Long who recently passed away.

Contact Persons

UMW Martha Rogers at 918-682-1830

Grief Share Cindy Ball at 918-913-2511

Cindy Culver, Chaplain at

918-869-0755.

June Newsletter Deadline Noon, Tuesday, June 23.

You may leave a message at the church or email Pat Murr at pmurr53@hotmail.com or Tara Terrell at tara@fumcmuskogee.org.

NEW BABIES

Sandi and Spencer Rosson are celebrating the birth of their new great granddaughter Maeve Grace. The proud parents are Lauren and Ryan Dvorak.

Bert and John David Luton are also celebrating the birth of a new grandchild in California. Their daughter, Molly had a baby a few weeks ago.

SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF MUSKOGEE

HONORS CINDY MATTHEWS

Congratulations to our own Cindy Matthews,

Youth Director at First United Methodist Church.

She has been selected for an SI of Muskogee Atta

Girl Award for her enthusiasm, creativity, organi-

zational skills and love for others. She is an inspi-

ration not only the youth she mentors but all

who know her.

2020 Church Scholarship Recipients

Macy Jones, Max Rosson, Lucy Tyrrell, and Jacob Scheihing have been each

awarded $1000 Don Haxton Memorial Scholarships by the Muskogee FUMC Hori-

zon Sunday School Class.

Don Haxton was a beloved teacher of the Horizon Class and mentor in the church

for 20 years. Since 2008 the Horizon Class has awarded over $50,000 in scholar-

ships. The scholarships are awarded for excellence in faith and service to others

and academics.

Thank you, Horizon Class, for your dedication to our youth by investing in their

continuing education. And congratulations to these fine recipients! God’s bless-

ings to you.

Ms. Leigh Ann WOW! The 2020 school year

is over and you guys are in

the history books – literally!

Years from now students will

read about all that happened

in 2020 with COVID-19,

school closings, event can-

cellations, online church, and a whole bunch of

other things!

Our little Sunday morning team is still going strong

bringing worship to your homes via the internet,

but we sure miss seeing you! I guess it “is what it

is” and we’ll just keep rolling with it – so thankful

for technology that makes it possible – hoping to

see many of you when we open the doors for

“worship 2020 Covid style” May 31!

I enjoyed seeing many of you when I made deliv-

eries to your houses. I wanted to wait till school

was about over so you’d have a little time to de-

vote to “in home” Sunday School – and some oth-

er random things I thought you might like. I’ll

gather up more fun stuff as we continue through

this and have them available for pick up at the

church or I can deliver to you– we should have

new materials soon, but we won’t meet for Sun-

day School for a while.

I’m really bummed out about the cancellation of

summer church camp, but hopefully we can find

some safe and fun things to do – we’re working

on it!!! I’m not sure about VBS at this point ei-

ther, but I’ll keep you informed as much as we

can.

Be safe kids and families and I hope to see you

soon!!!!

Love you guys and miss you very much!

Ms. Leigh Ann

FUMC Kids

Here’s what the FUMYs are doing….

Our kids have officially finished virtual school and are ready for some fun summer activities. We’re going to take small steps to resuming our regular FUMY schedule, so here’s the plan….. Sunday, May 31 will be Initiation!!!! This is the evening where we welcome our incoming 7th grade kids and current kids that have been attending youth group. We’ll have pizza, take our initiation vows, possibly go to Braum’s for ice cream and end with worship. We’ll begin our Wednesday hang out on June 17 and will continue these until July 15. On Wednesdays, we’ll gather at the church, go out to eat for lunch, work on some projects and end with Bible Study. We’ll finish at 5:30 during the summer. Additional dates could be added, so watch the newsletter for details.

On Sunday, June 7, we will celebrate our wonderful seniors during worship. We’re still working out the details for the brunch/slide show, so I’ll keep you informed about what will happen on that day. We’ll have a handout available with their biography information, so please let me know if you need any additional copies. I am pleased to share that all four of our seniors received the Don Haxton Scholarship provided by the Horizons Sunday School Class.

Our summer plans have been modified quite a bit, so I wanted to pass on the information to our church family. Green Country District camp has been cancelled this summer along with all other conference related camps. Each site will host a family camp and they are looking for volunteers to help coordinate this opportunity. Our mission trip to Rockford, Illinois has been cancelled…… BUT….. we are looking at several options to help locally. I’m contacting a few organizations within Muskogee and will keep you informed about our local mission efforts.

Please keep our kids and our youth ministry in your prayers. This virus has been a huge upheaval to their schedules and they are anxious to get back to a somewhat normal schedule.

Love those FUMYs… Cindy

Non Profit Org.

U.S. Postage Paid

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First United Methodist Church ▪ 600 E. Okmulgee ▪ Muskogee, OK 74403

Return Service Requested

Date 9:00 a.m.

May 3 662

May 10 437

May 17 731

May 24 585

9:00 GREETERS For May:

Mary Beth and Ben Allen

11:00 USHERS for May:

Barbara Beach, Beau Mathews, Bill Standridge, Crawford Gable, Jake Evans

ONLINE VIEWS

Please Keep In Your Prayers

Lauren Keeling, Jackie Mabes, Bettye Kaye Evans, Alice Cheatham , Erin Kiewitt, Derek Flock, Roger Phillips, George Bean, Sue Ann Melton, Betty Kelton, Mark Webb, Charles & Barbara Fender, Dick Shilling, Neil Acker at home recovering , Martha Rogers’ grandson diagnosed with COVID-19, mild symptoms, Craig Moore, surgery, Sue Littlefield, Cindy Ball’s sister, Linda Payne, Melinda Rose, hospital, Bill Standridge, Leigh Ann Swanson, Angie Wheeler, knee surgery, Joyce Johnson, knee surgery, Sharmon Hayes, broken ankle, Rita Nidiffer, broken wrist, Cindy Culver, back surgery, and David Sharpe, shoulder surgery Remember to pray for each other. Please help keep us informed of prayer needs.

BROADWAY MANOR

Visits to the manor are suspended until further

notice.