Vol. 69 No. 9 April 26, 2020

The Catalina News

The newsletter of Catalina United Methodist Church –

follow us on FaceBook or go to our website: catalinamethodist.org

You are welcome here!

Wherever you are in your spiritual journey, whatever your age, gender,

race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic status, education, physical

or mental ability, family structure, or religious background, you are

welcome.

CATALINA UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

2700 E. SPEEDWAY BLVD.

TUCSON, AZ 85716

520.327.4296

EMERGENCY AFTER HOURS – 520.477.8876

The deadline for the next newsletter is

5:00 p.m., Monday, May 4, 2020. Email

to: newsletter@catalinamethodist.org

Office hours are suspended for now due

to the COVID-19 SAFETY PRACTICES

Phone calls will still be answered remotely

– M-Th, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.

ALL EVENTS HAVE BEEN TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED UNTIL

FURTHER NOTICE

THE 11 A.M. SANCTUARY SERVICE WILL BE LIVE STREAMED

EACH WEEK

catalinamethodist.org

Please join us from the comfort of your home

From the District

Southwest Conference

For Covid-19 updates go to:

https://dscumc.org/disaster-

response-resources/.

SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE READINGS – April 26 – May 9, 2020

April 26 Acts 2:14a, 36-41 May 3 Acts 2:42-47

April 27 Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 May 4 Psalm 23

April 28 1 Peter 1:17-23 May 5 1 Peter 2:19-25

April 29 Luke 24:13-18 May 6 John 10:1-10

April 30 Luke 24:19-24 May 7 Your choice

May 1 Luke 24:25-32 May 8 Favorite Psalm

May 2 Luke 24:33-35 May 9 Favorite verse

Please remember these persons in your prayers

Prayer Requests – Shylah McNellis, Betty Pritts, Patricia Tantillo, Karen Conway, Diane Lopes, James Mather

Eakes, Haydee Mendez, Sally Tedford, Joan Tedford, Barbara Montgomery, Dominique Evans, Marybeth Snyder,

Dennis Snyder

Continuing Prayers Betty Jane Deweerd

If you would like to add a person to these lists, please call the church office: 520.327.4296 or email:

newsletter@catalinamethodist.org

IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER TO PLEASE KEEP UP WITH YOUR

TITHES AND PLEDGES.

CONNECT - Connect with Catalina. Get all the details on worship, service opportunities, Bible studies and other activities on

the church website: www.catalinamethodist.org All activities are suspended until further notice.

GIVING - Digital Giving Click “GIVE” button at catalinamethodist.org or the Church App, and follow the instructions to

register and make single or recurring donations.

TEXT GIVING - Text a dollar amount including $ sign (e.g., $50) to 520-441-8592 and follow texted instructions to register.

After registration, simply text the amount (e.g., $50) to make additional donations. You will receive an e-receipt.

We are a Stephen Ministry Congregation. If you are in need of a caring, confidential,

Christian ear, call the church office at 520.327.4296

The Upper Room Daily Devotional is available online https://www.upperroom.org/devotionals

Check it out for some daily inspiration!

General Conference 2020 was set to kick off at 2 pm Central Time on May 5th. Mainstream

UMC is hosting a livestream Town Hall: A Call for Grace at this exact time. Even though

General Conference has been postponed, we need to continue to work together to move

the church forward…with grace.

The Town Hall will:

Offer prayers for those most impacted by the global pandemic Give a brief background of where we are as a church Issue a Call for Grace in the UMC Answer as many questions of yours as we can.

We will have the ability during the livestream to receive your questions in real time. If you

would like to submit a question ahead of time, that would be great and would allow us to

address many of those during the initial presentation. Simply reply to this

email, info@MainstreamUMC.com.

Please forward this email to your UMC contacts. At the top of this email is a picture of the

flyer for the event that you are welcome to share. If the picture does not appear in your

email, you may need to enable pictures in your browser or outlook.

See you on May 5th!

Mainstream UMC

www.MainstreamUMC.com

Live Streaming

data!

Our Easter service

had 752 views!!

Lots of states and

another country or

two!

God is Good!

Thanks to all who

prepare the Sunday

live-stream

services.

From the Desk of Matt,

I remember the bedtime routine for my kids when they were young often included the settling in and settling down by the reading of a bedtime story. Often there were the requests for some of the same stories. What parent hasn't gotten to the point, with some of the books, you didn't even have to look at the words anymore, such as Good Night Moon or The Cat in the Hat? However, you weren't allowed to abbreviate, deviate or paraphrase because the kids had heard it so much they knew it by heart.

Even though initially I might sigh when I heard the request for a story that we had just read the night before, and the night before that and the night before that...I am glad now for the repetition that helped commit to memory those stories that have now come to deeper meaning for me.

For instance, in Winnie the Pooh, Pooh and Piglet take an evening walk. For a long time they walk in silence, but the kind that only best friends can share.

Finally Piglet breaks the silence and asks, "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh, what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" answers Pooh and then asks. "And what do you say, Piglet?"

Piglet says, "I say, I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?"

Sometimes, because I grew up in the church, I heard the stories and the message of Easter so much that I miss out on the power and the joy of hearing about Jesus' resurrection and what that means. However, this new life currently of "stay at home," can certainly give you more time to reflect. With many challenges and the losses in relationships and finances there has been a desire to awaken my faith. I have been trying to lean into that hope and foundation of God's love with joy and passion. This time of transition, I want to connect more deeply with the Good News of Jesus' resurrection. But just like the tumultuous times for those first disciples after they witnessed His death, you and I can't really plan to meet the Risen Christ because we never really know when or where or how He's going to show up. But you can be sure of this, He will show up. If you open your eyes and keep searching, He will show up. And the attitude you need to meet Him is the attitude of Piglet, "I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?"

God's peace,

Pastor Matt

A note from our Chair of Missions/Church and Society – Doug Wingert

Market on the Move Well, as you may have guessed, our Market on the Move event, scheduled for Saturday, May 9th, has been cancelled. The event typically involved more than 50 people and that does not seem to be prudent at this time. At the time this article was prepared, Market on the Move was still offering food at their main warehouse, (4515 E. 22nd St.), on Saturday mornings, but only from 8:00 am to 10:00 am, and only on a “drive through” basis. Still $10 for up to 60 lbs of produce. Note: The issues surrounding the availability of fresh, organic produce and the health & safety issues in handling food can change daily. So feel free to check Market on the Move on Facebook for more up to date information.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Making Groups of people handling lots of bread, peanut butter and jelly? Not a good idea at this time. So, we have cancelled our PB&J sandwich making event until further notice. I know this is a disappointment for many, but cancelling this church activity is the right thing to do at this time. Our next scheduled sandwich making is in June. Perhaps we will be able to resume this outreach at that time.

Casa Maria Soup Kitchen Catalina regularly prepares a hot meal at the Casa Maria Soup Kitchen for those suffering homelessness and hunger in our community. After speaking with the Casa Maria director, it was decided that the safest plan was for Catalina to cancel the hot meal preparation and simply deliver our groceries and recipe to Casa Maria for their small staff to prepare on their own. Hopefully we can get back on schedule for future dates this year.

Primavera Men’s Shelter Catalina’s United Methodist Men (UMM) puts together cooking teams to prepare pork loin dinners with all the trimmings for the homeless men at Primavera each month. Due to current health and safety concerns, Primavera’s volunteer coordinator has asked Catalina to simply provide the groceries in their original packaging on Saturday, May 23rd, and Primavera will do the cooking, for the time being.

From Children and Family Ministries

On April 6, 2020, the Children and Family Ministries Area gave away 11 Easter Bags To-Go, to

families from Catalina Day School. The bags contained filled Easter Eggs, Activities, crafts, and

books about Easter.

A NOTE FROM OUR FINANCE CHAIR

We are ahead of budget for pledged giving but that is typical for this time of the year since some members submit their yearly giving at the beginning of the year. Our non-pledged giving is under budget and mid-April numbers indicate that the pandemic will significantly affect non-pledged giving even further. It could have also affected giving during Easter but we have yet to receive those figures. We applied for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) through Chase Bank but were not successful in obtaining the funds in the first round. We are hopeful Congress will appropriate additional funds into this program so our Church can benefit from this program. Please note that the PPP is in the form of a Small Business Administration loan but the loan becomes forgivable if the dollars are used to keep staff on the books for an eight week period. Part of the forgivable loan can also be used to offset rent, utility and interest.

Expenses are on par with what we have budgeted as of March 31 and we have kept up with our Apportionments.

This is a challenging time for many individuals in our community and part of our mission is to help those in need. Under the CARES Act, taxpayers can now take a deduction for up to $300 in charitable contributions if they don’t itemize on their 2020 tax form. This is a flip from the previous rule that required itemization for a tax break. To constitute a qualified contribution, the contribution must be made during the 2020 calendar year and the taxpayer must elect to receive the benefit of the increased charitable deduction for any qualified contributions. If you have the means, please consider an additional contribution to take advantage of this federal tax deduction.

Michael Guymon, Finance Chair

THANK YOU FROM BLENMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

In February, Catalina provided 98 boxes of Valentines for the students at Blenman Elementary School.

We also provided Kleenex, hand soap, Clorox wipes, markers, glue sticks and tape, before school was

closed for the year.

In March we received a special request from the school to assist families with groceries. The United

Methodist Women and Women’s Bible Study generously provided seventeen $20.00 gift cards to

Blenman School. Cards were delivered on April 9th. Thank you, Catalina!

A NOTE FROM CATHIE KENNEDY

Greetings to all, Our Worship today (Palm Sunday) was a little different as Pastor Dottie shared earlier. Wasn't it great to see Pastors Dottie, Matt , Andrew, and Michelle, and to hear Rob's composition performed by the Tucson Boy's chorus AND ... Lindsay sing!! Listening to her, I felt like we were all there in Fellowship Hall together! Special thanks to each of you for coming to us in Worship. Now, during this pandemic, we celebrate apart from each other and at a distance from our family members. Pastor Dottie spoke of the importance of our Prayers for each other, for health and for all persons. She encouraged us to reach out. To pray and to reach out. I thought of my conversation this week with member Barbara M. (95 years old). She worships at 11am, has been ill this winter, is now recovered and doing well. Praise the Lord. Barbara is a quilter. She sews quilts and is back doing this again. She made 8 quilts last week!! They are lap quilts (36" x 36") and go to people in care facilities, or people who use wheel chairs. When I said, "that is wonderful," she responded, "We have to do what we can, Cathie !!" Well said, Barbara. That is truly inspirational!! She, like others, does not have wifi to view Worship services or receive email, and relies on the Catalina News and our calls to learn what is going on at Catalina UMC. So I encourage each of us to reach out in special ways ...as far as we can!! Remembering you with faith and prayers, Cathie Kennedy

Words of caution from the United Methodist Federal

Credit Union –

The United States Department of Justice outlines some financial schemes that

have already impacted consumers. We want to make you aware of some scams to

expect and how to avoid getting misled by them.

Here is a partial list of known scams:

Treatment scams — Scammers offer to sell fake cures, vaccines and advice on

unproven treatments for COVID-19. Supply scams — Scammers create fake shops, websites, social media

accounts and email addresses claiming to sell medical supplies currently in high demand, such as surgical masks. When consumers attempt to purchase supplies through these channels, fraudsters pocket the money and never provide the promised supplies.

Provider scams — Scammers contact people by phone and email, pretending to be doctors and hospitals that have treated a friend or relative for COVID-19, and demanding payment for that treatment.

Charity scams — Scammers are soliciting donations for individuals, groups and areas affected by COVID-19.

Phishing scams — Scammers posing as national and global health authorities, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), send phishing emails designed to trick recipients into downloading malware or providing personal identifying and financial information.

App scams — Scammers create and manipulate mobile apps designed to track the spread of COVID-19 to insert malware that will compromise users’ devices and personal information.

Investment scams — Scammers offer online promotions on various platforms,

including social media, claiming that the products or services of publicly traded

companies can prevent, detect or cure COVID-19, and that the stock of these

companies will dramatically increase in value as a result. These promotions are often

styled as “research reports,” make predictions of a specific “target price,” and relate

to microcap stocks or low-priced stocks issued by the smallest of companies with

limited publicly available information.

If you have specific questions about these or any other types of scams, give us a

call at 800-245-0433 or email memberservices@umfcu.org. Please, do not send

account numbers or other personal information in an email.