the link A monthly publication of New Hope United Methodist Church

May 2021

Worship with Us on Sundays!

9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Indoor and Parking Lot Worship Service.

Updated Safety guidelines, starting May 9th: · Masks are required indoors · No food or drink indoors · Social distancing of 3 feet or more The New Hope Transition team has met and we are adjusting our guidelines for indoor meetings, starting May 9th. We are making these changes because of the increased number of people getting vaccinated and the availability of vaccines in the state of Iowa. Because of this, we feel comfortable in relaxing some of the previously stated guidelines. This is the first of many steps to getting back to normal at New Hope. However, we understand that people may not be comforta-ble with the new guidelines or worshiping indoors; so, we will continue to offer our alternative worship services; which includes the radio broadcasting to the parking lot and our pre-recorded worship services. If you have questions or concerns about the changes, please contact Clark Howland (clarkhowland@msn.com), chair of the Transition Team. Gatherings at New Hope UMC

The Safety Guidelines, in place for the Worship Services, apply for indoor ministry meetings/gatherings. Please contact Nancy, in the church office, to schedule any meetings at the church.

East Entrance Addition

Construction began on April 19th on the East Entrance by tearing off the old canopy and moving in material to begin the new one. April 26th the schedule calls for demolition of the black top and concrete and preparing for footings. The old canopy is gone and the east doors are boarded up to protection.

Please do not drive or walk into this area as there will be nails and screws possibly on the ground. 360 Construction has the entire parking area immediately east of the church for not only the construction zone but to stockpile material and park equipment. Please remember this is a CONSTRUCTION ZONE and no one is allowed in unless they are OSHA compliant – boots, hard hats, etc.

When entering the church during construction, please use the south door (office door), especially when going to the offices and use the Courtyard or Ruby Chapel doors for Sunday services. The Ruby Chapel Door is handicap accessible.

Thank you for the $45,286 donated so far (35% of total amount required) to support the East Entrance Addition and added improvements. If financially pos-sible, please consider donating to this great addition to our church. Questions concerning this project should be emailed to - eastentrance@newhopedsm.org. John Rains Chair, Task Force

Prayer Chain Request

If you have a prayer chain request, please call Mary Ann Rice at 515-664-0222 email at marice2460@gmail.com or the church office at 278-2097.

page 2 May 2021

Prayer Concerns Roberta Cave; Fred Foreman; Dorothy Montgomery; Mary Ann Rice; Freda Ruleman; Skylar Freeman; Jonathan Jason Silva; K.Howland; Pam Wilson; Sheila Hartung; Glenda Millard; Chris Boyles' sister, Trudy; Fred Grow; Eunice Beacham; Jeff Louk; Theresa Faber; JoAnn Pugh; Brian Upper; Shelly Endicott; Desiree Spring; Josephine Demarco; Bishop Laurie Haller; District Superintendent, Rev. Heecheon Jeon; Dr. Emmanuel Mefor, missionary; Women at the Well.

Prayers for the following military personnel: Michael Craighton; Jason Homard; Adam Larson; Joshua Larson; Todd McGinnity; Devan Stanton; Hunter Schmidt; Jessica Weltha-Bales; and our national and world leaders, our military and their families. If there are any other people that should be listed, please contact the church office at 278-2097, nhfamily@newhopedsm.org

Visits Pastor Lilian has been fully vaccinated and is open to visiting with you in your home. Please call the church office or Pastor’s cell 641-757-2334. These visits usually will last for one hour while we have prayer, listening to your faith stories, and celebration of holy communion if you so desire.

Our Sympathy Our sympathy to Keith & Julie Craighton on the passing of Keith’s brother, Danny Craighton.

Confirmation 2021

We will be in person and meet on Sunday, May 2, 11:30-2:30 p.m. and time with Mentors will be at 2 p.m.

Parents, please make sure your child has their white binder and Bible. If you have questions, please call Pastor Lilian at 642-757-7925.

Confirmation Sunday is scheduled for Sunday, June 6th at the 9:00 a.m. service in the Family Life Center.

Thank You Thank you so much to our New Hope church family for the cards, calls, messages and the beautiful quilt and meal from the Care Team that Larry received after his emergent surgery to remove his appendix.

Also special thanks to Pastor Lilian for her prayers over the telephone prior to his surgery. A quick development for Larry with a quick resolution.

Larry and Patrice Webber

Serving Hands

Volunteer Spotlight

The Stewardship and Financial committee would like to recognize the gifts of time given at New Hope. We’re asking for your help to scout out volunteers that should be recognized. Please send information to Carol Harter at carolannhar-ter@gmail.com or 274-1467. Thank You:

*to all who cleaned and spruced up the church property on work day.

*a belated thank you to Pat Papenheim who gave many hours of child care during the Alanon meetings.

*a very special thank you to Jolene and Robin Harlow for the many volunteer hours they have given to New Hope the past few years. Jolene has been leading the planning and serving for Hand of Luke each month. It’s quite an accomplishment to serve over 200 people every month. Robin has been leading New Hope in all financial matters. He has done an excellent job of bringing new ideas and guiding New Hope to a comfortable financial situation and a good plan for moving forward. We are sorry to see them leave our New Hope family but will always remember the stewardship they have given to New Hope. We shall miss their leadership but wish them well in their new adventures.

Happy Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 9th! A special greeting to moms, grandmas and mother-figures. The relationships that bless our lives are gifts of God’s love. Alleluia!

page 3 May 2021

Graduate Recognition ~ May 16th @ 9:00 AM

Graduate Recognition will be on Sunday, May 16th, 9:00 AM, at New Hope UMC. We invite all graduates: high school, college, and higher degrees, to send us information to be included in the bulletins to celebrate your accomplishments with you.

Please send the below information to the church office, nhfamily@newhopedsm.org by Friday, May 7th. High School Graduates: College/Graduate School Graduates: GRADUATE'S NAME: GRADUATE'S NAME: PARENTS NAMES: COLLEGE: HIGH SCHOOL: DEGREE(S): PLANS AFTER HIGH SCHOOL: FUTURE PLANS:

You are invited to a Missions and Ministry Fair Sunday, June 13th from 9:35 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.

This is an opportunity to learn and be inspired about many of the missions and ministries supported by our Church.

Come and see some of the current and past projects and services led and provided by various groups and partners. Ask questions, taste some treats and see how your

money and volunteer efforts help others in our community.

Hope to see you then!

For more information, please contact Sue Blank of Stewardship and Finance Committee, sue or Pastor Lilian.

All Church Event!

Wednesday, May 5th, 6pm-7:30pm, church parking lot.

Join us for authentic Mexican food from Hungry Boys! Menu selections include tacos, burritos, nachos and quesadillas.

**Tell the cashier you saw this in the May LINK and you will receive $5 off per person.**

Bring your lawn chair and please practice social distancing (or you may do take out.) Please plan to wear a mask when not seated with your family. Also, the Christian Education Team will have an end of the program year celebration in the church parking lot with a blessing of the pets, New Hope talent showcase. All pets are welcome. Pastor Lilian will be offering the pet blessing before the talent show in case your pet isn't able to sit and stay for a long period of time. Do you or your pet have a special talent you would like to share? We would LOVE to see it! Please let us know if you would like to sign up to share it. All ages welcome. Contact Jackie Johnson to get signed up: Email-jackiejohnson81@aol.com/Text (515)710-3239.

The Filipino-American Society and New Hope UMC are joining with VaxiTaxi to offer a

J&J COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Saturday, May 15th, 9am - 12:30pm At New Hope UMC No appointment necessary. Walk-ins Welcome! Free with or without Insurance

page 4 May 2021

The results are in: Congregational survey is start of New Hope’s future roadmap The congregational survey results are in and we have the start of our roadmap to New Hope’s future.

Many thanks to everyone who spent time completing the recent New Hope Congregational Assessment survey. Your comments and ideas are very insightful, and will help us unify our direction, our place in the community, our spiritual mission and New Hope’s overarching focus.

New Hope’s last Congregational Assessment survey was nearly 15 years ago in preparation for building our addition, now named the Neil Cross Family Life Center. So it was well beyond time for the survey to engage the entire congrega-tion to fully understand and assess our spiritual direction.

What’s the survey telling us? Here are key details that the survey told, and the next steps we will be taking in using the survey data to better our church life.

• 122 individuals completed the survey, which is 76 percent of the 2020 average Sunday worship attendance. Fifty percent of the respondents have been New Hope members for more than 20 years.

• The Over-all rating of “The Energy-Satisfaction Map” indicates New Hope UMC is in a high energy-high satisfaction position (68%). Based on responses by New Hope members, this score indicates New Hope is in a Transformational stage.“ This means members view our church as a source of new meaning and purpose in their lives.”

• Ratings in the “Performance Dashboard” indicate that our highest rating is in the area of readiness for ministry (87 percent). Governance, or in other words, how New Hope is working as an organization, was second (70 percent). The next highest ratings are hospitality (69 percent), and morale (68 percent). Our lowest rating is in spiritual vitality, receiving 32 percent.

• The survey asked respondents to rate ministry areas by importance and by desire to invest energy and resources. The results showed a lot of agreement for church ministry priorities across all age groups. Here are the key priorities from the survey: (1) Make necessary changes to attract families with children and youth to our church; (2) Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to reach new people and incorporate them into the life of the church. (3) Provide more opportunities for Christian education and spiritual formation at every age and stage in life. (4) Create more opportunities for people to form meaningful relationships. (5) Work to renew and revitalize the community around the church by building coalitions with partners.

We have printed copies of the “bubble page” from the survey that gives more details about the priority ratings, by age groups. The page will be available every Sunday in May, for you. In it you can see how age-groups selected ministry priorities and where there are shared commonalities. The biggest bubbles received the highest percentage of importance.

What’s next in the coming months?

• During the rest of May, June and July, the New Hope CAT Survey Communications Team will be sharing more details about what the survey results are telling us.

• We invite you to celebrate New Hope UMC’s ministry all through the years, and in particular, all that we have done together during the pandemic season.

• We encourage you to prayerfully discern individually and together where you may be stirred by the Holy Spirit to work with committees and future Task Forces for Strategic Planning.

The survey participation was extremely successful. We greatly appreciate each one of you in providing input to shaping our vision for New Hope’s future. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “ But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift… The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:7-16 NRSV)

Congregational Assessment Communications Team

Mark Baldwin Carl Egger Kandra Dickerson Bruce Bernard Pam Sloss Robin Harlow Pastor Lilian

Care Ministry Team Next meeting is Thurs., July 8th at 10am at the church. Social distancing and wearing face masks. Questions, contact Clarice Rubek, rrubek@aol.com

Mission Statement: Connecting kids to God and others.

Vision Statement: Connecting lessons about God through real life experiences. Christian Learning Time (CLT): 4 year old—7th Grade. Teachers: Charity & Amy

We are meeting either by Zoom or in person in the Purple room at the Church during the 10:30 service. May 2nd 8th Commandment May 9th 9th Commandment May 16th 10th Commandment May 23rd Last Sunday School meeting

S.W.A.G. (Saved With Amazing Grace): K - 5th grade. Leaders: Charity, Pastor Lilian, Kris

May 5th - Church Family Gathering. Blessing of Pets, Talent Show and Food Truck. May 5th will be the last meeting for S.W.A.G for this year

Vacation Bible School: VBS Team Charity/McKayla/Elaine/Celeste/Amy We are excited to announce that New Hope VBS will be July 11-14. We as a team are excited to start this year's VBS on a Sunday and also get to end on our Wednesday night. Please keep an eye out for the adventure that we are in the planning stages for this year's VBS.

If you have any questions, please contact Charity Johnson at

cjohnson@newhopedsm.org

page 5 May 2021

Care Team Lap Quilt Request

Our New Hope Care team delivers lap quilts to our parishioners in their time of need and illness. We reach out to all new mothers in our congregation and deliver a baby quilt to them and also we reach out to members who are having extended illness and surgery and deliver a quilt to them. The quilt is a symbol of the love that the New Hope family has for them personally. A lot of the members take the quilt with them to the hospital for comfort after their procedure or they keep it on their bed at home while they heal.

These quilts are hand designed and sewed by various members of our congregation and by the Needlers group at New Hope and given graciously to our Care team to deliver.

Due to the pandemic conditions, our supply of quilts has diminished. As of now we have plenty of baby boy quilts and baby girl quilts. We are in need of some more women and men quilts to have on hand.

Therefore, I am asking for anyone who is making quilts to consider giving one to the church for this Care Team mission project. If you are willing to do this please put it in a gift bag and label it as to who it would be most appropriate for like lady, or man. This bag can be brought to the church and Nancy can deliver it to the closet where we keep the quilt supply. This gift to the church will be greatly appreciated and will be a gift that will keep on giving to others.

Thank you for your time and for your consideration of this mission project. Any questions please feel free to call me at 515 490-3420. Clarice Rubek, Chair of New Hope Care Team.

BLAST: Believing, Learning, Assisting, Serving, Teens

Jr. BLAST (6th-8th grade) Leaders: Jackie Johnson & Jenn Higdon JrBLAST@NewHopeDSM.org

Jr. BLAST had an AMAZING April! We enjoyed finally being able to get back together in person in the church parking lot for a few of our gatherings!

We continued mixing in a little laughter with our learning and even got to know each other better than we already do with some interesting discussion questions.

Our final Wednesday night meeting of the school year will be on Wednesday, May 5th from 6-7:30pm with our all church taco truck/talent show/pet blessing event! Please join us! If it doesn't work for your whole family to attend, we still want to see our Jr. BLAST kids there so we can celebrate the end of the year with them!

Jenn and I will be working on some opportunities to get the kids together for a service project or two over the summer months, possibly joining up with Sr. BLAST so we can have more of an impact. Stay tuned to your email for details on those things and have a great summer break!

Don't forget to carve a few minutes out of each day to PRAY! We have talked about how ANY time we talk to God it's the right way to pray, but sometimes we still may need some inspiration or a "how to" to help us feel comfortable.

Attention 5th grade and 8th grade families - Over the summer we will begin the process of changing our email distribution lists. We will send our 8th grade kids information to our Sr. BLAST leaders and our 5th grade families will start to receive communication from Jr. BLAST! We will be looking forward to seeing

some new faces as we kick things off in the fall!

Sr. BLAST (8th-12th grade) Leaders: Chris Higdon, McKayla Johnson, Chris Spring, Brianna Johnson, and Pam Frey. BLAST@NewHopeDSM.org

This year, we will be ending our weekly gatherings after our end of the year celebration with the congregation on Wednesday, May 5th (6pm to 7:30pm). Join us on Wednesday night for authentic Mexican food from Hungry Boys!

As we are wrapping up the 2020-2021 school year; we are also wrapping up our weekly gatherings on Wednesday nights. It has been a crazy year of being virtual and being in the parking lot of New Hope. During this time, we have had good laughs as we have been playing games virtually and getting to talk.

As we have already announced; we won’t be traveling for our Summer 2021 Mission Trip this year; given the uncertainty around different restrictions on other communities. However, we are going to try to get the youth together later this summer to complete a series of service projects for our own congregation and local community organizations. We are calling this our "Staycation Mission 2021 Trip". More information about our summer plans will be communicated in the coming months.

For more information about our events will be sent out in email and posted on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/SeniorHighBlast).

page 6 May 2021

Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) Representative Needed We thank Charlene Cobb for the many years that she has been the New Hope representative for DMARC!!

This volunteer position is now available for someone else to enjoy. The few volunteer hours are given to collecting the in-kind food donations and delivering them to DMARC and also attending a Delegate Assembly a couple times a year. If you can fill this position, please contact Nancy in the church office. DMARC’s mission is: Working together to meet basic human needs for the greater Des Moines community.

Hand of Luke, May 14th This is our monthly ministry of a meal for the Central Iowa Shelter and Services. And the Shelter is now allowing volunteers to come back inside the site to allow our volunteers to serve the meal!!

Jolene Harlow has helped to lead this ministry. Jolene and her husband, Robin, will be moving out of state soon, so Arlene Dabill will be joining Patrice Webber to lead this ministry. We are continuing to utilize your monetary donations to purchase the majority of the food for the monthly meal. Your donations are greatly appreciated.

Beginning with this May 14th meal additional volunteers are needed. You can sign up by using this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/805084EABAB2EA31-hand11

We will need:

• 5 people to donate three dozen cookies. It can be your choice of flavor, i.e. Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, etc. excluding anything with peanuts or peanut butter. Please deliver your cookies to the church by the morning of Friday, May 14 in a disposable container.

• 5 people to meet at the church at 3 pm to prepare the meal.

• 3 people with vehicles to meet at the church at 5:15 pm to transport our meal to the shelter. These 3 people would also help serve the meal.

• 3 additional people for a total of 6 people to serve the food at the shelter. Our team plans to arrive at the shelter at 6 pm with the food and volunteers. The meal is served at 6:30 pm.

If you have any questions, please let Arlene Dabill know at dabill49@aol.com or 515-321-2059. Thank you.

MAY MISSION NEWS Co chairs: Cheryl Moore & Marilyn Osborn

Thank you everyone for your support of Missions 2021! Each month checks are issued from the Mission Fund to the following: Missionary, Dr. Emmanual Mefor, Women at the Well, Bidwell Riverside, Johnston Partnership, Urbandale Food Pantry, and DMARC.

CAMPERSHIPS Make sure you get your child registered for camp this summer!

Missions will cover ½ or up to $200 for each registration. We want as many as possible to attend our United Methodist camp at Wesley Woods where they will experience nature and Christ in new ways.

Check on-line at: www.iaumc.org/camps. Choose the camp, then call the Registrar, 800.765.1651, with the information, telling her that New Hope will pay ½ or up to $200.

Then call Nancy, at the church office, 278-2097, or email at nancy@newhopedsm.org to give her the same information.

GRAIN BIN: One of the effects of the pandemic season is the burden of so many families to put food on the table. The good news is that we always have something to share so that nobody is hungry. Never underestimate the power of a hand-full of uncooked rice, a cup of uncooked beans, a ladle of maize, a cup of cassava fufu and a can of soup! When the Grain Bin is full, the donations will be given to Johnston Partnership, Bidwell Riverside and the Urbandale Food Pantry, on a rotation schedule. Donations can be collected on Sundays. Thank you for your giving heart.

page 7 May 2021

page 8 May 2021

New Hope wants to remind you that we offer online giving as a way to automate

your offering.

To setup online giving go to www.newhopedsm.org and click on the

Gifts tab. This will direct you securely to set up an automatic donation.

Please contact the church office with any questions.

Church Communications Stay connected with New Hope UMC!! Weekly announcements and the monthly newsletters are sent out to everyone via email. If you have not been re-ceiving these emails, please contact Nancy Monthei in the church office at 278-2097 or nhfami-ly@newhopedsm.org. ALSO, we appreciate receiving your updated contact information. Thank you!

Plans for our annual New Hope Rummage Sale are well underway! We are still evaluating the "best" way to host the sale this year. We have Plan A, B and C and we will be making final decisions as to inside/outside, number of sale days, sale hours, Covid-19 re-strictions etc... as we get closer to the sale and can get an accurate idea of how to best serve our community and keep our volunteers comfortable and safe this year. Last year our sale looked noth-ing like it had in previous years, but we were able to safely offer it and it went well, considering the circumstances!! This year the sale still won't be 100% what we are used to, but we are antici-pating it looking at least a little closer to a traditional year.

Please mark your calendars for Rummage Sale Donation Day! Sunday, July 25th We will be accepting donations from the end of services - 7pm that day.

If you are comfortable volunteering your time this year we want to hear from you. Please let us know how you would like to help! Whether you have one hour to give or plan on devoting forty, the contribution of your most valuable commodity (time) is greatly appreciated.

Stay tuned as we get closer to July for all the important details. Join us in praying for a successful and safe 2021 sale!

If you have any questions or comments to share please contact Jackie Johnson at (515)710-3239 or jackiejohnson81@aol.com.

Sunday Worship 9am & 10:30am

Indoor and Parking Lot May 2021

page 9 May 2021

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

2 1

2 Communion 11:30a, Confirmation Class

3

7p, Trustees Mtg.

4 6:00p, SPRC Mtg., via Zoom

5 6:00 - 7:30pm All Church Event Food Truck, Talent Show, Blessing of Pets

6 6:30pm, Worship Committee via Zoom

7

8

9 10

11 6pm, VBS zoom meeting

12 13

14 3:30p, Hand of Luke

15 9am-12:30pm J&J Vaccine Clinic

16 9am, Graduate Sunday

17

18 6:30p, Finance Mtg., via Zoom

19

20

21 Deadline for June LINK

22

23 30 Peace with Justice Sunday (Offering)

24 31 Office Closed

25 6:30p, Transition Team Mtg at church

26 27 6:30p, Administrative Council Mtg., via Zoom

28 29

If you see that your name is not listed, please

call the church office at 278-2097, or email

at nhfamily@newhopedsm.org, so we can

update our files.

“May God’s many blessings, be yours the year through.” 3 John & Jody Rains 5 Gary & Nan Stubbs 6 Tim & Janet Carrigan 6 Nancy & Dale Monthei 10 Rick & Cathy Homard 14 Mark & Linda Yaske 17 Lisa & Jack VanDenBerg 19 Don & Ruth Doxon 19 Paul & Pam Weisskopf 22 Forrest & Marilyn Mc Cleeary 23 Mark & Tami Wise 31 Stephen & Norma Sutton

1 Brook Larsen 3 FloAnn Wills 4 Maddy Dolberg, William Rock, 5 John Lichter, Jeanne Mukeshimana 6 Cathy Beck-Cross, Alex Williamson,

Sally Lindstrom 8 Taylor Webber, Noah Neu, Pastor Jon

Gaul 9 Pam Frey, Michael Craighton,

Benjamin Leyda, Mollie Rooney 10 Sue Medley, Shawn Stringham,

Railey Johnson, Caitlyn Robertson 11 Spencer Wolfe 12 Marcia Lowe 13 Marilyn Osborn 14 Adam Herring, Andrew Wise

17 Tim Mc Culley 18 Kandra Dickerson, Jane Speck,

Alex Hershey, Samantha Wakeman 22 Linda Yaske 23 Margaret Heneke, Nate Kinnetz,

Dan Kirkpatrick, Mark Sahlin 24 Destinee DeBates, Drew Hershey 25 Jody Wolfe 27 Jenna Merrill, Suzanne Neu 28 Evan Kinnetz, Sarah Sahlin,

Kirsten Warner 29 Paul Weisskopf, John Walker,

Allyson Mohrman 30 Caroline Christensen, Shirley Johnson,

Montgomery Collet

Church Staff Pastor: Rev. Dr. Lilian Gallo Seagren Office Administrator: Nancy Monthei Director of Music: Colby Gochanour Children’s Ministries Coordinator: Charity Johnson Nursery Attendant: Jackie Johnson, Kris Wakeman

E-mail Information Church address: nhfamily@newhopedsm.org Pastor Lilian Gallo Seagren: Lilian@newhopedsm.org Colby Gochanour: colby@newhopedsm.org Nancy Monthei: nancy@newhopedsm.org Charity Johnson: cjohnson@newhopedsm.org

Find Us Phone: (515) 278-2097 4525 Beaver Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50310 Find us on facebook! Visit the website to find our facebook link.

The LINK newsletter is a monthly publication. Editor: Nancy Monthei; Reporters: New Hope Church family. Please contact the church office at 278-2097 if you have a change in address or would like to be taken off the LINK mailing list.

Following Christ, inspiring minds, loving hearts, serving hands and transforming communities. www.newhopedsm.org

Sunday Worship Services 9am: Parking Lot Service 10:30am: Parking Lot Service