MARCH 2015

NEWSLETTER A place for beginning, becoming, and belonging!

Sunday, March 8

Saturday, March 28 10:30am

Bring an Easter basket and your camera and join the hunt for more that 2,000 eggs. The event kicks off at 10:30 am with games, prizes, crafts, and Easter Egg Hunt. Don’t miss out on the fun! This event is open to all pre-k through 5th grade students.

We have 2,000 eggs to fill for the Sugar Creek Easter Egg Hunt. Would you be willing to donate? If so, we are in need of the following items:

Individually wrapped candy, small toys, stickers, or anything that will fit in 2” plastic Easter eggs.

Look for the donation box at the Information Desk.

Do you make a mean pot of chili (white or red)? Then make sure to enter the Sugar Creek Chili Cook-Off. Don’t make chili? Come be a taster, and vote for your favorite chili. We just ask that you bring a dessert to share. We have a sign up on the back of the Sunday connection cards, so please sign up!

Sunday, March 22 at 12:30pm

The Junior and Senior High Students will have a table set up in the Fellowship Hall beginning March 15. Stop by the table to find out how you can part-ner with our students and be a part of their mission experience. You don’t have to go on a mission trip to be a part of the mission trip. By supporting our students with prayer, encouragement and financial support you are “making the difference” not only in the lives of our students, but the lives of those they will be serving. The Student Mission Trips would not be possible without you!

YOUTH STOCK SALES

Palm Sunday March 29

8:15am—Traditional Service 9:45am—Traditional Service

11:00am—Contemporary Service

9:45am—Sunday School (all ages)

Maundy Thursday April 2 at 7pm

This special service will be held at Sugar Creek with Rev. Sara Isbell de-livering the message.

Good Friday April 3 at 7pm

Chatham UMC will host the Good Friday Service with Pastor Allen delivering the message.

Easter Sunrise Service April 5 at 6:30am

Midwest Mission Distribution Center

Easter Sunday April 5

8:15am—Traditional Service 9:45am—Traditional Service

11:00am—Contemporary Service

9:45am—Sunday School (all ages)

1st Ray & Judy Lytle 12th Jim & Sue Lund 17th Mike & Sandy Barnard 19th Chris & Sarah Clem 21st Dave & Joyce Sullivan 26th Tom & Bonnie McTaggart 29th Jimmy & Cyd Ayers

1st Lyle Behl

1st Jo Ann Yeaman

3rd James Powless

6th Tim Boblitt

7th Stan McTaggart

7th Sue Moroney

7th Todd Johnson

7th Adalyn Boblitt

8th Carolyn Bryan

8th Jeff Brown

9th Bonnie Horn

9th Cindy Chase

12th Hallie Hedinger

16th Sue Weston

17th Lloyd Dixon

19th Dakota Dowson

21st Robyn McDonald

21st Mike Henry

21st Bretta Patterson

23rd Carla Cannedy

23rd Keith Horn

23rd Lisa Brockway

24th Davis McTaggart

25th Pastor Allen

27th Deb Henry

28th Pat Gruen

28th Joe Gragg

29th Dee Ann Powless

29th Dorothy Westbrook

30th Paulette Hale

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ came to do three things. He came to have my past forgiven, you get

a purpose for living, and a home in Heaven.

Rick Warren

7TH—12TH GRADES

The Men of Sugar Creek will meet Monday,

March 9, at Sugar Creek Church. Illinois

Historian, David Brady will be the guest

speaker for the evening. Please join us for

this special night. Dinner will be provided.

All men are welcome!

To the Congregation of Sugar Creek UMC - Chilly temperatures this week have kept many of us bundled up in our homes. A “state of emergency” was declared in Tennessee due to icy roads and power outages. Fortunately, public utility workers and trained groups of people are equipped to handle this weather predicament. They are keeping residents as safe and secure as possible.

Recently when I was visiting your church, you heard about our Africa ELI state of emergency. Roofing classrooms and dormitories for Excel International Academy was an immediate need in South Sudan. It was essential to raise $30,000 for materials, equipment, and local laborers to get necessary con-struction completed before students started arriving for the new school year.

Just like the teams of state emergency personnel, you responded quickly and positively! With $2,430 from your members added to donations from other generous individuals, $30,000 was raised and wired to Excel by our February 15 deadline. I spoke with the school director, Wani Kenneth, and he described a flurry of activities now taking place at the school site. The sound of hammers pounding is filling the air! He reported that the first day of classes will be delayed until early March, but that school will open and students will resume learning for the 2015 academic year!

Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for meeting our critical need to welcome girls and boys back to an educational environment where they are sheltered and protected as they learn.

Because of your help, we carry on! With gratitude,

NEW LADIES BIBLE STUDY Kicks Off Wednesday, March 4 at 6:30pm

This 9 week study (homework free) is a topical study of Inheritance throughout God’s Word. All ladies are welcome and encouraged to join us. Please contact the church office (483.2270/office@sugarcreek.org) with questions.

GENERAL FUND

Contributions

Expense

Missions & Benevolence

Conference Obligations

Program Expense

Salaries (Pastor & Staff)

Utilities & Cleaning

Total Expense

Net Income (-loss)

BUILDING FUND

Contributions

JANUARY 2015

$27,113

$1,367

$2,206

$2,352

$16,116

$3,451

$25,492

$1,621

$598

THANK YOU for your gifts to fund God’s ministry.

“Money becomes true wealth when it is used to bless others” S. N. Lee

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Rainbow

Saint Patrick

Shamrock

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Leprechaun

March

Parade

Pot of Gold

MARCH MEETINGS

Caregiving Team Monday, March 2 at 6pm

PPRC Tuesday, March 3 at 6:30pm

Education Team Monday, March 9 at 6:30pm

Trustees Tuesday, March 10 at 6:30pm

Finance Team Tuesday, March 17 at 6:30pm

Leadership Team Tuesday, March 24 at 6:30pm

Hope is a powerful thing. [Cubs’ fans are buzzing and feeling pretty good as they have majorly bolstered their starting pitching here in 2015!] Over twenty years ago when I was a young adult, a couple of my buddies gave me a movie for Christmas. In the movie, a guy has his eye on this girl for a real long time. He has fallen for her – hard – we’re talking head over heels. She’s all he thinks about! He imagines the two of them to-gether. He works up his courage when he sees her to ask her out, you know, explore the possibility…

He pops the question: “What are the chances of a girl like you getting together with a guy like me?” The girl thinks about it and says, “About one in a million.” The guy lets what she’s said sink in, his face lights up, a big goofy grin spans across his face and he shouts, “Then there’s still a chance!” “Yes!” That, my friends, is hope! Even if the odds feel like they are about one in a million…

There are times when it feels like hope is in endless supply and unsinkable. In the landmark movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, we meet all kinds of interesting people including a man named George Bailey. George introduces us to two different kinds of hope: idealistic hope and survive-the-day kind of hope. First in George’s life as in all of our lives, there is idealistic hope. In idealistic hope, we are going to rule the world, we’re going to be raging successes, and everybody’s going to like us, we’ll never face any push-back, and nothing bad or challenging will ever happen in our lives. Idealistic? In “It’s a Wonderful Life”, George Bailey is full of idealistic hope – it oozes out of him – as he tells his Father –“I couldn’t face being cooped up for the rest of my life in a shabby little office… this business of nickels and dimes and spending your life trying to figure out how to save three cents on a length of pipe… I’d go crazy! I want to something big and something important. [Hope] Most of my friends have already finished college. I just feel like if I don’t get away, I’d bust.” Later George is talking to his girl Mary. George declares – “I know what I’m gonna do tomorrow, and the next day, and the next year, and the year after that. I’m shaking the dust of this crummy little town off of my feet and I’m gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then, I’m coming back here and go to college and see what they know… And then I’m gonna build things. I’m gonna build air fields. I’m gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I’m gonna build bridges a mile long… What is it you want, Mary? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around in and pull it down. Hey, that’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon, Mary.” [Hope] Sky-is-the-limit idealistic hope

Now, of course George’s life plays out nothing like he expects. Have you ever been there? Idealistic hope is one thing. Hang in there, endure, survive the day hope is quite another thing. In “It’s a Wonderful Life”, George’s life falls apart. George is frazzled, desperate. He drinks and he prays, “Dear Father in Heaven, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope. Show me the way.”

George needs help. He needs hope. George goes through stuff before hope is fully front and center. George gets punched in the face, sports a busted lip. He wrecks his car, he prepares to jump off of a bridge, he sees a man jump off of the bridge, then George jumps off of the bridge to try to save him. And then George sees what the world would be like without him. George runs from the Law, he chases a woman and makes her scream – twice. He punches a police officer and runs – and then George prays, “Please God, let me live again.” And you thought your life was complicated! The importance of people being saved is brought out over and over again in that juggernaut of a movie. And through it all, there is always hope. Hope is a powerful thing!

What begins poorly can end well. Hope is found in Jesus Christ. Jesus comes because the people walk in darkness. They are sick in mind, sick in soul, and they don’t even know it. The people walk in darkness. They are frustrated and discouraged. Hope is almost gone. The sentiment ‘It’s gonna be alright, the darkness won’t last forever’ is hardly detectable at this point. The people walk in darkness. They’re going through stuff – they’ve got issues and problems. And, ultimately, they’re faced with a decision as to what they’re going to do with Jesus: obey Him or continue to defy Him?

In the midst of upheaval and despair, in any of our lives or in the lives of others, there is hope. The sentiment ‘It’s gonna be alright, the darkness won’t last forever” comes into the people’s sights. Hope is coming! Hope is found in Jesus Christ – for whatever challenge you may face or for whatever ails you. That’s Good News.

Jesus’ Authority goes out to the four corners of the world – north, south, east, west. The times are a’changing and the rules are changing. Tell the world: Jesus Christ is worldwide – there is a new hope, a new Savior and a new Authority in our midst. Nothing stays the same – everything can change through Jesus Christ.

We live in the midst of Two Poles of Hope. One pole of hope is idealistic hope: we will rule the world, we will be wildly successful and effective in everything we do. The other pole of hope is more of a weathered, sustained, enduring, survive-the-day kind of hope. Between the Two Poles of Hope, it’s gonna be alright – the darkness won’t last forever. We have known darkness in our lives and hopefully we have also known some light that comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ. In the wide range of our idealistic hope and our enduring, hang in there, survive the day hope, may we each find Jesus Christ.

Pastor Allen