Pastor David Lake’s Office Hours: Varied (9-12 a.m. T-F)

Church Office Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8:30 am-12:30 pm.

Please join us for Sunday Services: 8:30 am & 10:45 am

F.I.S.H. Club 9:30 am — Children plus Adult Ed Classes

The newsletter of First United Methodist Church of Waynesburg March 2017

“Teach O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I will keep it

to the end,” Psalm 119:33

First United Methodist Church 112 N Richhill St

Waynesburg, PA 15370 724-627-5951

firstumcpa@windstream.net www.waynesburgfirst.org

Hello Church:

March 1st is Ash Wednesday and begins the Season of Lent. Why Lent? Why 40 days? Answering the 40 day question is easy. It is a common number in the scriptures: 40 days and 40 nights of rain, Israel wondered 40 years in the wilderness and Jesus was tempted in the wil-derness for 40 days. Why Lent? Preparation time. Yep. We all need it. Very few of us like to be taken by surprise. We like/need time to prepare.

At the heart of the Christian faith is our participation of the life, suffering, death, resurrec-tion, and ascension of Jesus Christ our Lord. We proclaim that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Jesus Christ was born into human history for our salvation. This we confess and this we must renew continually in our lives. Renewal takes time…it does not happen overnight. We think, we pray and we need to prepare.

Lent offers us this time to plan for something new.

We are familiar with the term “Passover.” “Passover” is a celebration of the ancient He-brew agricultural spring feast and the historic rescue and deliverance from bondage in Egypt which occurred at that time of the year. The paschal lamb which was sacrificed to God in memory of that night of deliverance from death becomes a central symbol of redemption. It ap-pears in the New Testament, especially in John’s Gospel and in the writings of St. Paul. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast” (I Cor. 5:7-8).

Read Exodus 12. The lamb saved the people as the angel of death “passed over” the Egyptian land. Spend some time reflecting upon this idea…imagine being there as one of the Hebrew peoples.

Jesus is our Lamb. His life…given upon the cross…his blood has saved us and offers us forgiveness. Spend some time reflecting on: What does Jesus mean to me? How will I prepare during this Lenten Season to serve Him best?

In His Service,

Rev. David S. Lake

Prayer Team There will routinely be a prayer team at the overflow area following the 10:45 service.

Anyone who would like to be prayed for immediately following the service is encouraged to see one of the members of the prayer team.

Mission is most impactful when:

1. We know God—our Master—deeply.

2. We make sacrifices for the sake of others.

3. It is done through a community of people.

Prayer Focus The Prayer Focus for March-April is for the people of Mozambique who have been recently hit by cyclone Dineo. More than 650,000 have been affected

by the disaster while thousands have been displaced.

Ash Wednesday Service

Wed., March 1 at 7 p.m.

Sunday, March 5, at noon, eve-ryone is invited to a light luncheon celebrating the upcoming blessing of Baby Evanoff.

We suggest no gifts but you may like to bring a card, gift card, or a fa-vorite children’s book.

March 2oth!

Youth Schedule for March

March 5 – Youth Group with dinner, games, and a lesson. From 5-7 pm. Bring a friend!

March 12 – Youth Group with dinner, games, and a lesson. From 5-7 pm. Bring a friend!

March 19 – Skyzone trip followed by a stop for dinner afterwards. Leave the church at 12:30 pm and return around 6 pm. Cost is $15 plus money for dinner.

March 26 – Youth Group with dinner, games, and a lesson. From 5-7 pm.

Bring a friend!

* *All guys are encouraged to come to a Young Men’s Bible study held on Thursday’s at Alex’s house for Bible discussions and food. We will be going through the book of John.

*This schedule is subject to change. Please don’t hesitate to contact Alex if you have any questions!

Cell Phone: (724) 504-7699 Office Phone: (724) 627-6055

Did you know?

Antioch Connection, a small group at First UMC, has fundraising gift

cards for sale on a weekly and monthly basis?

www.giftcents.com/home/php shows all the cards we CAN order and on the

back heating register is an order form showing the most popular cards

purchased. Each store or business participating gives Antioch a

percentage of the value of the gift card, yet it does not deduct that from

the value of the card for your use. It has been a very steady source of

income that is used for mission, improvements within the church, etc.

Some folks buy their groceries with Giant Eagle gift cards and earn fuel

points, or buy other gift cards sold by Giant Eagle. Others buy their gas

with Sheetz Cards money they would spend anyway). Christ-

mas/Weddings & Graduation are always a good times to give gift cards.

While it was reported on the news that cards go unused, most people

do use them and can budget with them as well.

See Connie Hart for ordering cards. Thanks.

Applying Bible Principles

Have you ever asked yourself why you should give to God? After all, if God owns everything as the Scriptures claim, surely He doesn’t need our help to pay His bills. Why, then, should the Christian faith place such a great emphasis on giving?

There are many reasons why we give, but one of the best motivators is that we should give as an act of worship, out of love and adoration for our blessed Lord who has given so much to us. Hearts that have been touched by God’s love and by His sacrifice will naturally want to respond by giving. Such giving is an integral part of worship. In fact, it is worship, just as much as praying or singing or preaching. Or as one contemporary author expressed it, “Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice an echo. Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightning.”

When we give in that spirit, out of gratitude for God’s grace shown to us, our giving takes on a whole new dimension. Like Cornelius, one who gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly, our prayers and gifts will ascend “as a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4). Thus, as we give to the Lord through our worship, we evidence the grace of God in our lives.

On the wall of President Lyndon Johnson’s White House office hung a framed letter written by General Sam Houston to Johnson’s great-grandfather Baines more than a hundred years earlier. Sam Houston’s signature makes the letter valuable, but the story behind it is much more significant. Baines had led Sam Houston to Christ, and Houston was a changed man.

The day came for Sam Houston to be baptized — an incredible event in the eyes of those who knew his previous life-style. After his baptism, Houston stated that he would like to pay half the salary for the minister. When someone asked why, his simple response was, “My pocketbook was baptized, too.”

Like other followers of Christ throughout the centuries, Sam Houston demonstrated the reali-ty of God’s grace in his life by reciprocating that grace in the form of financial giving. Sam Houston worshipped God through his giving, and his gifts gave fresh evidence of the grace of God at work in his life.

As you give to the First United Methodist Church ministry, will you do so out of love and devo-tion as part of your worshipful praise? Will you thereby allow your prayers and gifts — like those of Cornelius — to ascend “as a memorial before God”?

Giving is an act of worship that evidences our love for the Lord.

“Your prayers and your alms have ascended

as a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4).

Café Receives Local Attention Without solicitation, the Café was the subject of local papers interested in telling our story. First Greene Saver, then the Yellow Jacket and then their partner, Greene County Messenger, recounted who we serve, why we do it and how the café got start-ed. While we are not advertising since we are fully tasked at serving the patrons at-tending now (up to 70 meals served 2 x wk.), we did accept the attention and gave in-terviews and quotes. The upside of that is a local agency contacted us to see if they could visit the Café to discuss their services. That may happen the last days of Febru-ary or March. This is part of relational ministry by connecting people with resources to help them succeed. One servant volunteer, Cathy, was approached by a patron whose daughter is looking for work, wondering if we had any information. We will do what we can and share information as we find it. There are usually difficulties with transporta-tion, so the usual paths of job searching may not work.

Our budget is holding up due to frugal meals and donations of frozen meat from the Salvation Army and periodic cash and baked donations. Our community service volun-teers are dwindling, but we have had some good folks, reliable and efficient. God will send us people at any given time, so we don’t worry. Ex: A WU student photographer for the Yellow Jacket stopped by to take pictures of the patrons to accompany their arti-cle. We told her we had already been published and pictures didn’t seem appropriate. But if she wanted to stay, we were a person short that night. She stayed for an hour and a half serving food and enjoyed herself. She was a Youth Ministry major. God is good!

Stop in some time at 6:30 – 8:00 pm Monday and Wednesday, except Major Holidays.

Janice Gottschalk, Coordinator

GENERAL FUND

2017

MONTH INCOME EXPENSES PROFIT/(LOSS) JANUARY $ 15,462.04 $ 21,309.16 $ (5,847.12)

FEBRUARY $ - $ - $ -

MARCH $ - $ - $ -

APRIL $ - $ - $ -

MAY $ - $ - $ -

JUNE $ - $ - $ -

JULY $ - $ - $ -

AUGUST $ - $ - $ -

SEPTEMBER $ - $ - $ -

OCTOBER $ - $ - $ -

NOVEMBER $ - $ - $ -

DECEMBER $ - $ - $ -

*NOTE: Figures in parantheses are negative.

*NOTE: Figures do not include in-church transfers.

From Connie Hart…..

I was recently asked to speak at a Walk to Emmaus gathering. Below are my notes and what I spoke about. My talk seemed to touch the attendees as they gave me their undivided attention. It especially touched a woman whose son had been in prison. She came running up to me afterwards and COULDN’T BELIEVE that I had talked about men in prison. She said it was exactly what she needed to hear. Praise God for His leading in this talk!

Don’t grow weary and don’t give up…..

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

I’m in my 11th year of prison ministry. It has been the MOST rewarding of my volunteer ac-

tivities. It’s truly amazing to see how God works in the lives of men in prison. Currently we’re studying Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Purpose book.

Many people will say ‘they are faking it, only there to get out of their cells, etc.’ No problem, God can work with that.

People will say ‘how can you work with them, some of them are murderers, child molesters, etc.’ What should I say, God can forgive them but I can’t???

Some of you may have pre-conceived idea about inmates….let me give you a picture of who we deal with; less than ½ of the prison population have their high school diploma, many don’t have fathers (they may have ‘uncles’) and many are special needs (autism spectrum, or other mental disorders). However, some of them are just like you and me or like our sons, or brothers or nephews. One guy in my current program is an ordained minister……let that sink in for a minute.

Many have been abandoned by their families. One time an inmate told us, I’ll see you next week unless I have a visitor – haven’t had one in 15 years…I think I’ll be here.

During the annual Volunteer Appreciation ceremony: We hear often from the inmates that……..We make them feel ‘normal’. Imagine that….wanting to feel ‘normal’.

My Signature verses for prison ministry has always been:

Matt 25:40 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sis-ters of mine, you did for me.' I didn’t realize that ‘The Least of these’ – could mean num-bers too.

This year we lost one of our long time volunteers, Miss Marilyn (as the inmates lovingly refer to her). That was hard for us! We usually allow 24 men to attend but decided to cut it back to 18 men since we’re one volunteer short. The first night 8 men showed up although 17 were on the list. (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page)

We always pray well in advance of the session that God will send just the right guys…..the ones who NEED to be there. And, He has always done that and been faithful to our ministry as we have trusted in Him for guidance.

One of the first things that I noticed is that this group in particular is a special needs group and are going to need special attention. At first it was like pulling teeth getting them to speak. Instead we got the deer in the head lights look. I’m ashamed to say that I went away from that first session, quite discouraged. But, after a few weeks they became more open with sharing…

At one of the sessions an inmate shared that he had prayed with one of the chaplains to ac-cept Christ as Savior. At another table an inmate told of leading his friend to Christ. This gen-tleman was catholic and the new convert asked if he needed to be catholic too. The inmate told him ‘no’ he just had to attend a church that believes in Jesus. I thought that was awe-some! It was so humbling to realize that these men might not have felt comfortable sharing in a larger group. God knew EXACTLY what he was doing by limiting the group size.

And I know that even if only ONE comes to the Lord…..it is worth it…..and we already experienced TWO in this short time with them.

Now, realizing how God is working and how He knew that it needed to be a smaller group. When 6 guys showed up this past week you would think that I was happy and confident in God’s working. No, I’m human and was disappointed at first wondering where the other guys were. But, praise be to God, I quickly ‘came to myself’ and said ‘we’re not going to worry about who is NOT here, we’re going to enjoy who IS here’. I immediately saw one guy’s face brighten and he sat taller and smiled. I thank God for getting my attention so quickly. I KNOW that comment made a difference….at least for that person!

Praise God for the work that He is doing at SCI Greene!

Miss Connie (as the inmates call me)

EASTER CANDY We are currently collecting candy to hide in the Easter eggs on Easter morning for the children. Please give your candy to Alex.

. UNITED METHODIST WOMEN

Rada cutlery is always available with catalog and order forms in the church office and through

Frances Crawford.

Crosses, Bear and Snowmen for Sale

The Antioch Connection is selling Trinity Crosses ($20), Welcome Bears and Snow-men ($45). The items are placed in the narthex and in the sanctuary for you to cash and carry. Please see Connie if you would like to purchase any of the items or contact her via email at cmhart@windstream.net and she’ll make arrangements to get the items to you. Please note that there are a variety of scarf fabrics for the bears and snowmen. Connie will have those available as well. Also, the sign on the Bear and Snowman will read "Welcome Friends" (unlike the picture) Proceeds benefit the projects of the Antioch Connection.

Game Night

Sat., March 18th at 6:30 p.m., there will be a game night in the Social Hall. Snacks will be provided. There will be different games set up, like miniature golf, Wii, and others. Everyone is welcome. Bring a snack to share,

if you like.

Antioch will have a brief meeting and set up at 5 p.m.

2017 Offering Envelopes If you do not have envelopes and would like some assigned to you,

please call the church office at

.....................................................................

Announcement List

March 5………………...………….Youth

March 12.………………..…….…..Lynn Bussey

March 19.……………………..…...Nate Duer

March 26...………………….....…..Jeff Cree

Pray always ~ without ceasing! Please call prayer requests to: the church office at

724-627-5951 If you would rather email, send them to Wayne Hart at:

wahart@windstream.net (Subject: Prayer Ministry)

March

Birthdays

Choir Practice

Bell Choir—Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.

Chancel Choir—Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.

Greene County

Hymn Sing

7 p.m., Sun. Mar. 12

at Claughton Chapel UMC

Through Antioch Connection, Care & Share is a group of people willing to help those in need. Whether it is meals, a ride, or support or anyone. If you or a family member are in the hospital or having surgery or home recuperating or just need a helping hand, or if you know of someone that needs our help, let us know by calling Janet Cree (724-998-3907) or Jeanette Lindsay (724-984-0262) or even the church office (724-627-5951) This is a church- wide effort.

Did we miss anyone’s

birthday?

Call the church office or send an e-mail to get your special

day in the newsletter

Call 724.627.5951 or email

firstumcpa@windstream.net

1 Joyce Roberts

Andrew Behm

2 Robert Escott

Allen Huffman

5 Jessica Higgins

Mike Milliken

Bill Ridout

Joshua Roberts

Lisa Schleicher

7 Abby Gaston

Betty Phillips

Jane Cree

9 Marla Patton

Reagan Rae Milliken

12 Nathan Duer

Mary Lemley

13 Emily McCarty

17 Morgan Paul

21 Frances Crawford

23 Kristen Bennett

24 Judy Griedel

31 Tim Mariner

Jeff Roberts

SPRING AHEAD begins Sunday, March 12th!

March 2017

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 7 PM Ash

Wednesday 6:30-8:00 PM

Erin’s Inside

Out Café

7-8 PM

Kid’s Café

2 6:30 PM

Bell Choir

7:30 PM

Chancel

Choir

3

World Day

of Prayer

4

5 Noon

Luncheon 5-7 PM

Youth

6 6:30-8:00 PM

Erin’s Inside

Out Café

7

7:-830 PM

Fast Track

Disciple-

ship

8

6:30-8:00 PM

Erin’s Inside

Out Café

7-8 PM

Kid’s Café

9

6:30 PM

Bell Choir

7:30 PM

Chancel

Choir

10

11

12

Noon

Church

Council 5-7 PM

Youth

7 PM

Greene County

Hymn Sing

13

6:30-8:00 PM

Erin’s Inside

Out Café

.

14 Happy

Valentine’s

Day

7:-830 PM

Fast Track

Disciple-

ship

15

6:30-8:00 PM

Erin’s Inside

Out Café

7-8 PM

Kid’s Café

16

6:30 PM

Bell Choir

7:30 PM

Chancel

Choir

17

Happy St.

Patrick’s

Day

18

6:30 PM

Game

Night

19

12:30-6 PM

Youth

20

First Day of

Spring 6:30-8:00 PM

Erin’s Inside

Out Café

21

7-8:30 PM

Fast Track

Disciple-

ship

22

6:30-8:00 PM

Erin’s Inside

Out Café

7-8 PM

Kid’s Café

23

6:30 PM

Bell Choir

7:30 PM

Chancel

Choir

24

Newsletter

Deadline

25

26 One

Great Hour of

Sharing Noon

Student

Luncheon

27

6:30-8:00 PM

Erin’s Inside

Out Café

28

7-8:30 PM

Fast Track

Disciple-

ship

29

30

31

NEWSLETTER ARTICLES ARE DUE TO THE CHURCH OFFICE BY Friday, Mar. 24th or earlier.

Daylight

Savings

Time Begins

5-7 PM

Youth