The Newsletter of the United Methodist Church 1104 A Street, P.O. Box 293 Aurora NE 68818-0293 Telephone: 402.694.6471 Website: www.umc-aurora.org Sunday Worship: 9:00 a.m. Sunday School: 10:15 a.m. November 2014 Wednesday Evening Casual Worship: 5:30 p.m. Pastors: Rev. Ron Harris & Mary Scott All Thanks Be To God "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NRSV) Throughout time people have offered their thanksgivings to God in many ways. God's people showed their thanks, we are told in the Bible, through sacrifices, offerings, prayers, singing, and service. There was an understanding that God is the source of all of creation, of all life. These thanksgivings offered to God lift up our appreciation for that life and for the blessings that God continues to create from that life. From ancient times it has also been customary to set aside or devote a portion of a person's income or property to God. This was another means of giving thanks, of acknowledging that God was ultimately the source of all things. Farming makes one very aware that a person can do all the right things, but ultimately the success of a crop is beyond our control. In Leviticus 27:30 it states that "All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the Lord's; they are holy to the Lord." Paul's letter to the Thessalonians reminds us that we should give thanks to God for all things. Thanks is easy to give during the "good" times, but more difficult during the "bad" times of trial and crisis. This November with our Church Celebration on Nov.16th and Thanksgiving at the end of the month we should be mindful of how we are giving thanks for the many blessings that God has bestowed upon us. Let me close with some further words from Paul: "Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:7) All thanks be to God, Pastor Ron Pastor Mary’s Posting November 16, 2014 is an exciting day in the life of our church and a vital portion of our Stewardship Campaign. We will celebrate our commitment to the ministries of the Aurora United Methodist Church. Yes, celebrate! No phone calls, no speeches, no series of letters or dinner reservations. Everyone is invited to share in a light family-style brunch following worship in the Fellowship Hall on Sunday, November 16. You will be treated to morning breads, pastries, fruit, coffee, milk and juice. This will be your opportunity to learn about the various ministries and missions of our church in an informal setting. Dave Ziska has graciously agreed to serve as emcee. He will be sharing information about our churches’ ministries and missions by inviting ‘contestants’ to take part in our own AUMC version of the game show “Cash Cab”. On the show, questions are answered by riders in a taxi cab. If the contestant does no know the answer they are able to phone a friend or shout out to someone nearby on the street. When a contestant has acquired three strikes, aka three incorrect answers, they must exit the cab. While this is a light-hearted way to learn more about the ways in which we make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, funding our church budget is not a light-hearted matter. It is a time of prayer and personal discernment. Are we willing to faithfully share a portion of what we have been blessed with? Are we sincerely dedicated to training our children ‘in the way they should go’ as Proverbs 22:6 instructs us? Do we create opportunities for people of all ages to study and grow in their faith? Are we growing together in mission, sharing the light of Christ with others in our community? Are we actively taking part in our connectional effort to share the gospel with the world? I hope you will join us November 16 for brunch following worship. With each of us responding to God’s love with our financial commitment we can ensure heart-warming worship, vibrant ministry and life-changing mission in 2015. Grace and peace, Pastor Mary IMPORTANT CHRISTIAN EDUCTION DATES Senior High Youth will host a breakfast on November 9th following service. Please join us for great food & fellowship! There will be no JumpStart or Youth Group the week of Thanksgiving!! There will be no Sunday School on Sunday, November 16th!! Middle and High School Youth are invited to attend “The One Event” at the Heartland Events Center in Grand Island on Jan 3&4. To download a flyer with more information please visit--------------------------http://greatplainsyouth.org/files/2014/08/TheONEeven t2015.pdf . This event sells out quickly so please call Lori Ziska ASAP if interested! This year the Children’s Christmas Program will be held on Sunday, December 14. A different twist this year, the program will be held during our 9:00 a.m. Worship Service. More information will be printed in bulletins and announced in church. Braden Garwood is this year’s program director. For more information or questions please call the church or email Braden at [email protected] NOTES FROM THE PARISH NURSEStarting in November a Bereavement Group will be starting on Tuesday afternoons from 1:00 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. and will run 6 weeks. The group will be led by a social worker out of Tabitha. The minimum number of people needed to qualify is 3. Ideal class size is 12, everyone is welcome. Please call the Parish Nurse office at 402-694-6471 ext 26 if you plan to attend no later than November 6th. Class dates will be November 11, 18, and 25. December 2nd, 9th and the final class will be the 16th. There will be no charge for these classes only your commitment to come. Good News! According to the October 6, 2014 edition of Chemical and Engineering Science Magazine: Reprogrammed T cells from the immune system shows promise at beating blood cancers! 1. T cells are extracted from the patient. 2. At the lab a virus carrying an antigem receptor is inserted into T cells that recognize specific cancer cells. The virus in this case are inactivated HIV strains. The cells start to divide and multiply. 3. Reprogrammed cells are expanded in a bioreactor with the help of magnetic beads coated with anti-bodies that signal T cells to proliferate. The beads are washed out after 10 days. 4. The patient is given chemotherapy to lower other white blood cells, increasing the chance that the body will accept the modified T cells. 5. Reprogrammed T-Cells are infused back into the patient once in circulation they search and destroy cancer cells. These cells continue to multiply inside the body and even “stick around” if cancer returns. The draw back is that the body has a hard time dealing with massive protein breakdown from dying cancer cells. So “doseage” needs to be fine tuned. The “medicine” is living cells that came from the patient themselves. This hasn’t reached mass production nor does it have a long “shelf-life”. So far it does not work well for solid tumors. BUT HOPE IS YET TO COME! -C Rahrs, RN, Parish Nurse Election Day Soup Supper Tuesday, November 4, 2014 5-7 pm Bradshaw United Methodist Church 150 W. Fulton Bradshaw, NE Chicken noodle and chili, sandwiches, homemade pie and desserts will be available for you to enjoy. Free-will offering to benefit community ministry efforts. Ring the Bell with the Salvation Army Looking for a mission opportunity you can share with your family? Why not step up and ring the bell for the annual Salvation Army fund raiser. The Salvation Army is a Christian Church Organization that has a very strong commitment to reaching out and helping others. The help provides funds that are used throughout the year to give aid to travelers and others in time of need. One of the Salvation Army’s big fund raiser to support these ministries is ringing the kettle bell during the Christmas Holiday season. Volunteers from the community are invited to ring and stand next to the kettle. Our church has committed to standing by the kettle on Friday evening, November 28 and Saturday, December 20th during the day. If you are interested ringing the bell for an hour please contact the office or sign up at church. TLC PRESCHOOL UPDATE October has been an adventure here at TLC Preschool. We went on a nature walk and found all sorts of amazing things that God created for us to use and enjoy. We were very excited to see peanuts just harvested from the church garden. Thank you Bonnie Kruse for sharing your peanuts from the garden with the 3 year old class. The teachers were just as amazed as the students were! During fire prevention week the students at TLC Preschool practiced a fire drill, learned how to “Stop, Drop, and Roll”, and made fire engines with Oreo’s for the wheels. Thank you to the Aurora Volunteer Fire Department for bringing your fire truck to the preschool for the 3 year old class and for the tour of the fire station with the 4/5 year old class!! Check out our preschool hallway to see the farm scene complete with a pumpkin patch and ears of corn made by our students!! *** Parent – Teacher conferences for the 4/5 year old class will be held Wednesday, October 29, in the afternoon and Thursday, October 30 in the morning. *** November brings the excitement of Thanksgiving, learning about the Mayflower, pilgrims, Native Americans, and a lot of discussion of what it means to be thankful and to share with others. Stop by and look at our “Thankful” tree in the hallway during November. We will also be learning about the story of Jesus feeding 5000. Happy Thanksgiving from TLC Preschool!! Bonnie Kruse sharing peanut plants with peanuts from her garden with the TLC 3 year old class. TLC 4/5 year old class on their nature walk. ***STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY IS NOVEMBER 16*** Bazaar - Bazaar - Bazaar Thursday, November 6 is the date for our Church Bazaar. Hope you all can come! Coffee and delicious rolls will be served from 8:30 to 10:30 am. BBQ pork sandwiches, salads galore and quite a selection of pies will be served from 11:00 to 1:00. Come early for the Bake Sale and Craft Sale…….choice items go fast ! United Methodist Women The Conference UMW set a goal of collecting 2014 Birthing Kits to be delivered at the October 17-18 meeting in Lincoln. The Aurora UMW assembled 69 kits!!! Thank you ladies for being part of collecting over 3000 Birthing Kits at the Great Plains Annual Conference of United Methodist Women! The theme for the National Assembly of United Methodist Women last April was “Make It Happen”. When the challenge went out to the ladies in the Great Plains Conference to collect 2014 kits………….the United Methodist Women got busy and exceeded the goal! They “Made It Happen”. Thank you Pastor Mary for sharing highlights of your trip to the Holy Land. It was inspiring to see the sights and hear the stories through your experience. Epworth Village had their annual fund raiser on October 23 at the York UMC. Twelve people from Aurora attended and had a wonderful evening. Ladies who have contributed salads and/or desserts for dinners at the church --- please pick up your dishes. God’s blessings, Roberta Cool UMW President Ladies, if your donation is some kind of food, please label your containers. Address labels tend to wash off when they get wet, therefore, try a permanent marker. We thank you very much if you would return soon after the Bazaar to claim your bowls and pans. If you did not receive a flyer about the Bazaar, please contact me at 849-2628. We do not want to leave out anyone. See you November 6th……………bring a friend or two. Roberta Cool The Giving Tree Christmas Project The Outreach/Evangelism Committee will be placing a Christmas Tree in the narthex on November 23. We would like to provide a Christmas gift for the children attending Head Start and for their siblings. The tree will contain tags with gift requests from the children at Head Start as well as from their siblings. Please take a tag that includes a child’s age, sex, clothing sizes and toy request. Cost of the gift is in the $20-$25 range. Each child is identified by the number on the tag to insure privacy. There is a clip board by the tree so please fill out your name and phone number by the tag number you have taken. Please wrap your gift and secure the number sticker on the OUTSIDE of the gift. We need gifts returned by December 15th as school is out for Christmas break on December 19th. Thanks you for helping to make a Merry Christmas for many children. The Outreach/Evangelism Committees JUMPSTART FOR KIDS JumpStart is going strong, with 70 kids in attendance!! It melts my heart every week when I have little friends running up to hug, and hang on me. One little friend hugs me and calls me ‘his Kris’, I just can’t help but give him a huge squeeze right back!! We have been busy the past few weeks and have lots planned in the month of November. I am currently working on a Thanksgiving lesson that we will be doing for 3 weeks in November before the Thanksgiving break. October started us with the lesson “Pets are a Blessing”. We had very special visitors spend some time with us….Moses and Eddie the Comfort Dogs. They are the sweetest dogs and the service they provide is amazing. Eddie and Moses come from the K9 Ministries in Cairo and Grand Island. They travel the US providing comforting service to kids and adults in situations ranging from tornado to school disasters. As well as special events such as weddings and meeting kids like they did with us. Each dog has their own ‘business card’ so if you would like more information about their service let me know. We also spent a couple of weeks learning about praying and who to pray for. “The Five Finger Prayer” showed us to pray using our fingers as a guide….strange it may seem but it is a really neat way to help kids remember who to pray for. Using your fingers helps remember the following. Your THUMB is closest to you, reminding you to pray for those closest to you, (parents, family, friends). Your POINTER finger reminds us of those who point us in the right direction (leaders, teachers, pastors). Your MIDDLE is your tallest finger, praying for those that lead us (government, city/county authority). Your RING finger is your weakest, reminding us to prayer for those who are sick, in pain or in trouble. Lastly is your PINKIE, your smallest finger representing ourselves and our own needs. We made handprints with the reminder on each finger and on the flip side some names to pray for daily. Worksheets included a word scramble, searching in the bible to answer the questions “Does God always answer our prayers” and the little ones worked on let us pray coloring pages. “The Lord’s Prayer” was our next lesson, dissecting it into 9 parts. We all know the Lord’s prayer and how to say it, but do we really know what it means? Each of the nine parts we worked on explained the meaning behind those words. The older kids (2nd-5th) played a couple of games while learning the meaning of the prayer. With scrambling the nine parts they were grouped and worked on putting it back in order. They also used the nine parts and did a relay race randomly picking a part and putting in into their own words/prayer. This lesson also showed us that our prayer time with God is not a relay race. The little ones (K-1st) made an ‘itsy bitsy’ Lord’s Prayer book. Oreo cookies were also used as a lesson of how we can feel empty but by praying we ‘stick together’ with God. Worksheets included a word search and a crisscross matching page October 22nd was a night of fun and games for Halloween. We had a variety of games in each class. K-1st played pin the wart on the witch and pumpkin patch musical (similar to musical chairs). Grades 2 nd-3rd played pumpkin bowling and Witch Pitch (a bean bag toss game) and kids in 4 th and 5th grade had skeleton relay races, Halloween word scramble relay races, and pick your goblin (a name matching game). Despite the rainy evening and our outdoor plans being cancelled I think fun was had by all. Reminder dates for NO JumpStart are November 26th, Thanksgiving break. Blessings & Happy Thanksgiving! Kris Wilson – JS Direct November 2014 Saturday, November 1 Sunday, November 2 FOOD PANTRY COLLECTION 9:00 a.m. Worship/Chanel Choir COMMUNION 10:15 a.m. Sunday School Fellowship Coffee 5:30 p.m. Community Dinner Monday, November 3 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi 6:15 p.m. Prayer Group Tuesday, November 4 9:00 a.m. Parish Nurse @ Senior Center 9:00 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. TLC Pre-School 9:30 a.m. W.I.C. 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi Class 6:00 p.m. Praise Band 7:30 p.m. Rachel Circle Wednesday, November 5 9:00 a.m. TLC Pre-School 10:30 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. Yarn Spinners 5:30 p.m. Recharge Worship 5:30 p.m. JumpStart 6:30 p.m. Bell Choir 7:00 p.m. Chancel Choir 7:30p.m. MS/HS Youth Group Thursday, November 6 BAZAAR-8:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. 9:00 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. TLC Pre-School 9:00 a.m. Parish Nurse 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi Class 6:00 p.m. Praise Band Practice Friday, November 7 Saturday, November 8 Sunday, November 9 9:00 a.m. Worship/Bell Choir 10:15 a.m. Sunday School YOUTH BREAKFAST 5:30 p.m. Community Dinner Monday, November 10 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi 6:15p.m. Prayer Group 7:00 p.m. Trustees Tuesday, November 11 9:00 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. TLC Pre-School 9:00 a.m. Parish Nurse 9:00 a.m. Deborah Circle 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi Class 7:00 p.m. Sarah Circle Wednesday, November 12 9:00 a.m. TLC Pre-School 10:30 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. YarnSpinners 5:30 p.m. JumpStart 6:30 p.m. Bell Choir 7:00 p.m. Chancel Choir 7:30 p.m. MS/HS Youth Group Thursday, November 13 9:00 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. TLC Pre-School 9:00 a.m. Parish Nurse 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi Class 6:00 p.m. Praise Band Practice Friday, November 14 Saturday, November 15 Sunday, November 16 9:00 a.m. Worship/Chancel Choir Blood Pressure Checks NO SUNDAY SCHOOL STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY 5:30 p.m. Community Dinner Monday, November 17 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi 7:00 p.m. Worship Committee 7:00p.m. United Methodist Men 7:00 p.m. Christian Education Tuesday, November 18 9:00 a.m. & 12:30 TLC Pre-School 9:00 a.m. Parish Nurse 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi Class 7:00 p.m. Finance Committee 7:00 p.m. Administrative Council Wednesday, November 19 9:00 a.m. TLC Pre-School 10:30a.m. & 7:30 p.m. YarnSpinners 1:00 p.m. UMW Mission Team 5:30 p.m. JumpStart 7:00 p.m. Chancel Choir 7:30p.m. MS/HS Youth Group 7:30 p.m. Prayer Group Thursday, November 20 9:00 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. TLC Pre-School 9:00 a.m. Parish Nurse 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi Class Friday, November 21 Saturday, November 22 Sunday, November 23 9:00 a.m. Worship/Children’s Choir 10:15 a.m. Sunday School FELLOWSHIP COFFEE Monday, November 24 10:00 a.m. Tai-Chi 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Bloodmobile 6:15 p.m. Prayer Group Tuesday, November 25 9:00 a.m. &12:30p.m. TLC Pre-School 9:00 a.m. Parish Nurse 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Bloodmobile 10:30 a.m. Tai-Chi Class Wednesday, November 26 10:30 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. YarnSpinners 5:30 p.m. Recharge Worship NO YOUTH ACTIVITIES Thursday, November 27 HAPPY THANKSGIVING-OFFICE CLOSED Friday, November 28 Office Closed Saturday, November 29 Sunday, November 30 9:00 a.m. Worship 10:15 a.m. Sunday School SPECIAL OFFERING STUDENT SUNDAY Fellowship Coffee FOOD PANTRY REMINDER CHECK THIS OUT: On Thursday, November 6, a new fellowship group will meet. We will have a light meal at 6 p.m. at the home of Bruce and Kathy Ramsour (720-17th Street). We will meet for four or five weeks. Each week on Thursday we will eat, discuss topics that are timely to the group, and be done so that if you have a 7:30 meeting you can make it! Singles and marrieds, with or without children...all are welcome. Questions? Call The Ramsour’s at 402.631.9686.
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