Notes from the Grove Myrtle Grove United Methodist Church Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3225 1030 N. 57th Avenue Pensacola, FL 32516 Phone: 850-456-7463/7464 Fax: 850-456-1897 Office Hours: Mon-Thu, 9:00 am - 3:00pm Closed Friday PRAY FOR YOUR STAFF: Senior Pastor: Riley Richardson Certified Lay Pastor: Patrick McBride Church Secy./Receptionist: Cheryl Johnson Financial Secretary: Buffy Harrelson Pianist: Patsy Dean Choir Director: Jamie Broxson Membership Secretary: Vernon Ard Nursery/Children’s Director: Amy Lee Our Vision Statement: “Every member a good neighbor.” A monthly publication for Myrtle Grove United Methodist Church Web:http://www.mgumc.org Email: [email protected] N ove m b e r 2 0 1 4 Vol u m e 1 1 , I s s u e 1 1 Senior Pastor’s Note Devotions (2014) This was a devotion that I wrote on October 7th. I thought I would include it in this month’s newsletter in case some may have missed it……. I just got to my office and my mind is still on the Word of God that was given to us through His servant Patrick McBride. What has excited me the most was this statement, “God has been planting the seeds of revival, now God is bringing the water to this community – see the seeds of new life, our God is doing a new thing!” Of course I have three pages of notes, and while that may not be a direct quote, it sums it up for me. God used Patrick in a powerful way to share with us His very heart. Thank you Patrick for “hearing what the Spirit said”. For my devotion this morning, God lead me to this powerful statement by Henry Blackaby: The phrase, "what the spirit is saying to churches," you can find in Chapters 2 & 3 of Revelation. Basically he says several things in that. Number one, he comes to the church and speaks to the pastor, or the angel. He says, "I know your works." And before every church, he also gives something of a characteristic of his nature. Each one of them is different. For instance, Ephesus says that it's the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven. Well, each of them is different. So God comes to the church and each individual congregation. And he says, "I know your works." Then he describes them. And if there's anything that's not right, he immediately calls for repentance. As he comes to the end of every one of these, he says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches." God walks in the midst of the churches, and of course, if Christ is the head of every local church, then He is present and active and involved. He will speak to the churches. If they won't hear, He just says then, "I'm sorry, I withdraw." We can go on practicing religion and never know that He has left. In too many of the churches, what we're doing and what we're planning to do, we can do without Him. I’m asking each and every church member to start praying that God will give our leadership at MGUMC His vision! Pray that we all will hear what the Spirit is saying to our church and, pray that we will be faithful to do what the Spirit says! Our Purpose Statement: “Our Journey - Knowing, Loving, Serving, Sharing.” Worship News Hello Again! Seasons come and seasons go and here we are at the beginning of another winter season. I’ve already ordered the poinsettias for delivery in December. Watch for more information in the bulletins to place your order. On November 29th, we will do the Hanging of the Greens in the church. I’m looking for volunteers to help on that Saturday. We’ll have coffee and doughnuts as a refreshment while we work. November 30th is Harvest Sunday. Please bring can goods and other non-perishable food items and place it at the foot of the altar. Our mid-week devotional service is going very well. I’m always looking for people to give a testimony and/or a short devotional. Join us Wednesday mornings from 10:15 to 10:45 and share communion with your fellow Christians. Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service 7:00PM Myrtle Grove UMC Little Flower Catholic Church will be coming to Myrtle Grove to worship with us. Father Casserly will be preaching the message. Our choirs will combine to bring us the music. Come join us for worship and light refreshments after the service as Myrtle Grove is hosting. Submitted by, Frances Asbjornsen, Worship Chairperson Sunday Activities Traditional Worship 8:30 am Meet the Staff 9:45am Monthly Sunday School 9:45 am Contemporary Worship 11:00 am Prayer Team 4:30 pm Elevate 5:00pm Wednesday Activities Worship Service Opportunities Communion Worship - 10:15 am (2nd Week Thru Last Week) Supper - 5:15pm Small Groups - 6:00pm Youth Bible Study - 6:00pm Chancel Choir Rehearsal - 7:15pm Thought for the Month United Methodist Women Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his, we are the people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Our United Methodist Women now has four circles and each one is getting back in the swing of activities now that fall is here. The Joy-Nadine Circle continues to serve the UMM group each month and recently served a Wednesday night dinner with proceeds going to their mission fund. The Arbeiter Circle sold the Rada cutlery and other items at the bazaar, and they now have 15 active members. The Guild stays busy crafting and we saw many of their clever items at the bazaar. Our new circle, Sisters in Service, continues to amaze us with all the community projects they're involved in. Hats off to all of you UMW members who follow our purpose of mission work, and do it unselfishly with happy hearts! A BIG THANK YOU to all who contributed in any way to the bazaar! Judy Cannon UMW President Psalm 100 NIV Harvest Sunday November 16th 8:30 & 11:00 Services Bring your can goods and non-perishable food items and lay them at the Altar. Donations of money will be accepted as well. Just mark your check Harvest Sunday. Thanksgiving bags will be made up for our church families that are in need of help. If you know of a family, please submit their name to the office by Monday, November 17th. Veterans Day Tuesday, November 11th Let us remember our veterans with our prayers for their service to our nation. The church office is closed. All Children’s Ministry I want to start off by thanking everyone who helped and donated to make our church playground so very beautiful! The children and parents love it! If you haven't taken a look, please come or drive by! A very big thank you to the United Methodist Men who coordinated the work day and had everything started and finished in one morning!! Thank you UMM! You are such a blessing to our church!! This month, we will be preparing for the season of Advent and Thanksgiving. God’s greatest gift to us was wrapped and placed in a manger! An Advent activity called "Manger on the Mantel" will be given to the children this month. Each day the children will take a small "present" from the manger they have assembled. The "present" will instruct the children where to move the manger next and also includes a daily Bible verse and activity starter. Children will love the message that the good things we do are in response to God's loving gift of Jesus! The Children's Ministry is still in need of volunteers for Children's Church, Wednesday Night and Sunday School. If you are interested, I would love to talk with you! Prayerfully consider teaching and mentoring the awesome kids we have here at Myrtle Grove! Thank you and God Bless! Amy Lee 776-7514 [email protected] Hello Church Family!! This November the youth are starting our sign-up for Meltdown, the retreat that we attend every year in January. The students are tasked with coming up with $50 of the price, and we are trying to raise money to cover the other $60 of the tuition. So, this month the youth will be doing a fundraiser to try and raise the rest! This fundraiser will be selling smoked Boston butts or smoked turkeys (I’m still checking on meat prices, so more details are coming!) on Nov. 26th to help you with feeding all those hungry family members you’ll be hosting over the weekend! So, if you want to help our youth attend meltdown and help feed your family, then sign up in the next few weeks for some delicious smoked meats, courtesy of our youth group! Also, if you are interested in just plain donating towards this retreat and sponsoring a student to go, just make your checks to MGUMC and write “Meltdown” in the memo line, and we’ll get it to the right place! Thanks so much for your prayers and support of our youth! We love you, church! In Him, Patrick Library News Young at Heart If you’ve poked your head in the library lately you’ll think we had an explosion! We’ve had really big book donations from Bill and Kathy Ralli and also from Ken and Joyce Lewis. We recently received a cart full of books from an anonymous donor. Thank you for those, and stop by and let us know who you are! Alice Barnes and I are still going through the books and haven’t logged them in and put them on the shelves. However, we have to go through books on the shelves and cull the older and less used books to make room for the incoming. There are other changes you will notice as time goes by. We’re combining books by authors and shelving them by name. If you’re looking for a particular book from a popular author, they’ll all be together under the author’s name sign, i.e. Max Lucado will have his name sign and all our Lucado books will be grouped in one place. We’re also grouping books by classification, i.e. Poetry, Sports, Youth, etc. This is taking a bit longer for us but it’s coming! You’ll still be using the card file to sign out books. A few of the new books you’ll find on the shelves are: The Spirit Who Will Not be Tamed, by Edmund Robb Talking With God in Old Age, by Missy Buchanan Inheriting the Trade, by Thomas Norman DeWolf The Undertaker’s Wife by Celia M. Hastings The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, by Kenneth Taylor Now that we’re getting into the hectic holiday season, think about taking a bit of time out to kick back, put your feet up, grab a library book and have a good read. The meeting was called to order by President Miriam Storey at 10:30am in the church fellowship hall. Everyone was welcomed. Bob and Jane Dennard and Ronnie Marie Ingram were guests. Miriam opened with prayer lifting up the following people: Elizabeth Riordan’s family, the Hurst family, Renee Hedden’s family, Marlene Cooper, and Ashley Walker. Joyce Dean, Teresa Miller, Marge Byrd, Cheryl Hyde, Marlene Cooper, and Rita Barton all celebrated October birthdays. Those present received a small gift. Bob and Jane Dennard celebrated their anniversary. Miriam thanked the kitchen helpers Claudia Savage, Sue Warner, and others. Miriam decorated the tables with crosses and candles. The kitchen help for November will be Joyce and Pete Dean and Janie and Bill Brown. Miriam will decorate the tables. Sue Warner gave a Treasurer’s report and for some reason I failed to write it down. The program for November will be the Bells and Beaus. There are around 15-20 people, so please bring extra portions in your covered dishes. The meeting was cut short so that we could watch the movie “God Is Not Dead”. Everyone enjoyed it. Bill Brown blessed the food and we had a wonderful buffet. All seniors are invited to join us the first Wednesday of every month in the fellowship hall at 10:30am. Bring a covered dish to share and enjoy fun, fellowship, and food. What a day to remember! Remember, God is always good all of the time. God Bless Each of You, Sue Warner and Alice Barnes Respectfully Submitted by, President Miriam Storey Sisters in Service We had a very successful September with our Apple Tree project. Thank you all for your generosity in providing school clothing for 42 children connected to our church family. They were blessed to receive their gifts and we were able to show the love of Christ to these families. In October, we participated in the Re-Imagine Pensacola event at Oakcrest Elementary School on the 25th. This was a wonderful opportunity to be part of something that served as a blessing to children in need. The Sisters worked in the Mission Fishin' group, sharing the Gospel message with salvation bracelets for each of the kids. Looking ahead to November, we are cooking on the 15th for approximately 100 volunteers who renovate a needy family home in one weekend. Then we will return to the Washburn Center on the 22nd with hot soup and sack lunches for the homeless. We have many warm clothing items, towels and washcloths, and individual sized toiletries to distribute through your generous donations and our fundraiser meal last spring. We hope to provide bath and laundry soap to be used in the showers and the washing machines. Please bring any items you have been saving and put them in our basket in the Fellowship Hall. We continue to invite any ladies with a heart for missions to join us. We meet for 2 hours once a month with a light meal, a Bible study, and then time to plan our projects. Our events are held on Saturdays so that our working women can participate. See the new church directory if you have questions for group leaders Wanda Rankin or Carol Laguens. Being the hands and feet of Jesus is a true blessing! Addresses & Other Changes, New Members, Baptisms, Transfers, & Deaths Address Change: Bobby Hayes Death: Martha Elizabeth Riordan New Member Robert Allen Rogers (PM) Address Change: Mike & Cathy Prouty If you have moved, please submit your new address to the church office by email: [email protected] or by calling (850) 456-7463. Thank you. Note: For privacy, addresses and phone numbers have been removed from this portion of the online version of the church newsletter. If you need this information, please contact the church office. November Prayer List November 1 Robert & Cheri Peace, Robert & James Laurel Peoples Raphael & Deborah Pereira Louise Perkins David & Lorelei Peterson Harry & Pat Peterson Richard Peterson November 16-22 Jason & Belinda Radford, Danielle Jennifer Ralli Bill & Kathy Ralli, Daniel Wanda Rankin Greg & Tracy Ratzin, Jessica & Kelsey Barbara Ray November 2-8 Robert & Jeannie Pilgrim, Summer & Elizabeth Joshua & Bree Pittman, Aidan William & Helen Plag Shamicka Pope, Vicie & Xavier Ashely Porter Benjamin & Laura Porter Ian & Sarah Porter, Gracie November 9-15 Jim & Nell Potter Robert & Pamela Powers Patricia Prendergast Jennie Presley Fred Price Mike & Cathy Prouty, Amanda David & Kelly Pugh, Madelynn November 23-30 William & Kathryn Rayburn Keith & Mildred Reaves, Travis Jackie Reynolds Jim & Machelle Reynolds John & Connie Reynolds Dennis & Kim Rhoda, John & Jason November Birthdays 6 - Alice Barnes 7 - George Mazzagotte 8 - John-Annie Roberts 12 - Linda Baker 14 - Christine Clary 15 - Ron Ayers 16 - Mildred Hubbard 17 - Gertrude Wright 19 - Sue Warner 19 - Louie Smack 21 - Robert Miller 24 - Susie Gordon 26 - Christa Murphy 28 - Cathy Prouty 30 - Jennie Presley