FUMC Voice First United Methodist Church Bertram, 115 E. North St.

Bertram, TX 78605

September 2014

As a family of faith, First United Methodist Church - Bertram reaches out to all with the good news of God’s love.

September 2014 Sunday School Teaching Schedule

September 7

Preschool - Carol Ann Young Elem- Mary Ann Gurno

September 14

Preschool–Becky Wendt Elem Suzie Marksbury

September 21

Preschool.- Kelly Jones Elem- Jocelyn Groce

September 28

Preschool –Katie Schmidt Elem- Jennifer Basey

Materials are available. They include a DVD to introduce the Bible Story and CD’s of great, fun songs. Please switch dates as meets your needs. After finishing your class, please leave the teacher manual in the file box for the next week’s teacher. If you are in need of any supplies please contact me. Thank you for your service Suzie Marksbury Suziemarksbury.sm@gmail.com

Tuesday, September 9 10:00 a.m.

We will worship and have communion at the Bertram Nursing Home. Please come and join us in this important ministry to our neighbors who are unable to attend worship on Sundays!!! You will be truly blessed

Communion Rail Offering

Fall will be here soon (Lord hear our prayer!) but it is still hot!!! Did you know that money left on the communion rail each month during our time of Holy Communion goes toward local mission? Thank you for your generosity as we seek to help others meet basic needs in this time of economic hardship.

Soaring Eagles Gathering September 8—First UMC-Burnet Covered dish dinner will be at 6:00 p.m. with worship at 7:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary. All members of the Bertram Emmaus Community are encouraged to attend to worship our God, renew our commitment to be the hands and feet of Christ, and show support for our community and our church. Applications are being taken for Women’s Walk #1768 October 16-19. If you or anyone you know would like to register, contact Pastor Roberta or Mary Gurno for an application. Confidential Scholarships are available. The Liberty Hill Watchmen Men’s Reunion Group meets on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. at Liberty Hill UMC. The Walk to Emmaus is a spiritual renewal program intended to strengthen the local church through the development of Christian disciples and leaders. The program's approach seriously considers the model of Christ's servanthood and encourages Christ's disciples to act in ways appropriate to being "a servant of all." Go to the Upper Room’s Emmaus website http://upperroom.com/emmaus.

Become a fan of First UMC Bertram on facebook

http://www.facebook.com/FirstUMCBertram

Pastor Roberta’s Office Hours Mondays 9:00 am to noon and Thursdays 9:00 a.m. to noon. Appointments at other hours welcome, please call Pastor Roberta’s cell phone number 512-277-0459 or parsonage home phone 512-277-7071.

TIME FOR BUDGET PLANNING!! Time for committee chairs to begin visioning for 2015 and estimating their budgets for the upcoming year.

Stephen Ministers are there for you in times of crisis or life challenges. Regular one-on-one meetings are held with someone who will listen to you and walk with you for as long as you want. The program operates in a strictly confidential manner; only your Stephen Minister and pastor know about your meetings. If you want more information please contact Pastor Roberta.

First UMC Bertram— A Stephen

Ministry Church

Bring your Box Tops for Education to Church and place in the Basket in the hall next to Fellowship Hall. They will be taken to Bertram Elementary to be redeemed for cash for the school!!!

It’s not too soon to start planning for Operation Christmas Child 2014. Katie Schmidt is once again spearheading this project and will be collecting the boxes NO LATER THAN NOVEMBER 16. Watch for ways you can make your gift go further. Look for back-to-school specials for crayons and art supplies or visit dollar stores to find the right supplies or toys that can change a child's life.

ICE CREAM SOCIAL AND "OPEN MIC" MUSICFEST

5:00 p.m. September 21st

145 S Lampasas (Greg and Kim Johnston's house)

The entire community is Invited—ask your friends, family, and neighbors! Music of all styles presented for and by all ages is welcome. If you have a song you want to share and need guitar or keyboard or whatever to have as accompaniment, please speak to or email Greg (johnston.gregs@live.com) or Pastor Devlon (devlon.goodman@gmail.com). Grab a lawn chair or a blanket to sit on and come join in the fellowship, fun, and ICE CREAM!!!!

Basic Principles of Stewardship *

1. All you have belongs to God. 2. Giving is a spiritual matter, a faith

issue. 3. Giving is a matter of choice, not law. 4. Giving should be done regularly 5. Gifts withheld are, in effect, stolen

from God. 6. Giving is an expression of love and

gratitude. 7. A part of all you receive should be

returned to God 8. The amount you give should be in

proportion to what you receive. 9. Earthly possessions are temporary 10. Giving involves your whole self,

including all you have and all you accumulate in your lifetime.

11. Giving puts you close to God’s work through your church

12. God will give you rewards far in excess of what you give;.

* Texas Methodist Foundation: Partners in Ministry.

Biblical Basis of Stewardship

Genesis 14:20 Abram gives one-tenth of everything to God.

Leviticus and Deuteronomy speak of tithing and of offering of first fruits to the LORD.

Exodus 35:5 Let whoever is of a generous heart bring the LORD's offering.

Proverbs 3:9 Honor the LORD with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce.

Teachings of Jesus:

Luke 12:13-32 The foolish farmer

Luke 21:1-4 The poor widow who gave out of her poverty

Matthew 25:14-30 The parable of the talents

Luke 19:1-10 Zacchaeus is transformed in his attitude of giving and of restitution

NURTURE/CARE NEWS

Summer at FUMC Bertram has been exciting and blessing filled. Pastors Roberta and Devlon are doing a wonderful job ministering to us in words and music. I remember folks talking at church about the possibility of a "band", or some expansion to the music program. Then Greg and Kim Johnston joined our church and the Goodmans with their musical talents were appointed here. God does answer prayers as we all know.. On August 15, Pete, Roberta, Devlon and I participated in the Back to School Breakfast sponsored by BCISD, welcoming teachers and staff back to school. Pete hung our church banner and helped Pastor Roberta and me hand out cookie bags, while Pastor Devlon handed out lots of flyers advertising our Hamburger Supper. Prior to this event several of us gathered in the Fellowship Hall to bag cookies as one of our giveaways. Great big thank yous to Edna, Mary Ann Jones, Nanette, Diana and Dub , Roberta and Devlon, Linda, and Judy for baking cookies and helping to bag 785 cookies. We gave 150 bags away that morning and we could have used more. Pete got wonderful Ronnie Lewis to make leather coasters and bookmarks with our Methodist logo and our church information on them as gifts from our church family. Several of the teachers from Bertram

Elementary thanked us for all that we did for them last year. We assured them that we would be helping again.. We will be "gifting" the staff at the school again. The dates are:

September 26 October 24 November 21 January 23 February 27 March 27 April 24

I have put a sign-up sheet in the Fellowship Hall as I did last year with suggestions for foods that we can make and take. The first breakfast will be September 26. Pete and I met last year at church around 6:45 to pack our cars and then proceeded to BES. Anyone is welcome to come along and since there are 56 staff members this year we could use a nice array of food items. As you have heard from Greg, the staff really looks forward to the breakfast mornings and we are really blessed to get to share our gifts of food, care, and love with them. . When the weather cools off a bit, we will resume The Cookie Brigade too.

If you have ideas that would enhance our ability to make everyone who enters our doors feel welcomed and accepted into our family of faith, please talk with Guileen, Mary Ann Gurno, Linda, or me.

Thanks be to God for the opportunity to serve. Mary Brown

FUMC PICTURE GALLERY

BCISD Superintendent getting ready for his meal.

Thank God for our Cooks!!

Greg and Pastor Devlon entertained The Diners!

2014 HAMBURGER SUPPER/ SCHOOL SUPPLIES FUND RAISER

A record breaking year! $1000 for Bertram Elementary!!!

Bulldog Breakfast—Welcoming Teachers for 2014-2015