MESSENGER MAPLEWOOD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

JULY 2016

Come and gather on the porch steps

Help hand out water from the church steps during the Maplewood “Let Them Eat Art” event on July 8. We will be passing out bottles of cold water to passersby from the Sutton street steps from 6 p.m. until dark on that evening. You are welcome to come help for a few minutes or the entire evening. If you have questions please contact Colette Cummings

from the choir corner,

a note from Amy It was good to learn a new praise song recently, Revelation Song. We will sing it again on July 3rd. Come on and join the praise band at 10:45; we'll practice together! Thank you to Brent Ford and Ben Griffith for their inspiring solos. There still are several Sundays available; just give me a call.....314-922-0297.

How and Why to Bake a Loaf of Bread with Father Dominic Garramone and Rev. Deborah LeMoine

Wednesday, July 20 6-9pm Salem in Ladue UMC benefitting Epworth Children and Family Services

Join Father Dom (former host of PBS’s Breaking Bread with Father Dominic and author of Bake and Be Blessed and numerous other books on baking) and Pastor Deb (author of Dear Elizabeth and creator of Epworth’s Hot Food Friday program to feed homeless youth) for an evening of bread baking and spiritual conversation. There will be a lesson and demonstration focusing on how to bake great bread at home (we will mix and knead a basic yeast dough and cover several methods of shaping and baking), along with a dialog about why baking and breaking good bread together is a spiritual practice that can enrich our lives and our community as well. Recipes and samples will be shared, and books will be available for purchase and signing. Suggested donation of $25 funds summer meals for food insecure youth at Epworth’s North County Drop-In Center. Register at: https://goo.gl/kkWfFh

1 Michael Plonka 6 Jerry Blackwell 6 Jason Watkins 10 Beth Abeln 11 Jack Abeln 12 Joe Raniero 12 Rita Hanley 19 Danny Findley 20 Jeremiah Allen 20 Ben McGowan 20 Luke Watkins 21 Ben Stotler 21 Gary Martin 22 Jim Baskett 24 Dave Stallman 25 Juanita O’Laughlin 25 Mary Downing 26 Anna Baskett 27 Colleen Watkins 31 David Kunce

7/11/87 – Larry & Kathy Schmid 7/14 – Nancy & Wayne Clark 7/23 – Dennis & Tami Collins 7/25/98 – Kevin & Hope Watkins 7/30/83 – Mike & Dorleta Lodholz 7/31/09 – Rachel & Dustin Ward

Here’s a Sunday School update

From Sunday, July 3 through Sunday, August 7 the Pre-school,

Elementary & Middle School Sunday school classes will be on hiatus.

During this time the ceilings will be installed in the Sunday school classrooms! Sunday school classes will resume on Sunday, August 14! The nursery will be available as usual during Sunday school time and during worship. (That classroom already has a new ceiling!)

We will miss the time together but are looking forward to looking up at new ceilings in the classrooms when we return after this break!

Youth Mission Trippers will be serving in South Dakota

Noah Buxton, Samantha $ Jonathan Schaffner, Jonah Findley, Lauren Wismann, Emily & Sue Baskett and Jerry Blackwell, will be departing Saturday, June 16 for a week long mission trip. They will be working at The Lakota Sioux Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge South Dakota. Please keep the youth and adults from Maplewood UMC and from First UMC in Webster Groves as they travel and serve together.

Sunday, July 10 the mission trippers with be commissioned into the mission field during worship.

Youth summer campers gathering to head out for a week of fun and fellowship ate camp.

Ad Council votes to support Kwasha-Kids

There was an article in last month’s Messenger about the school that has been started by our own Karen Raborn in Solwezi, Zambia, Africa. Kwasha-Kids was designed to educate young girls between 1st and 4th grades and they expected about 40 students. The first day of school over 200 children, boys and girls, showed up at school and they just couldn’t turn the students away. The school is needed in this area because the nearest school is over a mile away and these children are too young to walk that far.

The community has come together to make bricks to be used in building the school. They are also digging sanitary toilets which they hope all will be ready when school starts again. The parents are making many mats and knitting baby items to be sold so they buy lumber to build desks and benches for the children.

Ad Council designated $660 to be given for materials needed to finish the school. In addition to financial help there are other needs too: school supplies (pencils, notebooks, paper, school bags, etc.). Soon the school supplies will be going on sale here at home and there will be a collection box for Maplewood UMC to collect these supplies.

Now, you might ask, “why can’t we just send money for them to buy supplies there?” There are NO supplies there to buy. Maplewood will be partnering with the Presbyterian Church in Kirkwood, who will be sending supplies to the school in September. We will just add our supplies to their shipment and help with the cost of sending it. So watch the ads and pick up some of the supplies for school that will be so inexpensive before school starts and bring them to church.

Summer Sin Cinema …featuring

“the 7 Deadly Sins”

Continues……. At the Maplewood United Methodist Church sanctuary near you on this Summer. Each week we will use movie clips (very carefully) to help us understand more about the Seven Deadly Sins - Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony and Lust – and how they impact our lives in a “deadly way. We’ll also talk bout life-giving alternatives!

Annual Conference Report, 2016 This year’s annual conference focused on worship and honoring our roots The conference began with baptism: Rev. Elbridge Barely, Jr was recognized. He was baptized at the 1916 conference which was then known as the SW Missouri conference. He served as a navy chaplain and as he celebrated his 100th birthday on the 20th of this month. He recalled a quote that he heard as he approached his century birthday, “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely, in a pretty, well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside thoroughly used up and totally worn out, and loudly proclaim what a ride, what a ride. Amen!”

Annual Conference also recognized two anniversaries. The first being the 60th anniversary of the full ordination of women with clergy women all wearing red shirts with silhouette of female circuit rider on it (ask pastor Kim to show her hers) The conference also celebrated the 20 anniversary of ordained deacons in the Missouri conference. There are currently approximately 30 deans serving in the conference.

This year the conference speakers came from within the conference and we were treated to some great preaching during the conference. It opened with a powerful message from Rev. Yvi Martin about the Boaboa tree in Mozambique, Rev. Ron Watts spoke about the fact that Contemporary is Temporary and the point is to keep it Relevant: what works for one generation may be seen as out of date by the next one. Cody Collier was the preacher for ordination and blew everyone away with his powerful message about feet at the ordination service

based on Romans 10:8-15 about the power of feet in spreading the good news! Sunday morning was kicked off with Sunday School led by Mat Miofsky who taught about Evangelism based on John 1:35-51 where we all learned that evangelism is based on two simple yet complex concepts: Invitation and Relationship. Bob Farr preached Sunday morning about the on the subject of radical hospitality during his sermon, “Everyone is somebody” .Monday’s service as led by Lynn Duke who reminded the conference to find the sweetness in the midst. This year also marked the end of Bishop Schanse 12 year tenure as Bishop of the Missouri Conference and he received a number of special gifts (including honey), as token of appreciation for the worked he did to strengthen the Missouri conference.

Gateway Central (that’s us) has a new District Superintendent Londia Granger Wright is the incoming D.S. and I am sure she will visit us at some point. Kurt Schuermann has been appointed to Green trails.

The AC collections:Restorative Justice-$11, 000+ Mozambique- $14,057 Haiti Clean water $11, 333.36

Colette had the opportunity to attend a dinner for black clergy and lay leaders during the conference and will be working with Leah McIntosh to help create a plan to work with churches who are seeing increased diversity within their congregations. She also attended a session on increasing your personal energy, summer or to starting a walking group at the church. Pastor Kim attended sessions to learn more about the conversation at Annual Conference about sexuality in the church. Both Colette and Kim really enjoyed the concert by I AM They who performed after the street fair this year. Colette would like to thank everyone for the opportunity to serve

as our conference delegate this year. It was a great experience

and I learned a great deal about the operations of the United

Methodist Church, especially the Missouri Conference. It was a

wonderful experience and I am excited to see what is next for

the Missouri Conference and Maplewood UMC.

Many changes happened at Maplewood UMC the last week of June. A youth mission group from the Detroit area of Michigan has been working hard removing all the water damaged ceilings on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Education building and painting hallways. They also helped sort clothing at the Second Time Around Shoppe, tore off the back porch, gutted the upstairs bathroom, cleaned out the kitchen and basement of the parsonage. Their final task was to move all the drywall from the church basement up to the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Ed building so it will be in place so it can be installed.

Person to Person Dave Phelps

Person-2-Person

Earlier this year, a German Shepherd rescue dog named Haus saved his family’s seven-year-old daughter from a deadly Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake. The snake found its way into the family’s back yard and approached the young girl, Molly. Her grandmother was watching Molly playing with Haus. Suddenly Haus began jumping back and forth. Haus placed himself between Molly and the dangerous snake. “He kept taking hits,” said Molly’s mother. The dog instinctively recognized the danger but stood his ground. He was bitten at least three times. Afterward, Haus was in critical condition and in danger of kidney damage due to the level of rattlesnake venom in his blood but he survived.

This story appeals to me for two reasons, first as a dog lover and second as a Christian. It’s been said that there’s a reason why the word “dog” spelled backward is “God.” I don’t know about that but I do know Haus is a hero and he’s not alone. Dogs have been protecting humans for thousands of years. People sometimes say dogs “think they’re people” but the truth is that dogs think humans are big, funny-looking dogs. Dogs have a pack mentality; they form group attachments to their human families and think of us as their “pack.”

Of course, Haus the German Shepherd also reminds me of Jesus the good shepherd. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11 NRSV). He continued by saying “I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (John 10:17b-18a NRSV). He placed himself between us and death. He suffered a far worse fate than snakebite. He died a horrible death on a cross, possibly the most horrific kind of death known at the time.

In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that Jesus “. . . stands between us and God, . . . he is the sole Mediator in the world . . .” We have a savior who stands between us and the divine wrath we deserve. The psalmist asked, “Who can stand before you when once your anger is roused?” (Psa. 76:7b NRSV). But

God doesn’t condemn us. Instead, God made a way for us to be righteous. John wrote that “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” (1 John 3:16 NRSV).

In the Old Testament, some of the people, led by a man named Korah, rebelled against Moses (Num. 16:1). The earth opened up and swallowed them (vs. 31-32) but the next day there were others who continued to rebel and they were struck by a plague (vs. 46). Moses’ brother, Aaron, took a censer and “stood between the dead and the living;” and prevented further death (vs. 48a NRSV). As a result, many people were saved. (Some of you might recall this story from the June, 2007 Person-2-Person.) Jesus did the same thing for us. He stood between us and death, between humanity and God’s wrath. He stood firm and didn’t waver. He held his ground. The author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus “. . . is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25 NRSV). We can always count on him to hold fast against the condemnation we deserve.

Regardless of what we might think of Haus, there’s no doubt Molly and her family think Haus is the best dog in the world. But young Molly didn’t care whether he was a hero or not. Instead, she said of her protector, “He's a cute dog. I like to smoosh his face.” She simply loves Haus and she’d love him even if he hadn’t saved her young life. She loves him because he’s her dog. In the same way, God loves us and gave Jesus for us as a result of that love (Eph. 5:2, 1 John 3:16). There’s nothing we can do to merit God’s love. We can know that we have a wonderful savior. God loves us even though there’s nothing we can do to earn that love. The story of that love—what our savior has done for us and how he’s shaped our own story—is worth telling.

“If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.” (Rom. 8:31b-34 NRSV.)

Visit Person-2-Person on the Web at http://person2person.faithweb.com

Tying knots and saying prayers over the prayer quilt for David Schaffner.

Special thanks to …

… Samantha & Jon Schaffner, Robbie Chandler, Chris Shirar, Lisa Watkins, Kathy Schmid, Kyle Kranes, Rachel Ward, and Donna & Skip Reynolds for ‘packing up’ the rooms in the education wing prior to the removal of the ceilings. Everyone worked hard to get the rooms ready for the mission team from Michigan which removed the tile ceilings in preparation for the installation of new ceilings! Thank you to each of you for your hard work in a warm building!

…Colette Cummings for serving as the MUMC lay representative to Annual Conference 2016. She used a week-end and vacation time to fulfill this important commitment,

Steve Findley and David Phelps shared the morning message during worship the two Sundays pastor Kim was gone. Pastor Kim was at Annual Conference with Colette Cummings one Sunday and on vacation the following Sunday.

Putting the finishing touches on the gifts that were handed out to the men of the church on Father’s day.

Summer time is time for special music and learning new praise songs.

MaplewoodUnited

Methodist Church7409 Flora Ave.

St. Louis, MO 63143

Every Sunday 9:45 a.m. Sunday School

(No Sunday School until August 14)

11:00 a.m. Worship

Kim Shirar, Pastor Pastor’s Office Hours: Tuesday: 9 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. Thursday: 9 a.m. - 2:45 p.m. Cell Phone: (314) 651-9999 E-Mail: pastor@maplewoodumc.org

Sally Noel, Secretary Secretary will be in the office: Tuesday: 12 noon to 2 p.m. Thursday: 9a.m. - 2 p.m. Maplewood UMC phone: (314)781-5902 Maplewood UMC Official Website: maplewoodumc.org

Mission Statement of Maplewood UMC is:

Gather as God’s people Grow in faith, love and service Go into the world to do God’s work.