read newsletter - LakeRidge United Methodist Church

Children's Corner at LakeRidge Praise
Volume 19 No. 3
4701 82nd Street, Lubbock, Texas 79424 (806) 794-4015
February 5, 2015
Who will you serve today?
Enjoy living generously
I
hope you
have
enjoyed
our Living
Generously series.
I think the videos
have stimulated
good discussions
within our church
family. Several
persons have
commented how
they have enjoyed
this study including our children,
students and adults. Families have had
some wonderful discussions around the
dinner table about stinky sheep, spoons
and ladles!
We will conclude the series this
Sunday. You will be given the
opportunity to make a “Trust
Declaration” between you and God
regarding your financial resources. You
will indicate the percentage of your
income that you will give regularly to
God’s work through our church. You
will place the card in an envelope, seal it
and address it to yourself. No one will
look at the cards. This is a declaration of
trust between you and God. We will
return the unopened envelopes to you at
the end of the year so you can celebrate
how God has blessed your faithful
giving.
Many people give when there is a need.
Many people give when there is a vision
Many of you indicated an interest in
that captures their hearts. Others give
finding a way to serve in our church, our when they have something left over. I
community and our world. Our staff
want you to experience the joy of
members are busy following up on your regular, systematic giving. God deserves
requests for additional information. If
our first and our best. We give not just
you have not yet been contacted about to meet a need or to fulfill a vision. We
your area of interest, please send me an give to God because of our gratitude for
email at bcouch@lakeridgeumc.org and his abundant blessings. Set aside a
I will see that you are contacted
percentage of your income first to God
immediately. We want everyone in our as you receive it. When you seek FIRST
church family to discover the joy of
His Kingdom you experience a deep
serving. If you missed the Sundays on
sense of joy. Enjoy the journey of
which the “Ways to Serve” forms were Living Generously every day. Who will
distributed, please go to our web site,
you serve today?
listen to the message by Don Boren
entitled “Poor,” then click on the “Ways
to Serve” tab on the home page and
submit the form online.
Ash Wednesday will be observed on
February 18 in the Wesley Chapel.
Please consider attending this moving
service. Pastor Blossom Matthews is in
charge of the service this year.
"Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite
services of the year," Pastor Blossom
said. "The visible symbol of the cross
marked in ashes on our foreheads,
helps us to express our faith in Jesus
Christ to cleanse us from sin. The Ash
Wednesday service will include music,
a brief message, and meaningful handson ways to express our faith. It's an
ideal worship experience for all ages!"
The service will begin promptly at 6
pm and end at 6:30 pm. Childcare will
be provided.
Women's Leadership Conference
Scheduled for April at LCU
An exciting conference coming up is
“Women in Leadership,” presented by
Lubbock Christian University. The
event will be held at Baker Conference
Centre on April 2, from 1 pm - 5 pm.
You will be inspired to greater success
by the stories of four leading women,
including the Vice President of Chickfil-A, Dee Ann Turner. Each woman
will share her top five to ten leadership
tips, as well as sharing her story of
becoming a leader. In addition,
speakers will share how they integrate
their faith into their professional life.
Tickets are $75 and will fund
scholarships for student leaders. Call
806.787.9840 for tickets.
Page 2
Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times bestselling
author of Made to Crave and Unglued, will be
speaking at Trinity Church on Feb 20 & 21
(7 pm - 9 pm on Friday; 9 am - 12:15 pm on
Saturday).
The Women’s Ministry of LakeRidge UMC
invites you to join them in attending this
event. Tickets are $30. Contact the church office or
Pastor Blossom Matthews if you would like to
order a ticket. (bmatthews@lakeridgeumc.org)
Nursery provided at LRUMC. Childcare
reservations needed by February 13.
The Healing Prayer Ministry Team looks forward to
praying with you each Thursday evening from 7 - 8 pm
(except holiday weeks). Come to the North/South
Corridor at the Wesley Chapel entrance. Allow our
trained prayer team to come alongside you and bring
healing to your life.
Eat, Pray, Love: Are you thinking about joining a
small group? How about connecting with a group of
ladies who enjoy eating together, praying together,
and sharing their love with those in need? If so our
United Methodist Women is that group! Please join
us the second Monday of each month at 6:30 pm in
Room 102.
Discover Jesus: Through His 7 Final Days begins
Sunday, February 22. We'll discover the heart and
mind of Christ as seen in the final week of his life.
If you have any used children's clothes of any size,
please bring them to the LakeRidge Clothes Closet.
Volunteers have been turning away those in need of
these sizes because supplies are completely gone.
BREAKING THE CYCLE OF POVERTY VISION
PHASE TWO
O
February, 2015
n behalf of the Breaking the Cycle of Poverty Leadership Committee,
we are contacting you because you have expressed an interest in helping with
the LRUMC Breaking the Cycle of Poverty Vision. As you know, our initial
phase was to expand the Change for Children (C4C) program to all middleschools in the Lubbock area. We started the expansion of the C4C program in
August, 2014, and we are making excellent progress with the expansion. We
have a team of volunteers that meet with representatives from each school once
each month to review how funds are being spent and to discuss upcoming food
stability needs. The LRUMC volunteers are building relationships that will
continue to allow us to help these middle-schools address food stability needs
for their students in the years to come. We are very thankful for this group of
volunteers and for the work that they are doing.
It is now time to move to the next phase of LRUMC’s Vision. This next phase
will be challenging but we believe that it will also be exciting to see where God
leads us. We need volunteers to investigate and learn where else LRUMC could
be involved to help break the cycle of poverty in the Lubbock area. We need to
go into learning mode. Each person has their own definition of “poverty." We
need to listen and learn what “poverty” means in the Lubbock area. This is not
an all-inclusive list but we have identified the following general areas that we
believe merit further investigation:
FOOD STABILITY - Who else is working in this area and where? What do
students do for food during holidays and the summer?
EDUCATION - Who else is working in this area and where? What areas can we
help in? Engagement of the student in extracurricular activities (which keeps
students interested in school) – how can we help? Learning aids? Tutoring?
Mentoring?
PARENTS - Who else is working in this area and where? Who is working with
parents and how? Counseling? Education? Mentoring?
CHURCH - Who else is working in this area and where? Can we help the
churches in high poverty areas with programs to help train adults and youth?
English as a second language? Family finances? Parenting skills?
Our plan is to organize a group of LRUMC volunteers to help us investigate
these areas and the areas that God will lead us to. Each volunteer can take as
few or as many areas as they want. The investigation of each area will involve
online research and telephone or in-person interviewing of people in the
community. We need information. We would expect that each person would
spend 3 – 4 hours a month on this phase of the initiative for the period
February – May, 2015. The Leadership Committee will review the information
that is gathered and will make recommendations to the church leadership as to
areas that we identify as being worth pursuing. We believe that once we start
that we will be surprised with where God leads us.
If you are interested in helping in this area, please attend an information
meeting to be held at 11:30 in Room 102 on Sunday, February 8, 2015
Sincerely,
Ronnie & Dana Madison
Co-chairs – Breaking the Cycle of Poverty Leadership Committee
It's time to start
up the grill! Let
us do the cooking
for your family in
the Activity
Center on
Wednesday evenings, from 5 - 6:15 pm.
Would you consider "adopting" an international
student? Could you offer care, support and love
to these students and scholars while they are
away from their loved ones? You could be
involved with them by inviting them to church,
inviting them into your home for a meal,
including them in holiday celebrations,
remembering them on their birthday, showing
them special spots in Lubbock that are
important to you (art museums, cultural events,
etc.). Please contact me directly at the number or
e-mail given below if you would be interested in
serving this way.
Contact: Hanna Lee
Director, Global Christian Fellowship with the
Texas Tech Wesley Foundation
(806) 252-9334 or ridian95@gmail.com
Thank You, LakeRidge. You Did It Again!
Thanks to your generosity we were able to send
supplies and goodies to more than forty deployed
troops during the Christmas holidays. We have
received direct and indirect feedback concerning
these packages, and they were received by the
military men and women with much
appreciation. What a blessing it is to be able to
provide items for these deserving troops.
I want to thank all those who helped with this
project, and especially David and Patty Vannoy
for again packing and shipping all the boxes and
Barbara Dorris for being my right hand and
dependable helper at the information table while
we were getting this project underway.
Also, a special thank you to the children who
wrote letters for the troops. What a bright spot!
Again, thank you LakeRidge Family for being a
caring and supportive team for our troops. God
bless you all and continue to pray for all the
brave members of our military.
Judy Drake
Military Ministry
The Family of Jack Williamson.
Rachel Fernihough on the loss of her Grandmother.
Roy Pittman on the loss of his Mother.
You're Not Alone!
DivorceCare Support Group
Wednesdays at 6:30 pm
in Room 43
Divorce hurts.
I know that
first hand.
That's why I
want to tell
you about this
program that
LRUMC offers.
DivorceCare is
Cindi Heald
a weekly support
group to help you heal from the
deep pain you or someone you
know have experienced . It helped
me tremendously. Why not come
to our next meeting?
"The Lord is near."
Philippians 4:5b
outh Living Generously
Y
,
During our church wide Living Generously series, we have been
studying the same topic in our youth meetings and sixth grade
confirmation class. As a student ministry we challenged our students
to raise $1,400 to cover the cost of our two compassion children that
we support. The money would more than cover our support for a
year.
On January 17, triplets Camille, Claudia and Connelly Kerr had a
birthday party. Instead of gifts they asked that everyone who came
to the party to give to our compassion children goal of $1,400. They
were able to raise $510.
What an awesome example of living generously! Way to go girls!!!!