February Newsletter

Asbury United Methodist
Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors.
E-mail: asburyumc@netins.net
Website: www.asbury-wellman.com
Moody Colorado, Pastor
Church Office: 319-646-2417 Parsonage: 319-646-2734
Cell Phone: 319-458-0745
Sunday School 9:00 a.m.
Worship 10:15 a.m.
February 2015
Valentine’s Day Boxes:
This year we have 7 college students:
∗ John Adams
∗ John Colorado
∗ Sean Cortum
∗ Chelsey Kinneer
∗ Dan McVey
∗ Shelly Palmer
∗ Madison Smeltzer
Lent Begins February 18: We will begin
our observance of Lent on February 18
with an Ash Wednesday service at 6:00
PM.
Special Church Council: The Southeast
District Conference Superintendent has authorized a special Church Council for Sunday, February 15th at the beginning of the
worship service (10:15 a.m.) for the purpose of approving a pastoral alignment beWe would like to send
them a little something for Valentine’s Day. tween Asbury and West Chester UMC.
Each student has a box at the back of the Please see the Pastor’s Note on the next
page for a complete description.
church: please feel free to fill them with
treats and helpful items. Some ideas inAsbury Scholarships: Applications are
clude quarters for laundry, postage
now being accepted for Asbury UMC scholstamps, pens, Sharpies and highlighters,
arships. These scholarships are available
Post-it notes, trail mix and other healthy
to members of Asbury, children, or grandsnacks. Notes of encouragement would
children of Asbury members. If interested,
also be good. Please bring in your items
go to www.asbury-wellman.com to
by Friday, February 6th.
download your application. If you have
further questions, call 646-2417 or email
Valentine’s Event: You are invited to an
Shauna at asburyumc2@netins.net. The
evening of “Valentine Samplers”. Indulge
your Valentine or yourself with a variety of application deadline is April 1.
chocolate treats, interspersed with musical
morsels and nuggets of local love lore.
United Methodist Student ScholarCome and go as you please. Thursday,
ships: The Iowa United Methodist FoundaFebruary 12th from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at Ka- tion has posted a list of scholarship opporlona Mennonite Church. All donations will
tunities for current and future college stube added to the International Student Aid dents. The deadline for these scholarships
Scholarship Fund for Rudi Macaj. No reser- is March 15th. For details please visit
vations needed!
http://www.iumf.org/scholarship.htm
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Pastor’s Note
REFOCUSING ON MISSION
On February 15 Sunday 10:15 AM we will start our worship with a Church Conference to be
presided by the District Superintendent. We will vote on the proposal for Pastoral Alignment of
Wellman Asbury UMC and West Chester UMC. The sharing is 70% Asbury and 30% West Chester.
A Pastoral Alignment means sharing a pastor between two congregations. Each church will conduct their organizational work and ministry separately, except there will be one SPRC (Staff
Parish Relations Committee). There may be ministry partnership between churches as the need
or a dream arises.
This proposal was precipitated by several factors. Pastor Marlene Janssen of West Chester will
retire effective July 1, 2015. There is scarcity of pastors. The decline in membership and finances is unabated. On the bright side, there is a renewed strength and refocus for mission
through church alignment.
Pastor Moody and the District Superintendent Lilian Gallo-Seagren had consultations in October
2014 about the situation in the area. There has been consultations with the SPRC of each
church. Both SPRCs have endorsed the Alignment Proposal in December 2015. Then on January 14, 2015 the Administrative Church Council of both churches endorsed the proposal. The
final approval lies in the votes of church members in Special Church Conferences to be conducted on February 15, 2015.
To love God means loving the missions of God. I love the Methodist Church for reaching out to
the world even to my hometown in the Philippines way back in 1900. I wish we could become a
sender of missionaries again. Decades from now, someone will remember us and express
thanks to God as I do. With the alignment of churches I see the possibility, and this is the very
reason that I make myself available in service to two churches. Each church will be able to reduce the pastoral expense. I pray that we could channel such savings toward training and
sending missionaries from the towns of Wellman and West Chester to the mission points
around the world to serve and teach those who will teach others also and eventually promote
love and world peace. We can make a big difference in the world. Mission Work is the frontline
in the fight for world peace. There is so much evil in the world and God counts on the church to
overcome evil with good. I believe that if we campaign as a church towards this goal, God and
the people around us will bless us and participate with us.
Amen.
FIRST SUNDAY IS OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY
In January 4 we started our experiment on holding an Open House Sunday. We had fun seeing
people give up their favorite seats and moved closer to the front. We saw the children coming
up for their Children’s time right on the first hymn. Pastor Moody delivered a record time tenminute sermon. Overall, it was a forty minute worship service. We received positive feedback
from elder worshippers. Nametags are ready, please make us of them. Let us aim to be a Welcoming Church.
LAY SERVANT TRAINING EVENTS
There is scarcity of preachers; if ours conks out from whom do we seek help? Other churches
may send in their Lay Servant (was called Lay Speakers) upon request, but we have to have at
least one Lay Servant available in our own yard. Please, prayerfully consider and check out the
Lay Servant Training events in the included flyer.
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Help Wanted: Jesus came that they might
have life. We follow Jesus the Lord of the
Church and commit to his church our presence, prayer, service, giving and witness.
Be a part of the church service, we have
vacancies in church committees such as
Staff Parish Relations Committee and
Nominations. You may also join active ministries such as Mission, Scholarship, Endowment, Finance and others.
Dear Asbury Family,
On February 21-28 I’ll be traveling to Honduras to volunteer with HOI, a ministry that carries out health, education, and infrastructure
projects in rural Olancho statae. If the two
previous years are any indication, I’ll be handmixing a lot of cement and scrambling to
translate very rapidly-spoken Spanish. I’d appreciate prayers for myself, my sister-in-law
Megan, my cousin Abbey, and everyone else
on our team. Please pray for safe and uncomplicated travel, good health, and good fellowHospitality Ministry Launched: The Hos- ship. Please also pray for the HOI staff and
pitality committee has assumed responsifor the locals with whom we’ll be working.
bility for making sure we are well-supplied Christ is Lord in Honduras and I never cease
for our coffee fellowship time. The followto be amazed at the faithfulness of His people
ing individuals are in charge of monitoring there. Please pray that they and we will come
together as brothers and sisters to build His
the coffee time supplies: February- Bert
Kingdom on Earth.
Walker; March-Betty Johnston; AprilLaverta Yoder; May-Carol Roush; June-Vi
Much love to you all,
Young. July-Anita Randol
If you identify a supply need, please contact the appropriate individual.
Shauna
YTD Budget Needs
Apportionments Due 1/31/15
$1,827.00
Apportionments Paid 1/25/15
$225.00
Apportionments Paid 1/31/14
$685.00
(incl. conference claims)
YTD Gifts to Meet
Budget Needs
YTD shortfall/surplus
FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES!!!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
14
16
17
18
19
25
28
$9,732.00
Caleb Debler, Pastor Moody
Diane Pippert, Peyton Greiner
Ryan Swartzendruber
Amanda Miller
Tracy McVey, Ben Roush, Bob Swartzendruber
Harold Murphy, Kevin Cortum
Melanie Stutzman
Randy Jirsa
Betty Kempf
Jim Goodrich
Blake Albright
Brandon Edgington
Leo Hall, Becca Droll
T.J. Powell, Tom Moss, Jeff Bean
Linda Kempf
Genea Bean
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$6,149.00
(-$3,583.00)