ChurchLive - First United Methodist Church
Transcription
ChurchLive - First United Methodist Church
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH & FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF WEST CHICAGO March 2015 www.firstumcucc.org Newsletter Jan and Bruce Pitrie say farewell and receive the Light of Christ to take with them to Florida. e v i L h c r u Ch n of atic presentatio tended the dram at en by om ed w rm en Twenty-sev onk Kidd as perfo Wings by Sue M Sarah. The Invention of lle Ulin-Roloff as Jo andful” and se “H as s au Br y Nanc _ 1 . . . s e s i R n u S e h T e Befor from the pastor... We are now in the church season called Lent. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 18th and goes through Holy Saturday, April 4th (the day before Easter Sunday). It is 40 days not counting Sundays. Lent is the time in a Jesus follower’s yearly cycle of life that we , s y a d h Birt iversaries Ann in March 2 Norene Treudt Linda Worthington 4 Leslie Singh 7 Arthur Lagasca 10 Donna Sandberg-Keck 11 Barbara Nelson 14 Diane Yuroff 15 Charles Fortner 21 Becky Hall, Life Deacon FCC 23 Christopher Hendricks Melodee Klingberg 25 Erik Nelson 27 Bob Howard Julie Saviano 29 Adam Morrissey 31 Sarah Rohr are invited into a time of self-reflection and self-discovery. It is time for us to repent and get right with God. I am reminded of the words that we say when applying the ashes in the sign of the cross on Ash Wednesday, “From the dust you came and to the dust you will return.” It reminds us of our mortality and of our need for God in our life. It is not a time of feeling sorry for ourselves or feeling depressed because we are going to die someday. It is a time of finding freedom from the driving forces of the secular world that tells us that our only value in life comes from what we consume and spend. When in reality our true value comes from our realization that we are children of God, created in the image of God. Lent is the time when we lay aside the distractions of the secular and focus on the Holy. Jesus in the Gospel of Luke said this about his followers, “Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” – Luke 9:23-25 This is what Lent is all about. Learning to deny our own personal selfish needs and look to Jesus as our source of life. Then we are to take up our cross, our personal ministry that God has gifted us to do. A ministry _ 2 that leads others to Jesus. Just as Jesus’ death on the cross for us leads us to a relationship with God. Lent is a time to get serious about our being a disciple of Jesus Christ. To help you deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus, I am inviting all of you to attend our Wednesday Lenten Bible study, The Renegade Gospel. The author of the study, Mike Slaughter says this about Jesus, “Jesus didn’t come to start a religion. The rebel Jesus came with a renegade gospel to start a revolution. You and I are invited to be a part.” We learned during our Leadership Summit that a vital church, a church that is alive and growing is filled with Growing Learners. A church that is more interested in growing disciples for Jesus than in growing its attendance on Sundays. Recently, I saw a picture of the church I grew up in that was all the people standing outside in front of the church sign. It was circa 1920s-30s. They had an attendance of 358 for Sunday school and an attendance of 264 for worship. Many historians have said that period of time in our denomination was its heyday. We were growing, changing lives, helping to shape the social conscience of our nation. Maybe it is time for the church to reclaim that part of its heritage so we again can grow disciples, change lives and shape the social conscience of our nation. I look forward to seeing you on Wednesdays during Lent. Blessings Pastor Tim s w e N s e l p i c s Green Di We’re Startin a Singles Gr g oup by Michael Horsley Earth Hour Saturday, March 28, 2015 Turn off the lights and Tune into increasing the awareness of Global Climate Change!! by Pearl Schoenberger Singles of First United Methodist & Congregational Church… do you ever find yourself in that awkward situation…where it’s a couples dinner or a family event. Well the time is now for all of us not in a relationship to start our own special events and to support our church in our fashion. Green Disciple Monthly Meeting Monday, March 16, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. at Starbucks/West Chicago Adopt-A-Highway Program Update Do you have any great ideas, thoughts or have you always wondered why something worked the way it did? If you’re interested in something different and want to have some fun along the way, see Pearl Schoenberger. Beginning is the fun part. The Adopt-A-Highway Program, now under the DuPage County Division of Transportation, will resume on Saturday April 18, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. The Church will be responsible for the road sides between Rt.#59 and Prince Crossing Road. Vest, gloves and trash bags will be provided by the County. This will be an Earth Day Event. If you would like to participate this year, please contact Mike Horsley at horsley203@comcast or (630) 231-5049. Sustaining the Future!! s g n i v a S t h g i l Day Spring Ahead March 8, 2015 - move your timepieces one hour ahead or you will be late for church! t n u H g g E Easter Preparations Creation Care: Monthly Spiritual Teachings by Anna Kemp “We cannot be all that God wants us to be without caring about the earth.” - Rick Warren (1954-- ) Author of the THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE Let the countdown begin! Although it feels like 2015 has just begun, we are already starting Lenten suppers, which means the Easter Egg hunt is only a few short weeks away! Last year we had over seventy children come to our hunt, so we are asking for your help. Please bring donations of plastic eggs and small, individually wrapped candies to the church by Sunday, March 8. Then please join us on Saturday, March 14 at 10am for an Easter Egg stuffing party! Finally, we need many volunteers to help run the event on Saturday, March 28 both with the pancake breakfast and egg hunt from 9-11am. Thank you all for your help! See you there! “I believe in my heart that faith in Jesus Christ can and will lead us beyond an exclusive concern for the well-being of other human beings to the broader concern for the wellbeing of the birds in our backyards, the fish in our rivers and every living creature on the face of the earth.” - John Wesley (1701-91) Anglican Priest and Founder of the Methodist Church “We need to find God, but we cannot find him in noise or in excitement. See how nature, the stars, the trees, the flowers, the grass grow in deep silence. See how the stars, the moon, and the sun all move in silence.” - Mother Teresa (1910-97) _ 3 e l : b i B e 6 h t 6 h g u e o t r h u t o k R A Wal by Anna Kemp Main Street America! The Mother Road! Many of our congregation will recall Route 66, the most famous highway in American history. Many may even have travelled this historic route that went across the country, connecting Chicago all the way to California. What better theme to use, then, for our own Station youth to explore the 66 books of the Bible? While Leslie Singh, Youth Director, was vacationing in India, Anna Kemp was her substitute with The Station youth group on Sunday evenings. The plan was to take a “walk through the Bible,” helping our young people to learn the major themes, stories, and verses from each book. During the first week they explored the beginning fourteen books of the Bible, from Genesis to Second Corinthians. They also studied the purpose of learning about the Bible, which can be found in Ephesians 6:10-17, “10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (NIV). People today often don’t think about memorizing Bible verses, but Ephesians 6:17 makes clear that an important part of our preparation as Christians is familiarity with the word of God, the Holy Bible. The second week of our travels along Route 66 took us from Ezra to Ezekiel, the next thirteen books. The map in the youth room showed that our cars had travelled from about California to Texas! Along the way, our youth have been earning raffle tickets by reading verses, participating, and asking questions. These tickets will be used in games, raffles and auctions later in the series. We also had fun with beaded necklaces for Queen Esther, ring pops for King Solomon, and peace symbol keychains for Isaiah’s message of peace. The youth group has been having a blast learning new stories as well as connecting back to their memories of stories they learned growing up. During the third week The Station was blessed to have Judith Horsely join us! She had travelled on Route 66 and was able to share with the youth some of her experiences. We played a Jeopardy review game of the first twenty-seven books we’d covered and went into more depth with questions and discussion. It was really helpful to have Judi there to provide insight and wisdom about the topics explored. _ 4 Following Snow-perBowl Sunday, when we didn’t hold Station, we celebrated Leslie’s return this past Sunday! We shared treats and gifts she’d brought back from India and heard all about her travels and Judah and Levi’s joyful adventures there. We also celebrated CJ’s birthday! Then we commenced our walk down Route 66, going through the rest of the Old Testament from Daniel to Malachi. We compared the heat of Red Hots versus Hot Tamales in honor of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the Fiery Furnace, and of course some Swedish Fish when looking at Jonah! The Station can look forward to some fun surprises next Sunday as we review the Minor Prophets and the Old Testament! Then we’ll continue forward into the New Testament along historic Route 66 with Leslie in the upcoming weeks. The congregation will get to see and experience the fun results of this series in April following the Lenten and Easter series. On Sunday, April 12 during service and on Wednesday, April 15 in the evening, the Station Youth are preparing some engaging activities! They have been learning a song for all the books of the Bible (it can be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=i7ZtWRSCH7E ) and will also be hosting a Game Show contest. People can sign up to be on teams to compete in the Bible Battle of the Books! So start brushing up on your Biblical knowledge, and watch for more information coming in March. We look forward to having you join us! During Advent... _ 5 Calendar Sundays 10 am Worship 10:15 am Children’s Sunday School 6 pm The Station Youth Group Wednesdays 6 pm Lenten Supper 6:30 pm Renegade Gospel Bible Study 7:30 pm Choir Rehearsal 6:30 pm PADS Thursdays March 3 7:00 pm 4 9:30 am 7 9:30 am 8 10:00 am 9 7:00 pm 10 6:30 pm 14 9:00 am 12:00 pm 16 7:30 pm 18 9:30 am 21 8:00 am 22 5:00 pm 23 7:00 pm 28 9-11 am 10:30 am 29 10:00 am 31 7:00 pm Worship Team Crafts @ Church Women’s Breakfast Daylight Savings Time Begins 4th Point at Worship Crafts @ Rohr’s Trustees Church Council Easter Egg Stuffing Green Disciples Crafts @ Church Men’s Breakfast Station Operations Crafts @ Rohr’s Bunny Breakfast Easter Egg Hunt Palm Sunday Worship Finance April 1 9:30 am 6:00 pm 3 7:30 pm 7:00 pm 4 9:00 am 5 8:30 am 10:00 am Crafts @ Church Renegade Gospel – Final Study Good Friday Worship Maundy Worship Amy Nelson’s Wedding Sonrise Worship Easter Worship – He Is Risen! _ 6 Schedule MARCH 1 MARCH 8 MARCH 15 MARCH 22 Communion Sharing Our Blessings Communion Noisy Cans Stewardship Moment Flowers $10/arrngmt * Please Sign Up * * Please Sign Up * * Please Sign Up * Linda Johnson Jenny Tracey Lay Reader * Please Sign Up * Erlaine Born Anita Wuest * Please Sign Up * Linda Johnson Greg Watts Mel Wuest Morrie Teal Chris Kemp Ella Gsedl Barb Nelsen Judy MacNerland Dave Morrissey Robin Morrissey Tom Thomas Linda Johnson Don DeRouin Karen Sanders Wenjin Gsedl Erlaine Born Nina Chezem Nina Gsedl Barb Reed L.Worthington Tom Thomas Catherine Chezem Leslie Singh John Singh John Singh Brian Hendricks John Linegar Tom Thomas Gary Chezem * men’s breakfast * Burt Andrews Mike Horsley Howard Born Dave Kraus Morrie Teal V: Mike & Judi C: Jenny Tracey B: Judi Horsley V: Erlaine & Howard C: Gigi Hendricks B: Donna Howard V: Judy & Bea C: Judi Horsley B: Betty Rohr V: Lana & Karen C: Linda Johnson B: Susan Hall V: Roberta & Gigi C: Barb Nelsen B: Roberta Kent Notes Ushers A/V Sanctuary Setup Home-Bound Visitation V=Visitor C=Cards B=Baker MARCH 29 Mike & Judi Horsley : e l u d e h c S r e t s a E / Lenten Jesus didn’t come to start a religion. The rebel Jesus came with a Renegade Gospel to start a revolution. Read the red letters and discover Jesus all over again. Wednesday 2/25/15: Lenten Supper @ 6pm, Bible Study @ 6:30 pm Wednesday 3/4/15: Lenten Supper @ 6pm, Bible Study @ 6:30 pm Wednesday 3/11/15: Lenten Supper @ 6pm, Bible Study @ 6:30 pm Wednesday 3/18/15: Lenten Supper @ 6pm, Bible Study @ 6:30 pm Wednesday 3/25/15: Lenten Supper @ 6pm, Bible Study @ 6:30 pm Wednesday 4/1/15: Bible Study @ 6 pm (no supper) Maundy Worship @ 7 pm Friday Sunday 4/3/15: Good Friday 7:30 pm 4/5/15: Son-Rise Service 8:30am by The Station, Easter Worship 10 am _ 7 g n i r e f f O w Sno e t a l o c o h C d n a e e Coff Your donations to purchase fellowship coffee or your direct purchase of coffee and chocolate from the church for home consumption helped to make a big difference in 2014 for small farmers! Last year, the chocolate products used over one million pounds of organic, fairly traded cocoa beans and 500,000 pounds of organic, fairly traded sugar from small-scale farmers. And, Equal Exchange customers brewed, shared and enjoyed over 5.5 million pounds of coffee from small farmer co-ops. Equal Exchange traveled the world to build relationships, encourage innovation at the farm level, taste-test ingredients for the best quality and support farmers in making their communities stronger. Equal Exchange couldn’t do it without you. Your support makes it all possible. Keep purchasing and supporting Equal Exchange products! Keep Saving Can Tabs! For years our church has saved can tabs for the Ronald McDonald House near Loyola. Why the Loyola House? It was the closest house for anyone to deliver the tabs. The Loyola house is on the Veteran’s Administration grounds and not on Loyola property. Ralph Jones conducted a personal ministry by visiting veterans in the VA Hospital. He was then also taking the can tabs to the Ronald McDonald House. After he moved, Judi Horsley started dropping them off on her way to pick-up her grandson from school. The last drop at the Loyola House was made in January. The new Ronald McDonald House in Winfield is now open and it will be easy for anyone from our church to deliver the can tabs. Your efforts will not only support our local Ronald McDonald House, but all the Chicago-area houses benefit from the can tab donations. Thank you and keep bringing in the tabs. On Sunday, February 1st. we had to cancel worship because of a terrible snow storm. Many people related that they thought that this could have been the first time in their memory (30-40 years) that church was cancelled. When that happens it upsets the normal rhythm of life for many people. They don’t feel whole unless they have the opportunity to start their week off worshiping God. Our commitment to the church is to support it with our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. Through these five areas of our life we are responding to the gift of grace offered to us by God through our relationship with Jesus. The snow also upset the normal routine of the Church. We operate on a trust relationship with God. We don’t keep a big reserve of money to offset the loss of an offering when we cancel a worship service. We rely on the timely financial gifts of our church family from each week’s worship to pay the bills that are incurred each month. Each month we need at least $23,500.00 to pay the bills. Your gifts go to pay the heating, electrical, snow plowing, salaries, etc. so that we can provide shelter for our PADS guest each week and so we can have a beautiful facility to worship in each week. When we miss a Sunday worship we are losing 25% of our ability to pay our bills. So, I am encouraging you to use the SNOW OFFERING Envelope included with this month’s Joyful Noise to help make up the deficit in our income. If you have already made up your gift, THANK YOU! If you can help, THANK YOU! Blessings Pastor Tim and the Finance Committee _ 8 Coming Home by Anna Kemp I was asked recently if I could share what it was that brought us to FUMC and why we chose to make this church our own. For some, finding a church home is as easy as continuing to attend the one you’ve gone to since childhood. For others, it is a difficult search among seeming endless options. While it is a blessing to have so many local Christian churches to choose from, it can be a struggle to find a place that is the right fit, especially when two people from different church backgrounds get married! Christian Kemp and I got married in July of 2005 following six years of being a couple. Throughout our dating years we attended Calvary Church of Naperville, Chris’ church where all of his family attended and where his younger brother was a pastor. Chris had grown up Catholic, but was born again when his family started going to a Pentecostal church during his early teens. Since then he had always attended Assemblies of God churches throughout his families’ moves between Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois. I accepted Jesus as a very small child, and had grown up going to small, nondenominational Protestant churches. I had a few difficult experiences with church growing up, so I didn’t have a home church after my teen years. When I first walked into Calvary, I think my eyes must have bugged out of my head at the sheer size of the auditorium. I never could quite get used to the volume and, as I jokingly put it, the “itty bitty pastor” way up at the front somewhere. So although we attended Calvary while dating, we agreed before marriage that we would need to seek out a new church together. During our first married years we lived in Aurora and tried out Community Christian Church, also known as the “Yellow Box” church in Naperville, and also Southwest Community Church in Joliet. We enjoyed our time there, but were not highly involved. We found joining already established small groups difficult. I recall one time I went to a small group where the other children locked Greyson out of the room where they were playing! So we had some good experiences, some not so good, and we continued to look. In 2009 we moved to West Chicago, and our search began anew. We tried Wheaton Bible Church, Oakbrook Bible Church, Community Fellowship Church, and Hope Lutheran. We enjoyed many of these churches, but had not yet found our place. In the spring of 2013 Leslie Singh invited me to go to church with her at First United Methodist. While Chris and I don’t remember all the details (Dawn was just an infant and that means less sleep!) we remember the Easter Egg Hunt being a lot of fun, and it was around this time that we came to service. What we found when we arrived was what we had _ 9 been looking for for so long. A warm welcome both in the nursery and from the congregation. A pastor speaking heartfelt words soundly based in the Bible. A church that cares so much about children that they are even a part of the service. People who are authentic and genuine. A mix of traditional and contemporary music sung by both the congregation and the beautiful choir. These are the things that struck us during our first weeks of attendance and kept us coming back. As we continued to attend, though, we experienced so much more that made us feel like we had finally found our church home. People remembered who we were and took the time to get to know us. I was asked to join in on activities and was then quickly welcomed to serve on committees and even join choir. This is extremely rare among churches! We found in FUMC a church family who welcomes you in and accepts you as you are. We were also impressed by the breadth of activities the church supports. It is such an active membership who does everything from helping the community to protecting the environment. Of all the churches we have attended, we have never seen the people do so much! Activities such as church suppers, Vacation Bible School, and Missions all helped us to feel connected to the church and its people. By fall we were excited to ask to have Dawn baptized at FUMC, and today we are happy to have a church we can call home. d n a t s i d o h t e M d Unite Congregational Women by Judi Horsley The March 7th Women’s meeting program will be a Tupperware Party hosted by the Church Kitchen. Invite your friends and relatives to hear Anna Kemp’s faith testimony as she presents various items for sale. Anyone may purchase Tupperware either for themselves or for the kitchen. The hostess gifts will become the property of the church kitchen. Cluster Lunch, Thursday March 12th at Baker Memorial in St.Charles. All women are invited to join in fellowship with other Women’s groups from Geneva UMC, Kaneland UMC, Batavia UMC and Baker Memorial UMC. The program will be about Human Trafficking: Myths and Facts. Betty Erickson, our UMW Northern Illinois Conference Vice-President will inform us on this important topic which hits close to home. As advocates for social justice, United Methodist Women will continue to work for the rights of those exploited by this cruel trade and end this all-too-prevalent form of modern-day slavery. We have been asked to bring salads to the luncheon. Please RSVP to Pearl Schoenberger by Sunday, March 1. s by Invention of Wing entation of The Sarah. es pr as f ic at lof Ro am dr inen attended the ul” and Joselle Ul m df wo an n “H go on ve as ica -se s Ch ty au Twen ncy Br Theater in West performed by Na ” at the Gallery . aid m sm 3p ide ay Sue Monk Kidd as Br nd A s Su d s again in “Alway rday 7:30pm an See Nancy Brau 8. Friday & Satu rch 1 & March 7, Ma , 28 , 27 ry Februa The April 11th Women’s meeting will feature Liz Lyon from Elevate Energy. She will give a presentation about home energy efficiency. This will be an open meeting to both men and women. More information will be made available in the March Joyful Noise. Thank You! Dear First United Methodist Church of West Chicago, Thank you so much for your generous contribution to the Humanitarian Service Project. Your support has made such a difference in the lives of the needy in our community this Holiday season! This past year was our largest Christmas Offering yet, and we served more families than ever - 1,014 with 2,014 children. Also, 126 needy seniors had a Christmas to remember! Thank you once again for your incredible support. We wish you all the best in 2015. :) Yours in Love & Service, Kristin Maxwell, Executive Director & the HSP Staff. Thank You! The West Chicago Park District thanks your entire congregation for the generous donation of candy for the West Chicago Park District’s 1st Annual “Boo Bash”. 164 children and another 200 parents enjoyed this event on 10/25/14. It would be impossible to put on an event of this size without the assistance of community members. Thank you again for the generous donation to this event. I look forward to working with you and your organization in the future. Sincerely, Mary E. Lester, CPRP, Recreation Supervisor _ 10 Pastor Tim Mitchell pastortjm49@gmail.com (630) 231-3377parsonage First United Methodist Church P.O. Box 915 West Chicago, IL 60186 (630) 231-3344phone wegoumcucc@gmail.com www.FirstUmcUcc.org NEW Office hours: Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, 9 am - 2:45 pm First Congregational Church P.O. Box 458 West Chicago, IL 60186 (630) 231-1306phone Staff and Volunteers Music Director: Ron Benner choochooron@aol.com Songleader: Lana Runyan grandmar96@hotmail.com Lay Leader (UMC): Lana Runyan grandmar96@hotmail.com Church Council Chair: Lucy Nelson nelucy@yahoo.com Moderator (FCC): Erlaine Born Youth Group Leader: Leslie Singh piepielac@yahoo.com Administrative Assistant: Lisa Marie Vogt 1stumcwc@ameritech.net Newsletter Design: Uwe Gsedl ugsedl@earthlink.net e t a d p U l a i c n a Fin by Roberta Kent Following is a summary of income and expenses for the first month of 2015. Income for the month of January was well below the budgeted amount and expenses were high due to the quarterly insurance bill and snowplowing costs. We ended the month with a significant negative cash balance of -$2,522.31 and several bills unpaid. Your continued support is needed if we are to meet our obligations to pay salaries and benefits, the church mortgage, church and parsonage utilities and other operating and program expenses. If you have questions about any of the information in this report, I will be glad to give you more details. You may e-mail your questions to me at roberta-kent@hotmail.com or call me at (630) 653-1692. CHURCH INCOME Amounts Received: Contribution Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $16,393.51 Building Rental and Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,728.25 Total Income as of 1/31/15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19,121.76 Other Available Funds: Cash Carried Forward From 2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953.98 Total Available Funds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20,075.74 CHURCH OBLIGATIONS TO DATE Amounts Paid: Staff Salaries and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,726.04 Mortgage Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,097.04 Building and Property Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,144.50 Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 901.09 Other Building Expense (Includes Insurance) . . . . . . . . . 2,149.88 Operating and Office Expense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510.97 Mission and Outreach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659.51 Ministry and Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183.60 Principal Reduction on Mortgage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,225.42 Total Amounts Paid as of 1/31/15 . . . . . . . . . . $22,598.05 Amounts Outstanding and Unpaid: UMC Conference Apportionments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,550.00 Other Unpaid Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,428.15 Total Outstanding and Unpaid as of 1/31/15 . . $2,978.15 _ 11 First United Methodist & Congregational Church P.O. Box 915 West Chicago, IL 60186 630-231-3344 wegoumcucc@gmail.com Th h T d l r o W e Coming To You Soon! The World Thank Offering is an opportunity for individuals to respond to God’s abundance and grace with spontaneous gifts of gratitude. Say the words, “Today and every day I am thankful for....” and give a coin in gratitude! Look for the Flowers of Thanks in April and start being thankful every day! Order Deadline is Sunday, March 8! Tulips (6”pot) $6 Daffodills (8”pot) $9 Lily (6”pot) g n i r e f f O k n a $9 _ 12