Category: Blog

Happy Father’s Day from Naivasha, Kenya! Although we missed celebrating with family, we spent the day celebrating Father’s Day with our new Kenyan friends and family.

Our eyes were opened this morning to an amazing way of worshiping God. The church service at Trinity United Methodist Church was three hours long! The morning flew by, however, because there was so much singing, dancing, and praising our God. Dancing in church…can you imagine? It was fun! We have all decided that we need to do this in our own church in Winter Park. Who is in?

After church we got to play games like Duck, Duck, Goose with children from the Sunday School. Those kids were so adorable! It is Winter here in Kenya. Many of the children were bundled up in sweaters and jackets. We Floridians were hot!

After church we all had lunch at a cool Kenyan restaurant. We ate Chinese food, Indian food, fried chicken, and pizza. Let me tell you – they had it all! And it was good!

After lunch we Skyped our family and friends from Winter Park Methodist Church. Some of our Panua students were with us and got to meet their prayer partners. It was quite moving.

Dinner was served at the hotel as usual- the Kenyan food is quite tasty. And we celebrated our own Heather Rodriguezs’ birthday with singing and a birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Heather!

Now we are all going to bed to dream about where our adventures will take us tomorrow. We love and miss you all!

~The Panua Elevate Mission Team

Today,  one of the Panua staff members shared the story of the environmental activist Wangari Maathai.  It’s a children’s story about a terrible fire that took place on an island.  All the animals stood in awe watching their homes burn to the earth.  A small hummingbird decided to get some water and try to put the fire out.  All the animals questioned why the hummingbird would try to put out the fire.  The hummingbird said I may be small,  but I can’t give up like the other animals.  I have to try the best I can.

 We are so inspired by the difference Panua is making in the lives of the Youth and the community of Naivasha. They are taking all they are learning in the program and making their communities better!

Hello from Naivasha! It took planes, trams and automobiles but 23 hours after our departure from Orlando we have arrived!

Thankfully, our travels were uneventful and everyone managed to get some sleep on the plane – or should I say planes. We did change planes in Dubai!

We are excited for our first full day in Naivasha Thursday when we will be spending time with the Panua youth and spreading God’s love with all of the wonderful people we meet.

More to come tomorrow and thank you to everyone at FUMCWP for your prayers!

By Bob Constant

The churches that make up the United Methodist Church in Florida are organized into what we call the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. The Florida Conference is one of a number of conferences throughout the world that make up the worldwide United Methodist Church. The Florida Conference has an annual meeting in June of each year. To that meeting, each church sends the clergy appointed to the church (in our case, David, Jayne, Gary, and Craig). We also send an equal number of lay people as representatives of our church to this conference. This year, my wife Nancy and I, along with Ivor and Mary Scott Singer, were privileged to represent First United Methodist Church of Winter Park to this important meeting, which was held in Lakeland (on the campus of Florida Southern College) from June 7-9. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Remembering Who We Are.”

As part of this theme, we spent a considerable time considering the theology of John Wesley, an Anglican minister who lived in the eighteenth century and is considered the founder of the Methodist movement. Two of the presentations stood out most prominently in my mind. We heard Dr. Paul Chilcote, a professor of Christian theology at the Dunnam campus of Asbury Seminary in Orlando, who delivered a talk on the “Spiritual DNA of Methodism,” in which he outlined three critical Wesleyan contributions to our understanding of grace, salvation, and Christian community. We also were privileged to hear a sermon by Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson, the presiding bishop of the North Georgia Conference. Her sermon was entitled, “God’s Extreme Makover: What is the Method?” in which she considered Paul’s statement: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) in powerful Wesleyan terms. These presentations are available to view at the livestream website.

These presentations (and others) were very timely discussions that touched on the function and work of the church, particularly in times when there is controversy that rises from within the church. We are currently experiencing such a time. Over the next year, the global United Methodist Church and conferences and local churches will be asked to grapple with the question about marriage and ordination of our brothers and sisters within the church who belong to the LGBTQ community. To help our congregations pursue thoughtful and loving discussions about these difficult issues,  the United Methodist Church has developed a curriculum called Point of View (POV): Join the Conversation. This curriculum helps to support participating congregations by having facilitated discussions with emphases on empathy, understanding, and generative dialogue. The curriculum is not designed to support any one position regarding these issues, and there is no intent with the program to change the opinion of the participants. The main intent of the POV program is to foster positive and respectful communication amongst the participants. We were given a brief presentation about the work that has been done in producing these POV sessions at our recent annual conference. From that presentation, we understand that we will not be informed about any decisions that will be required on the part of our congregation until after a special general conference (that is, a conference of global delegates called especially for this purpose) which will be held in February, 2019. Still, after hearing the presentations about the POV sessions, I am very hopeful that our congregation would benefit from these types of discussions about the marriage/ordination of LGBTQ  individuals in the POV format. I would strongly encourage our members, no matter what their opinion about these issues, to participate in one of multiple POV conversations, which are tentatively scheduled to be held between August and November of this year. More information about the POV curriculum can be obtained at the Florida Conference website.

On Sunday, May 20th, we got to hear from 8 of our graduating high school seniors. They told stories of their faith formation through our church and through our vibrant family. They told stories of being Christ-like servants, gracious hosts, and passionate seekers through a myriad of our programs and ministries. Then, as a church, we prayed over the students and their families, finally following through on our baptismal vow:

With God’s help we have proclaimed the good news and have walked with you by the example of Christ. We will surround you with our prayers, that you may continue to grow in your trust of God, and be found faith in your service to others. We will cheer you on, that you may be true disciples who walk in the way that leads to life.

View Senior Insert HERE!

Senior Speakers

8:00am Senior Speeches – Andrew Thomas and Erin Wright

9:30am Senior Speeches – Joey Cocchiarella, Spencer Clayton and Emerson Zumwalt

11:00am Senior Speeches –  Kelly Wright, Ray Adams and Autumn Day

Praying for Members of Our Vibrant Family

As we strive to serve in the image of Jesus the Christ we become aware that Jesus prayed unceasingly for others. There is a community of believers in our church who pray for members.  This Intercessory Prayer group receive a list of individual prayer concerns and joys weekly from Rev. Gary Rideout.

Another small group who intercede in prayer on behalf of our community is Gathered In His Name. This group uses the prayer list but also prays for our church leadership, our mission teams, specific ministries, and world social justice issues.

As a congregation, we are all called to pray for those whose names are in the bulletin each Sunday. We are not given the specific prayer concerns, but we can ask God to bless these individuals. It is a privilege and honor to pray for others. By doing this we are caring for and supporting members of our vibrant family through God’s grace.

If you have a prayer request or if you are interested in joining one of these groups, contact Rev. Gary Rideout at gary@fumcwp.org.

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20