Category: Blog

Last week marked the end of our Summer Mission Trip season with the return of the final group from the UMCOR Sager Brown trip to Baldwin, Louisiana. This summer, you supported 8 trips to places all over the US and around the world. More than 70 missioners served hundreds of people, and found that they received so much more than they gave. We built wells, put on Vacation Bible School, graduated 160 youth in Kenya, packed disaster relief kits, built ramps, installed plumbing fixtures, and so much more!

To bring us in to fall, we held our first ever Panua 5K and raised over $25,000 to launch the third, 3-year class cycle this coming January. Last Sunday, thanks to the donated time and talents of the Colin Murphy family and their business Bungalow Scenic Studios, our gym was transformed into Naivasha, Kenya, and you responded to the call from our Kenyan guests to commit to the ministry of helping another 200 youth in Naivasha, Kenya find the hope of Christ. There are still youth, business and program partnerships available, so if you missed out on Panua Sunday, contact Jensie Gobel. You have truly made a difference in 2016 in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ!

The next meeting of the Women’s Book Club is Wednesday, November 9th.

We will be discussing the book “Lila” by Marilynne Robinson. “Lila” is a beautifully written novel with religious themes such as forgiveness, redemption and unconditional love. All are invited whether you have read the book or not.

We meet in the church library/resource room at 10AM on the second Wednesday of the month. This will be our last meeting of 2016.

We will take a break during December and then will meet again on January 11th to discuss the charming book “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” by Helen Simonson. Please plan to join us!

“Several years ago our Church embarked on a strategic planning process called Discern. The Discern process helped clarify our core values as a Church and identified three strategic priorities for the Church to focus on: Meaningful Worship, Next Generations, and South Street. Each priority had a series of actions and goals associated with it, and lay + staff teams were charged with implementing each priority’s identified actions. The Next Generations and South Street teams completed their work last year, while the Meaningful Worship team is wrapping up their work now.

As we phase out the implementation teams from Discern, we want to recognize the work and accomplishments of these team members and thank them for their contributions to enhancing the vibrancy of our Church. While the work of the teams is ending, the strategic priorities we identified through Discern remain important priorities for our Church and will continue to be part of our community’s focus in the future.”    ~ Jeff Hanniford

Discern Facilitation Team:

Jeff Hanniford

Julie Cave

Bill Legg

Charles Costar

Erin O’Donnell

Meaningful Worship:

Stacey Cox

Peter Leerdam

Mary Ann Andrus

Natalie Rosander

South Street:

Barbie Boyd (chair)

Jim Berlau

Julie Cave

Joan Coye

Chris Hagy

John Hazelroth

Catherine Matthias

Carol Smith

Next Generations:

Jennifer Clayton

Ally Stricker

Garland Gould

Jon Tschanz

Merrill Frailey

Dr. Tony Campolo

Acclaimed author and speaker Dr. Tony Campolo is making a special guest appearance at First United Methodist Church Winter Park. He will speak on being the church for taking care of the poor and oppressed and motivating others to do the same.

Social Justice and the Church with Dr. Tony Campolo from First UMC Winter Park on Vimeo.

His web site is tonycampolo.org if you want some more info about him.

Several new books have recently been added to our church library collection. Like most of our collection, these books were donated by church members. The library committee is happy to accept donated books. Because of space considerations we are not able to keep all the books that we receive. What we can not use is passed on to the public libraries for their book sales.

Here are the titles of our latest additions:

“The Way; walking in the footsteps of Jesus” by Adam Hamilton

“A Heart Like His; intimate reflections on the life of David” by Beth Moore

“Adventures in Missing the Point; how the culture-controlled church neutered the gospel” by Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo

“How to Rescue the Earth Without Worshipping Nature; a Christian’s call to save creation” by Tony Campolo.

Visit the church library/resource room to find these and other provocative and inspiring books.

It’s so exciting to launch our new Disciple Map.

The Disciple Map is a tool you can access that will help you narrow down your gifts and discover some great opportunities here at FUMCWP!

Some opportunities you may find can be small group studies, assisting in our Children’s Ministry, serving on a local or mission abroad and so much more.

It is something you can access many times as well as share!

We hope it helps as a guide in your faith journey.

An enthusiastic group of book-loving women meet in our church library every month. We share our love of reading by discussing a wide variety of books – novels, histories, memoirs, classics, mysteries, nonfiction – we have read them all. Our discussion is always lively and insightful. The value of a book club is that we are exposed to books we may never have considered reading on our own … and then they become some of our favorites. The group consists of church members and non-church members.

Our next meeting is Wednesday, October 12th at 10:00 AM. Our book for this month is “Everyone Brave is Forgiven” by Chris Cleave. It tells a powerful story of courage, love, forgiveness and bravery during World War II. Everyone is welcome!

Take part in these events and learn how YOU can become part of our amazing Panua ministry in Naivasha, Kenya to assist orphans and vulnerable youth:

• “Next Stop Naivasha” Dinner – Monday, October 24, 2016, 6:15-8:15pm, Fellowship Hall. $10 adults, $8 children. Learn more about Panua and meet our Kenyan staff. Register Here.

 

• Current Sponsor Appreciation Event – Thursday, October 27, 2016, 7:00-8:30pm. Check your mail for your invitation and details.

 

• Panua 5K – Saturday, October 29, 2016, 7:30am, Baldwin Park – For more information or to register, visit panua.org/panua5k.

 

• Panua Sunday – October 30, 2016, all 3 services in Matthias Family Life Center. Come hear success stories of the 2016 graduating class, and the plans for the kickoff of the 2017 class!

For more information please logon to panua.org.