COMMUNITY CHICKEN LUNCH
Our United Methodist Women will be preparing their
delicious baked chicken lunch on Wednesday, May 14th with serving
beginning at noon sharp. Invite a
friend to join you! Don’t miss this
special monthly treat and lunch is just a $6 donation!
CRAFT FAIRE
YOU are invited to join our group! We make special hand crafted items to sell
at our Craft Faire in November and during the Nevada City Victorian Christmas
events in December. This year we have
added a few special sales and the next will be on Sunday, June 29th
with July 4th items, and then on Sunday, October 26th
with Halloween and Thanksgiving items.
It’s work - but a fun way to help our church budget. Bring your ideas or we can supply with you
with ideas for projects!!!! Our next
meeting will be on Monday, May 5th at 10am in Fellowship Hall. And – we’re treated to the best cookies in
Nevada City while we meet!!!
Please remember our Food Closet when you are doing
your grocery shopping. We always appreciate
your donation of canned pork & beans, tuna, cream of mushroom soup and
fruits. Please leave in the basket at
the rear of the sanctuary. Food Closet
Sunday is the first Sunday of each month.
CLEANING ANGELS
We’re still looking for a few more angels to help us out on
Wednesday mornings. We arrive at 8am
and are finished in less than an hour.
If you have questions about this special ministry to our church, please
contact the Head Angel Carl or the church office at 265-2797.
SHAWL MINISTRY
Our Shawl Ministry meets each Thursday noon in the
Joseph Room. Bring your sack lunch and
come join us and find out all about this special outreach.
WELL-FED WEDNESDAY
The Well-Fed
Wednesday meal is served at 6pm in Fellowship Hall. We would appreciate your signing up so we have sufficient food
prepared. We do take a donation to
cover expenses. At 7pm there is
Disciple Class, Youth Group and Shawl Ministry.
MEN’S BREAKFAST
The men will gather for breakfast and fellowship
at Perko’s Café on Saturday, May 10th. See you there at 8:08am!
FRIDAY SUPPER
A free supper will be served on Friday, May 9th
and 30th. This will be at
the Grass Valley United Methodist Church, 236 South Church Street. Begins at
5pm and all are invited.
FREE COMMUNITY MEAL
On Monday, May 12th and 26th
there will be a free meal served to the community at St. Patrick’s Catholic
Church, 235 Chapel Street in Grass Valley.
Serving begins at 5pm.
Hospitality House
Thanks to all the NCUMC volunteers who helped make
this shelter season another big success!
Special thanks go to the monthly on-site coordinators and to the
overnight volunteers. –Jackie Finley
Peace with Justice Sunday
On May 18th we will celebrate “Peace
with Justice Sunday” with a special
offering to the United Methodist Church as it seeks to advocate for
peace and justice at home and around the world.
UNITED METHODIST WOMEN
Please come to our May meeting on Wednesday, May 7th. We will gather at noon with our sack lunches to visit, and dessert will be served
at 1:00 p.m. This will be followed by a
general meeting and program. Our Prayer
and Self-Denial program is entitled, “Learning for a Lifetime.” All are welcome! Please come! UMW is encouraging women from our Church to attend
this year’s Schools of Mission and scholarships are available:
Reno
– August 15th – 17th
Santa
Nella – September 19th – 21st
Study topics include: Israel-Palestine Geographic Study; I Believe in Jesus – A Spiritual Growth Study; Giving our Hearts Away: Native American
Survival Registration forms and scholarship
applications are available in the church office. Please note: the
deadline to register for the Reno event is July 18, 2008; Santa Nella, August 15, 2008. For more info the church office at 265-2797.
NEVADA SIERRA DISTRICT UMW RETREAT: A weekend of worship,
singing, individual meditation guided study and praying…and much more. The theme will be Resurrection Women. The retreat is to be held at the Mercy Center,
535 Sacramento St., Auburn, CA 95603. July 11th through 13th,
2008. Weekend begins with registration
at 4 p.m., dinner at 5:15 p.m. on Friday and ends with Sunday morning
worship. Cost is $135. Rooms are single occupancy, and all are on
the ground floor. Scholarships are
available. Applications for the retreat and scholarships are available in
the church office. Call Joyce Spence at (530) 889-2302 or email at joycespence@hotmail. com for more
information.
Congratulations on another successful Heifer
Drive. A total of $1,386.72 was
collected!! Your generosity will not only buy a $1000. Milk Menagerie, but also a pig and a sheep
($120. each), a flock of chicks and ducks
($20 each flock), a trio of rabbits ($60), and honeybees ($30). The
Milk Menagerie consists of a heifer, two goats and a water buffalo, all bred
for the specific climate into which they are placed, and ready to produce gallons of rich nutritious, life-
giving milk. Your gift of farm animals
and training through Heifer Project International helps hungry families begin a
life of hope. The animals, fowl and bees will be a continuing source of food and income. Each family also gains pride by being able
to help someone else when they pass on an offspring and skills.
Thank you for your gift that keeps
on giving.
SUNDAY MORNING DRIVERS:
Can you
occasionally give a churchgoer who doesn’t drive a ride to a Sunday morning
service? This will not be an every week
commitment, just now and then. We’d
like to gather a pool of folks willing to help others wishing to be with us on
Sunday mornings. There is a sign-up sheet in the Fellowship Hall or you can
call Christine Barnes at You help is appreciated.
-Christine
JUBILEE UPDATE
We have good news to share: The Jubilee Act was voted upon in the House
of Representatives on April 16, and it passed!
Not only that, but our own representative, John Doolittle voted “YES”,
likely because he heard a strong voice from people of faith such as our
congregation. Your Church & Society committee had a chance to meet with his district director two days before the
vote to share our concerns. What is left now for this hope-giving Act to become
law, is that it must be passed in the
Senate, which it is expected to do probably in the next month, and then to be
signed by the president, which he has said in the past he will support. We will keep you posted. Thank you to all who signed cards and expressed
your support.
-Church
& Society Committee
FAIR TRADE: It’s More Than You Might Think
Most NCUMC members and friends already know that
we support Fair Trade coffee. Many of us buy it here for our own use, and we
may even vaguely know that it helps raise money for some of the mission work of
the United Methodist Church around the world, through our partnership with
Equal Exchange. Some of us contribute
to the Fellowship Coffee Fund so that we can use fair trade coffee during our
fellowship time and at other church
functions. And…if you haven’t tried the
fair trade chocolate bars yet, you are missing out on something really
good! But, how many of us realize that
by promoting and using a fair trade model as consumers we are helping to
build the “kin-dom of God”? (No, that’s not a misspelling, it’s another
way to describe the kind of
relationship God desires for creation.)
Fair Trade promotes democracy by
purchasing products from locally run cooperatives where the farmers and
producers, who actually are the workers, make decisions among themselves for
the benefit of the whole group and their families?
Fair Trade promotes good stewardship of
the land, water, air and other resources.
Not only do the
fair trade certification rules require strong environmental standards, but the
producers have a personal stake in making sure that their practices are
sustainable, so that their own bit of land will continue to provide a healthy
living for their children and their children’s children.
Fair Trade promotes literacy and education as
the fair price negotiated for the crop (coffee, tea, sugar, rice, bananas,
cocoa, and a growing list of other products) allows low-income farmers and
workers to earn a living wage for their families, and even provide for schools
for their children.
Fair Trade promotes health and combats disease when
many of the cooperatives choose to build community health clinics with the
stable income now available through their fair-trade agreements.
Fair Trade promotes entrepreneurship and self-help
industry as fair trade partners in the poorer nations are
given a chance to make a living that will not be so easily destroyed or
under-cut by powerful forces outside of their control.
a pattern of cooperation and mutual development.
So, thank you so much to all those who began our
participation in the Fair Trade movement, and for keeping it before our
awareness on a regular basis. Fair
trade coffee can be just a starting point, for each of us personally, and for
our church as a community within the larger community of the world. If
anyone reading this article wishes to get more information about how fair trade
works, you can contact the Church & Society Committee for more resources
and in-depth articles.
-
Chair of Church & Society