Monday, November 29, 2010

First Sunday in Advent


The beginning of another church year, anticipating the birth of a savior, preparation and celebration. Here are two websites worth checking out to enhance your Advent season:

The Uncluttered Heart, making room for God during Advent and Christmas. You can visit the site daily or sign up to receive daily email devotions from the Upper Room. Beth A Richardson includes a photograph that illustrates an Advent point, words to carry in your heart, a prayer, a song, and a book of the day in each email. It takes less than 5 minutes to read the entire email.

The Advent Conspiracy, what if Christmas became a world changing event again? Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All. Give Presence.

What are your hopes, dreams, challenges as you enter this Advent season?

Sunday, November 7, 2010

New Bibles

Ken Wellhouse made and installed pew Bible holders for the new Bibles (the red books) we bought with money left to the church by Lucile (Altizer) Lindsay.

Click A Service of Joy to read about Betty (Skaggs) Wooden and the day she brought a gift that her Aunt Lou left in her will for Indiahoma United Methodist Church.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

A Day Without Hunger

The Lawton District United Methodist churches
had a district-wide food drive. Postcards were sent
to residents of the Lawton District telling them
about the food drive, inviting them to participate
by donating food and then coming to a celebration
at First UMC in Lawton on Sunday afternoon.

The postcards were sent from Nashville by the
National Conference who also provided us with
T-shirts and red bags for collecting food. They also
sent banner to hang outside of collection sites (ours is shown flying in front of the Fellowship Hall door). The National Conference also produced and
aired radio spots about the area food drive.

The food drive was first advertised locally in the
church's Grace Notes newsletter and in the
Indiahoma School Newsletter. On Halloween night,
several members took their children trick-or-
treating and gave flyers in exchange for candy. Other people handed out flyers to parents who came to the door with their children.

Today, November 6th, was collection day. Members came in shifts to accept donations in Fellowship Hall. 284 items of food were donated, 43 items had to be removed because they had passed their expiration date leaving 241 food items to donate to the Indiahoma School FFA. FFA will add our food to their food drive and deliver it all to the Lawton Food Bank.


I love the verbage on the postcard:

A Life that Matters
a day without hunger
RETHINKCHURCH®
Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors.
The people of The United Methodist Church®

Monday, November 1, 2010

This Week

Wednesday NOV 3
---1:00 p.m. - Women's Circle
---5:00 p.m. - Prayer Meeting
---6:00 p.m. - Choir Practice

Saturday, NOV 6
---10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. - UMC Food Drive for Lawton Food Bank

Charge Conference 2010

On October 18, Indiahoma UMC members got together to do church business. District Superintendent Chuck Horton blessed us with a message about fasting. We enjoyed his message along with yummy finger foods.

Patrick presented his Pastor's Report which was a reflection of our accomplishments over the past year and our vision for the future.

We covered the following Items: Calendar dates of upcoming events for the next year, finances and budget, Lay Speaker and Trustees reports, Sexual Abuse Policy, and committee members for 2011.

We discovered that we don't have a "Safe Sanctuary" Policy (What would we do if a tornado blew through Indiahoma during Sunday morning church service?) and need to have one in place by January 15, 2011.

We talked about the district wide food drive that culminates on Saturday, November 6th. We will have people at church 10:00-4:00 on November 6th to accept donations. You can sign up to be a part of the food drive at http://www.alifethatmatters.net/ and receive a free T-shirt and a reusable bag for collecting food .

Meeting Adjourned.