Bethpage United Methodist Church
bethpageumc.wordpress.comThe season of Lent – a time of repentance and preparation for the celebration of the Resurrection – is only a week away, beginning with our Ash Wednesday service on February 17th at 6:00pm. As we enter into this time of year, I hope you will join one of the small groups forming to study our spiritual gifts. They promise to be a wonderful way to form and deepen friendships, to discover more about yourself and who God has created you to be, and to empower you for God’s work in the world and the church. Sign-up sheets will be in the foyer on Sunday morning for the groups. If you are interested in leading a group, please let me know ASAP. Also, this Sunday, we’ll continue in our sermon series from Ephesians looking at how we are called to live in relationship with one another. I hope to see you there!
As you may be aware, Susan Phillips, our Nursery Director, has stepped down after more than 5 years of dedicated service to our youngest children and their families. The Staff-Parish Relations Committee met in January and decided that we would like to hire a new Nursery Director with two changes: 1) stop providing a nursery at the 11:00 service and 2) change the pay to $50 per Sunday. Please begin to spread the word that we are looking to hire and encourage anyone who might be interested in the position to send me a resume at johnhillbumc(at)gmx.com. SPRC will look at the applicants during our meeting next month (Feb 22) and go from there. In the meantime, we will be relying on volunteers to serve in the nursery (2 each Sunday from 8:30 to 11:00). Please contact Valerie Grant at bumc(at)nctc.com if you would be willing to serve.
I hope everyone is thawing out from the snow by now! We had a great worship and fellowship time on Sunday morning with those who were able to venture out and brave the elements. Please make plans to join us this Sunday for worship as we continue in our series from the book of Ephesians as we look at 4:14-5:20 together. Paul offers some pretty intense instructions to his readers in this passage, and we won’t shy away from them. I hope to see you then! If you can, remember to bring $1 or a can of food to help restock our Food Pantry for the Souper Bowl of Caring – every little gift can make a big difference for someone else!
I give thanks to God for our church and the ways that it has responded to the crisis in Haiti. We had a powerful time of prayer at the 8:30 service on Sunday for our brothers and sisters there, and then at youth group we put together 32 health kits to give to UMCOR to send to Haiti. Special thanks goes to Julie McGuire who did all the shopping and used her bargain-hunting skills to reduce the cost of each kit from $12 (projected by UMCOR) to $6.50. If you would like to give specifically for these kits, let me know or simply write in the memo line of your check “Haiti Health Kits.” Mike Sawyer is also working on organizing a mission trip to Haiti in the coming weeks. This Sunday, we’ll continue our sermon series and look at the third chapter of Ephesians. We’ll talk about what it means to be in ministry together – something we are already doing by helping those in need in Haiti. See you Sunday!
This Sunday, we will continue our sermon series on the book of Ephesians by looking at its second chapter, which tells us that though we were once dead, we have been made alive in Christ. Part of our new life in Christ is offering ourselves to others in service. I hope you’ll join us on the next two Saturdays as we seek to embody this spirit of service as we go to the Hope Clinic to repaint their interior on January 16th starting at 9:00am and as we have a Pancake Breakfast here at the church on January 23rd from 8:00 to 10:00am to raise money for our youth to be able to attend Warmth in Winter. I look forward to experiencing new life together in Christ with you!
