The Grapevine
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF NAPA
(707) 253-1411
January 1, 2010
Open
Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors:
the People of The United Methodist
Church
…Pastor’s Column:
Yes, it is the season of renewal. A new year is upon us with new challenges and possibilities. Just remember that God begins this year with you, guiding you, leading you and loving you, regardless of where your paths may take you. Just remember God is always giving you love and support. Trusting that God is always there is a faith journey we all have to experience for ourselves.
Have you ever gotten mad at God for not being there when something goes wrong in your life? The Goliath and Red Sea experiences of life will test your faith. When your back is against the wall, when the odds are against you, when life gets tough, well, God is there. One always needs to ask what lessons are being taught here that I need to learn. Faith is a journey of experiencing and trusting God.
As we face this new year of uncertainties, there is the certainty that God will never leave you alone. God is on the journey with you. Israel found this out in the wilderness and Jesus knew this on his way to the cross. God never deserts or abandons you. God never leaves you alone.
Like a toddler, God wants you to reach out, catch hold of life, take those first few step in faith, and know God is there to hold you up. Yea, the New Year may bring some pretty quirky things, but God is there to let you know the present is open and the future is hopeful.
A new moment in time is created with each step you take with God. New possibilities arise, new challenges bring on new strategies, and new experiences will take you down roads never traveled before. Letting God lead and guide you is the key. Can you hear God’s voice? Can you feel God’s touch? God is always giving love and support. You just have to believe. That is called faith.
Have a Happy New Year of new beginnings.
Shalom.
Roger
FIRST NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION OF 2010
Beginning on Sunday the 10th of January at the 10:45 AM Sunday School hour Barbara Thompson and Michael Herzog will lead a class based on the book Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Robert Schnase. The class will continue for six weeks. Schnase contends that successful congregations often have certain characteristics in common. These fundamental practices demonstrate congregational health, vitality, and fruitfulness. They also help churches fulfill their mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The five practices relate closely to our United Methodist membership vows of supporting the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.
If you would like to be part of this important study, please contact Barb or Michael, or Dianne in the church office. We will have to order books and the 10th of January will be here before you know it.
Calling all UMW Women:
We are looking for volunteers to help shape the January 24th, 2010 church service. Worship committee has graciously given that date to UMW to lead the service as we did last year. We have some lead time to organize and be sure that everyone that wants to participate has a voice. Please contact Barb Thompson 255-0457 or Joan Feury 255-0494 to sign up for a part. Barb is heading a committee that will plan the service. We would like all that want to participate to be known to this committee or be a part of it. You will hear more at the Unit Meeting November 19 at 10:00 A.M. in the Kagawa Room. Please come and help us praise God and witness to the joy that being an United Methodist Woman gives, as we work in mission to help others and be in fellowship with each other. Joan Feury, Co-Chair
First United Methodist Church
625 Randolph St. Napa 94559
Office: (707) 253-1411 Fax#: (707) 253-1976
www.napaumc.org
Pastors: Douglas J. Monroe
Roger Kimble, III
Sunday Worship - 9:30 a.m.
Child and Infant Nursery Care is available
Church Office Hours:
Monday—Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm
The Grapevine is published bi-monthly.
Editor: Dianne Mahler
NEW CONFIRMATION CLASS OFFERED
Young people (sixth grade and older) and their parents who are interested in confirmation are invited to meet with Pat Hitchcock on Sunday, January 10, 2010, in the Asbury Room. We are proposing a Sunday morning confirmation class that would meet weekly until Easter, when confirmands would have the opportunity to join the Church. For more information, please contact Pat 224-8586 or dnhitchcock@sbcglobal.net.
Grapevine Schedule
The next deadline is January 14th
and it will be mailed out on January 20th
Please email your articles to secretary@napaumc.org
Katherine Parker – Missionary in Cambodia
Merry Christmas friends! This is not a traditional holiday season in Cambodia, but I have been enjoying a few gatherings around Phnom Penh in preparation for Christmas including lessons and carols last night. It is however, the rice harvesting season. Tomorrow I will head up to Kampong Thom, a region that was hit hard by the storms this season and lost much of its crop for this year. The Methodist Church is involved, together with many others, to continue to distribute rice to those affected. Alongside this, the CHAD program continues to work for increased food-security through the formation of cooperative rice banks. I will get to celebrate with the formation of two new groups in the Kampong Thom region. My hope is renewed by the promise of Emmanuel, that God is and will be with us as we work with each other.
peace, Katherine (For more news from our Missionary in Cambodia see below.)
GRAPE EXPRESS NEWS:
Join us on January 10th for our next lesson: “The Gift of Jesus”. We can share this wonderful story with others by our words and actions.
For Those of You With a 2010 “Going Green” Goal
Five
things you should always buy green:
Low or no-VOC paint
Paper products with high post-consumer
recycled content
Light bulbs that are compact
fluorescents
Appliances that have Energy Star on the
label
Organic fruits and vegetables, locally
grown and in season and Fair Trade products
Ten things you should never buy
again:
Styrofoam cups—paper towels—bleached
coffee filters—teak and mahogany—
chemical pesticides and
herbicides—conventional household cleaners—toys made
with PVC plastic—plastic forks and
spoons—farm raised salmon—rayon
Our New Nursery
If you haven’t seen our new nursery yet please stop by and take a look. It is coming right along, however the Nursery Committee has a request that you may be able to help with.
Would you consider donating a new or nearly new leather or vinyl sofa for the nursing moms in the congregation? Additional items that we are requesting are as follows:
Dishpan for sanitizing toys
Dust Buster
Dustpan and broom
CD
player and children’s music
Three pull up shades for the
Holyword windows
Adult couch and chair
End table and lamp
Clear
baskets and bins for toys
Large pillows and soft seats (even dog
beds work)
Play quilts like in the Environments catalogue
We
greatly appreciate any help you can give us!
Many, Many Thanks!
The longer I work here in the office the more appreciative I am of
the many volunteers who keep our dear church up and running—from
the Grapevine Staff, the kitchen crew, those who make copies, those
who look after our financial picture, all the people who work on
committees, the pew tenders, hosts, ushers, Communion preparers,
website people, decorators and hangers of things, teachers, all of
you who come in and do odd jobs, installing this and fixing that—for
you all, we are so grateful! Doug and Roger and I want you to
know how appreciated you are. Thanks so very much for serving
your church. May your blessings be abundant in 2010.
Love,
Dianne
EXCUSE ME, ARE YOU JESUS? (“lifted” from Covenant Pres. Newsletter)
A few years ago, a group of salesmen went to a convention in Chicago. They assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of them inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples in the airport terminal. Apples rolled everywhere! Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding. ALL BUT ONE! He paused, took a deep breath, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved goodbye, and asked one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain to her that he was taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were still scattered all over the floor.
He was glad that he did.
The 16-year-old girl in charge of the table was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, while at the same time she helplessly groped for her spilled produce. The crowd continued to swirl about her. No one stopped, and no one cared about her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up apples and put them back on the table, then helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here. Please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. "I hope”, he continued, "we didn't spoil your day too badly."
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister!" He paused and turned back to look into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"
He stopped in mid-stride and wondered. Then he slowly made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul. "Are you Jesus?" Do people mistake you for Jesus?
That is our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people can't tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life, and grace. If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk, and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting scripture and going to church. It is actually living the Word as life unfolds.
Sierra Service Project
Other
than our regular meetings on Sunday mornings after service, the youth
have been busy. The SSP Group finally received their site for
the Summer, which will be an urban program in Los Angeles, June
27th-July 3,2010. We are registered for 9 youth and 3 adults.
We will have a send off Sunday on June 27th, 2010 for the SSP Group
and a welcome home SSP Sunday July 4th, 2010, where the SSP
youth will participate in the worship service and focus
on their summer project experience.
The youth have
participated in one clean up of the church sanctuary and two church
services as ushers and greeters. Their schedule for the next two
months are as follows:
January 3 Regular Youth Meeting
January 10 Church Maintenance Sunday for Youth
Group
January 17 Participate in Worship Service/Regular
Youth Meeting with
SSP Youth and parents
January 24 Community Service or Regular Meeting
February 7 Regular Youth Meeting
February 14 Church Maintenance Sunday for Youth
Group
February 21 Participate in Worship
Service/Regular Meeting
with
SSP Youth and parents
February 28 Regular Youth Meeting or Community
Service.
Pie & A Movie
January 15th. We start the year off light with "Singing In The Rain".
6:30 pm—Holyword Theater
One visitor to Phnom Penh described it as a giant box store, because shops for certain items seem to be clustered in districts rather that spread out over the whole city. If I want to buy a sewing machine, I go to street 210; new shock absorbers for a motorcycle are at the corner of street 144. The business model seems to be “if my neighbor has a good business I should open an identical one.” When CHAD first started implementing development projects in Cambodia this same principle seemed to apply. Everyone caught the idea that cow groups were a great project, and now we have 33 groups raising cows!
Two years after CHAD got started, the Methodist Church in Cambodia started a huge process of merging together the many members of our Methodist family into one church, and we started working with more pastors, many who were new to the ideas of church-based community development. We continued on, but took a few steps back in terms of leadership development as the CHAD program staff took on more of the responsibility of receiving project proposals and approving funding. But this was never our desire.
Last year, Ken Cruz (missionary from The Philippines) took over the chairmanship of the SCC committee and started the process of empowering the pastor representatives from all the Methodist districts that make up the SCC to make decisions for which projects will get new funding from the CHAD program. Initially, we were faced with the problem that most of the members of the SCC didn’t have a framework for making decisions about what makes a good development project. We offered opportunities for dialogue and challenged the group by prompting them with questions they should ask about a proposal. We also supported several pastors (under the initiative of Pastor Saron) and lay leaders to attend training on community development with our partner ICC-SPPA (International Cooperation Cambodia – Skills Promotion for Poverty Alleviation). And, then the big day came for reviewing the project proposals and allocating the funds that had been donated by our partner churches in the USA, Finland and Japan. What was the impact of this year of training?
Ken reflected on the changes he saw in Pastor Saron and other SCC members. “A highlight has been the transformation of the SCC members into the owners of the process. This is demonstrated by their improved understanding of the process.”
“I think one impact of the ICC-SPPA training that Pastor Saron and others attended is that they increased their understanding of development philosophy, such that they can have better judgment about what kind of project deserves to get support from CHAD. They can also deliberate more intelligently and make an informed decision to determine how much and what kind of funds they will approve. Pastor Saron encouraged the group to think about how the proposal dealt with community participation in the project. How many people would this impact? Did it reach out beyond just the church members? Was the project transparent to the larger community? He also challenged the group to think about the responsibility of the church to contribute. Did all of the funds need to come from CHAD? What was the group ownership in the project as demonstrated by the group's contribution? He also challenged the group to assess the management capacity of the group? Were there structures in place to handle the proposed project. Did the group have the ability to follow through with the project?
Up until now it had been the CHAD staff that raised these concepts of development and encouraged the SCC members to deliberate on them. But, at this meeting, it was Pastors Sarun and Phalla who were raising the issues and challenging their fellow pastors. It is not a fast process, but the signs of transformation are all around us as the Methodist Mission in Cambodia works to develop principled Christian leaders for the church and the world.
…A word of thanks from
Doug & Martha:
We’ve been saying that this past Christmas holiday has been a nightmare for our son, Maddock, and – in a very real sense – it has been for us too. He continues to be treated as an outpatient for a combination of viral encephalitis and a complex migraine. We hope that with rest and medication he will recover.
Martha and I want you all to know, though, that all of us in the family have felt your care and concern, both in your prayers as well as in the thoughtful notes and comments that have come our way. I am also thankful for Roger’s leadership over Christmas Eve (the first time in my life that I either have not attended or participated in that worship service) as well as for the gifted lay leadership that simply has carried on in my absence with the mission and ministry that is The First United Methodist Church of Napa.
The love and strength of our family has sustained us – and surely has been of immeasurable worth to Maddock – but you who are our extended family have given us just as precious a gift these past few weeks in your expressions of love and support. For all of those expressions we are deeply grateful.
It is our fervent hope that we will be able to finally “celebrate Christmas” and enter into this new year with some measure of joy at the same time that we celebrate our grandson (Maddock’s son) Gavin’s first birthday, January 13th.
In search of shalom…always, Doug
BUILDERS POTLUCK LUNCHEON JANUARY 9
All members, and those who enjoy getting together with those who are members, are cordially invited to join the NOONTIME gathering in the KAGAWA ROOM on January 9. This is also the day of our annual fund-raising activity, and we’re going to try something different. Instead of “white elephants,” we’re going to have a silent auction for BAKED GOODS, and an aural auction of wines.
The baked goods can either be homemade or purchased, to be presented in a container that is not expected to be returned. For the silent auction, we invite donors to put on the bidding paper the name of the item and a suggested minimum bid.
A reminder to those needing transportation: by Thursday
(7th) tell either the Caller, or Dianne Mahler at the church office,
and every effort will be taken to get a ride for you.
Bring your
smile, your donation for the auctions, and your food item for the
potluck by noon for a pleasant beginning for Building a New Year.
CALLING ALL READERS!
Do you need something to read over the holidays? Why not pick up The Time Traveler's Wife and join the Just for Fun Book Club on January 5 at Kay Steven's home. We always welcome new readers and have lively, if often discursive discussions. January reading is Say You're One of Them, by Uwem Akpan. This Oprah 2009 book pick was #3 on the Best-Sellers list. We're trying to select paperbacks to keep the purchasing costs down, (this one is available at COSTCO) and with advance notice our selections are usually obtainable at the library. Join us, won't you?
Mission Statement
The First United Methodist Church of Napa unconditionally welcomes all people wherever they are on their faith journey. As a congregation rooted in scripture, tradition, experience, and reason, we promise opportunities to grow in the Spirit to become active followers of Jesus Christ. We are affiliated with The Center for Progressive Christianity and a member of the Reconciling Ministries Network.
Sunday Worship Service: 9:30 am
Coffee, cookies, lemonade and friendship are served at 10:30 am
Adult Bible Study: 10:45 am Parlor
Sunday School for 3 years old through 5th grade—10:45 am—Kagawa Rm.
Middle School Group—10:45 am—Beall Library
Youth Group—11:00 am—Youth Room
Come and see what your church has to offer you this year
Jan. 3 Scripture: Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
Rev. Doug Monroe—Epiphany Special Music
Jan. 10 Scripture: Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Rev. Roger Kimble—Baptism of Our Lord God’s House Band
Jan. 17 Scripture: Isaiah 621-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 121-11; John 2:1-11
Rev. Doug Monroe—Human Relations Day Cathedral Choir
Jan. 24 Scripture: Nehemiah 8:1-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21
Rev. Roger Kimble—UMW Sunday Bonner Bells
Jan. 31 Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30
Michael Herzog, Lay Speaker Cathedral Choir