Monday, February 24, 2014


Saturday was a very productive day!  
We packed 61,640 meals, and 100 Spring Break Bags!
To see a video of the day by Trent Albert go to 
www.valpofumcomissions.blogspot.com 
click on the video at the bottom of the post.


Resale Shops Bi-Annual Bag Sale starts today and continues until March 5th.
On March 5th the shop will close at noon, at which time the change over to Spring merchandise begins.  The Shop will re-open on Friday March 7th.

Craft Weekend Fellowship
This Friday 2/28 and Saturday 3/1
Come join us Fri. 5 to 9pm and Sat. 8am - 3pm.
Finish those projects that have been sitting around or start a new one.  If you come Friday evening you do not have to clean off that table at home for a meal just let it be and come back on Saturday and start working on it again.  On Friday bring a snack to share and on Saturday we will be sending out for a meal or bring your own.  Just let us know if you are going to join us so we can make sure that you have a work space.   email: cmstewart4@comcast.net or 219 364 8072
Hope to see you Friday.

UMW Business Meeting
March 5th @ 1:00 in Church Parlor








Monday, February 17, 2014

Saturday February 22nd
Shift 1 - 8:30        Shift 2 -12 noon
You can still sign up to be involved in this wonderful mission.  
contact FUMC for information  219 465 1661

If you can not participate in this event you can still help out.
We are collecting items for a Spring Break Food Bag that will be passed out at the Christian Food Pantry to families with children during spring break.  
The children that are helping during the pack a thon will be sorting and pack the following items:
these items should be in single serving size
Canned Pasta
Chicken Noodle soup
Easy Mac - N - Cheese
Noodle Bowls
Granola or Cereal Bars  no nuts
Individual bowls or boxes of cereal
Crackers/ Cookies/Chips
Fruit cups/ Applesauce
Juice with vitamin C


We are hoping with all the snow days this winter you have had the time to go thought your closets and find items for The Resale Shop.
Donations are always welcome.

There is still time to sign up for the nation wide event that only happens every four years. 



Monday, February 10, 2014


Join Us For This Huge Event
Saturday, February 22
Shift 1  8:30 am    Shift 2  12 noon
Childcare provided for those under 10 yrs.
Questions?
Contact,  Bonnie Albert @ 464-1447 or 241-7250
or Mike Strayer @ 462-2354

If you have not signed up please do so, we had a great time last year.

During the Pack a thon, our children will be packing bags for the Christian Food Pantry.  These bags will be handed out during Spring Break to families with children.
Bags include easy-open/self serve foods.  We are in need of the following items:

Canned Pasta- pull top can
Chicken Noodle Soup - pull top can
Easy Mac-N-Cheese  individual serving/ microwaveable
Granola Bars  - no nuts
Individual bowls/boxes of Cereal
Crackers/Cookies/Chips- individual serving size
Fruit Cups/Applesauce - individual serving size
Juice with Vitamin C - individual serving size

Your donations are greatly appreciated.  Please bring them to the welcome Table next Sunday, February 16th, or drop them off at the Welcome Desk during this coming week.

Craft Workshop
February, 28th 5 pm. to 9 pm.
March, 1st 8 am. to 3 pm.
You are invited to come and enjoy a 2 day workshop in the Fellowship Hall.    Bring your knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking...any unfinished project... and enjoy a great time of fellowship.  Bring a snack to share. On Saturday, you can bring a lunch or bring some money to order lunch with us form a local restaurant.  If you plan to attend, please let us know either by signing up in between services at the welcome table, or at umwvalpofumc@gmail.com


Save the Dates:
April, 8th 6:00 p.m. Book Discussion
Lifting Up Hope Living Out Justice
by Alice G. Knotts

April, 17th Maundy Thursday Breakfast 

May 4th  Mother Daughter Tea






Monday, January 27, 2014

No Photos again this week

Kids Against Hunger
Once again our Church will be sponsoring a meal packing event.  Sign up between services.
The event is February 22nd. 
Shift will be at 8:30 and 12:00
There will be a packing event for Children under 10 at the first shift and childcare will be provided the 2nd shift.

Save the Date!
Tuesday, February 25th
4 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Hilltop Neighborhood House
15th Annual Soup Dinner
to will be held at
Christ Lutheran Church
2610 N. Campbell St.
(across from Valpo High School, access through Door #14)


Book Discussion
April 8th 6:00 p.m.
Lifting Up Hope  Living Out Justice
by Alice G. Knotts
There are 4 copies in the UMW library in the parlor.
The Christian thinking and faith of the five women in this book inspire us to reach higher, dig deeper, and go farther than we dreamed possible toward making this world a better place.  By recognizing that they were children of  God, and that their highest calling to serve was by helping others, they surmounted amazing obstacles to bring a sense of human dignity, respect and justice to the world around them.

Our UMW Unit has awarded a scholarship to Jatuta Pambi Yuseh to attend Africa University.
The Following are letters sent to Bonnie from Pambi and her Father.
Dear Bonnie,
Myself and my emotions of any kind family could not hearing our feeling on hearing the good news of the new year about Pambi my daughter on the issue of her fees at the Africa University.  We woke up with the news from Jarama and Pambi herself when she called.  Our devotion on Wednesday morning was full of gratitude to God and to you and all the Indiana UMC area.  What a miracle.

When Pambi could not secure the church scholarship which is highly competitive, we were all thrown into confusion and worries on what next to be done.  My mum even suggested that we should advise her to get married.  But that has never been our plan for Pambi.  Pambi is very intelligent and can coop up with academic condition of any kind.  Just like my other children.

I have five children - Simeon a lecturer with a college, Thophilus doing his Master degree in Malasia, Fibi( married after her degree program, has a child) Patience, (also married with three children, had Diploma education only.  Pambi is our last born. due to financial handicap she could not proceed to college after graduation at the JSS 4 years ago.  Her classmates have all gone ahead of her.  When she secured admission at the Africa University our first concern was the sponsorship.  We had to sell our pieces of land to raise up funds for her tuition fees and other needs at the AU.  Our worries continued when we were struggling to meet up again with the next semester's fees when this good news came.  I have today paid to AU the $1,000.

I will now have concentrate on the 4 orphans I am taking care of Michael and Mommy are still in Secondary school, while Artimos is still in Primary school.  Abigail has also finished her Higher Diploma she is now doing her one year compulsory service.

You may wish to know that I am only doing an Evangelism work especially in the rural areas.  I special in Rural Development Programs which include Agriculture/Gardening, Health care, carpentry and husbandry.  My wife is a Health worker helping the women especially in maternity and antenatal care.  She also does knitting of hand bags for women and other domestic knittings.

Please extend the sincere heartfelt gratitude to the Indiana UMC congregation.  I am sorry it has taken me long to get to you.  This is due to my inability to check on mails especially in the village in Sibre.  I am grateful to Jarama for updating me with information.
Na godeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee sosai
Yusuf Simon Jatutu

Pambi's letter

Hello Mum (Bonnie)
I have had a lot about you from Kenneth, I am so grateful for your love, care and concern for my education here in Zimbabwe.  May God in his infinite mercy bless you, your church and the conference at large.  As you know my names are Pambi Yusuf jatutu, I am 21 years old, I am a full member of the United Methodist church, born on the 5th day of may.  I love singing and being with children, I help them with the school work and teach them songs my favorite colour is Sky Blue and Pink.  I am a very Jovial person, I love making friend, I have passion to help and be a blessing to others, However I am a church Sunday school teacher because of the passion I have for children and Also among my church activities I am a member of the youth and young adult fellowship in my local church, because of my hard work I am an executive.

I served as the secretary general for my youth group.  Both of my parents are church worker with the united Methodist church, my Dad is the director Rural health program Sibre. Jalingo Taraba state.  I started my education at UMC Nursery and primary school Jalingo Taraba state and then proceeded to the UMC Junior seminary Jalingo for my high school, I graduated in the year 2010.

I really appreciate my new Academic life now at AU.  its really a nice place to be..a wonderful environment for learning. for me it is a dream come true for me because I am majoring in psychology and by the special grace of God I will graduate in the year 2017.  I hope to return to my community and church to serve and be a blessing to my generation and share the love of Christ.

Once more I am very thankful for kind love you've showed me.  We never met.  you just heard about me and developed the love for me.  My prayer is for the lord to bless you and you conference for assisting me in my education here at Africa University.  I will send you a friend re-guest on Facebook.
Pambi













Monday, January 20, 2014

Having trouble with the blog so no pictures today!


Celebration!!
For the first time in the Methodist Women's Resale Shop history, annual sales exceeded $40,000 ending up at $42,600 for the 2013 calendar year.  This represents a 17.5% increase over the previous year. In addition to this, approximately $3,000 in clothing was given away to people with vouchers issued by FUMC and organizations such as First Contact, Caring Place and Dayspring.


The Shop and the Food Pantry were given 175 handmade, scarves made by the Prayer Shawl Ministry for distribution to voucher holders and pantry clients.  The entire 175 were given out during the 3 weeks prior to Christmas to many appreciative people and their families.


The Shop Ministry continues to benefit many within our own community, as well as around the world.  None of the Shop's accomplishments could be achieved without the support and dedication of its many volunteers.  As always, gently used donations are appreciated.






Christian Food Pantry
Currently, the Christian Food Pantry is requesting donations of dried yellow lentils, jars of Wyler's chicken granules and Jiffy pie crust mixes to help with their annual bean soup kits in February.



Intercept the Traffickers Photo Campaign
 In the language of football, we want to "ice" - or freeze-  trafficking and prevent traffickers from accomplishing their goals.  We want a warm just world in which all thrive.
I have a sign that will be in the library which each circle can use to take pictures in to "ice" out human trafficking for the Super Bowl. We will send photos to Facebook (UMW of Indiana Conference) or twitter and be sure to tag United Methodist Women.  Or you can email you digital photos to the United Methodist Women Flickr account, and send you captions to webadmin@unitedmethodistwomen.org.  You can physical mail photos to
                                                       Intercept the Traffickers Photos
c/o Tara Barnes
United Methodist Women
475 Riverside Dr. room 1504
New York, NY 10115

for more info on this go to http://newgbgm-umc.org



Our Next Book Discussion
April 8th  6:00 p.m. in Church Parlor to Discuss
Living With Hope, Living Out Justice
by Alice G. Knotts
This book will be the first of 3 events dealing with the topic of Settlement Houses.  Our second will be our speaker Katurah Johnson at our Maundy Thursday Breakfast. Followed up later this spring with helping out with the Stewart House Community Garden.(Date TBA)



 

Monday, January 6, 2014


This Wednesday, January 8th at 6:00p.m.
we will be meeting in the Church Parlor.
Our discussion will be on Awake: Doing a World of Good One Person at a Time
 by Noel Brewer Yeatts
 
Along with the our lively discussion we will share a soup dinner.
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With this wonderful weather we are having this week, it would be a great opportunity for Circles to take photos for this campaign.


Intercept the Traffickers Photo Campaign
In the language of football, we want to “ice” — or freeze —  trafficking and prevent traffickers from accomplishing their goals. We want a warm, just world in which all thrive. We must intercept trafficking.
United Methodist Women members are called to listen to the mandate of our faith to help the vulnerable. Even if you aren’t traveling to East Rutherford this Super Bowl season, you too can freeze human trafficking. Read this letter from the Iowa Attorney General's office, thanking local United Methodist Women groups for their efforts to stop human trafficking.
Between now and Feb. 2, 2014, take a picture of your United Methodist Women’s group holding a sign that says “Freeze! United Methodist Women is Intercepting Human Trafficking.” Do this in a “freezing” place—out in the snow, in the freezer section of the grocery store, holding ice cubes, standing by a freezer or ice machine. Be creative (and safe)! The most important part is to hold your sign and raise awareness that human trafficking exists and must be stopped.
Send your pictures to your conference communicators to share on conference websites and in newsletters. Post them on Facebook or Twitter and be sure to tag United Methodist Women. Or you can e-mail your digital photos to the United Methodist Women Flickr account, and send your captions to webadmin@unitedmethodistwomen.org. Stay tuned to the national website for more news. Sharing these photos will be a great way to show how we intercept human trafficking.
You can mail your physical photos to:
Intercept the Traffickers Photos
c/o Tara Barnes
United Methodist Women
475 Riverside Drive, room 1504
New York, NY 10115
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mission U
Save the Date
 
July 22 - 25
Sampler Saturday, July 26th
DePauw University
Greencastle, IN





 
 
 


Monday, December 30, 2013

What have you accomplished to post on
Make it Happen Monday?
Our Lydia Circle sure did on December 17th.
 
Look they even received a Fragile Award!
 
Karen Fritz, Carol Deeter, Kathi Thompson, Connie Roach

Kay Downer, Kay Morris, Harriet Fagan

Lydia Circle's Annual Christmas potluck was held on the 17th at Judy Hain's home.  The 19 women in attendance brought food for the Christian Food Pantry, as well as new clothing items for the Tot Shop, which is a program offered by the Family and Youth Services Bureau.  The Tot Shop encourages responsible parenting by providing supplies for pregnant women and for families with infants and young children up to the age of 5.

Susan Syrcle, Susan Gleason, Cindy Felton

After enjoying great conversation and an over abundance of delicious food, Cindy Felton presented the church's Fruitful Congregation program.  Cindy's presentation was informative, insightful and appreciated by all in attendance.

As if the party wasn't jam packed with enough activities, the evening wrapped up with the making of blankets for the Family and Youth Services Bureau's CASA program.  A CASA is a trained community volunteer, such as Judy Hain, who is appointed by Juvenile  Court to represent the "best interests" of children who have been abused or neglected.  This was truly a fun, festive and special evening for all who attended.
Harriet Fagan, Sandy Coolman, Sue Peloso, Joan Mahoney Susan Syrcle
 
Kay Morris
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Book Discussion 2014!
Our 1st Book Discussion of 2014 will be on January 8th
6:00 p.m. in the Church Parlor.
Our Book is Awake: Doing Good One Person At a Time
by Noel B. Yeatts
4 copies are available in the Church Parlor on the UMW bookshelf.  This book is also available as an E book.

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