During Lent, $2,068.33 was donated for Camp Aldersgate. On April 30th, about ten people worked with the camp crew to weed, mulch, make a new gaga pit, and remove plus put new tops on the seats in the outdoor chapel. Dan and Kelcey were very grateful that our donation covered the cost of the projects. The weather was perfect for working and a good time of fellowship was had by all. Thank you, Bajcs, for providing lunch! There are pictures on the lower bulletin board at the Yellow Brick Church location.
This year instead of collecting supplies for flood buckets, we collected for Personal Hygiene Kits and Home Care Kits per the request by the Midwest Mission Distribution Center. Many thanks to our youth group led by Lisa Baker and a few other adults for helping to assemble 43 Hygiene and 3 Home Care Kits. These will be taken by the pastors to Annual Conference where they will be picked up by a truck from the Distribution Center.
As pictures are sent from Honduras of the children we sponsor with their birthday gifts, they are displayed on the lower bulletin board at the Yellow Brick Church. The missionaries on the field in Honduras know what these children need and our $25 can supply that for them. Larry and Angie Overholt are back in Honduras for a month helping with projects.
Ken and Kathy Keyes ask that we pray for Ken and his translators to be able to get the gospel of Mark which has been drafted in Hunnish to the printer. A community check and then a consultant check need to be done to make sure the translation can be understood by the community people and that the translation is still Biblically solid.
LeAnn Eyerman in Taipei, Taiwan, asks that we continue to pray that the Gospel seeds planted these past few months will continue to sprout. She, also, asks that we pray for suitable materials for their new outreaches. Lastly, LeAnn asks that we pray for upcoming strategic meetings in Mongolia regarding the operations and future of the ministry consortium there.
Vacation Bible School: The Castle of Courage! June 13-17, 9:30am – 12:00pm
For Preschool (age 3)–5th grade Welcome to the Castle of Courage! At the Castle of Courage, kids will meet King Ardor and the members of his kingdom, including the famous Knights of the Oval Table. These mighty warriors will teach kids that the true courage – the kind that helps us face whatever comes our way – comes from trusting God.
Why would King Ardor build a moat around his castle? Why can Sir Laughsalot laugh in the face of danger? What does Lady Whenimhere do to take care of the knights? How is Mervin the Magnificent able to fix the drawbridge in just one day? What is the key to success for Sir Gladdihad and his catapult? Find the answers at Vacation Bible School!
Annual Conference Livestreams: Pastor JP's Ordination Service
Annual Conference will be held Thursday, June 9 - Saturday, June 11 in Akron, OH. The services and celebrations will be available to watch online via livestream on the conference website here:https://www.eocumc.com/eoac22/livestream.html
We would like to invite you to watch the Service of Commissioning and Ordination on Saturday, June 11 at 3:00pm on the website linked below. Pastor J.P. Snyder will be ordained at this time!
Save the Date - Open House Celebration of Pastor J.P. Snyder’s Ordination Plan to join church family and friends on Sunday, June 26 at The Bridge following service (11:45 a.m.) Light refreshments. In lieu of gifts, please give toward a love offering – cards may be dropped off to the office or brought with you on June 26. Checks should be made out to James Snyder not the church.
They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. — Ezekiel 34:28b
I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. — John 10:28
We will all face trauma and devastation, loss, grief, and fear as we go through life. We do have to question if these things will happen to us but more likely when we will experience one or more of these things.
For my family several of these feelings have hit us in a brief period over the past few months. Some of you may remember I had the flu right after the Christmas Holiday, I fell and hit my head pretty hard in February dealing with a significant concussion, had an ugly case of poison ivy the end of April into the first of May and then Paige and I lived (by the Grace of God) through a very traumatic car accident on May 17.
During all these things I am still very blessed to be alive, to be loved, to have an exceptional family and a wonderful church to which I am blessed to serve.
I was once again reminded of how blessed I am when I got to hug and kiss my two teenagers before bed and before they left for school this week in light of the fact that there are parents of 19 elementary students that will never see their kids again. My heart breaks and my mind is reeling with questions.
I guess the point in my rambling is to remind us all that we need to take time each day to celebrate our blessings from God. To live the good life and never take anything for granted. I could have been and should have been injured way more than I was in that car accident, but God was with me. I walked away (which if you saw my car was a miracle in itself) I am alive. Yes, I am dealing with significant bruising and aches, I do not sleep much, I have some anxiousness about driving certain places, my concussion symptoms are back, etc. but I get to live another day.
Those little children of God from a small town in Uvalde, TX do not get to live another day. They do not get to experience the blessings of God for the rest of their lives. They have been robbed of life. Their parents have been robbed of their children.
How can we as children of God love each other better? Celebrate our blessings more often and with others? How can we start to look at what we have in common instead of what divides us? How can we be better followers of Jesus?
I am sore but I am blessed! You are ______________ (you can fill in that blank in with a multitude of things), but you are blessed! Share, celebrate and cherish the blessings of God.
May we continue to pray for the Uvalde community and continue to ask God to comfort them in their time of need.
Love and Blessings,
Pastor Kimberly
P.S. Thank you to everyone who has sent Paige and I cards, texts, phone calls, etc. Your love and concern is very much appreciated and felt.
Justified Youth Group
Justified Youth rounded out the school year with the UMCOR kit packing party. It was a good time to work for a cause bigger than ourselves and to spend time with other adults from our church.
We are going to switch up our schedule for the summer to accommodate busy schedules. We will meet on the first Thursday of each month until school picks back up, which means we will meet on June 2, July 7, and August 4, 9-10:30 AM, at the Yellow Brick Church. We would like to encourage any youth going into 6th grade through 12th grade to come join us for some donuts and Jesus!
YAC is right around the corner, June 17-19. We will be taking a group of youth, and look forward to a time of fellowship and worship with other youth from our area.
We would like to thank our wonderful volunteers, Karl Wells and Amee Butler. It is so obvious that they are following God’s prompting to work with our kids.
As always, thank you for your prayer support as we work to bring youth closer to Christ.
Kids for Christ
Kids for Christ – an afterschool Bible program. Pray about being part of the team for Fall 2022 in Carrollton Elementary School. God loves kids. They need to know His love for them.
It’s a 5 week program consisting of 2 hours each week to build relationships with the kids and share God’s love with them. Talk to Kathy Cramer to be part of this team!
Children & Family Programming
Kids and Families are always welcome at both The Bridge and The Yellow Brick Church. Worship bags are available. Kid seating is just the right size for littles! Kids can stay in worship with parents or head out to Bridge Kidz or Yellow Brick Kidz. For more information about these ministries, contact Deb Fuller (Bridge Kidz) or Jamie Hawk and Ellyn Dunlap (Yellow Brick Kidz)
Sign your kiddos in, then make sure you sign them out when you pick them up.
Tuesday Night Summit Group
This is a great connect time for families and young couples. It begins at 6:00 pm in the Welcome area at YBC. Child care is available. Just bring a Bible or your phone app and come. Got questions? Contact Karen Beck. We will be taking a summer break from the end of June thru mid-August.
Church Camp
Carrollton First UMC will give a partial scholarship for kids that are active in our activities, i.e. worship, Youth Group, Yellow Brick or Bridge Kidz, Sunday School, etc.Contact the church office with questions. Find out more about each camp: www.eocsummercamps.org
Save the Dates!
Chalk-It-Up Carrollton First’s third annual Chalk-It-Up will be held, weather permitting, on Thursday, August 11th, 2022 from 6-8 p.m. at the Yellow Brick Church. Hard to believe this is the third year we will be doing Chalk-It-Up. We are making a few slight changes this year. First, we are moving it to a weekday evening a few weeks before the end of the summer. We are hoping for cooler weather in the evening and this would be a nice thing to do during the week. We also elected to run it this year at the same time as the Cruise-In. The hope is to make the event much more laid back, allowing people to migrate back and forth and appreciate all the beauty between art and automobiles.
It should be a wonderful evening so put it on your calendars now so you don’t forget!
Nerf and Nachos You may remember that we planned this event, before the pandemic began but sadly had to postpone and then eventually cancel. Well, I have exciting news! It is back! We will be having nerf dart wars and plenty of nachos and snacks.
Nerf and Nachos is planned for Sunday, September 18th, from 2:30 - 4:30 p.m.at the big gym in the old YMCA on 211 Moody Ave SW, Carrollton, OH 44615.
Save the date and start mentioning it to friends and neighbors. If you have been wondering how to invite a family down the road to something at the church, this may be just the thing! Keep your ears open for more details.
June - Recognition Thank you to all our Greeters, Ushers, Hospitality Volunteers, our Communion Stewards, Funeral Meal workers, Keep in Touch visitors and W&W group! You are gifts to our church! Thank you for sharing your time and talents! If anyone would like to get involved in any of these areas, please contact the office.
Baptisms and Reaffirmations of Baptismal Covenant Anyone interested in receiving the sacrament of Baptism or a Reaffirmation of their Baptismal Covenant are asked to contact the office.
Save the Date: The Bridge Move Out
Mark your calendars for Bridge Move In and Out: We will be moving out of the Bridge on July 11-12 and Back in the Bridge Aug. 3-4.
Volunteers are needed for packing, loading, cleaning etc. Please let church office know if you are available to help.
We are also in need of either a large stock trailer, horse trailer or enclosed trailer that we could store chairs, tables, etc. from the Bridge between July 11-August 4. If you have something you would be willing to allow us to borrow please contact Pastor Kimberly ASAP so plans can be made.
Special July Worship Services
July 17: Worship at YBC at 9:00am; Worship on the Square at 10:30am July 24: Worship at YBC at 9:00am; Worship at the County Fair at 10:00am July 31: Combined worship service at the Community Park on Route 39 at 10:00am. We are offering Baptisms and Reaffirmations of Baptismal Covenant at this service. Please contact the church office if you are interested in receiving the sacrament!
List of Book Recommendations
Beloved,
I am so excited and encouraged about what this summer may hold. While we have encouraged many of our groups to take some time off – a time a rest, we are encouraging each individual and family to continue to look at ways to be UP, IN, and OUT. These three dimensions (up, in, and out) are the keys to our discipleship summit. We are to invest into our up-ward relationship with God, into close community of other believers, and out into the broken world.
For most, our schedules are all over the place during the summer and it is hard to stay connected to a group and a regular meeting, but to help each of us to keep growing, I’ve been asking for recommended readings from the congregation. The response was a great spectrum holding lots of different thoughts and disciplines. They may encourage, they may help, they may even challenge. If you read any of these suggested books and make an effort to respond to any revelation received you will grow. We respond by living into the principles or sharing it.
I would also recommend that you don’t read any of these alone. Find someone to read it with you or ask the person that recommended the book to discuss it with you at some point. While getting a small group of 6-12 people together every week through the summer is near impossible, grabbing lunch or coffee or even going for a walk with someone to discuss some of the thoughts and revelations received from a book you’ve read is super easy and powerful! Even if you can’t find anyone else to read it with ask someone to listen as you process it. Both of you will gain much from the conversation.
I hope you will venture to give one of these books a read and can find a companion with whom you can discuss it.
Blessings,
Pastor JP
Please find a PDF of the book list using the button below! This list is also available on our website at www.carrolltonfirstumc.org/media
Guatemala Mission Trip - Dec. 2022 Rev. Kimberly and Doug Arbaugh will be leading a mission trip to Guatemala this December. The team will be working at Camp Lemoa. First team meeting will be week of June 13. Cost is $1500-$1600 per person. Contact Pastor Kimberly if interested.
The Experience: Season Three! We will be premiering the first episode of season three of our web series, "The Experience” on Thursday, June 9 at 8:00pm on Facebook and YouTube!
Pastor Kimberly sits down with us to discuss relevant topics this season like jealousy, personal growth, and joy. Each episode also includes worship music and challenge/discussion questions. The series will be available to rewatch any time on Facebook and YouTube if you are unable to join us live! Join our Facebook discussion group to take your involvement beyond watching the videos: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cfumc.experience/
We hope you will join us!
Church Camp: Summer 2022! Carrollton First UMC will give a partial scholarship for kids that are active in our activities, i.e. worship, Youth Group, Yellow Brick or Bridge Kidz, Sunday School, etc. Contact the church office with questions. Find out more about camp: www.eocsummercamps.org
Rev. Hitchcock's Farewell Celebration Join us for an open house Sunday, June 12 from noon – 3:00 pm at Wintersville UMC to say thank you and farewell to Bruce as he completes his time as the Ohio Valley District Superintendent.
5K Run and 1 Mile Walk at Annual Conference 5K Run and 1 Mile Walk at Annual Conference Thursday, June 9 at 6 pm, Lock 3 Park in Akron. Money raised will support the Board of Missions grants for Community Engagement. Find out more https://missions_5k_2022.eventbrite.com
Pastor Kimberly and Doug Arbaugh will be volunteering for this event. Any donations are greatly appreciated!
