• God bless our Confirmands
• Chicken Dinner – May 6
• VBS, August 6-9

• Peony Parade Float
• Summer Sunday School
• August Vacation Bible School

• Please  note special Holy Week gatherings and services
• Good Friday Bake Sale at Courthouse
• Easter Sunday Egg Hunt for Children at 9:30

• Teresa Shaffer, new church secretary
• Sign up for Photo Op for New Church Directory
• Order flowers for Easter Sunday

“When I watched that video, the tears came to my eyes,” Dorothy Arnold confided. “The numbers are overwhelming,” added Rob Miller. It’s inconceivable that so much of the world struggles around the clock just to find something to eat. For many this hunger results in death by starvation. For others it leads to a myriad of diseases that become untreatable when the body is malnourished.  Hunger destroys the brain’s ability to function, and there is no quality of life, just a constant search for food.

In the Friday evening devotions prior to the mission team’s day of bagging the fortified rice-soy casserole for Kids Against Hunger, Rob Miller asked the question, “How do we know when God is talking to us?”  The group offered several responses, but no answer came as clearly as the view of 70 others, children as young as seven and adults as old as seventy-five, cheerfully working together to bag, weigh, seal, and box 40,000 meals on Saturday.  Seventy people + two hours + $1650.00 = 7000 people fed three meals for one day.  “For four hours work we fed 40,000 people,” is the way Roy Jeknavorian aptly stated it. 

“We in Van Wert have no concept of what it means to be hungry,” pined Susan Mathew. “Service rewards the recipients, but it also rewards the server,” commented Jana Thompson. “But even more, it strengthens the Faith of the server.”  The entire group agreed that more of our First Church Christians would enjoy and benefit from the Kids Against Hunger experience.  The sleuth has been around Jana long enough to know that the seed has been planted. Don’t be surprised when you hear that a Kids Against Hunger event has been scheduled for Van Wert, Ohio.  If God seems to be calling you to that event, you, like the adult mission team, will be overwhelmed with the Spiritual rewards.

We are working on plans to bring Kids Against Hunger to Van Wert…watch for further information.

YOUTH MISSION TRIPS IN JUNE
Middle School Mission Trip to Columbus, Ohio, June 20 – 23
Senior High Mission Trip to Columbus, Ohio, June 24—30
 

You can also sign up to have the reading sent to your e-mail everyday.

• February 5th – Souper Bowl of Caring Soup for sale
• Ash Wednesday Service, February 22, 6 p.m. in Krout
• Tri-Church Lenten Gathering – February 26, 5:00 p.m. First Presbyterian

• Check out the new format
• Look at the new Bible Readiing Program
•  See the Announcement Page for general information

Gus Christo-Baker
Senior Pastor

First United Methodist Church
113 W. Central Avenue
Van Wert, OH 45891
(419) 238-0631
firstchurch@wcoil.com

8 AM – Blended Service
9:15 AM – Contemporary Service
10:45 AM – Traditional Service

Baptism by immersion at the YMCA pool. 

May 20th, 7th Sunday of Easter - Ascension Sunday
Preaching Scripture: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
“His Ascension: Noticeable and Neat”

Media Tab - Go there to watch our worship services on youtube.

Thanks to our members for keeping in PRAYERS the 2012 GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH.  The following are some of the results of the meeting during its April 24-May 4 gathering. The delegates:

• Retained the church’s position regarding homosexuality, deciding not to adopt language that would have said United Methodists are not of one mind on this issue;
• Did away with “guaranteed appointments” for clergy;
• Rejected a proposal for setting aside a bishop to serve as full-time president of the Council of Bishops;
• Entered into full communion with a number of historically black pan-Methodist denominations;
• Approved making the United Methodist Women an autonomous organization rather than operating it under the church’s missions agency;
• Created a national ministry plan for Pacific Islanders;
• Adopted a $603.1 million budget for the 2013-2016 period; and
• Decided not to divest from three companies whose products are used by the Israeli military in the occupied Palestinian territories.
• Plan for restructuring failed considered to be unconstitutional

The delegates, from more than 60 nations, processed some 1,200 petitions during the assembly. General Conference meets every four years and is the only body that speaks for the 13 million-member denomination.