Last Sunday’s worship services were led by the 2019 Confirmation Class. They did a great job and we’re glad to have each and every one of them as professing members. Pictured above, from left to right: Carson Woodworth, Jensen Woodworth, Jack Hunter, Troy Boyd, Blair Adams, Joy Clemence, and Ava Crist.
This weekend is the One Event for the Youth of the Great Plains Conference. Wendy will be taking a group over, and for that reason, there will be no Sunday School for children or youth this coming Sunday (January 6, 2018). Classes will resume the Sunday following with the children on the third floor and the youth in the youth room.
The children and youth of First put on a great Christmas pageant yesterday. Jenny and I want to extend a special thanks to Wendy Robinson for putting it all together.
This Sunday (December 9, 2018), the children and youth will be presenting the Get the Story Straight Christmas Pageant at both worship services.
The cast and crew are as follows:
Mary — Emily Vinduska
Sheep — Carson Woodworth and Cameron Vinduska
Narrator — Jensen Woodworth
Joseph — Jackson Green
Angels — Liz Collins, Audrey Unruh, Yui Nishimura, Anna Holt, Cora Vinduska
Shepherds — Hailey Vinduska and Ethan Gonzales
Magi — Eyler Holt, Jack Hunter, Braden Adams
King Herod — Miller Unruh
Slides — Tyler Green
Hope to see you there.
The annual Fall Family Fun Event is today (Sunday, October 21, 2018) at 4:00 p.m. in Brown’s Park. Everyone is invited for hot dogs, s’mores, chips, games, pumpkin decorating, apple and doughnut bobbin’, a hayrack rides and lots of fun! Families are encouraged to bring a side dish to share.
Tomorrow (Sunday, July 29, 2018), we’ll celebrate the successful completion of Vacation Bible School (VBS) by sharing a video montage of photos. If you want a copy of the video, just bring a thumb drive, and I’ll be happy to make a copy for you. For the sake of brevity during the worship service, I had to leave a lot of photos out, but if you want to see the extended cut with more photographs that’s available also.
We had a great day at Abilene First UMC yesterday. The building was full of kids all day. We started off with Great Plains Theatre Camp in the morning and afternoon and Boy Scouts and Vacation Bible School (VBS) in the evening. I can’t speak for Great Plains Theatre or the Boy Scouts, but VBS is off to a great start! Thanks to everyone who has and is pitching in.
P.S. Just in case it wasn’t obvious, the title of this post is a reference to “Lions and tigers, and bears, oh my!” in the Wizard of Oz.
Join us this week for an exciting Vacation Bible School adventure! VBS will be held Monday, July 23, 2018, through Wednesday, July 25, 2018, from 6:00-8:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church. Supper will be served. There will be a cookout and pool party on Thursday, July 26, 2018.
The youth will have a Swim/Ice Cream party on Wednesday, May 30, 2018, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Karlene Taylor’s Pool, 509 Ridge Road, Abilene, Kansas.
Whether your child is looking forward to summer camp, or you’re looking forward to sending your child to summer camp, or some combination of the two, enrollment has started. The Great Plains Conference Camp webpage has an overview of each of the six camping locations. Camp Horizon (the camp down by Arkansas City) is where First UMC has traditionally sent campers. It may be worth noting that Camp Chippewa (near Ottawa, Kansas) is slightly closer.
Great Plains Conference camps are wonderful, but they are not cheap. However, First UMC will provide a scholarship (a campership) for half the cost of attending camp to any child or youth who is a member or an active participant in church activities. (If money is still an issue let us know and we’ll see what we can do about it—we don’t want anyone to miss out.) Simply enroll your camper and then email office@abilenefirstumc.org or bring in proof of camp registration to the church office to be reimbursed
You can learn more about the United Methodist Camps from brochures available in the narthex, by visiting www.greatplainsumc.org/camps, speaking to Jenny Collins (who has been a trooper and gone ever year) or by asking youth who has gone recently.
Yesterday, eleven members of the Ring Praise Youth Bell Choir treated both worship services to their rendition of Come, Christians, Join to Sing. It was spectacular. And it reminded me of how horribly wrong I had been when Lisa Divel approached Jenny and me about starting a youth bell choir. I liked the idea of a youth bell choir and I encouraged Lisa in her efforts, but I didn’t think it would work. In fact, I was sure it was going to fail and I just didn’t have the heart to break it to her. My reasoning was that because kids today are busy with countless extra-curricular activities, Lisa wasn’t going to find anyone interested in taking the time to be in a bell choir. Well, I forgot about the Holy Spirit and I underestimated Lisa and the youth of this church. Clearly, it can be done and it can be done well. The eleven members are soon to be twelve. I’ve rarely been so happy to have been wrong.
From Wendy Robinson via Julie Mayden:
We will be sending care packages to our college students again this year. We are blessed with 29 college students to whom we can minister this year. The youth will be making cookies and purchasing a few items to include in the boxes we send. We are encouraging you, the congregation, to help us let the college students know we love them, miss them, and encourage them to perform well on their finals. So there will be a basket in the Narthex beginning mid-October for donations of non-perishable items or monetary donations to help aid in the shipping of the boxes to the students. We thank you in advance for your prayers and donations for the college students.
*Parents of college students: Please note, we can’t get these wonderful care packages to the students without a correct address. Please send the complete and correct address of your college student to Wendy as soon as possible; we don’t want to leave anyone out!
