Parkwood United Methodist Church will host Vacation Bible School
June 18 – 22 2012
8:30 – Noon
Our theme this year is “Sky”
There is a registration fee of $25 per child.
In cases where multiple children from the same household are attending VBS, the fee is $25 for the first child, then $5 for each additional child.
We are starting the U-36 Bible Discovery Class.
U-36 means that unless you are under age 36, you are excluded and not welcome in this class.
Our focus is the youth and young adults of our congregation.
We will be using a Bible study that has been proven effective around the world.
There will be no lecturing, only questions.
Bring your Bibles, a pen and a notebook.
My brother and I don’t look anything alike. It’s because we were adopted from different families. My birth-mother is deceased, but I recently located the man whose name is on my birth certificate. He claims to have been serving in Korea when I was conceived. He and my birth-mother had been divorced and he denies paternity. I was willing to accept that. Then we found a photo of his father online; and there seems to be a family resemblance! I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do, but it made me wonder how much I look like Jesus.
Everyone seems to respect Jesus; his life, teachings and miracles. Even people of other faiths. Christians, on the other hand, are losing more and more respect. Maybe it’s because we don’t resemble Jesus. No, we’re not sure what Jesus looked like physically (although we might be uncomfortable flying on the same plane with him). But people rightly expect those who follow Jesus to resemble him. The Bible says that when we are adopted into the family of God by faith, the spirit of God will work inside us to make us more and more like Jesus… if we are willing.
Would others describe you as humble? Philippians 2:5 says that we should have the same humble attitude that Jesus had. Do you try hard to fit in with others? Romans 12:2 says that we shouldn’t conform to the world’s ways, but that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. If I want to resemble Jesus, I’ve got to be willing to let God change me. The next time I look in the mirror, I hope I look more like Jesus.
See you in church Sunday!
Grace & blessings,
Pastor Bob
The youth group has been very busy this year and April was no different. We had the Easter egg hunt at the Church and oh what a turn out! We had so many people there; some even said that there was more attendance than in past years! GO PUMC YOUTH! Pastor Bob provided us with some pamphlets with our Church information on it and quite a few people were interested! Yeah Pastor Bob!
Confirmation Class of 2012
We had a few members of our Youth Confirmed this month: Caroline Mitchell, Tiffany Jackson and Hope Roberts. Way To Go Girls!!
Serving the Community
Our most recent service project was doing a worship service with Pastor Bob at the Brian Center on April 29th.
Fundraising – Car Wash!
Our big fundraiser was this month. The Youth CAR WASH!! The youth members washed cars while customers shopped at the Parkwood Flea Market.
T-Shirts
Due to the many functions that the Youth are doing we have decided to purchase T-shirts with our Church logo and information on it. The cost of the T-shirts is $11.50 each. If you would like to help the youth with this, we will accept all donations just mark them T-shirts!
Thanks!
Thank you for all that you do to support our Youth. We love having the meals that you are making for us and we love talking with you as well. We really do learn for you!
Stay tuned for more information because the youth are busy getting things together for Mothers & Fathers Day along with Vacation Bible School.
The box to collect goodies for the soldiers is at the church with a list of suggested items posted with it. Now, the list is not comprehensive, but if you’re looking for some ideas, that might give you some. Additionally, if anyone else has any friends/family that is deployed, please contact Lauren Skidmore with their address and we will make sure they get goodies too.
Samples Ideas of Items You can Contribute:
Note: Much of the personal items belonging to our friends was destroyed in an attack from insurgents. Our friends in Afghanistan lost most of their personal belongings. Now there is a great need for basics like:
THANK YOU to all of your for your wonderful support for our soldiers! The pictures of the boxes all loaded are below. I have been able to mail around FIFTY pounds of supplies to them (and we have more to go that will be in the mail next week!)! It’s incredible all the support we’ve received and I can’t express my gratitude enough!
Do you Crochet or Knit? Would you like to learn how?
Join us for Knit, Purl, Pray at Parkwood United Methodist Church
We get together on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 pm.
All levels of experience are welcome!
Many of our projects go to those in the hospital or home-bound.
Presented in the PUMC Fellowship Hall at 7:30 pm on the first Friday of each month.
*subject to change
May 10 —
GPS is a relatively new technology that uses satellites to triangulate a precise location on Earth. GPS is so much easier and more useful than maps for finding your way from where you are to where you want to go. When GPS systems first became available for cars, there were lots of directional mistakes and “wrong turns”. I worked for a while as a cartographer (map-maker), so I resisted GPS technology and enjoyed laughing about it.
When I got my first smart-phone (Droid), I was pleased that it included GPS visual and voice navigation. I couldn’t wait to laugh at it. I first used it going places I was familiar with. No mistakes. I heard others complain about their GPS systems, but I found mine to be utterly reliable. Even my cool i-Phone-loving son admitted my Droid GPS was way better. The next thing I knew, my GPS was suggesting new ways of getting familiar places in less time! By now, I’ve used it in even distant and unfamiliar cities where I depend heavily upon it to guide me through confusing streets and traffic to my destination.
God is like a spiritual GPS. He is ready to help us get through the confusing streets and traffic of life to our desired destination; but we’ve got to learn to trust Him. His voice-navigation feature is called prayer. I ask the Lord a dozen times a day what I should do next. He never steers me wrong. Just today he led me to visit a family, but nobody was home. I left my card in the door, turned around, and guess what? They were pulling into their driveway! Wouldn’t you like to stop wasting time and effort navigating through your days? Proverbs 3:5-6 promises “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will direct your paths.”
See you in church Sunday!
Grace & blessings,
Pastor Bob
May 4 —
Last Monday I finally found my birth mother. Her last resting place is on a dusty cemetery hill outside a Texas border-town. She moved to Zapata nine years ago and died in 2007. I met some of her friends. Nobody knows why she chose their town. They described her as fun, friendly, artistic and generous; but private. I was fortunate to find and photograph some of her artwork. They knew nothing about her giving me up for adoption or any other family matters. She had spent the previous twenty years teaching art in Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta. I found some answers; but even more questions. I don’t think I’ll ever have all the answers I want.
In many ways, God is like that. “Can you solve the mysteries of God? Can you discover everything about the Almighty?” (Job 11:7) “Truly, O God our Savior, you work in mysterious ways.” (Isaiah 45:15) Many of us mistakenly confuse knowing about God with knowing God. Our loving Heavenly Father is beyond our understanding; but He wants to be known. God chose to be known by becoming one of us in Jesus Christ and reconciling us to Himself by becoming a sacrifice for our sins on the cross. We’ll never have all the answers to life’s questions, but we can know the One who gives us life and who offers to walk with us through life. “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28)
Corrie Ten Boom and her family were Dutch Christians who suffered in a concentration camp because they sheltered Jews from the Nazis. Corrie alone survived; and led her former captors to faith in Jesus Christ. She said that our lives look like the underside of an embroidered image; a confusing jumble of threads. But from Heaven’s perspective, they reveal beauty and purpose if we have chosen to live life’s mysteries by faith. Will you entrust your life to Jesus?
See you in church Sunday!
Grace & blessings,
Pastor Bob
April 25 —
I hope I am. Not fat, but FAT. FAT is an acronym Pastors use for evaluating a person’s spiritual growth potential: Faithful, Available & Teachable.
Are you faithful? Do you make commitments and keep them? Do you persevere through difficulties or do you crumble under pressure? Can others count on you to do what you’ve said, or are you always ready with an excuse? Are you following in Jesus’ footsteps or are you just playing church? Even the Marines recognize the importance of being faithful! They have made it their motto: Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful).
Are you available? Do you make time for important things like family, rest, physical fitness, helping others, Bible reading and prayer? If you have not made yourself available for those priorities, you are too busy “beating off alligators to drain the swamp”. I’ve heard there are three kinds of people: 1. Those who make things happen. 2. Those who watch things happen. 3. Those who wonder what happened. Everybody has 24 hours in their day. What are you doing with your 24 hours?
Are you teachable? I recently have taken classes in painting oil portraits. It amazed me that there were folks in both classes who ignored the teacher’s instructions. We are creatures of habit. Changing is hard. Not changing winds up being harder. A teachable person is willing to make themselves accountable to others and to discipline themselves to tasks they don’t feel like doing. Dave Ramsey says “Children do what feels good. Adults make a plan and stick to it.”
Are You FAT?
See you in church Sunday!
Grace & blessings,
Pastor Bob
5123 Revere Road
Durham, NC 27713
Phone: 919-544-1078
Email: pumc@parkwoodumc.org'
In-person Worship Sundays at 10:30 am
also live streaming here on our website
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