Dear Friends,

Greetings! Thank you for your generous support to UMCOR for relief in Haiti. Our mission box offering on Sunday was over $1300, and you may continue to give to this effort through our church (simply designate “Haiti”) in coming weeks. Read below for more information on relief efforts.

For the last two weeks, we’ve been talking about people in the Bible who found faith. First, we read about Bartimeaus, a blind man, and talked about how often God is “right in front of us” before we even can see him or recognize him. On our “faith-quest,” our goal is to see God’s beauty and grace in the ordinary things of life. Last Sunday, we met Job, a man who endured great suffering. He hurled many questions—and a few insults—toward God and began to wonder if God even cared or heard his cries. God showed up and redeemed Job’s questions for greater faith and bought back Job’s pain in exchange for peace. I asked if you could trust God with your questions and pain. It’s not an easy prospect, facing God, but it’s how we move along in our faith.

This Sunday, we will look at Gideon in the Old Testament. I encourage you to read Judges 6-7 if you’re able (and you’ll be caught up with the children on the story). Basically, Gideon feels too small, too inexperienced, and too unsure to be confident—or have faith—that God is going to use him to deliver Israel from its enemies. We’ll talk about the next step in our faith quest—accepting the assignments that God gives us with confidence, not in ourselves, but in the Lord’s strength.

Finally, a special word about the Flea Market this Friday and Saturday….As usual volunteers have been working hard to sort the many donations. Wednesday is the last day to bring items to the Fellowship Center. I am also very pleased that our Health Ministry is able to offer FREE blood pressure screening BOTH days from 8am-12noon. And back by popular demand a kids’ play corner! If you have any old coloring books, please bring those as donations (we will cut out any unused pages).  Now, please take a minute to read the other announcements below.

Peace, Pastor Amber

·         CRUMC is still collecting the following items for Haiti relief: rice, black beans, cooking oil, water, sugar, clothing, toiletries. Please bring donations to the church office or Rudy Hall.

·         After the Flea Market we will take any extra clothing and our collected relief supplies to South Dade Haitian UM Mission in Homestead. Sturdy boxes are needed for packing items. If anyone has a pickup truck/SUV and can help on Sunday or Monday please contact the church.

·         Please submit any Newsletter arcticles/announcements/events by Monday, Jan. 25. Our newsletters will cover 2 months now! So, let us know what’s going on for February AND March.

·         Coming Soon will be both Baptism and Confirmation classes. Pastor Amber will hold 2 info sessions for both these opportunities: Tuesday, January 26 at 9:15am and Thursday, January 28 at 7pm. Please RSVP so we can have the right amount materials prepared.

·         As you pray for Haiti and its recovery, please also keep in prayer the church groups and missionaries caught in the earthquake too. Two United Methodists have died from injuries, a laywoman from Dallas and an UMCOR official. Also, we know teams from Indiana churches who were there lead by a seminary friend of the Massingills.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 3:27 pm and is filed under E-Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.