110819E-Newsletter

The Moscow United Methodist Church 126 Church Street Moscow, PA 18444 Office: 570 842-7251 Email [email protected] Website www.moscowumc.com e-newsletter Nov 8, 2019 In This Newsletter Thanksgiving Prayer Pastor Lori Letter Matthew 25 Ministries Final Pill Bottle Count Stewardship 2019 Call to Serve Learning Tree Preschool Sunday School Ad Council Minutes Thank you, God, for all your blessings to me and my family; for the strength you give me each day and for all the people around me who make life more meaningful. Amen.

Pastor’s Letter “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30 The calendar has flipped to the month of November. A time of showing gratitude, giving thanks to God for the overflowing blessings we have been given. On Thanksgiving Day, we will gather with family and friends to break bread together, no expectations, no gifts, just an atmosphere of loving appreciation. Sounds like the most wonderful time of the year to me! Yet, as I go into the stores for regular shopping I see shelves and shelves of Christmas items and when watching television, the commercials are attempting to lure persons to buy the best and perfect Christmas presents. Did I miss something? What happened to Thanksgiving? I swear it’s November. That is what my calendar page reads. Everyday living is moving way too fast. Society goes from dressing up to fool people to vast materialism to buy people’s happiness, that’s foolishness. The people who are actually getting fooled are those who are buying into it. It’s Thanksgiving time! We won’t find contentment, satisfaction, or true joy within a candy wrapper or in a box. All we need for plentiful living is walking daily aware of the relationship with have with God. Within that relationship, we, as they say, can have it all. There is no need to search for happiness. We have it in our hearts. So, when the Advent season does come, we can save ourselves some time and money this year, by stopping to spend time with God, giving glory to the One whose presence is everything and lasts forever. No matter what, God is there loving and caring for us. Psalm 69 was written by David. It is lengthy. He begins by pretty much complaining to God, because he knows he’s in trouble. He is crying out realizing he cannot hide his thoughts or actions from God. He prays that others will not be disgraced by his example for he feels ashamed. He is saying I know I need help and is communicating that to the right place. After lamenting about his pain and distress, David turns his attitude to praise showing God thankful honor, praying that all creation would join him. This pleases God who is ever faithful to him. Like David, we tend to complain about our circumstances instead of trusting, obeying, and offering God prayers of praise. We get things mixed up a little. But God is still there. THIS IS NOVEMBER. Despite what we may see and hear around us, as Christians we can focus on being grateful and simply enjoy life and hopefully our actions will inspire others to do the same. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you and yours. May you discover all the blessings God has bestowed upon you and rejoice in them.

STEWARDSHIP 2019 Stewardship Sermon Series: Stewardship….Giving of Self Stewardship:….Giving of Resources Stewardship:….Giving Thanks November 17th stewardship packets with pledge cards and a spiritual gifts inventory will be handed out for persons to complete with prayerful consideration. November 24th is “Giving Thanks Sunday” when pledges and spiritual gift inventories are to be returned and presented to God with a special blessing. We will celebrate our stewardship giving immediately following the worship service downstairs with a Grateful Gathering Brunch. Please mark your calendars for this special Sunday! Greeters Ushers Readers Acolytes John Wesley said “One of the principal rules of religion is, to lose no occasion of serving God.” Moscow UMC is in need off members to help serve by assisting during Worship Service! There is a need for Greeters, Ushers, Readers and Acolytes. Everyone is welcome to serve….no experience necessary we will teach you. If you are interested there will be an information table on November 17th after Worship.

15, 688 In March, 2017 at the start of Lent, the Moscow United Methodist Church embarked on a mission to collect plastic medicine bottles. These bottles were brought in by members, friends, organizations, community sponsors, and the collections kept coming. The bottles were sorted, cleaned and bagged, then sent to Ohio for distribution to organizations like Doctors without Borders. With empty medicine bottles in hand, the medical professionals can dispense medicine in clean, capped bottles, increasing the chances that the patient will take the entire dose and reap the benefits of good health. The response was overwhelming. In 31 months we collected 15,688 bottles. Perhaps a frame of reference for 15, 688 bottles would help to understand the impact we were able to make. Here are some comparisons… 15, 688 = About 15% of the seats at Beaver Stadium, Penn State (capacity 106,572) About twice the seating of Mohegan Sun Arena, Wilkes-Barre (capacity 8,000) Almost the entire population served by the North Pocono School District (20,806) Imagine, one medicine bottle per person, impacting THAT many lives. We did it! We will never know who those recipients are, never know how our small contribution helped them. It doesn’t matter. What matters is we DID it. We made a difference in 15,688 lives. THAT should make us all smile!

Moscow UMC Learning Tree Our themes for the month of November Thank You Veterans, Turkeys, and Celebratin g Thanksgiving Today and Long Ago remind us we have a lot to be thankful for, therefore, our Pre-k, Preschool and Mommy and Me classes will all explore these same topics. The first week our students will create a red, white and blue banner to adorn our classroom while we remember and honor our country's veterans. Mid-month the students will learn about the very intelligent Eastern wild turkey and each class will make a special turkey craft. And before school is out for the holiday break each class will perform their very own Thanksgiving Parade in our classroom using various instruments.

We had a Halloween party! We painted pumpkins, had apple cider and donuts from Ritter's, made treat bags, and colored bookmarks! Everyone had so much fun! We always have so much fun singing with Miss Jen!

Moscow United Methodist Church Administrative Council Meeting Minutes Monday, September 16, 2019 Attendees: Pastor Lori Robinson, Paulette Fotta, Howard McIntosh, Kim Havenstrite, Linda Verrastro, Steve PhillipsPastor Lori opened the meeting with a prayer. Paulette made the motion to accept the August 26th minutes. Linda seconded the motion and all were in favor. Budget Report Linda stated that the Gouldsboro check did not come in until the first part of September so those numbers are not reflected in the actuals. It was agreed that we do not want to change the numbers to reflect the check – it will be reflected in next month’s numbers. Steve questioned how the check from Gouldsboro would show up in the report. Everyone agreed that the check will just be deducted from each line item. Next year, we will need to add a separate line item to show Gouldsboro’s contributions. The attendance for Sunday worship has increased the past few weeks. We will re- examine the budget numbers next month to see if there will be enough surplus to pay the ministry shares. Pastor Lori suggested that we can always use December as a catch-up month, if needed. Howard suggested that any reports should be distributed/emailed to all Ad Council members prior to the meeting. Steve made a motion to accept the operating budget. Second by Paulette – all were in favor. There were questions regarding the Learning Tree budget that Linda will look into and clarify for the next meeting. Pastor Report Pastor Lori is continuing meeting with parishioners as well as attending many church meetings. She has had many district/conference meetings and reminded the Ad Council that Moscow United Methodist Church will be hosting the next Clergy/Laity Fellowship Gathering on Saturday, October 5th regarding church finance. The attendance for this may be quite large since laity will be attending as well as the clergy. The adult Sunday school has decided to change their time from 8:00AM to 8:30AM. The group is going over the curriculum choices and deciding which studies to share for the fall and Advent seasons. Barbara Havenstrite is doing a great job with the children’s Sunday school. She has some great ideas and will follow through with them. The annual church conference is scheduled for Monday, November 18th at 6:30PM. This falls on the same night as our Ad Council meeting so we will need to reschedule the monthly Ad Council meeting. The paperwork for the conference will be divided and distributed to the various committees to be completed. The district resource day will be Saturday, November 16th. The church will need to decide on a team to send to this as well as a list of which workshops we would like to attend. Pastor Lori spoke to Keith Fleckenstein. There was a brief discussion regarding the history of the scholarship fund and how procedure was followed in the past. Pastor Lori agreed to clarify that the members on this committee will need to take at least one year off between terms. Pastor Lori has been asked to represent Moscow and Gouldsboro Churches at a community recognition ceremony for Veteran’s Day. Preschool The school year is off to a good start. Jennifer continues to post on social media weekly pictures and updates with what the children are working on. She also expressed an interest in contacting Pastor Lori to set up monthly visitation times with the preschool.

The People’s Security Charitable Foundation got back to us in response to the grant application. They are very interested in partnering with us in the future and are looking into whether they still have funds available to help out this year. In the future, they will provide the necessary flyers and application information for families to apply for the $500 tuition reimbursement. If the application is accepted, the check will be mailed directly to the Learning Tree. Those families can also apply to us for additional funds if they needed or wanted to. Howard mentioned that he did speak with his friend that donated in the past. The donor has agreed to send another donation to the preschool this year. SPRC: Hannah Witherite has been hired as the new nursery coordinator. She will be paid $30 per week. Michael Shoff voiced concern that there may not be enough people for the bell ringers this year. Paulette will address this with him. Paulette made a motion to pay for the pastor’s internet as well as phone in the parsonage. It comes as a bundle and the phone is paid for anyway. We will try this for one year and Gouldsboro will be billed their 30%. Everyone was in favor. There was a brief discussion concerning the church secretary working extra hours. These hours are all justified during the transition; however, these additional hours will result in going over budget. Howard emailed everyone a breakdown of the fees associated with the church (weddings, funerals, rental halls) and asked that they be posted in the church. Trustees: The final insurance payments have been paid as well as the parsonage taxes and the $605 for the copier maintenance. The Moscow United Methodist Church will be the location for the elections again this year. All the paperwork has been signed and Ray agreed to be the contact person. The next meeting will be Monday, October 21, 2019 at 7:00PM. Paulette made a motion to adjourn. Second by Steve – all were in favor.