Remember our Vacation Bible School starts August 3rd – 5th and will be here at Laurel Hill. We look forward to the Polar Blast of sharing just how cool the love of Jesus can be!
Please continue to pray for our pastor for the continued visitation among our members.
To keep up with everything else, please read our August newsletter and view our church Calendar.
Looking forward to serving the Lord in His Sabbath.
Dear members of Laurel Hill United Methodist Church!
In the name of the Lord, I and my wife, Joungwon Eo, as parsonage family greet you all. I want to convey my deep desire to serve the Lord our God together from the month of July. And Soon-Hi (soon-hee) Lee, my mother – in – law, is also with us. Some of you I already met were so kind and lovely. Some of you already sent me a message through various media. Thank you.
The month of July is characterized hot and humid that we may be easily missed our bio rhythm and even sometimes a spiritual rhythm.
God created the earth for six days and rest on the seventh day. There are two places including the Sabbath Day in Torah: Ex. 20:9-11, Deuteronomy 5:15. The former focuses on the rest after the Creation, and the latter on the Salvation. These are two main themes in the regular worship service. If we miss the worship service, we are out of both of our bio and divine rhythm.
Peter Scazzero, the writer of “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” experienced the loss of the rhythm of the Sabbath that he had to get through the tough time in his ministry.
Jesus restored the rhythm which the people lose on Sabbath through healing, preaching, teaching, and correcting. Jesus restored the people and let the people have the right rhythm as He said in Mark 2:28,
“…the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”
Keeping Sabbath means, I am aligned with Christ. So the Sabbath is the day of blessing. When you come to the Lord as a faithful worshiper, you are realigned with God through Scripture, Fellowship, Holy Communion, Prayer and Worship Service as John Wesley said in his Means of Grace. Lord, give you full recovery in every Sabbath. I am looking forward to worshiping the Lord with you at Laurel Hill.
LAY MINISTERS FOR JULY, 2018
Praise & Worship: 8:45 A.M.-Sunday School: 9:45 A.M.-Worship: 11:00 A.M.
OUR USHERS
July 1 Kirby Miller, Joe Corley, Randy Welch
July 8 Stuart Walton, Raymond Stevenson, Buddy Whitlow
July 15 Bill Robinson, Gene Russell, George Kaloski
July 22 Craig Pollard, Phil Deane, Ray Alexander
July 29 Peggy and Doug Singlemann and Agnes and Raymond Stevenson
CHILDREN’S CHURCH CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
July 1 Sheree Gostel July-
July 8 & 15 Stuart and Tricia Walton
July 22 & 29 Jeremy & Stephanie Rowan
COMMUNION
July-Judy and Billy Walker
OUR GREETERS SOUND TECHNICIANS
July 1 Gail Dagenhart & Ann Hechler July 1 David Duke
July 8 Randy and Meade Welch July 8 & 15 Doug Singlemann
July 15 Kirby & Lois Miller July 22 & 29 Keith Gostel
July 22 Linda Kinsey and Jimmy Warren
July 29 Raymond Stevenson and Agnes Knowles
TELLERS
July 1 Pam Wilson and Lois Miller
July 8 Randy Welch & Jenny Nelson
July 15 Phil Deane & Randy Welch
July 22 Chris Ragland & Linda Kinsey
July 29 Peggy Singlemann & Jeremy Rowan
BIRTHDAYS IN JULY: Christopher Shumaker, Bud Funk, Claudia Buchanan, Raymond Godsey, David Disoma and George Kaloski
Report from the Virginia Annual Conference
This year’s theme is Servant Leaders Making a Difference and is based on 1Peter 4:10.Friday morning Rev. Tom Berlin gave a report on the Commission on a Way Forward. Their final report will be published on-line on or about July 8th in four languages. The Council of Bishops recommended adoption of the one church sketch.
The Judicial Committee of the church ruled that all three sketches had to be presented at the General Conference, Feb. 23-26, 2019. In addition anyone else who wanted to may submit a plan. It will also have to be presented. Anyone wanting to submit a plan must do so by July 8th. The delegates to General Conference also made a presentation. Contact information for the delegates can be found at www.vaumc.org/gc2019. They asked that we all participate in Praying Our Way Forward Phase III. This is from June 3rd through General Conference: 1) Weekly fast from Thursday after dinner to Friday afternoon. This does not have to be a food fast, it can be anything. 2) Pray every day at 2:23-26 AM or PM, for 4 min. 3) Pray weekly. More info at: www.umcprays.org.
As of Sunday morning: Over 9,000 lb. of food had been collected for the Hampton area.
Kits for Conference as of Sunday morning:
Hygiene 25,530 School 12,825 Cleaning 808
Bedding 16 Birthing 613 Layette 334
Sewing 102 TOTAL 40,228
We voted on a Constitutional Amendment from the 2016 general conference acknowledging the equality of men and women. We passed a resolution on affirming our unity in Christ and one on moral support to veterans and their families suffering with PTSD.
We received information on the changes that are being made to the Health Care Plan, Apportionment, the 2019 budget and membership. The leadership of the church is doing all they can to keep apportionments down and wisely invest and use the money of the conference.Saturday afternoon we had serve time “A Great Day of Service”. We went out into the community and did work and prayer. We made kits for UMCOR and we learned about justice.
Our conference goal is: To be Disciples of Christ who are life-long learners and who care enough for others to serve. This is to be achieved by 2020. We begin in prayer. We need to have a conversation about the community and about how you will make disciples and how you will serve. We each need to discover our gifts and then use them for the glory of Christ.
There is more but I am out of space. I am willing to share more with anyone that wants to listen. The conference web site has lots of info from conference also. As usual I learned a lot, shared a lot, was filled with the Holy Spirit and fired up to serve Christ.
Theresa Duke – Laurel Hill rep. to Annual Conference 2018
MISSION KITS…Of the 186 Mission Kits sent to Converence in June, 106 of them were School Kits. Now it is time to start making school bags to be filled for 2019. The bags are made in the summer to be ready to take advantage of the before school sales coming up soon. If you can help sew these bags, please contact Dot Gay at 795-5196 Heavy weight fabrics, such as denim, are also needed.
FISH NEWS…We appreciate all the ways you continue to help our community families by supporting Eastern Henrico FISH. YOU are the spark that keeps us going and allows us to help those having hard times. We thank you for your continued outreach and compassion.
We will collect 8oz hand sanitizer and ink pens for FISH for the month of July, but other donations are welcome as well.
Dine at Roberto’s on Wednesday, July 25, and Thursday, July 26 for lunch and/or dinner. Present your ticket and FISH will get 10% of the cost of your meal. We will have tickets in the church narthex and there will be extra tickets at the register at Roberto’s.
The annual FISH BBQ luncheon will be held on Sunday, August 19 from 11:30am-1:30pm at Fort Lee Baptist Church. You must purchase your tickets in advance. NO tickets will be sold at the door. For $9.00 you will get a BBQ sandwich, cole slaw, green beans, baked apples, a beverage, and dessert. To purchase your tickets, see Pam Wilson and/or Kirby Miller or call 804-257-7730.
Help us pass good fortune forward. We cannot do this without you!
THANK YOU
Dear Laurel Hill Friends and Family,
Just a note to thank you for your care and concern. We have been truly blessed by the love shown to us by Laurel Hill. We thank God for our Laurel Hill family. A special thanks to Norman for his visits. We wish him the very best.
Love in Christ, Sam and Geneva Olgers
Did you know you could give to Laurel Hill electronically and automatically?
Thankfully, you can now make your giving faithful, regular, and automatic.
Go to laurelhillumc.org and click on the Giving tab. Then, set up your account for ONLINE GIVING when you click the Give Now link in the middle of the page.
A BIG “THANK YOU” from the Funks
Cindy’s six boys, daughter-in-law Karen and sister Pat extend heartfelt thanks to the entire Laurel Hill family for the abundance of thoughtfulness, kindness and love extended to Cindy throughout her long battle with leukemia, and particularly in the more recent weeks and months when the medical treatment was at its most intense and debilitating. Our congregation may be relatively small in size, but it indisputably is second to none when it comes to stepping up to help one another. The innumerable cards, calls, visits, “sitting sessions,” and the amazing amount and delicious variety of food ─ and the prayers, especially the prayers ─ were phenomenal and humbling.
We would be seriously remiss if we failed to extend an additional and very special thank you to the women of the Church who gave so much of themselves, their time and their culinary skills to the fellowship and luncheon that concluded the Celebration of Cindy’s Life on Saturday, May 26.
Throughout all, Cindy, and each of us, have been so very grateful for the outpouring of compassion and caring displayed by our Laurel Hill family. Words don’t seem sufficient to fully express our gratitude, but words are all that are available in the context of this newsletter, so we say quite simply:
May God bless each of you, now and forever, for all you are and all you have done!
Bud, MG, Ashly, Camden, Nolan, Karen, Pat & Cindy’s beloved little, four-legged, furry Higgins