THE AMBASSADOR
“So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).”
Volume 13, Issue 1 A newsletter for the Pastors and Lay Leadership of the Charlottesville District January 2015
7
January 2015 Page
Don’t forget!
February is Heart Havens Month, a time to remember your brothers and sisters with intellectual disabilities, your neighbors, in Heart Havens homes right next door and across the Virginia Conference. Look for informational packets in January, to the attention of each church’s Mission/Lay Leader. There are many ways to help and we have a menu of opportunities from a speaker, to a paper drive or showing a video. Please share this information with your congregation, add Heart Havens to your church calendar, and contact Heart Havens for more information at 1-877-442-8368 (toll-free).
Sara Becker
Development Assistant
Heart Havens, Inc.
812 Moorefield Park Drive
Suite 301
Richmond, Virginia 23236
Phone: 804-237-6097
Toll Free: 1-877-442-8368
Fax: 804-237-6098
www.hearthavens.org
C’ville District Wide Fundraiser for Heart Havens
Saturday, May 16, 2015-Change the World Weekend
8:00am-1:00pm
This will be a huge yard sale plus other activities. We will have this event at 3 churches across the District!!!
Aldersgate; Nelson and Woodland United Methodist Churches
More DETAILS to follow at a later date!!!
Mega Media Sale
Onthe weekend of March21st, 2015a Stanardsville UMC Life Groupplans to hold a used multi-media sale to benefit Heart Havens. It will be held at the American Legion Post 128, 638 Madison Road in Stanardsville, 22973. We need to get the word out now so that persons in the district will begin saving their used books, tapes, DVDs, and CDs for donation to the sale. The only media that cannot be accepted are used sets of encyclopedias.
Here are the drop off sites for the mega media sale-
Nelson UMC- Wed 10-2; Sundays 9:45-12:30 or call
Crozet UMC
Ivy Creek UMC
Aldersgate UMC
Amissville UMC-call
Culpeper UMC- Mon-Fri 8:30-4:30
Trinity-Orange - Tues, Wed, Fri -9-12
Bill Henderson to Give Concert to Benefit Heart Havens
Singer Bill Henderson will give a concert on Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 3 PM in support of the Charlottesville District Vision Team as they partner with Heart Havens to provide housing for people with intellectual disabilities in the Charlottesville area. Admission to the concert is free; however, a free will offering will be collected.
Mr. Henderson has been categorized by different school systems as aphasic or somewhere on the autism spectrum. Although he has severe auditory processing disorder, music has always come naturally to him. He performed in talent shows and church choirs when he was a child, and has also performed with the Fluvanna Community Singers and the Piedmont Virginia Community College Chorus. He will be accompanied at this concert by Jeff Suling, who has taught and directed Mr. Henderson since the 1980s.
The Charlottesville District Mission Team aspires, with Heart Havens, to create a place in the Charlottesville area where men and women with intellectual disabilities can be provided with the same opportunities everyone seeks: the chance to live in a safe and nurturing environment where they are respected and supported as they live, work, and develop true relationships in their community.
Today, people with disabilities are seeking housing options that offer more independence and more opportunities to be truly active members of the community. The goal of the partnership between the Charlottesville District Mission Team and Heart Havens is to build an apartment complex that will provide housing for people with intellectual disabilities as well as affordable housing for other people in the community.
The concert will be held at the V. Earl Dickinson Building at Piedmont Virginia Community College, located at 501 College Drive, Charlottesville, VA.
For more information on Heart Havens, please visit www.hearthavens.org
Heart Havens empowers adults with intellectual disabilities
to live and thrive in a safe and nurturing environment.
Robert Rogers to speak
It continues to amaze me how God works! This past summer Jane and I took some vacation time to visit family in Ohio and Kentucky. While there my brother, a United Methodist pastor in Sandusky, Ohio, invited me to a spiritual formation workshop he had organized. The keynote speaker for the workshop was Robert Rogers, a Christian teacher from Ft. Wayne, Indiana. To say that I was impressed with Robert’s testimony would be a huge understatement!!
In August 2003, Robert experienced a tragedy of Biblical proportions when his precious wife and all four of his children were swept away in their family van and drowned by a six-foot wall of water in a flash flood in Kansas. After 8 years as a husband, and 13 years as an electrical engineer, Robert’s life was completely changed that night. After 3 years of intense grief counseling Robert resigned from his engineering career and answered God’s call to minister and share the amazing grace and faith that brought him through his horrific ordeal. Now he teaches others to Live a Life of No Regrets through his ministry.
Robert’s worldwide ministry called Mighty in the Land, (www.IntoTheDeep.org) brings his testimony to congregations of all denominations and sizes, and to various secular organizations. Robert is an accomplished musician, songwriter, pianist, author, and Christian speaker who has been featured in Focus on the Family magazine and Billy Graham’s Decision magazine. He is the author of several books including Into the Deep, and A Life of No Regrets. Integrity Music has published Robert’s original composition, How Can I Glorify? In addition, he has several full-length CDs of his original compositions. Robert has appeared nationally on ABC, CBS, CNN, TBN, the Montel Williams Show, Integrity Film and Video, Moody Broadcasting network, and the Billy Graham TV Crusade.
In addition, Robert has founded Mighty in the Land Foundation, (a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation), dedicated to advance adoption and care for orphans and special needs children worldwide. The foundation has funded the Melissa Home (Russia-2006), Makenah’s Home (Rwanda-2009), and Alenah’s Home (Beijing, China-2010). Robert’s vision is to sponsor at least five worldwide orphanages to honor each of his heavenly family members lost in the flood.
Here’s the best news. We have arranged for Robert to come to our church on Sunday, February 8, 2015 at 2:30 PM. This special one-time appearance is open to our entire community. Robert’s ministry calling is to turn the hearts of people to God, and the hearts of parents and children to one another worldwide. I promise you, if you come to witness Robert’s amazing artistry of sacred music, Christian Scripture, and personal testimony, your heart will find itself turned to God in ways you never thought possible. Make plans now to join us on Sunday, February 8, 2015 at 2:30 PM, at Stanardsville UMC, 25 Court Street.
In Christ,
Pastor Chuck Winner
Tuesday's Table
This is an outreach ministry our church has been involved in since 2005. Our mission is to feed every hungryperson, permanentlyresiding in Greene County, with one meal every Tuesday afternoon. Meals are prepared in our church's kitchen and either delivered by our delivery teams to shut-ins, or picked up at our church by those whoare able to come. We hold a voluntary time of devotion in our sanctuary prior to theserving of meals each week. Currently we are averaging about 300 to 350meals perTuesday. About 100 are delivered and the rest picked up.Depending on the menu we have found that the cost to plan meals,pick up supplies and prepare the meals averages about $600 - $700per Tuesday. Tuesday's Table has been blessed to be recipients of several grants each year from the Virginia Conference and from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation (CACF). Although we have severalother area churches involved in this ministry with us, over this past year we have lost participation due to increasing costs and/or a decline in availablekitchen workers from the respective churches. As a result, we project that in 2015 Stanardsville UMC will be individually responsible for27 Tuesdays, over half. Obviously,if nothing else changes we willbe forcedtomake some hard decisions about the frequency of meals for the coming year. Although we have not received any Advance support as of yet, Tuesday's Table has been approved as a Conference Advance and our Advance number is#5024. Certainly, any sustaining support in manpower or dollars we might receive from the Charlottesville District Churches would be greatly appreciated.
Annual United Methodist Day at the General Assembly
Once again, we are extending an invitation to our brothers and sisters across the Virginia Conference to join us for this day of fellowship, advocacy, meeting with legislators and hearing from individuals who are well versed on issues before the General Assembly. The 2015 event will be held on Thursday, February 5.
To obtain information about the event, go to the Virginia Conference website at www.vaumc.org. Click on "conference calendar", then click on Feb. 5, 2015.
District Youth
Save the Date!
District Youth Retreat, February 27, 28 and March 1, 2015
Westview on the James
Speaker: Jeff Williams
SHN Packaging Event
Conference Events
Middle School Retreat, Nov. 14-16
High School Retreat, Dec. 5-7
For more information on Conference events go to www.vaumc.org/youth
UMW Events
JANUARY
10th - 2015 Executive team training, 10am, confirming it to be held at Aldersgate in the Friendship room, upstairs. All day! Bring a sack lunch and drinks.
FEBRUARY
5th - United Methodist Day at the General Assembly - Richmond. 7th - 2015 Charlottesville District local officers training 10-12am, location TBA
MARCH
6-7th - Virginia Conference Executive Team Meeting in Dumfries District President only
7th - District Lenten Event. Program and location TBA
NEW! Please find UMW on Facebook under Charlottesville District United Methodist Women and "Like" us to receive updates and the goings-on in the Charlottesville District UMW. If you have events you would like posted please e-mail Betsy Smith, our new Communications Coordinator at .
Photos from our Advent Breakfast are now posted.....
When you like us, click on the three dots next to Message on the photo at the top of the page and your list of Facebook friends will come up...Please invite all of your lady friends and your family to "like" us....Let's see if we can get 100 likes by the end of the week. Game on......
Dian McNaught
Created by God: Tweens, Faith and Human Sexuality
Stanardsville UMC will be offering a class called Created by God: Tweens, Faith and Human Sexuality for children in 5th and 6th grade along with their parents based on the book by Dr. James H. Ritchie, Jr. As we know, thiscan be a challenging time for young adolescents and their parents. The church wants to help equip young adolescents and their parents to begin the conversation and open channels of communication. Created by God emphasizes a healthy biblical and Christian perspective on human sexuality, values and relationships. The Created by God experience will be divided into 6 sessions and led by 3 or more trained adults. The schedule will be as follows:
Friday, January 16: 5:30 -7:00 pm - Parent Session ONLY (book review, introductions, icebreaker)
Friday, January 16: 7:00 -9:00pm - StudentSession (introductions, question box, biblical review)
Saturday, January 17: 9:30-3:30 - Student Sessions (anatomy, growth and development, reproduction, lunch and playground, review)
Saturday, January 17: 4:30-6:00pm - Students and Parents (closing, prayer and Litany)
Written permission is required for all participants. Cost is $20.00 per family which includes a Created by God Parent Guide and dinner and lunch. Participants must register by Monday, January 12, 2015 by emailing Julie Nitzsche @ or calling the church office at 985-3888.www.vaumc.org/imaginenomalaria or www.facebook.com/EveryLifeSaveALife.
The Academy for Spiritual Formation®
Since 1983 The Upper Room has offered The Academy for Spiritual Formation® as an in-depth experience in Christian spiritual formation for clergy and laity. This letter is to announce that a two-year Academy (#37) will be starting August 2015 in the Southeastern Jurisdiction.
As a way to help your Conference benefit from this unique offering, following this note you will find information about the matching grant program which will provide up to $5000 to help individuals from your Conference participate.
The Academy is an intense two-year program which brings participants together for 40 days (5 days each quarter) for worship, silence, covenant groups and study. Sixteen courses form the backbone of the Academy; worship and small groups shape its heart and soul. Once called “the best kept secret in the United Methodist Church,” an independent research study funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment confirms the Academy’s effectiveness.* Participants emerge with a deeper relationship with God, a better sense of self- and soul-care and more creativity and freedom for the practice of ministry.
While ecumenical in outreach, the Academy is Wesleyan in spirit, balancing an emphasis upon personal and social holiness. During the first year, emphasis is placed on deepening one’s life in Christ; during the second year participants are encouraged to focus on engaging the needs of the world. Disciplines of body (health and wellness) as well as mind and spirit (lectures and worship) provide renewed vitality on many levels.
This is an expensive and time-demanding program. That’s why we developed the matching grant program which we call Encouraging Spiritual Leaders (ESL). Here’s how it works.
We invite you to identify up to five persons in your Conference (clergy or lay) whom you feel could benefit from this program and who would be a benefit to others. After they’ve applied and been accepted into the Academy (usually routine), The Upper Room will match the Conference support up to $1000 per participant and up to $5000 total per Conference. You are free to select the individuals using whatever process you wish. For more information about how this process works, see the enclosed letter.
Academy #37 begins August 3, 2015. All sessions will be at the Sumatanga Camp & Conference Center in Gallant, AL. More information about the Academy, including the dates for all eight sessions, is available on our website. Copies of our brochure and prospectus are available online or upon request by emailing .
Thank you for your commitment to spiritually vital, alive leadership in the UMC!