The Messenger
November, 2006	Volume 1, Number 1
Upcoming Events: 1. November Food Drive 2. Fall Fashion Show, November 18^th		THE PASTOR’S CORNER “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus said in John 6:35. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” In this time of harvest, of filling our bodies with good food and our homes with good company, it is powerful to remember these words of Jesus that feed our heart and soul. Thanksgiving, our celebration of the harvest, is around the corner. In one sense it is an ending…an ending of bright sunlight, fall beauty, the abundant life of spring and summer. But in another sense it is a beginning, a time to find the strength and nourishment as we begin our journey through winter into rebirth. It’s true, isn’t it? As Christians, our rebirth and renewal happens most often in the winter – in times of cold and darkness and even death – rather than in the spring. It is in times of waiting and stillness, in times of realizing our own powerlessness in the face of the unpredictable weather of life, that we shed all pretense of having control over our own lives and are reborn in faith. Thankfully, God knows all of this! And so he sent Jesus to us, to sustain us for the journey, to be for us the Bread of Life as we struggle toward rebirth in Him. Even Jesus’ birthplace, Bethlehem, means “City of Bread”! As we move toward the Christmas season, whether we are sharing good food and good company together, or are moving through a dark and cold time in our lives, let’s remember the words of Jesus that tell us we are never alone and will never go hungry. Love and blessings, Pastor Dawn ALL CHURCH CONFERENCE A GREAT SUCCESS Thank you to all who participated in our All Church Conference 2006! We did all of our reporting in the form of a skit about “building the road less traveled,” and showcased not only our ministries but also our goofiness and our love for each other. It was great to meet our new DS, and share our beloved little church family with him. A SPECIAL THANKS TO EARL LANTERMAN We HAVE to do this again! Earl Lanterman’s idea to hold an auction and outdoor picnic raised over $1200 for our church, and was SO MUCH FUN to boot. There were contributions ranging from artwork by talented artists including Ralph Caldwell and Dick Bright, to gift baskets of all kinds, to a fancy dinner for 8. Barbara Mowery was the best auctioneer ever! Earl worked hard helping to plan and organize the whole shebang, arranged for all of the food and made hotdogs on the grill, all in his sweet and gentle way. Thank you, Earl! SUNDAY SCHOOL Thanks to your prayers and participation, our Youth Group is thriving, our worship is Christ-centered and Spirit-filled, and we are beginning some great adult Bible studies. Let’s extend our prayers and Christian action into our Sunday School! The Education committee met recently and came up with some great ideas to improve our Sunday School program and make it the vibrant, inviting place it should be for the little ones in our community. In order to make those ideas a reality, we need you! If you would like to be a part of a team of teachers who pray for, read to, sing with, and love elementary and preschool age kids, call Connie Biaggi or Pastor Dawn. There is very little that is more important than guiding our little ones in their faith! WALK TO EMMAUS If you have read our newsletters, attended a Bible study, or come to church any time in the past several months, you have probably heard someone mention the Walk to Emmaus. And you have probably wondered what on earth people have been talking about! The Walk to Emmaus is a gathering of people who want to get back to the basics of their faith, and receive new inspiration and strength in their Christian life. An Emmaus weekend is basically a very intensive Bible study, with lots of presentations by people just like us – mostly lay people, some clergy – about different faith topics. At an Emmaus weekend, you will listen a lot, discuss a lot, laugh a lot, and (hopefully) meet God again in a new and powerful way. The Walk to Emmaus is for absolutely anyone, of any age, of any physical ability, of any Christian denomination, at any spot in their Christian journey, who feel like they know everything or nothing at all about the Bible. If this sounds like something you’d like to participate in, let someone know! According to our new DS, Rev. Jerry Smith (who is an active participant in the Walk to Emmaus), statistics show that when 10% of a church becomes active in Emmaus, that church begins to thrive. Currently we have about 15%, and growing all the time! You can approach any one of us with any question, or if you’d like to be a part of this amazing movement. As of this writing, Emmaus participants in our church are: Ron Heald, Tobe Smith, Gary Reid, Phil Hall, Bill Morris, Diane Hall, Blanche Farnam, Connie Biaggi, Jill Reid, Margaret Chavez, Becky Smith, Becky Stockdale, Dawn Pipes, Teri Warden, and Pastor Dawn. OUR CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS Christmas is coming, and we have all kinds of fun stuff coming up to celebrate the season together! Our Christmas play is called “Hear the Word of the Profits” (no, that isn’t misspelled, it really does say “profits”!) and we’ll get to see that on December 10^th during worship. It is fun, and funny, and has a great Christmas message. Many of our adults, teens, and elementary-age kids are actors in this great play, directed by Ron Heald and assisted by Joanne McDaniels. On December 9^th, the Catholic Church is again hosting the Interfaith Christmas Celebration. Along with many other area churches, we will be participating in this event with music and prayer. The whole event is a wonderful celebration of Christian unity. Hope to see you there! Christmas Eve falls on Sunday this year. During worship that morning, we’ll have a beautiful service of Lessons and Carols, telling the Christmas story through scripture and music. At 7pm, we will hold a sweet candle-lit service of prayer and Christmas carols for the whole community. It is a departure from the big productions of the last couple of years, and we are excited about this warm and intimate Christmas Eve. Invite friends and family to share it! OUR CHRISTMAS MISSION PROJECT: HEIFER “ARK”! We have been spending a lot of our time, energy, and money this past year on our building project, and praise the Lord we have come a long way! This Christmas, we’d like to extend our focus outward, and your worship committee has voted to sponsor Heifer Project International (HPI) as our Christmas mission project. HPI is an organization that provides animals, and training in their care, for families in need around the world. It helps improve living conditions by providing food, transportation, and farming as well as income through the sale of such items as eggs, milk, honey, beeswax, and garden crops. Going far beyond satisfying the needs of the moment, this wonderful program provides long term improved nutrition and a reliable source of income. The children of our church have participated in this mission for years by buying bees, bunnies, chicks, a pig, a llama, a goat, and a water buffalo. The “Ark” provides animals “two by two”: 2 cows, 2 sheep, 2 camels, 2 oxen, 2 water buffalo, 2 pigs, 2 beehives, 2 goats, 2 donkeys, 2 trios of ducks, 2 trios of rabbits, 2 trios of Guinea pigs, 2 flocks of geese, 2 flocks of chickens, and 2 llamas. This very ambitious mission project costs $5000! You are invited to participate in this project as your heart and the Spirit moves you. WORDS FROM THE WORSHIP COMMITTEE Donna Caldwell is busy crafting gourds and pumpkins, candy canes and cards for the long term care patients of Loyalty and Portola hospitals. Her cheery greetings from our church are a ministry that Donna faithfully does and we thank her so much. Ron Heald, our resident director, is busy with the children’s Christmas Play which will be presented in church in December. He will also organize the “Drama for Worship Group.” We’ve enlisted the help of Connie Biaggi to organize the acolytes for Sunday worship. There is also an “Upcoming Events” sign to be used to remind all of us what’s happening. This sign is by the coffee area in the fellowship hall. Gary Reid, our Lay Leader, will still give the announcements on Sunday but we are still missing out on some of the things going on around our church. It seems we have a communication break down and we are working on that area. Our thanks to Pastor Dawn for the beautiful open house and for the inside look of the remodeling efforts. What a change! What a face-lift! The Church Conference started out with a bang – rather, a plunk on the floor, by Tobe. As the God Squad rushed around calling and helping, our new D.S. had no clue that this was part of the skit. He was caught totally off-guard and to this day, he says that he will never forget his very first Church Conference because of that part of the skit. Our pianists, Jane Cooper, Sally Gilles, and Maren Scholberg are doing a wonderful job and we appreciate them so much. Thanks to Becky Stockdale for the special music in our 2 worship services, for directing the Cheerful Chimers and for directing the Choral Group.(She also does the youth group!) All of our musicians have their plates full. Thanks to the dedicated bodies and the creative talents of the Worship Committee. If you have suggestions to improve or to enhance our worship services, let us know. We are open to suggestions and would love to have your input. HI! REMEMBER ME? District Lay Leader, Blanche Farnam It has been a long time since I have seen you in worship! Not because you weren’t there, but I wasn’t. At each Church Conference I bring greetings from my home church, Portola UMC, and about the best I can do after that is tell them what the weather is like. I miss you all and I will return but it will be next year. I will be spending Thanksgiving with my Mom in Texas and then Christmas with Mom and all the family in Dallas. Two trips with thirteen conferences in between trips. Pastor Jerry Smith, our new District Superintendent, and I have visited 24 churches. The conferences have been fun, exciting, boring, heart-warming, crazy and serious. Many emotions in many different ways but all are focused on the message of the living Christ and the good news of the gospel. There are a lot of ‘movers and shakers’ out there. Just a report of the Lay Speaking ministry that I am involved with for the District. We offered the Basic Lay Speaking, the Methodist Heritage, and a book study at 5 different locations around the District last year. During this time, we had over a hundred participants in these classes. We will do the same kind of schedule next year, starting in January, and will offer the Basic and Advanced Lay Speaking classes and the Methodist Heritage at Sparks United Methodist. The Basic and Advanced classes will be Jan. 20 and 27; Methodist Heritage on Jan.27. You all are in my prayers and I wish you and your loved ones the Happiest of Thanksgivings. We have so many things to be thankful for and in my list of things, I am very thankful for my church home and my church family! CONGREGATION AL CORNER Norm & Barbara Holmes “Can't you hear that train whistle blowing” would best describe this month's featured PUMC church members. Norm and Barbara Holmes were born, raised and attended school in the San Jose area where at the ripe old age of 17years, Norm got bitten by the railroad bug. At that age he was hired as an Engine Watchman with the Western Pacific Railroad and eventually worked his way up to Fireman and Engineer, primarily working out of San Jose with occasional assignments to Portola beginning in 1950 where he operated Mallet steam engines before being permanently transferred to Portola in 1971. While still working part-time for the railroad, Norm managed to find time to start a Bus Company in the San Jose Area that he ran from 1953-1960 While Norm was busy “Working on the Railroad”, Barbara was busy raising four children n, Beverly, Jeffrey, Gregory and Steven who now reside scattered about the country from Anchorage, Alaska to Banks, Oregon, Vacaville and Incline Village, California. They now have 4 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. In 1971, soon after settling in Portola , they joined our congregation because they ``Liked the people best``. Retiring from the Western Pacific Railroad in 1983 after 30 years of service, Norm continued to focused his energies on the railroad while Barbara took up employment with Homestead Fabrics here in town. Both Norm and Barbara have done extensive traveling, Norm having visited some 64 countries while Barbara has only managed to get to about 54 different countries. As many of us know, Norm is the `Founding Father`of Portola`s Railroad Museum. He leads a small, but dedicated group of volunteers that has seen this undertaking grow and enhance to the experience of many of our local citizens and tourists who visit the area. In his spare tim, Norm has also found time to write and publish two books about trains and is now working on a third book. We are very fortunate to have these folks `òn our track``. INVITE SOMEONE TO CHURCH! We put a lot of work into advertising our church, and being involved in community activities so that folks know that we are here. But did you know that statistically, 87% of all churchgoers begin to attend a church because someone personally invited them? All the advertising in the world isn’t worth as much as a simple invitation. Who do you know who may be looking for a church family? Who do you feel God may be calling you to invite? Though God works in powerful and mysterious ways, God most often works through US. Think about who God might be trying to reach through you, and invite them to worship with us!

“Come, therefore, let us enough the good things that exist, and make use of the creation to the full as in youth. Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no flower of spring pass us by. Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither. Let none of us fail to share in our revelry; everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment, because this is our portion, and this our lot.”

Wisdom 1:13-2:24

Portola United Methodist

396 2^nd St.

Portola, CA

96122

530-832-4979

Fax 832-4824

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www.portolaumc.org