Heavenly Father, help us to have grace for each other and ourselves. Help us to remember that when life doesn’t go according to our plan that your plan is so much bigger and better for us.
Heavenly Father, help us to have grace for each other and ourselves. Help us to remember that when life doesn’t go according to our plan that your plan is so much bigger and better for us.
Gracious God, please help each of us to make an impact in the world around us. Like Ananias, help us to be brave and to show our faith in You to those around us.
O God, teach us how to pray. We pray as your Son taught us to pray: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Dear God, help us to forgive others in the same way that you have forgiven us. Amen.
Almighty and loving God, we confess we are people who will sometimes lose sight of you in the middle of all we do to celebrate the birth of your son, Jesus. We are thankful for you, for your love and grace, and we pray we may find refuge and strength in you in the days and weeks to come. Amen.
Father of all creation, creator of every human being, re-create in our souls a desire to seek justice. Drive us to love all humans as you command us to. Help us to be people of action in transforming our communities, nation, and world for Jesus Christ. Amen.
| Dear Lord, grant us the courage to trust you with all our worries and fears. Amen. |
“Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the CHURCH is so delightful!”
The weather outside HAS indeed been frightful these past couple of weekends, but Auburn First UMC remains as warm and inviting as ever! And we are now in the midst of the Advent season, as we await the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As you may know, Advent marks the beginning of a new church year. That’s why last Sunday (December 2nd, the first Sunday of Advent) we began our worship service with a brief “year in review” presentation…an overview of all the ministry that the disciples at Auburn FUMC have been engaged in over the last year. We called this presentation “Auburn By The Numbers”–read on to see how we’ve been busy transforming the world for Jesus Christ in 2018.
$1,077
That’s how much we raised on Easter Sunday to benefit local missions like Project Response and the Giving Hope Cancer Fund of Nemaha County.
34
That’s the number of UMCOR health kits we purchased and packed for Annual Conference in June.
11
That’s the number of youth we sent on a mission trip to Heifer Ranch in Arkansas to learn about global poverty.
$330
That’s how much this congregation raised for UMCOR during Iris’ baby shower!
10
That’s the number of young people in our congregation who either attended or worked at Camp Fontanelle (which is our local United Methodist summer camp) in the last year.
$483.61
That’s how much our congregation helped raise in October for the “Out of the Darkness” suicide prevention fundraiser
3
That’s the number of prayer walks we did with Auburn Presbyterian this summer, as we covered our whole community in prayer.
30
That’s the number of backpacks full of school supplies that we, in collaboration with the Presbyterians, donated to Auburn Middle School in August.
130
That’s the number of Nemaha County preschoolers who attended Preschool Pumpkin Day at Lord’s Acre.
11
That’s the number of college students we’re sending care packages to this year.
$906
That’s how much money was raised for UMW at this year’s soup supper.
$3,400
That’s how much was raised for local and global hunger projects through pumpkin sales this fall.
365
That’s the number of days each year where the people of Auburn First United Methodist Church share God’s love with the town, the county, and the world.
It’s been a wonderful year, Auburn FUMC! Let’s bring it to a wonderful close later this month as we celebrate Christmas Eve on December 24th. Our worship service will be at 4:00 pm, and will feature Holy Communion, special music, a children’s story, and candlelight singing. (And our special Christmas offering this year will go to benefit Camp Fontanelle and the Auburn Backpack Program–two fabulous ministries that are dedicated to changing children’s lives for the better!)
Happy Friday, church!
It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over, isn’t it? Our oldest daughter starts preschool in just over a week (how did that happen?!?), and we’re just about a month away from the season of harvest, apples, and pumpkin spice everything!
We’ve had a great summer here at Auburn First United Methodist Church: we’ve done some fabulous mission projects (we packed a few dozen hygiene kits for UMCOR, and we partnered with Auburn Presbyterian Church to fill 30 backpacks full of school supplies for low-income students at Auburn Middle School), we had a beautiful worship service/picnic in the park, and we even had a pool party! And once September arrives, we’ll have lots of activities going on at the church, including Chancel Choir and Sunday School/Children’s Church and UMW! There’s even talk of starting another lunch hour Bible study…stay tuned for more information on that!
We’re also starting up a new fall sermon series, based on the compelling and thought-provoking book “Short Stories By Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi”, written by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine. In this book, Dr. Levine (a renowned New Testament scholar who is also a practicing Jew) takes a new look at the parables of Jesus, discusses the ways that they would have challenged and provoked their original listeners, and encourages us to allow ourselves to be challenged by them as well. It should be an interesting worship series–I hope that it leaves all of us feeling inspired and perhaps a little bit uncomfortable! 😉
8/12: The Lost Son
8/19: The Good Samaritan
8/26: The Kingdom is Like Yeast
9/2: The Pearl of Great Price
9/9: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9/16: The Laborers in the Vineyard
9/23: The Widow and the Judge
9/30: The Rich Man and Lazarus
10/7: The Mustard Seed
See you in church! (And as your summer vacations wrap up, remember: if you’re out of town, you can always join us in worship via our Facebook livestream. Find us at https://www.facebook.com/auburnfumc )
Happy Friday, church family!
Yesterday (June 21st) was the first official day of summer–but with the temperatures we’ve been experiencing this month, it feels like summer has been around for a while! It’s also been a busy season here at Auburn FUMC: here’s a glimpse of what we’ve been doing over the last few weeks:
June 24th: Joseph’s Dreamcoat
July 1st: David and the Giant
July 8th: In the Lion’s Den
July 15th: Fish Tales
July 22nd: My Father’s House
See you in church!
Love,
Emily
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