Service to others/Offering

What can happen if we share? A beautiful miracle?

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Carol Hulbert

Look! Have you seen? Our earthly surroundings are awakening in miraculous re-birth! Point out these miracles to your family — and your friends — with awe in your voice…

Look at those tiny flowers! God has told the earth to wake up.
What other spring miracles can you find?

Make a daily habit to put God’s name with the miracles you see.

A Bleeding Heart prepares to bloom

Use instances of God at work in spring miracles as an opening to talking about the miracle we are studying – Jesus feeding over 5,000 people. Again, with awe in your voice…

God planned for plants to wake up in the spring. What a miracle God has given us!

Miracles point out a powerful God at work. What sort of power do you see happening in the miracle of Jesus feeding over 5,000 people?

A painting of the Feeding of the 5,000+

The obvious answer is that with a simple act of thanks to God (John 6:11a), Jesus unpacks a young boy’s lunch of five small loaves of bread and two fish, into a meal for more than 5,000. (There were even leftovers from this meal! 12 baskets of uneaten food.)

But could this multiplying have happened in a surprising but equally powerful way? Scholars have debated about what is the real miracle in this story. Is it that Jesus multiplied the bread and fish, or that the people really did bring along a little lunch and ended up sharing it?

Rev. Doug Norris shares this:

Perhaps the little guy inspired others to share. Wouldn’t it be something if the miracle was a miracle of sharing, as people, one by one, pulled food out of their backpacks and shared with those around them? Perhaps Jesus walked through the crowd, encouraging, touching, blessing, visiting, and the stingy, the selfish, and the hoarders gradually warmed up, and realized their potential by not only sharing their food, but by experiencing the joy of doing something significant with and for Jesus.

A miracle made possible with sharing. We can participate in this!

But the sharing habit needs to be taught. Here are some possibilities for building sharing muscles:

Go grocery shopping together to bring a food item to the worship service on the first Sunday of every month. This month, the L.O.V.E. Thy Neighbor program, which makes lunches for the homeless and distributes them at Saturday morning breakfast at St. Andrews, will benefit from our food sharing.
Make a meal for a stressed family. Involve your kids in planning a meal, shopping and preparation and delivery. I still remember a church member who brought us a meal after I had been in the hospital. She very patiently unloaded our supper and her small children and brought them to the door to deliver the meal. What a great lesson her kids learned that day – service!
Set up birthday parties with gifts to designated for others. Have party participants bring a wish-list item for the Human Society.
Spring clean inside the house by selecting out-grown clothes or toys to donate. Include the kids in dropping off the delivery.
Spring clean outside by involving the family in tidying up an elderly neighbor’s yard.

In what way will you create a beautiful shared miracle?

a blue line

Photo credits:
Bleeding Hearts flower is from my archives.
The Feeding of over 5,000 people by Jim Padgett, from now-out-of-print Read’n Grow Picture Bible, via Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of Sweet Publishing, Ft. Worth, TX, and Gospel Light, Ventura, CA. Released under a Creative Commons License.

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Building Hope

Posted on April 15, 2015April 16, 2015 by Carol Hulbert

Participants on the mission trip to Henderson Settlement

Last week, on the Appalachia mission trip, we worked at building.

All 36 of us (did I count right?) ages seven and up, mostly from FUMC in Ann Arbor, Michigan, formed teams and worked in different locations around Henderson Settlement in Frakes, Kentucky.

On our first day, we didn’t know it, but we were building hope.

We found out that hope can be in short supply in Bell County, Kentucky: Over one-third of residents (36%) live in poverty. Of the 136 families on Henderson’s “helping” list, the average household income is $12,864. Hope desperately needed here.

So we built! Adding skirting and siding makes for a warmer, more pleasant looking house. When your home base transpires, you feel hope.

We mucked the barn (a more agreeable home for goats and for goat-workers!) and dug a trench to help fix someone’s water problem. A little bit of hope, restored.

Kids and adults, painting, posthole-digging, persevering in spite of setbacks… Working side by side…

Engaged in hope-building.

Spreading gravel, counting soup labels, transplanting seedlings, trenching…

God through his Holy Spirit, working among us, spreading hope.

And hope will never fail to satisfy our deepest need because the Holy Spirit that was given to us has flooded our hearts with God’s love. Romans 5:5

And amazingly enough, in the midst of all of our work, we also had fun! Friendships flourished!

Enjoy the slideshow below.

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Join us next year!

Photo credits:
Taken by members of the mission team and by Henderson Settlement staff. Used with permission.

A Lenten service project: How can your family help?

Posted on March 12, 2015March 18, 2015 by Carol Hulbert

Three crosses on a hill at Henderson Settlement in Kentucky

Does your family include service projects in your Lenten activities?

In the past I have traveled with a group from FUMC to a place known as Henderson Settlement in Frakes, Kentucky. We (adults and kids!) were on a mission trip so that meant we worked hard, and got dirty.

A young boy with a pick ax It takes two to cut lumber

At the same time it was satisfying. We learned new skills, strengthened friendships, and helped the residents. We served as the hands and feet of God.

Working at building a porch Four muddy boys take a break from work

Lots of drills were used A happy homeowner with two workers

In April we’ll do another Appalachia Mission trip to Henderson Settlement. Even if you aren’t going along, there are two ways to get involved with serving others:

Eat breakfast with us this Sunday, March 15th.

Join us from 10:30-11:30am at the downtown location. Suggested donation is $10/adults, $5/child. Proceeds will go towards purchasing supplies for our home repair projects.

Photo ad for Breakfast on March 15th to support Appalachia Mission trip

Donate supplies to help our Appalachian friends.

Visit our “tree” outside the church office and select a tag (to help you remember what to bring). Or just select from our wish list:

To help create food boxes: self-rising flour, sugar (both in 5 lb bags), cornmeal, or cooking oil.
For Hygiene kits: bar soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, or deodorant.
For the Maternal/Infant Program: diapers size 2-6, Pull Ups, baby food, Good Start Formula, Baby Food, Infant & or Children’s Motrin/Tylenol.
To re-stock the thrift store: new or gently-used clean clothing in good repair (any size, infants to adults), housewares, or children’s toys/games.

Please bring your donations to church by Sunday, March 29th. Leave them at the base of our “Giving Tree” or in the church office. Thanks!

It’s easy to indulge your family in a little Lenten service project love!

Photo credits:
Photos shared from various Appalachia Mission trip participants, Richard Rupp, Ruth Ann Church, Amy Unsworth, Wendy Everett, Jeff Wason, myself, and Henderson Settlement staff.
Orange numbers from public domain via WPClipart.com.

Feed my lambs

Posted on April 11, 2013March 9, 2015 by Carol Hulbert

Linking Bible stories to life: that’s one of the goals of our Cool Disciples program at FUMC. This past week some of our kids got to put into action a key concept they’ve learned from our current Bible story. It had to do with Jesus’ advice to Peter. (If you’re not sure what Jesus’ charge was, ask your kids.)

Oh yeah, feed some sheep?

Or use power tools and pick axes, rebuild a porch and dig a trench, or fill pots with soil…

Working on being the all around “church” in the community.

(No actual sheep are necessary.)

We were a part of a crew of 54 people from FUMC – from grandparents to six year olds – on a family mission trip to Henderson Settlement.

Henderson Settlement is a mission agency of the United Methodist Church. It is located in Frakes, KY – a small town in southeastern Kentucky – a place of high unemployment and persistent poverty. Henderson Settlement aims to provide basic needs for people in Appalachia, and one of the ways they do this is through work camps.

Volunteer teams from all over the United States come to Henderson to repair homes in the community. Every year 150 to 200 families are helped with projects that otherwise wouldn’t likely happen — projects like installing a railing on a porch, or installation of steps or replacing porch boards. (Porches are important in this area. Three of our four in-the-community projects involved porches!)
porch railing project

There are also projects on the Henderson “campus” – projects like digging a drainage ditch or stringing up goat fencing or mucking out the barn or sorting onion sets. (Henderson Settlement also has an agricultural ministry.)

Enjoy this slide show of some of the photos from our trip.

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group photo of mission trip attendees — The group from FUMC (some missed out on being in this photo)

Photo credits:
All photos used by permission: Trench digging by Richard Rupp; thanks also to photos by Amy Unsworth, Wendy Everett, Ruth Ann Church, Mary Danforth, Jeff Wason, and the staff at Henderson Settlement.

What is an “Offering?”

Posted on August 2, 2012July 9, 2014 by Carol Hulbert

A quick quiz:

Which of the following pictures show people making an “offering” to God?

working in the greenhouse on the Appalachia mission trip

kids digging a drainage trench on the Appalachia Mission Trip

Bravo if you answered, “all of the above.” That’s right, all of the photos show someone who is (or could be in the case of the last picture) making an offering to God.

An offering is when we give something to God. It may be showing love to someone, serving or helping someone, or giving money. Discuss around the family dinner table (or wherever your family is gathered together): What are other ways we give offerings?

Photo credits:
Click here for info on banner photo (not visible in readers or email).
Money photo from public domain clip art.
Other photos from my archives or used by permission from church members.

Worship = work?

Posted on August 19, 2011July 2, 2017 by Carol Hulbert

6th grade preps to serve Connections

A quick quiz… Ask this at your family dinner table. (Or wherever your family is gathered together.)

Looking at the above photo, What do the following two Bible verses have in common?

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Psalm 100:2

And…

Six days you shall labor and do all your work. Exodus 20:9

Ahh?
Joyful worship is what you do after your 6-day work week is up??

Not what I had in mind.

Okay, so I asked a toughie. This is something that I didn’t know! (Probably because it involves being acquainted with Hebrew.)

The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew. The Hebrew word used for “worship” in Psalm 100:2 (abad) is also the same word translated as “labor” in the verse from Exodus. The word abad also means to serve. It appears that the ancient Israelites did not always differentiate between worship, and work or service – the word means the same thing!

The Cool Disciples have been studying Psalm 100. You may recall that one of our workshops in this Rotation is to serve as groundskeepers for the downtown church. Kids are learning that worship and work are synonymous. (And I know for a fact that they experienced joy in their serving!)

We might think of the word worship as what happens for an hour once a week, but in reality this word worship includes what we may do at any time – experience joy in serving the Lord. According to the psalmist, this joy is to be expressed with gladness and thanksgiving.

Kids work on creating school kits

If worship is actually the way we should live… if it involves serving others… what can you do together as a family in service/worship?

Here are some suggestions that our church is involved in:

L.O.V.E. Thy Neighbor: Help make sandwich lunches for the homeless. Friday nights from 6:30pm-8:30pm. Read more about the program here.
Help out with CAN projects: The Community Action Network (CAN), is a non-profit community organization serving families living in low income Ann Arbor. CAN advocates for these families with their schools, community service providers, and government agencies. They provide educational and life skills programs for children and teens, and supportive housing services for families. During Vacation Bible school we have in the past contributed boxes of cereal.
FiSH FRI: A Third Friday Mission Event. Not a Fish Fry! Our kind of FiSH Fri(day) will be all about filling needs in our community, each third Friday of the month during the school year.
Meals Ministry. Making meals for stressed families – maybe they’ve had a new baby! Involve your kids in planning a meal, shopping and preparation and delivery. I still remember a church member who brought us a meal after I was in the hospital. She very patiently unloaded our supper and her two small children and brought them to the door to deliver the meal. What a great lesson her kids learned that day – service!