On Monday, July 26, the NC Conference Board of Laity donated a Buddy Bench to the Buckland Elementary School in Gates, NC, in honor of Bishop Hope. A Buddy Bench gives kids a place to go if they’re feeling lonely and left out. This bench signals to other children to come and join the child sitting there or to include that child in an activity. Watch the video above to see how the Buddy Bench will benefit Buckland Elementary.
Stories
ACS Celebrates 70 Years
ACS (Annual Conference Session for youth) celebrated its 70th anniversary recently. The event, a parallel of the Annual Conference gathering held every year for clergy and laity, is a week-long youth event for senior high youth of the North Carolina Conference. For 70 years, youth have gathered for worship, fellowship, and mission in places like Duke University and Methodist University campuses.
At this year’s ACS event, held at Camp Rockfish, there was a special program on Tuesday night to commemorate the milestone anniversary. In addition to the youth attendees and adult staff, ACS alumni were invited to join in the celebration. Several alumni made the trip, taking the opportunity to remember and give thanks for the event and its impact, not only on their lives but on the North Carolina Conference and beyond.
A significant part of the program was a video compiled from interviews, pictures, and other footage shared by alumni. The video includes messages from past presidents who were unable to attend the event in person.
We give thanks for the ministry of ACS and its legacy among the youth and adults of our Conference. We pray that this good work, along with all of the opportunities offered by Conference Youth Ministry, will continue to impact and change lives, and we look forward to celebrating for many years to come.
An Encouragement for July
There are a few phrases and words I use every day in my life. At work and home, I catch myself saying “hope” a lot. As I try to keep everyone thinking positively, “I hope so” or “hopefully” seem to roll off my tongue.
As I write this, though, our parsonage fridge decided to go on sabbatical. And this morning, my spouse was busy getting ready for a funeral he was leading. Since I could tell that baking soda would not conquer the smells coming from the fridge, it was time to say “adios” to the trash and haul it to the nearby dump.
Where I serve, folks take their trash to the dump. With the offending kitchen smells, I decided to load up the trash with my two kids, who were pinching their noses and still in their pajamas. The dump where we take this skunk-scented trash is about five minutes away. The dump is closed on Wednesdays, a fact I forgot until I saw the locked metal gates and read the sign. I turned the car around and drove back to the church. Tossing the spoiled contents of the fridge into the church dumpster, I smiled. I played the Carpenters’ song, “We’ve Only Just Begun,” for a good laugh on the drive back.
Praise God; the rest of the day will go differently. My days are not dictated by what goes well and what doesn’t. The Romans 15:13 scripture is a much-needed word, not just on Sundays but also in my everyday life. I give thanks for this blessing Paul offers to the church in Rome. It’s a benediction that speaks to me as a mandate to laugh in the face of ordinary but challenging moments.
This blessing calls me to think clearly and strategize about the direction of my life, even when daily plans like breakfast get altered. With no milk for cereal this morning, I text staff at church to see if anyone else would like a biscuit. In my southern Mary Antoinette moment, I declare “biscuits for all.” In other words, “it’s Bo time.”
As pastors, we know time is precious. We long to use our days to glorify God and point people back to our God of hope, who gives us joy and peace. This hope keeps us believing because it is a never-failing love for us. God’s hope is defiant in giving us joy in the strangest of moments.
Read Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope..
Reflect: Dear sisters, on good days and days when your fridge decides to imitate the summer weather, may you receive and reflect on Paul’s benediction. In what ways do these words impact your spirit of hope in times of everyday adversity? Where do you find joy in the strangest of moments?
Take Action: How might this blessing help you reframe the challenges you face? How might the Holy Spirit convict you to lead others to focus on living responsively to the Almighty God we worship, our God of hope? Fake it til you make it. Share joy and God’s hope even when you don’t feel it. God has a way of using us in spite of ourselves.
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
We are grateful to the Rev. Laura Dunlap, pastor at Walnut Grove UMC in Hurdle Mills, for writing this month’s issue of Encouragements.
An Encouragement for June
It feels like a distant memory now, being in a large crowd. But I do remember trying to navigate crowds with two kids in tow. “Stay close,” I would say, and eventually grab their wrists so I could keep hold of them as I would try to navigate to our exit. The only way I felt like I wouldn’t lose them was to stay connected. Hand – in – hand.
I feel like that might be what Jesus is saying to his disciples in John 15 (below). He is preparing them for the time when he will not be there: “Connect to me, now, while I’m here, so you will know how to stay connected when I am not here anymore.”
There is so much in our lives and in our world that moves us to disconnect. As we are feeling crowded and overwhelmed in our lives, hear Jesus say to us, “Stay close.” When life sends us into our next thing—next job, living place, semester, relationship, next phase of life—hear Jesus say to us, “Stay close.” When the next step is a blur, when we know what we have left behind, but are unsure of what the next thing actually looks like, let Jesus lead.
Sometimes, we, like children, need to be grabbed by the hand and gently led to where we can flourish, where we can produce fruit.
“Stay close,” Jesus continues to lean over and say to us.
Read John 15:1-5
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. He removes any of my branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit. You are already trimmed because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.
Reflect: How are you staying connected to the one, the life-giver, the source, the sustainer? What practices of prayer are sustaining you these days? Are you studying the Word? Are you listening to prophetic voices in our midst? Are you lamenting, for yourself and the world? Are you offering thanksgivings and praises? Are you praying and asking on behalf of others?
Take Action: This month, be intentional about staying connected. Identify someone in your life who helps keep you connected and reach out to them. Offer to be a mutual encourager and tell them you are trusting them to hold you accountable and to offer support when needed.
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
We are grateful to the Rev. Liz Roberts, pastor at Fairmont UMC and the Raleigh Wesley Foundation, for writing this month’s issue of Encouragements.
Zebulon UMC – Mighty Force in their Town During Pandemic
Tucked away in the far northeast corner of Wake County is the small town of Zebulon. Home to just about 6,000 residents, Zebulon is the smallest town in the county. It’s size and remote location means it is oft forgotten when county programs and resources are doled out, despite it having the highest poverty rate and the largest percentage of children who qualify for free or reduced lunch.
When schools closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic, this could have been disastrous for the town’s large proportion of families who rely on school meals to feed their children. For the residents who struggled to keep their heads just above the poverty line in the lower middle class, losing their job (or jobs) could have been catastrophic for themselves and their families… but it wasn’t.
The night the announcement was made that schools in North Carolina would be closing, Zebulon United Methodist Church opened its fellowship hall doors and a community feeding program was born. With a close-knit group of volunteers administering the program, the effort operated solely through donations from church members, businesses, residents, and other area churches. During the first 4 months, beginning before any other state or county program was up and operating, over 22,000 meals were distributed to those in need.
Not long into its inception, the town’s Parks and Recreation Department was welcomed aboard. They worked hard to put together packets of activities to go home with children to help keep them engaged in learning and combat the loneliness and isolation that many were feeling in quarantine. A true community effort created from the love and compassion of Zebulon UMC helped the entire town during a time of dire need.
The program wrapped up at the end of July, as the ZUMC Food Pantry re-opened, but there was still significant need in the community. In August, Wake County developed a Food Hub program aimed at helping families bridge the gap and ensure nutritious food was available to those still struggling to navigate the pandemic. Through the work of a town Commissioner and the full support of the ZUMC, funds were secured through the CARES ACT and Wake County to run a 10-month program to provide fresh vegetables, shelf stable products, meats, and other resources, utilizing space in the church’s Mission House and adjacent parking lot. The total funds secured were in excess of $200,000 with additional resources valued at over $50,000.
Another bold step was to host a COVID vaccine clinic, which occurred on February 16, 2021, in the church’s Fellowship Hall. Two more clinics were held in March. Because of these three clinics, 335 vaccines were given. Of course, volunteers from the entire community were involved, and we appreciate all they did. A very special thanks goes to Dr. Adam Wolk, Senior Medical Officer of Alignment HealthCare NC; Shannon Baxter, Zebulon Town Commissioner; and Dr. Casey Baldwin of Resources for Seniors NC for their vision, hard work, flexibility and commitment to bring these clinics to fruition. They helped our church to get into high gear and meet a most timely need in our community.
Along with the bi-monthly food distribution and delivery through the Hub, an event was put together on March 27, 2021 that provided literature and resources about programs available in Wake County as well as a COVID diagnostic opportunity. The pandemic and subsequent quarantine illustrated the precarious financial position that many of the community’s families lived in, and with much of the community’s poor and lower middle class working in fields that had been shut down, the need to help connect families with resources was emergent. On that day, two tractor-trailer loads of food arrived from the Food Bank of North Carolina, free car-side COVID-19 testing was offered, along with a resource bag including information on resources for seniors, Meals on Wheels, More in My Basket, Wake County Smart Start, The Poe Center, Wake County 4-H, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Free Library, Wake County Public Libraries, Eastern Regional Center, as well as a coloring book for kids about coping with COVID. Families were given a full month’s worth of food. Ambassadors from Wake Up and Read, Alliance Health, Americorps, and Wake County Medicaid were present to answer questions and guide people toward the programs they needed. Over 300 families were served and 60 COVID tests were administered in just two hours. The remaining food was donated to the Food Pantry to help bolster their efforts. Officials from Wake County, the Town of Zebulon, and the Zebulon UMC all participated in the event and were grateful for its success.
As the pandemic has stretched out through one full year and into the next, several more area churches have joined in the effort but none to the extent of Zebulon UMC. Their willingness to put together feeding programs at a moment’s notice and to allow them to continue during the entire shutdown and beyond, has highlighted to love the compassion that is ZUMC. Regardless of race, regardless of religion, the spirit of the church truly embodies the teaching of Jesus, to love and serve all.
—Submitted by the Rev. Liz Hounshell and Shannon Baxter
University UMC Doors Vandalized
When you drive past University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, you see a series of doors. Not just the physical doors that allow entry into the church, but a display of brightly-colored doors on the front lawn, proclaiming that “GOD’S DOORS ARE OPEN TO ALL.”
There’s another door at the far end – a black door that proclaims “BLACK LIVES MATTER” in bold lettering. But since that door first made its appearance last year, it has been vandalized multiple times. But the church and its members remain committed to sharing the message that God’s doors – and their doors – will remain open.
Just like the other times the door has been vandalized, the door has been reinstalled in its place on the front lawn. Rev. Coleman had this to say: “The church says ‘No one is going to be pushed down and pressed down. We are the people who lift one another up.’ And so, we symbolize it in lifting up a thing like a door again, once it’s been knocked down, but we enact it by lifting one another up and by refusing to let racism press anybody down.”