Mount Holly Leaves

January 2005

Please remember the following church family & friends in your prayers: Martha Workman, Fred Beebe, George & Dorothy Wallace, Frank Bobo, Jack Williams, Mary Gillespie, Gene Thompson, Paul Rutherford, Carolyn Poore,  Thelma Hoffman Pope, Donald Adams, Bobo Reinhardt,  Rev. Jerry Allen, Ginny Polk, Gordon Snead, Nancy Polk, Doris Hoffman, Rosalind Gwin,  Frances Cabaniss, Callie White, Ruth Rawls, Vardell Sanders, Ruth Sullivan, Johnny Strait, Martha Clark, Alex Hoffman, Wesley Parker, Larry Stewart.

UMMen will meet for Breakfast on Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 7:30 am in the FLC.

Your contribution envelopes for 2005 are available in the Bell Tower.  If you do not find your envelopes, please contact the office because it is most important that you use your envelopes for your contributions during the year so that you will get proper credit.  Thanks!

Nursery Workers needed!!  Please sign-up on the sheets in the vestibule for 9:00 am or 11:00 am Worship Serivce.  We will mail you a card to remind you of the date you volunteered to serve.  This is one of the most exciting areas to serve your church. 

Our deepest heartfelt sympathy is extended to the families of:

  Donnie and Norma Thompson and family upon the death of their son, Andrew “Andy” Donald Thompson, 

  Sharon Roddey upon the death of her Grandmother,

  The family of Martha Every,

  The family of J. W. Varnadore.

Welcome new members:  Michael and Kristy Knight

Congratulations to Scott and Jennifer Boles upon the birth of Ryan Michael Boles.  The grandparents are Ray and Gaile White and Lea White.  The great-grandmother is Callie White.

Congratulations to Susie W. Teague who graduated on December 16, 2004 from Winthrop University with a Master’s Degree in Education.  Margaret and Bill Faulkenberry are very proud of her!

The Rock Hill District Council on Ministries presents the Church Leadership Workshops on January 9, 2005 2:30 – 5:30 pm at Woodland UMC on 801 N. Cherry Road, RHSC.  Pre-registration deadline is January 3, 2005.  Registration fee is $5.00.  Please get your registration form off the bulletin board outside the church office.  We encourage all committee members to attend.

Senior Citizens News:  We will have our monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 18, 2005.  Our hostesses are Sybil & Ernest Whitesell, Phyllis Minton, Bobby Lineberger, Joann Jackson, Beth Rouse.

Salkehatchie 2005 - Tentative dates for Lake City Camp are June 25-July 2. Other camps and specific dates will be announced by the conference in January or February.  Our first scheduled fund-raiser will be soup-to-go on Sunday, January 16. Cooking will be Saturday, January 15, 8:00 am - noon.  All persons interested in being on the contact list for 2005 Salkehatchie are asked to sign up on the bulletin board.  

Thanks to all of our Workers for January 2005

  9:00 am          11:00 am

  USHERS  Bill Craig  Rick Reid, Fred Dunn

  John Arant  Rick Turney

  NURSERY WORKERS

  1/02  Betty Conner  Evelyn McLin, Shana Reinhardt 

  1/09  n/a  Shana Reinhardt, Harriet Womack

  1/16  Peggy White & Deborah  Connier Viola, Cari Evans, Leah Mercer

  1/23  n/a  Beverly Ellis

  1/30  n/a  Debbi DiFrancesco & Betyh McIntyre

  CHILDREN’S CHURCH WORKERS

  1/02/05  Dominic

  1/09/05  Buddy & Ann

  1/16/05  Susan & Rexianne

  1/23/05  Peggy & Jessica

  1/30/05  Kim & Brown

COAP will have supper on Wednesday, January 12, 2005.  The menu will be Chili Beans, Cornbread, Cabbage Salad, Dessert, Tea, Lemonade and Coffee.

“Youth Spiritual Life Retreat” — January 28, 29, 30, 2005 at Springmaid Beach.  We have scheduled several Biscuit Breakfast fundraisers.

Why Puppets

  Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (actually 1992 in Orlando Fl), there was a small church with few children, but lots of dreams.  We had an idea about a puppet ministry to bring kids from the surrounding neighborhood to our church.  We knew nothing about puppets except children liked them, so we prayed for help.  Within a few weeks a young couple (with two children) came to our church that had performed Christian puppetry, and another man showed up who taught professional clowns for Ringling Brothers Circus.  We started a children’s ministry with puppets and a clown, put on plays, and had lots and lots of kids coming to Sunday school and church.  We further perfected our skills by attending Puppet Productions traveling School of Puppetry.  Later we moved to North Carolina and after that, to Tennessee starting puppet ministries in the churches we attended.

  We would like to build a puppet ministry here at Mt Holly.  We are looking for interested helpers and we will provide the training.  If you are interested please contact: Mitch Truesdale Ph 328-9948   (mitchtrues@comporium.net) or the church office.

Mount Holly United Methodist Church

"New Year and New Beginnings!"

  The beginning of each year offers us the opportunity of hope.  I say "opportunity" because many people don't have much hope of anything new or exciting happening in their life.  We often relate our hope to immediate issues in areas related to health, family, work, "significant" relationships (dating? Engaged?), financial, weight ( a favorite new year's resolution), etc..  While many or any of these can be very significant, we have other options.

  The greatest option is the one provided to people of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  When considering a new year, think of all the new opportunities of prayer.  Prayer is a great foundation of faith that merges our heart and mind with the Spirit of God.  Prayer is our opportunity to experience the love of God in a precious, personal experience.  Prayer is our way of expressing with God our "hopes and fears of all the years" and finding in those moments of communing with God a foundation of love on which we can build our lives.

  There are few greater things we can do as Christians than pray.  Prayer guides us in our decision making, prayer strengthens us in times of temptation, prayer is a source of experiencing forgiveness for sin, prayer is an opportunity for us to grow in new directions - away from "less than" and into the "more than" - one could ever hope to experience.   

  Prayer is a source of vision.  One of the greatest people of prayer in the Old Testament was Daniel.  In Daniel 9.4 he begins a prayer:  "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him and with those who keep His commandments,…" He begins by acknowledging the greatness of God, then continues with acknowledging the sins of Israel and includes himself in the sins of Israel ("we" not "they"!).  He continues with a great vision for the future, with great expressions of hope in phrases like:  "..cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary", "O Lord, hear!  O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act!"

  As pastor of the Mount Holly congregation, if there is one request I could ask of us for the coming year, it would be for us to be strengthened by and through our prayers as individuals and as a community of faith.  Of all your hopes for the new year, of all your resolutions, please make a commitment of your life to learn to pray, to pray each day, and to learn to love each other and the world around us through your prayer life.

  One example is the terrible earthquake and tsunami that recently struck Sri Lanka and surrounding countries.  Estimates at the time of this writing are that 69,000 people died as an initial result of this disaster, and that many more will die in the near future.  Let's pray for the people who are in that region of the world.  Let our prayers guide our response as individuals and as a community of believers at Mt Holly UMC.  Let our response bond us together as a "can do" part of the greater community of faith.   Let our prayers be an expression of our love for those who are strangers to us but known to God.

  Let's begin the New Year together by praying that God will bless us with an understanding and experience of His love that will sustain us each and every day, through the good and bad, to the glory of His name.

  Have a Happy New Year! 

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

  My family and I wish to thank all the members and friends of Mt Holly for your many expressions of love and kindness through the holidays.  Each kind word, each gift is a great inspiration.  We are blessed to be a part of such a wonderful church family!