Friday, July 8, 2011

Friday Fives

1. Preaching Series - I want to invite you to join us, this Sunday at 10:30am, as we continue our preaching series celebrating a few of the prominent Women of the Bible. Our sermon will focus on the importance of faith and courage as expressed in the story of Queen Esther.  Invite and friend and I look forward to seeing all of you there.


2. Church Website - I am happy to announce the redesigned website for the church is up and running. I encourage you to take a tour of it and see all that it has to offer. We have menus across the top for our various fellowship, community outreach, and ministry areas. There are also links to the church calendar, the pastor's blog and even a place for the weekly bulletin and monthly newsletter. One great feature is the news feed that runs down the left hand side where we can update the news of the church instantly.

The address is http://www.druidhillsocala.org. I hope you enjoy it and find it informative. Bookmark it and visit often!


3. Spring Storms - Recently this country has been hit with a number of devastating and deadly storms. People have lost their homes, their lives have been turned upside down, and loved ones have died as a result. As United Methodists we have an arm of our denomination called UMCOR, United Methodist Committee on Relief. This organization puts people on the ground in these affected areas to lend assistance and bring hope.

One way we here at Druid Hills can help these people affected by these storms is to pray first and foremost. Another way we can help is to donate financially to UMCOR. UMCOR put out a release outlining several ways we can help.

Contribute to the Joplin Disaster Relief Fund

Donations received will primarily go to help the congregations, people and families affected. The Missouri Conference has established a fund to receive monies into the Disaster Response account #7465. Simply mark you check, Joplin Disaster Relief Fund #7465, and we will take care of the rest.

Contribute to the UMCOR Spring Storms

These funds help the communities affected by the Joplin tornado, the Alabama storms, and the flooding of the Mississippi. To donate to this fund mark your check, UMCOR Spring Storms #3021326, and we will take care of the rest.

Watch and Share Bishop Schnase's Appeal to our churches across America

Bishop Robert Schnase shares few words of encouragement and appeals to the churches in Missouri and across our country. Click here to watch his Joplin Relief fund appeal as well as his appeal for the UMCOR Spring Storms fund.

Please be in prayer for these people as they move through this time of grief, devastation, and loss.


4. GoodSearch - Here's a new easy way to raise money for our church. Just start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine and they'll donate about a penny to our church every time you do a search!

In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 2,000 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will go to the church. You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation goes to us!

Here's the web site — http://www.goodsearch.com. You can also read about GoodSearch in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal.

And if you download the GoodSearch – Druid Hills United Methodist Church toolbar, our church will earn money every time you shop and search online - even if you forget to go to GoodShop or GoodSearch first! Add the Druid Hills United Methodist Church toolbar by clicking here


5. YMCA Youth Camp – Summer day camp for the Marion County YMCA began this past Monday, June 13th, and will run through August 19th, from 6am - 6pm.  This is a wonderful chance for us to open our doors to the children of Marion County.  Things continue to go well! 

Today they had the Police SWAT truck and the K9 unit come out for a demonstration.  The excitement and cheers of the children was truly something grand to witness.

I ask that you be in prayer for this camp, the children, the counselors, and our church, that we can be a beacon of love, hope, and encouragement, and that God can use this opportunity to do mighty things within all the people involved.  This is such a great opportunity and we are truly blessed to be able to be a part of it.

Have an incredible weekend and see you Sunday!

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