Worship Services Time Change - Aug 29

One strange fact about churches is that they cannot plateau; they are always changing.   Churches are either growing or dying.  Against the backdrop of a declining church in North America, we are a thriving church with unprecedented growth. Last year we brought about 250 new members into our family, this year we are on track to beat that record.

One of the greatest areas of growth is in worship attendance.  All four of our Sunday morning services have been growing. This increase has made it difficult to transition between services within the allotted 15 minutes.  Therefore, in order to make room for our congregation and for future growth we are pleased to announce a time change in our Sunday morning schedule.  The Early Service will move from 8:30 to 8:00, the Communion Service will move from 9:45 to 9:30, Sunday School/Small Groups will move from 9:45 to 9:30, and the Traditional Service and ICON will be at 11:00.  This transition will take place on Promotion Sunday, August 29, 2010.

It is exciting to see all that God is doing in Pensacola’s oldest Protestant church and Florida’s oldest Methodist church.  We ask you to be in prayer for our church as we continue to grow and change

Wilderness Trail

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We are taking sixty 6th-12th graders and eight adults to hike 45 miles in the Grayson Highlands on a portion of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.  This experience gives our students and adults the opportunity to leave behind distractions and focus on serving each other while we hike and explore the gift of God’s creation.  It is a challenging, but extremely rewarding trip.  We covet your prayers for our travel and our experience from July 27th- August 4th.

7th Year Hikers
Drew Branch
David Feliciano

6th Year Hikers
John Netherland
*Emily Capes
*Pam Moore

5th Year Hikers
Connor Bond
Jason Felicano
Stephanie Sharp

4th Year Hikers
TRAILBLAZERS!
Max Colbert
Megan DeBari
Luke Evans
Julie Hermann
Brady Kirby
Katie Moore
Thomas Pierce
Victoria Sharp
Travis Swann

3rd Year Hikers
Ben Carr
Matt Carr
Michael Dubose
Chandler Hoskins
Holder Hudson
Austin Keller
Andie Netherland
Gordon Pierce
Richard Trawick
Wilson Trawick
*Richard Colbert
*Denise Kirby

2nd Year Hikers
Alex Anderson
Mary Bond
Nate Bradley
Rowan Carroll-Christopher
Amanda Farr
Rebecca Farr
Rachel Girouad
Mark Hibyan
Anna Jackson
Cody Luker
Abby Morse
Blakely Noble
Chad Ratliff
Michael Stavely
Garrett Summitt
Cody Titus
Christopher Varnson
Robert Varnson
*Will Moore
*Walter Pierce

1st Year Hikers
Conner Cole
Alex DeBari
Anna Del Gallo
Elise Griffin
Ali Rae Hunt
Mitchell Lipham
Tori Marsh
James McGhee
Mallory Noble
Haley Roberts
Anna Safko
Chloe Schweigert
Hugh Sherrill
Katherine Varnson
Carmen Vickory
Rachel Warren
*Sandie Hudson
*Michael Roberts

*adult chaperone

6,197 Bags of Food Provided

We have just completed the third year of the Weekend Feeding Kids Program, commonly called the Backpack Program. We provide food for children at the Allie Yniestra Elementary School that are on the free lunch program and have been identified by their teachers as hungry. Each Friday before leaving school, the children go to the office and pick up food bags for each child in his or her family that is under fifteen.

We would like to thank the United Methodist Women for their generous support through the proceeds from Designing Women Luncheon and a Christmas Creations grant. Their generosity provided 2,350 food bags this school year. From October, 2007 through June, 2010, we have provided 6,197 food bags. We sincerely appreciate everyone who has supported us with cash and food donations, making Christmas stockings and providing grocery bags. Thank you for helping these children. By feeding their stomachs, we enable teachers to feed their minds, and hopefully provide a brighter future.

The Response of One

Swinson Schipman is a member of our congregation and active in the church choir. He recently volunteered his boat and services to BP by joining the fleet of vessels of opportunity. Below is his story about what is happening on the front lines of our shores.

Written by Swinson Schipman

I’m working on oil clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico. Our assignment is Task Force Four Near-shore Skimmers, and our fleet consists of about 20 charter fishing boats. Our day begins before daylight loading food, water, and supplies (pom-poms, sausage boom, diesel wipes, shovels, rakes, plastic bags, Tyvek suits, surgical gloves, rubber gloves, duct tape). After a meeting to go over safety and activities of the day before, we are assigned to look for oil within five miles of the beach. We usually work between Pensacola and Perdido passes.

Once oil is located, we first determine whether it can be collected. Collection can be difficult because the oil comes in many different forms: sometimes a patch as big as a bedspread, six inches deep, and the consistency of mayonnaise; sometimes tar balls of varying sizes; and sometimes a thin sheen on the water’s surface. If we determine it can be collected, the Hazwopper (Hazardous Waste Operations Person) and the deck hand get dressed for work. Collection uniform consists of a Tyvek coverall, surgical gloves, heavy rubber gloves, steel-toed rubber boots, and safety glasses. All cuffs are taped shut with duct tape. This is worn over street clothes (long pants, shirt, socks and shoes) AND life preserver. Very, very hot!!! We can work a maximum of 15 minutes in these uniforms, given the 100+ degree heat, followed by a mandatory 45 minute cooling down period. Then we repeat. At the end of our work day, each boat must go through decontamination. Oil is removed from the sides before the boat is allowed back into the bay. This is an attempt to avoid contaminating inland waterways. Most days end just before dark.

Sometimes we’re able to collect the “mayonnaise” with rakes and shovels, sometimes we must use adsorbent pompoms, sometimes absorbent sausage boom. What we collect is brought into the boat and double- bagged in huge heavy plastic bags, sealed with duct tape and zip ties to be deposited on a collection barge anchored nearby.

Three points I’d like to make: First: what we’re doing has never been done before. The BP and government agency people here on the job have willingly provided tools, supplies, and whatever we request. We’re all looking for techniques that work .However, it’s ALL NEW to EVERYONE involved! Second: it doesn’t help to try to place blame for what’s happened. All the people with whom we’ve come in contact have been most cooperative. Blaming and back-biting only serve to make a terrible situation that much worse. Third: another criticism has been about the money being paid. I’m sure there are some people profiting from this catastrophe. However, most of those working are people whose livelihoods have been directly affected by the oil spill. The money they’re making helps offset their losses.

People involved say very little about the situation. We all realize that our way of life is severely threatened, and the stress on the faces of many of the workers is clearly visible. Most of us have determined that we must do whatever is asked of us to help this community to survive.

First UMC Pensacola Featured in National Methodist Article

First UMC of Pensacola was recently featured in a national article regarding our Oil Spill response.  You may read the entire article on the UM Reporter website. The article has also been inserted directly below for your convenience.

Waiting and Praying: Oil Spill Prompts Church Response

By Mallory McCall, UM Reporter Staff Writer

Swinson Schipman, a longtime, faithful member of First United Methodist Church in Pensacola, Fla., has missed more than a few worship services and choir practices in recent months. That’s because he’s been taped up in a Tyvek protective suit while skimming oil sheen, tar balls and coagulated oil from the ocean’s surface in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr. Schipman’s duties as a shipmate on a 37-foot charter fishing boat changed drastically when British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and leaking between 66 and 120 million gallons of oil into the Gulf.

“The waters are closed,” said Mr. Schipman. “We can’t fish now.”

The spill is already six times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off the Alaska coast—and is still growing. It’s devastated Gulf Coast tourism as well as the real estate, fishing and deep-sea drilling industries.

BP hired and trained crews from Mr. Schipman’s boat, the Nothin’ Matters, and other local charter boats to assist in the cleanup process. The boat’s crew works from sunrise to sundown, corralling oil within a 5-mile distance from the shoreline between Orange Beach, Ala., and Pensacola Beach, Fla., about a 30-mile stretch.

“Sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad,” said Mr. Schipman. “Right now, the oil really hasn’t coated the beach yet, so we really feel like we’re doing some good.”

It’s hard work, says Mr. Schipman. Some of the oil masses have the consistency of mayonnaise and can weigh a couple hundred pounds. The skimming crew uses “sausage booms,” shovels and stick-free mats to fish out the globs of oil. They wear two pairs of gloves and tall rubber boots taped over their protective suits, and in the Florida heat they can only work in their protective gear for 15 minutes at time before having to take a break and cool off.

“Every day is a new experience because it’s something no one has dealt with before,” said Mr. Schipman. “There’s no manual that tells you how to do these things. You got to crawl before you walk, and we’re just doing what we can do.”

Churches react

United Methodist churches near the Gulf are frustrated with the extent of the oil spill—and the fact that members can’t volunteer without going through extensive training to become Hazmat-certified—the safety training required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for people handling, transporting or even preparing paper work for hazardous materials.

“We can’t have a day when the church congregation goes out to clean up the beach,” says Mr. Schipman. “We are not there yet.”

“There are times we feel helpless, but that’s where prayer comes in,” adds the Rev. Geoffrey Lentz, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in Pensacola, Fla.

At the Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference event, Bishop Paul Leeland asked everyone to turn to the person next to them and spend a few moments praying for the oil spill disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.

“As the days have unfolded, each of us has watched the news that has continued to increase our anxiety and uncertainty about the impact of this disaster on our environment and our people,” Bishop Leeland said. “This is the time for us to be the Church and not give into despair.”

Some United Methodist churches have hosted prayer vigils where people of all denominations and faith traditions were invited to pray for the Gulf and its people. Others have organized services of healing for creation and the community, and still others have posted suggestions for a more sustainable, environmentally conscious lifestyle on their church websites.

According to the United Methodist Church’s Social Principles, the church has a responsibility to place a high priority on change in economic, political, social and technological lifestyles to support a more ecologically just and sustainable world, ultimately leading to a higher quality of life for all of God’s creation.

“I believe the terrible crisis in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates the relevance of God’s renewed creation,” said Florida Bishop Timothy Whitaker, who chairs the Council of Bishops’ God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action task force.

A couple years ago, Bishop Whitaker said, it was difficult to get churches to respond to the call for creation care. But now he feels certain the spewing pump of petroleum and its ecological and economical consequences will get people’s attention.

“Our responsibility in this area is not peripheral, but central,” said Bishop Whitaker. “The God we worship created it all and has invited us to help take care of it.”

Louisiana’s response

The Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church’s Disaster Response Ministry is determined to offer relief to the coastal communities still recovering from the damage of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike, and are now faced with the fear of losing their marshlands, estuaries, animal life and possibly their jobs.

But the conference’s typical response for hurricane and flood relief does not necessarily apply to this situation.

“It’s much easier to gut a home and rebuild a home compared to what we are facing now,” said the Rev. Darryl Tate, executive director of the disaster response ministry. “This is territory that has never been plowed.”

Disaster Response staff members recently met with pastors and laity from the three Louisiana communities that have been hit the hardest—Buras, Dulac and Grand Isle—to learn how they could help. Pastors said first and foremost they are seeking to provide spiritual and emotional care for the families and workers.

The conference plans to send ministers who are certified in crisis counseling, volunteer teams to host Vacation Bible Schools and translators fluent in Vietnamese, Cambodian and Spanish to help communicate with immigrant fishing communities.

At the Louisiana Annual Conference event, clergy and laity also assembled 6,000 devotional kits, which included New Testaments and copies of The Upper Room donated by the General Board of United Methodist Men. The kits were sent home with local church pastors from Buras, Dulac and Grand Isle and handed out to the workers and community.

“We take Mr. Wesley’s ‘the world is our parish’ to be our mandate and want to help ‘the least, the last, the lost’,” said Mr. Tate.

Churches and Disaster Response are doing what they can, but feel limited in the ways they can help. Until the oil spill is declared a national disaster, the area cannot get the government resources it really needs.

Conference leaders are praying for direction, raising funds to hire case managers and encouraging people to support the Gulf Coast Civic Work Act, which would provide job-training opportunities and increase employment to aid in the recovery of the Gulf Coast region.

“This is every bit as dramatic as any hurricane, and when the hurricane resides, we rebuild,” said the Rev. Milton Gutierrez, district superintendent for the Dallas South District of the North Texas Conference, who was instrumental in helping with relief efforts following 2005 hurricanes along the Gulf. “But this hasn’t resided, and we can’t rebuild a marsh.”

Louisiana does not have beaches; its marshes act as a buffer between the Gulf and the City of New Orleans. Should the spreading oil kill the swamp, the city would be unprotected, making it an even more vulnerable to flooding and hurricanes.

“This blatant disregard for ecology is as much as an accident as drunk driving,” said Mr. Gutierrez. “The industrial carelessness is criminal.”

Making an effort

Even landlocked churches are making an effort to help the Gulf.

Linda Steele, a member of First United Methodist Church in Bryant, Ark., is collecting nylon pantyhose for the cause. She saw a segment on the news about a non-profit, ecological organization called Matter of Trust that is collecting pantyhose and hair clippings—both animal and human—to make oil-absorbing booms to send to the Gulf Coast.

“It’s such a great way to use resources that would otherwise end up in the landfill,” said Ms. Steele.

Although she has decided to leave the hair collecting up to the local salons and pet groomers, she has asked the women of Bryant FUMC to ditch their nylons for the summer and instead donate them to cleanup efforts.

Matter of Trust’s natural-fiber recycling mobilization is proving to be successful. Thousands of volunteers are signing up for “stocking stuffer” parties and “Boom-B-Qs” where they fill the legs of the hose with hair scraps. The homemade booms are then sent to one of the 19 donated warehouses located throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Within the last month, enough materials have been collected to make 25 miles of oil-absorbing boom. Matter of Trust volunteers are now concentrating on booming and deploying in hopes of making more room in the warehouses. So far, 10 miles’ worth has been stuffed. For information, visit www.matteroftrust.org.

As for Mr. Schipman, he’s willing to try anything—hair booms, bigger skimmer equipment and especially prayer.

“I pray a lot. What else can we do?”

mmccall@umr.org

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Facts about the Gulf

• The Gulf of Mexico has 1,631 miles of coastline and over 16,000 miles of shoreline (including bays and inland waterways).

• Nearly half of all U.S. coastal wetlands—over 5 million acres—are located along the Gulf.

• The coastal plains of the western Gulf are used by nearly all of the migratory land bird species of the eastern U.S., as well as many western species.

• From New Orleans seafood restaurants to Florida vacation rentals, the Gulf’s annual tourist industry is estimated at over $100 billion.

• The Gulf is home to four of the top seven fishing ports in the United States and seven of the top 10 seaports.

• The Gulf is home to an estimated 45,000 bottlenose dolphins.

• The Gulf waters are home to 73 percent of the shrimp and 59 percent of the oysters harvested in the U.S. each year and a total of 1.3 billion pounds of seafood valued at over $650 million.

—Sources: Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, USA Today

Oil, gas exploration

• One-fourth of U.S. domestic natural gas and one-eighth of U.S. oil is extracted from the Gulf.

• The offshore oil and gas industry employs 55,000 workers in the Gulf.

• In 2006, the offshore rigs extracted 470 million barrels of oil.

• Dollars spent by BP on clean up: $17.5 million/day.

• BP profits (1st quarter 2010): $93 million/day and market value: $156.2 billion.

• Punitive damages for 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill: $1 billion (settled in 2009, reduced from original $5 billion).

• Exxon profits: $19.42 billion in 2009, $45.2 billion in 2008.

—Sources: Minerals Management Service, Environmental Protection Agency, The Washington Post, Fortune

Youth Summer Activities 2010

Come an be a part of the exciting youth ministry at First Church this summer! Read more

Worship Arts Camp - Aug 9-13

Join us for a week of worship and fun at this unique Worship Arts Day Camp.  Each day, we will creatively experience worship through various classes that might include dance, drama, puppets, movement, stomp, photography, guitar, art ….

We will explore worship through prayer, liturgical activities and have opportunities to learn more about the countless ways we can worship God!  To celebrate this week, we will put together several pieces that will be shared in ICON worship in August/September.  And of course, we will have some fun recreation and a good snack. Open to children Kindergarten - 5th grade.

Schedule and Registration

Drop off at 9 a.m. in the gym - Pick up at 12 Noon on the 2nd floor of the Education Bldg.

Cost $35.00 (includes supplies, props, snacks, a T-shirt and tickets to see Alice in Wonderland at PLT!)
Make checks payable to FUMC.

Registration Form
Registration deadline is Aug 5th!

Classes

Worship Classes: One hour class that will work on an “offering/presentation” for worship.

Fish Stix – This is a kids style version of God Rods. Kids will be using sticks as they interpret songs and stories. Taught by Susannah Walters and Mary Bond. Worship Date: August 15

Worship through Video – Do you want to learn how to make your own video? Come and help us create a custom video from start to finish. Then come see it during a special ICON service on August 22nd. Taught by Jeb Hunt. Worship Date: August 22

Music Mix – We’ll praise God through singing a “mix”ture of many styles of songs: some wild; some calm; some loud; some soft; some slow; some fast; some new; some old. Taught by Rick Branch. Worship date: Tentative - August 22 in the Sanctuary

Props – This dance class will be using props as they create a dance piece to be shared in worship. Taught by Brady Kirby and Katherine Varnson. Worship Date: August 29 ICON Service

Storytelling in Action – This class will be acting out stories, playing drama games and working on a Children’s Sermon drama. Taught by Lisa Bond. Worship Date: September 12

Hands-On Classes: These groups focus on a fun, creative, “hands-on” experience.

Art – Come join Ms. Celeste as you create beautiful art pieces for the Kids Art Show in August.

Stomp - This class, taught by Susannah Walters and Brady Kirby will be some rompin’ stompin’ fun . . . and there will be noise!

Hip Hop - Come join Katherine Varnson for this fun, upbeat style of dance.

Stompin’ Steppin’ and Clappin’ - Come kick up your heels with some fun line-dancin’ with our very own Rick Branch.

Cooking – Ms. Denise has cooked up some great ideas for this culinary class. If you like to create and cook, this class is for you.

Special Hands-On Classes:

Guitar – Come join Connor Bond and learn some basic guitar skills and maybe a song or two. Preference given to students who have completed 4th or 5th Guitars will be supplied.

Puppet Workshop - For those who have completed 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. This workshop will train students to handle a puppet while having fun with creative scripts. Ms. Wanda is back and excited to start sharing! Students from the workshop are also invited to join the FUMC puppet ministry, In His Hands, which will rehearse on Sunday mornings from 9:00-9:30, and will perform at various events throughout the year.

The Percy Institute - August 2010

The 2010 Percy Institute is pleased to welcome the Reverend Doctor Reginald Mallett

Read more

Designing Women’s Luncheon

Please join us on Saturday, August 21, 2010 for the annual United Methodist - Women in Mission
Designing Women’s Luncheon Read more

Blue Lake Church-Wide Retreat - Oct 15-17

Join us for our Annual Blue Lake Church Wide Family Retreat Read more

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