aldersgate news · publishing, 2019. save the date! vbs will be the evenings of july 14-18. dinner...
TRANSCRIPT
Aldersgate News Vol. 119, Issue 19 05/20/2019 Christ is our Window to life. United Methodist Church www.aldersgatedsm.org
Mission Statement: We will share the love of Jesus Christ and transform lives by creating deep, meaningful relationships with God and one another.
Partial calendar call church office for complete listing. Monday, 5/20 1:30 pm: FBC Bible Study 3:30 pm: Mentors Appreciation 7:00 pm: Boy scouts Tuesday, 5/21 9:30 am: Beth’s Yoga 3:00 pm: PACE Exercise Class Wednesday, 5/22 6:30 pm: Music Celebration 8:00 pm: Adult Soccer Thursday, 5/23 9:30 am: Beth’s Yoga 3:00 pm: PACE Exercise Class Friday, 5/24 5:00 pm: IA Chin Baptist Church Saturday, 5/25 9:00 am: IA Chin Baptist Church
9:30 am: Beth’s Yoga 10:00 am: IA Chin Baptist Church 6:00 pm: IA Chin Baptist Church Sunday, 5/26 9:30 am: *Worship 1:00 pm: IA Chin Baptist Church 6:00 pm: Men’s Basketball 7:30 pm: Adult Soccer Monday, 5/27 Memorial Day Church Closed 7:00 pm: Boy scouts Tuesday, 5/28 9:30 am: Beth’s Yoga 3:00 pm: PACE Exercise Class Wednesday, 5/29 6:30 pm: Music Family Picnic 8:00 pm: Adult Soccer Thursday, 5/30 9:30 am: Beth’s Yoga 3:00 pm: PACE Exercise Class Friday, 5/31 4:00 pm: Urban Plunge Saturday, 6/01 9:00 am: IA Chin Baptist Church
9:30 am: Beth’s Yoga 10:00 am: IA Chin Baptist Church 4:00 pm: Urban Plunge 6:00 pm: IA Chin Baptist Church Sunday, 6/02 9:30 am: *Worship 1:00 pm: IA Chin Baptist Church 6:00 pm: Men’s Basketball 7:30 pm: Adult Soccer
IT'S MORE BLESSED TO RECEIVE THAN TO GIVE
May 15th, 2019
By Rebekah Simon-Peter
Last year, I had the opportunity to hear Ed Wingfield, one-time Executive Di-rector of the former Denver Urban League speak on leadership. “Using our current models of leadership, if we’re not careful, a few heroes will rise economically in our community. But no one else will advance. We’ll be in the dubious position of creating victims, so that we can rescue them.”
As I listened to him speak, I realized his was a familiar story. We in the church do that too. Most church mission trips are designed to create a level playing field for the “underprivileged” or underserved. Yet adopting the attitude that “we will rescue you because we are great and competent and able — while you are not” — doesn’t level the playing field. It perpetually tips it. Rather, level playing fields come from empowering people to discover their own greatness, competency and ability.
With the summer mission trip season upon us, it’s time to reimagine mission trips. That means discovering the blessing of receiving, not giving. Continued on page 2
Pastor Jon’s Sunday Schedule May – June June 9
th : Pentacost Sunday! Pastor Jon will be preach-
ing. This whole weekend delegates from Aldersgate UMC will be at Annual Conference.
June 16th : Pastor Jon and family are at a wedding in Red Lodge, Montana; Guest Preacher is Rev. Martha Ward who was co-pastor of Ankeny First UMC for many years.
June 23rd : Pastor Jon’s last Sunday at Aldersgate UMC, come celebrate with us the post-Pentacost message of where the church community can provide everything we need for life.
July 7th : Pastor Eric’s first Sunday. Come celebrate with us!
Continued from page 1
Years ago, I had been on several mission trips to Rosebud Indian Reservation, home of the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota of Dances with Wolves fame. We would paint homes, do minor repairs, and in the evening learn about history, customs and if we were lucky, experience a sweat lodge. We were excited to paint homes and make a difference for “underprivileged” people. We felt good about it.
But I didn’t know how our efforts actually came across until Chesie Lee, an ally and advocate for Native American empowerment let me in on a little secret. Chesie, who co-facilitated the creation of the Wind River Native Advocacy Center together with members of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes, told me a common response to the question: “Who wants to have their house painted this year?” is typically “Nah, I’ve had mine painted three years in a row.”
All that house painting was for us, not the people who lived in them. In other words, our focus on giving was-n’t really meeting needs. Yes, we felt blessed to give, but it placed those on the receiving end in a dependent, less-than, victim role.
Chesie had seen this dynamic play out over and over. Several years ago, when she served as the Director of the Wyoming Association of Churches, she realized that mission trips designed to “help” Native Americans didn’t necessarily help. Playing rescuer to Native Americans was ironic since the church had been instrumen-tal in creating the victimization of Native American populations to begin with.
Chesie saw that instead of organizing traditional mission trips to the Wind River Reservation, in which churches would come paint or repair homes, she could invite church groups to come to the reservation to learn from the Native Americans. She could switch the paradigm from rescuer-victim to co-equals.
In this way, Native Americans would be granted the gift of agency. Of moving away from the role of invisible, underprivileged people to real live human beings with something to offer to others. These trips would be for mutual education and uplift.
It was a tough vision to communicate. Many churches resisted the idea that coming to receive would be as worthwhile as coming to give. The few who did come discovered something of a new connectedness and a different view of history. They discovered something of the Kingdom within.
As you plan summer mission trips this year, ask yourselves these questions:
1.Will our mission trip create long-term empowerment for those we aim to serve? Or will it leave them dependent on us?
2.How can this experience be mutual in nature?
3.What are we willing to receive from the people we are there to serve?
This summer consider how you can experience the blessing of receiving by allowing others to give. Alterna-tively, you can repaint homes that don’t really need it.
Adapted from the forthcoming book Dream Like Jesus by Rebekah Simon-Peter, Market Square Publishing, 2019.
Save the date! VBS will be the evenings of July 14-18. Dinner
will be at 5:00 pm with VBS programming at 6:00 pm—8:00 pm. We are partnering with West Des Moines UMC to make this week extra fun! More
details to come!
Music Family Celebration Wednesday, May 22nd at 6:30 pm
4513 76th Street
Food & drink provided.
Spouse, family and pet friendly.
Invite a friend or past choir member.
UMW Book Club: The Aldersgate UMW Book Club will meet on Thursday, May 23, at 1:30 at the church to discuss “Spoken Into Be-ing: Divine Encounters Through Story” by Mi-chael W. Williams
Contact Nancy Stockdale for questions.
Our Presence:
Worship, May 19th: 128
May 5th: $10,248 (wk 18)
Other Giving: $880 Sights & Sounds: $230 May your Generosity Speak to God’s work in your Life.
Our Prayers: Dear Lord, Just as it was when Jesus made his home on earth, The world can be a hateful and cruel place. We ask that you would guide our ac-tions as believers. Give us an eagerness to be humble and gentle. Help us have hearts of patience and forbearance. Thank You for the hope we have in You; May Your hope unify our thoughts and decisions And in-voke peace through the Spirit. Amen.
Long Term Facility Mem-bers: Marjorie Schwien -Wesley Acres
CHURCH STAFF 515–278-0466 Jon Bailey Lead Pastor [email protected] Megan Stange Children/Family Coordinator [email protected]
Theresa Constable Office Manager [email protected] Eve Copeland Clark Interim Music Coordinator [email protected]
Sunday Worship Celebration 9:30 AM Sunday School 10:50 AM Nursery available during Sunday Service
Happy Birthday
Amara Brown 5/28 Jeanette Hagan 5/29 Thad Stange 5/30 Tucker Smith 5/30 Jamie Neas 5/30 Scott Breach 5/30
Please submit articles for the Newsletter to [email protected] by Wednesday at noon for the following week. Please include a short description or explanation also include who—when and where.
June 8th
- 9:00-4:00 - Garage Sale As you plan your spring cleaning remember we can use your unneed-ed items, so hang on to those treas-ures until the sale. All proceeds will go to the Appalachia Service Project Mission Trip.
Donations of furniture, housewares, jewelry, clothes, yard items, toys and other miscellaneous items are all accepted. Please NO mattress-es, tube tv’s, computers or tread
mills. We will pick up large/heavy items to be donated. Call Steve for an appointment at 515-306-5781 (leave a message)
Spring Youth for Hire: Need a
hand at home? Do you have windows that need washed, gutters that need cleaned out, or does your garage need cleaned out? What about
leaves that are still lingering in the yard? Going on a vacation and need a pet sitter? Hire one or a group of our youth to get the job done! The weather has warmed up and we are beginning to work
Flood Relief for Iowa: Many areas of Iowa were hit with se-vere flooding in March. If you want to help flood recovery in Iowa, you can donate to Iowa Disaster Ministries Special Advance #223. These offerings can be made through your local church or mailed to the Iowa Conference Office. All donations will go directly to churches in Iowa that need disaster relief support
AUMC Garden: The garden is planted. Thank you to Monte Bon-nicksen for tilling the areas and for the Wednesday Family Night kids for transplanting all the veggies they started! Thank you to Amy Nich-ols, Annette Waldorf and Megan Stange for their help in the planting and weeding. Helpers to weed, water and harvest are always wel-come.
Christian Sympathies to Lu Anne Postel and family for the death of her mom, Carole Simmons who passed away Monday, May 13, 2019.
Living History Farms Visit: United Methodist Women will tour the historic Church of the Land and the 1875 town of Walnut Hill at Living History Farms on Thursday, June 6. Meet at the Visitor Center to the open-air museum at 1:30 p.m. Entrance fee is $9 per person. (Tell them you are with UMW.)
UMM Meeting – Sat, June 8: The United Methodist Men will be meeting on Saturday, June 8, at 8am in Fellowship Hall. All men are welcome to attend our informal breakfast meeting. After the meet-ing we will work on a handful of service projects. Hope to see you there.