Beyond the Pulpit 10.20.24

This week has flown, since our office was closed last Monday. But Tuesday morning started with a brisk walk from the church to the park with our first Fall Walking Group! It’s the perfect time of year to get out and breathe in the fresh air. Hope you’ll join us this coming Tuesday October 22 at 7:30am or 6:00pm. We meet in the church parking lot.

Bedtime Stories & Prayers continues on Tuesday evenings. We often see children from CUMC & CACP. And one week, to my great surprise, we even had a participant from Louisiana join us! The young woman who was 5yo when their family adopted me as a college student through their church’s Adopt-A-Student program, now is the mom of 3 little ones! They all joined us, including grandma! Share the link with your friends and family…I’d love to have them!

On Wednesday at CACP Chapel, we talked about the Fruit of the Spirit of JOY. We read the story of the prodigal son, and talked about the joy of the father, when his son returned home. We sang, “I’ve got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down In My Heart” and talked about the things that bring us JOY like jumping in piles of leaves and painting pumpkins!

Also on Wednesday, after lunch with Bob, a new resident at the Lodge who will be joining CUMC as a new member in November, I met with Aidan Workman, the coordinator for IMPACT Charlottesville, and confirmed that our focus this coming year will once again be improvements to public transportation and affordable housing in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Today, we’re excited to commission CUMC’s 2024-2025 IMPACT Team during worship. We’ll also have students from the Wesley Foundation at UVA joining us for worship at 11am, as part of their “Try Church” experience this fall.

One of the less exciting parts of my week beyond the pulpit included submitting reports for our annual Charge Conference. I think of it sort of like the church’s “annual checkup” where we submit all the required data, and the Annual Conference gives us the green light to proceed on in the ministry to which we are called! You’re welcome to join us – with other area churches – for the gathering of Charge Conference at Aldersgate UMC in Charlottesville at 5pm on Sunday, October 27.

Yesterday’s Rise Against Hunger event was an amazing blessing! What an incredible accomplishment to raise $8000 over-and-above our regular ministry income for the purpose of eradicating world hunger. We packaged 10,000 of the 20,000 we purchased (the others will be packaged elsewhere)! Photos of the event, glamorous hair nets and all, will be shared during worship! Don’t miss it!