Last fall I lead a retreat for the women of Sherwood UMC titled; “Rafting the Rivers of Life; Navigating Change with Spiritual Resilience.” During the two day retreat we reflected on our life stories by mapping our personal life story as a winding river. We noted the curves, bends, waterfalls and stagnant pools that signified our life’s journey. We then named each decade to express its larger meaning within the overall context of our

lives.

As we told our life stories in small groups, we realized that even with all the commonalities, there were a wide variety of life experiences. Each of us also claimed the unique gifts of wisdom and spiritual resilience we had gained through the winding and

sometimes turbulent course of life.

Little did I know then that the current of my life would propel me toward a waterfall of change called “retirement.” I had expected to continue being your pastor for another year or two. However, the river of life does move on into unchartered territory and the current picks up faster then we expect. It is time for me to refocus life on family and

personal pursuits.

And as the course of my personal and professional life moves on, so too, the course of Sherwood UMC takes another turn around the bend. Once again, the church community sails into unchartered

waters with another pastor.

Bishop Hoshibata, Rev. Kate Conolly, our District Superintendent, and the other four District Superintendents are currently discussing and discerning the best choice of pastor for SUMC. Rev. Kate will be consulting with the Staff Pastor Parish Committee and other church leaders this Wednesday, May 2. Please direct any comments or suggestions you may have to Lay Leaders Gerry and Dottie Edy or to

members of SPRC Carol Apple, Karen McClure, Dennis Wallace, and Sandra Harden. Jim Snell, Chair of SPRC, is on vacation but he is fully involved through

email and phone contact.

It has been a sacred calling and privilege to serve as your interim pastor during this transition time. Together we have rafted some interesting and

challenging rapids!

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a

hope.” Jeremiah 29: 11

Blessings,

Rev. Penny

The News l e t t er

o f t he Sherw ood

Un i ted Met hod i s t

Church

Worship Schedule Every Sunday

8:40 Adult Sunday School

9:30 Worship

10:45 Fellowship Hour

7:00 Youth Group

Inside this issue:

Youth Corner 2

Bunko Night 3

May Birthdays &

Thank Yous

3

Announcements 4

Committee

Meetings

Calendar

4

Helping Hands

Update

5

Work Day 5

Upcoming Events 6

May 2012

Encouraging Word

Navigating Change with God’s Help

Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors: The People of The United Methodist Church.

YOUTH CORNER

Youth Workday Thank you to all who donated money to our Youth Mission trip in exchange for yard work. We

had 19 youth and adults working in yards all afternoon on Sunday. We raised close to $500.

2012 Mission Trip – Yakima Area Where are we going?

White Swan, WA is a small community of 1000 people. Our youth should see and work in an

area of extreme poverty, multi cultures and serve the Lord! Last year a fire went through

and destroyed 19 homes.

What are we doing? Project Possibilities:

· Clean a house lot that was burned

· Roof storage shed and finish putting up fascia board.

· General repairs and clean up work around the church park

(only park in town).

· Put up a basketball backboard and hoop (we may donate

this!)

· Fix and provide materials to replace metal bars on

playground equipment.

· Yakama Mission may need some people to help with their summer program.

· Do yard work for elderly members of the church.

· Help a local food bank.

Please Pray for our youth as we fundraise and prepare our hearts for service. It looks

like we may have 18 youth serve on this trip!

God is Great! Thanks to our Church Family for their support of youth ministries.

Sunday Youth Meet ings and Act iv i t i es May 6 Youth Meeting 7-8:30 pm

May 13 No Youth Meeting

May 20 No Youth Meeting

May 27 Youth Meeting 7-8:30 pm

Anyone in 6th to 12th grade is welcome to

join us on Sunday evenings from 7 pm to 8:30

YOUTH GROUP

Women’s Breakfast Group

Fundraiser

BUNKO

NIGHT

May Bir thdays

2 Mikki Snell

3 Helen Martin 5 Lana Cole

8 Lorene Lewis 10 Marv Worthy

12 Odge Gribble 26 Dorothy Schmidt

Worship Assisting

Ushering

May 6 Shirlene Guthrie

May 13

May 20

May 27

Scr ipture Reading

May 6 Elvan Pitney

May 13

May 20

May 27

Kitchen Cleanup

May 6 Barb & Pit

May 13

May 20

May 27

Members a t Home

Dorothy Olson moved

recently to McMinnville and

would love to have visitors

from her church home in

Sherwood. Her contact

details are in the new

church directory if you

would like to be in touch.

Spring is here and the Trustees have been very busy! We would like to thank the following people for their service to the church:

Les Schuller for replacing burned out light bulbs in an exit light and the eternal light in the sanctuary

Bud Lewis for mowing the lawn

Nancy Ellingson for massive amounts of yard work, raking leaves (still!) and pulling weeds

Amazing Maids for a thorough deep cleaning of the sanctuary, narthex and fellowship hall. They even returned the next day to nudge the overhead projector back into position after it was inadvertently nudged off center during their thorough cleaning—yes, they even cleaned the top of the ceiling projector.

Tony of Co-Ho Electric for repairing the lights in the illuminated sign at the bottom of the driveway

And a thank you to Jim Edy for supervising the electrician repairing the sign board

Angelo Perfili of Carpet Cleaning Experts for cleaning the pew cushions and carpets in sanctuary, narthex, church office and fellowship hall. He puts

everything he has into his work, paying meticulous attention to every detail, as he expressed it, “from wall to wall and every corner.”

Jim Edy and Nancy Ellingson for clearing fellowship hall of the tables and chairs before the carpet cleaning and setting them up again after the cleaning and staying until 9:30 at night to supervise the carpet cleaning.

Sherwood UMC is very blessed to have such a dedicated crew of trustees. Jim Edy is totally worth his weight in gold as our Chair of Trustees. Way to Go!

We also would like to thank Mikki Snell, Sandra Hardin and the Women's Breakfast Group for

hosting a delicious Easter Sunday brunch.

And Alison and It’s All Arranged Flowers for providing the palm branches for Palm Sunday.

Thanks to the Edys (all of them!) and Helping Hands & Men’s Group for the delicious Pancake Breakfast last Sunday.

A big, big thanks to all who came out for the All-Church Work Day on Saturday.

Helping Hands

May 19th — 6:30 PM

Snacks Desserts Prizes

$5/ person

Proceeds support the WBG

ministries

Questions?

Call Sandra Hardin—503-625-5275

Darla States — 503-625-5385

A Note of Thanks

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Women’s Breakfast Group

On May 6th please join us for fellowship and a

tasty breakfast. We will be meeting at 8:15AM

at the church. Karen McClure will be chairing

the Women's Breakfast Group this month while

Mikki is away. See you there!

United Methodist Women

The United Methodist Women (UMW) luncheon

meeting will be held at 11 a.m. on

Wednesday, May 16, at the home of Barbara

and Bill Maplethorpe. All women are invited to

come and enjoy "food for the soul, fellowship,

and fun."

Don't forget,

DOUGHNUTS every

Saturday morning at

the Rebekah Hall,

22550 SW Washington

Street. More

volunteers are needed on our Church's day

(the second Saturday of each month) to

handle doughnut sales, cashier or make

doughnut dough. If you could help, please

call Barbara Maplethorpe (503-625-6875).

Also, come to a Flea Market sponsored by the

Rebekahs on May 4th and 5th, from 9 a.m. to 4

p.m.

Good Samaritan Saturday

May 5 is Good Samaritan Saturday hosted by

Faith in Action. Volunteers join from Sherwood

and King City area churches and community

agencies provide spring clean up chores for

area seniors. If you’d like to be involved meet

at 8:00 am at the Sherwood Senior Center for

a hearty breakfast before the work begins.

Committee Meetings

Ad Council

TBD

Finance

Monday, May 14 @ 6:00 pm

SPRC

Thursday, May 10 @ 6:00 pm

Trustees

Thursday, May 31 @ 6:00 pm

Paul Adams: Our Music Leader

Paul Adams, our

new guitarist and

song leader, has

worked as a

professional jazz

musician for over

ten years. He has

served in a variety

of pastoral and

musical leadership roles in congregations in

Oregon and Minnesota.

Paul is a 2002 graduate of Linfield College

with a Bachelor of Arts in Music Theory and

Composition, and a 2007 graduate of Luther

Seminary with an Master of Arts in ministry.

Today, Paul works as a treasurer for a

political campaign, and is finishing his

Bachelor of Science degree in accounting at

Linfield next summer.

In his spare time, Paul enjoys cooking,

gardening, and playing board games.

Paul is married to his wife Michelle, who is

finishing her Master of Arts degree in

marriage, couple, and family therapy at

George Fox University next spring. They

have a two-year-old daughter, Lucy.

Thanks to Jim, Bud, Lorene Lewis, Karen McClure, Nancy Ellingson, Sandra Hardin, and Les Schuller for pulling, pushing, spreading, raking and for just showing up.

Thanks to Jim for the donuts!

A Few Good Men, well, two, came on Monday and cleaned the storage sheds. That is a huge job and we owe Jim Haynes and Duane Owens our thanks for

taking it on…..in the rain no less.

Duane loaded up his pickup truck with things we must have thought we should save, but, shouldn’t have. Off to the dump. Old paint cans were taken

to where old paint cans go.

Thanks to all who worked so hard.

By Nancy Ellingson

Beginning in April, Helping Hands will initiate some changes that we believe will streamline the process of distributing food to our friends in the community who look to us for help.

Change #1: those seeking food no longer have to call in to “get on the list”. We have changed our phone message to say “just show up” and we will have food available for you. We will use figures from our recent history to gauge the number of expected recipients and pack food boxes accordingly. Box content will be standardized. Large families will be given 2 boxes. This simplifies the packing process as well as the distribution process.

April 22nd was our initial trial day for the new system. It went so smoothly that we surprised ourselves. The check in process is no longer a “line up” situation. Our youthful volunteers quickly accompanied the folks to their cars, unloaded the food boxes and returned to get another load.

Change #2. Helping Hands will now distribute food 2 times each month, rather than one. Our phone message and written material will advertise that food assistance is available on the first and third (1ST & 3RD) Saturdays each month. Just show up between 9:30am and noon.

Big Changes Coming to Helping Hands

All-Church Work Day

The Trustee Committee led by Chairman Jim Edy, sponsored an all church work day on Saturday April 28. We were blessed with a beautiful sunny but cool work day

and got lots accomplished.

A special thank you to Jim Edy and Bud Lewis for making available their pickup trucks, trailers, tractors

etc. It looked like a Tonka truck fest.

We had a good time and made the grounds look a bit better. There is still work to be done so if anybody likes

to work in the yard, any weed you see is your challenge.

In addition, Holly our administrative assistant is distributing food on an emergency basis on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9:30am and 12:30pm.

Those who have need for food should just come to the church at the times listed above.

Helping Hands is so fortunate due to the community generosity to make available food to help us carry out this expansion. Gerry and Dottie Edy have established our mission in Sherwood (and beyond) and the community respects and trusts our work. In turn, we have wonderful support and cooperation in the missions of Helping Hands. The BackPack program continues to thrive in our schools and is supported by many groups who “just want to help”.

A new schedule of volunteer hours will be worked out to cover more days as well as more packing times.

If you can help with packing boxes, helping on distribution day on 1st & 3rd Saturday mornings, help at the warehouse when needed, wish to donate food or items for the backpack program, please call Helping Hands.

Gerry or Dottie Edy

503.625.7975

5/4 Pack Food Boxes 6:30p

5/5 Give out Food Boxes 10a

5/5 Good Samaritan Sat 8a

5/6 Women’s Brkfst Grp 8:15a

5/6 Adult SS 8:40a

5/6 Worship 9:30a

5/6 Fellowship Hour 10:30a

5/6 Youth Group 7p

5/8 Vintage Creek HOA 6:30p

5/10 SPRC 6p

5/13 Mother’s Day

5/13 Adult SS 8:40a

5/13 Worship 9:30a

5/13 Fellowship Hour 10:45a

5/13 Ad Council—After worship

5/13 No Youth Group

5/16 UMW Luncheon 11a

5/18 Pack Food Boxes 6:30p

5/19 Give out Food Boxes 10a

5/19 WBG Bunko Night 6:30p

5/20 Adult SS 8:40a

5/20 Worship 9:30a

5/20 Fellowship Hour 10:30a

5/20 No Youth Group

5/27 Adult SS 8:40a

5/27 Worship 9:30a

5/27 Fellowship Hour 10:45

5/27 Youth Group 7p

5/28 Memorial Day

5/30 Trustees 6p

Pastor Rev. Dr. Penny Christianson penny.christianson@comcast.net Youth Director Lana Cole lcole@rcinv.com Pianist Cindy Souza armza2@yahoo.com Administrative Assistant Holly Dhynes hollysherwoodumc@gmail.com Guitarist/Song Leader Paul Adams paulcurtisadams@gmail.com Projectionist Tyler Thayer

Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors: The People of The United Methodist Church.

Sherwood Un i ted

Method i s t Church

S ta f f

Church Calendar for May 2012

SHERWOOD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

22280 SW Washington St. PO Box 127

Sherwood, OR 97140

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

PHONE:

(503) 625-7115

OFFICE HOURS: 9:00 – 1:00 Tues & Thurs

PASTOR’S HOURS:

10:00 – 2:00 Mon - Thurs