The Poster is publ ished monthly by For t Des Moines

Uni ted Methodis t Church, 6205 SW 9th S t , Des Moines Iowa

50315-5516. To contact us , phone

515.285.6545, fax 515.285.3740, or e -mail to f tdsmumc@

qwestoff ice .net Check us out on the

web: www.fdmumc.org

Pastor Kathy’s phone is

515-201-3634

Volume 12 Issue 3

March 2015 The Poster

FT . DES MOINES UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Pastor’s Ponderings 2-3

Lenten Schedule 3

Prayer Corner 4

From the Ad Council 4

Easter Breakfast 4

Calendars 5-6

Sign-up for Camp 7

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Information for The Poster should be in the Church office by the 29th of the month prior to being pub-lished.

Office Hours

8:00 a.m. -

12:00 noon

Monday to Friday

Sunday Worship 9:45 a.m.

Holy Communion is the first Sunday

of the month

Scholarships Available

The Iowa Methodist Foundation has scholarship money available for under-graduates and for seminarians. All scholarships have an individual applica-tion indicating all required application criteria. The applicant must complete one set of documentation for each scholarship for which they apply. Go to www.iumf.org for applications and oth-er information. Applications and all supporting documents must be post-marked by March 15. Incomplete ap-plications cannot be considered.

Challenge!

Every year, between March 1 and April 30, Des Moines Area Religious Council’s Food Pantry Network is recipi-ent of the Douglas M. Woods “Challenge Hunger” campaign. Mr. Woods, a retired West Des Moines po-lice officer, matches 50 cents for every dollar, up to a total of $20,000 given. So your donation of $10 becomes $15. This example would provide 20 meals.

We encourage you to support the Des Moines Area Religious Council’s Food Pantry Network on March 15th and April 19th, when our congregation emphasizes Food Pantry Sunday.

The Food Pantry Network has start-ed naming a “food of the month” and the item for March is whole grain cere-al. Any non-perishable items will be accepted, however. (Note: March 1st was peanut butter Sunday with an em-phasis on the 18 oz. size.)

On Monday, March 16, the Des Moines Area Religious Council will be hosting “Spring into Action”. This will be a special collection of food items, personal hygiene items and clothing items (see the flyer on the bulletin board in the Narthex or go to the DMARC website) If you would like to give any of these items, you can bring them on Sunday, March 15, and they will be delivered with the regular food items.

The Spring Delegate Assembly will be held on Tuesday, March 17, at 7:00 p.m., at Immanuel Methodist Church, 2900 49th St, Des Moines. Our dele-gates are Pastor Kathy and Jean Drew. Others may attend as guests.

Easter FUNdraiser

As we begin our Lenten season we have decided not to do Easter Baskets this year. Instead we are going to do an Easter FUNdraising Calendar. En-closed you will find a calendar (yellow paper) with instructions. If you need more copies so everyone in your household has one, please feel free to copy the calendar. We hope everyone enjoys this fun activity as a way for the church to receive some additional funds to help with our budget. If you don’t want to put your money in a jar/butter dish/etc. just write the total due on this calendar & at the end of the month total it. Then write a check to the church & bring it on Easter Sunday for the offering. Make sure you note on the check it is for the Easter FUNd-raising Calendar. If you want to bring your cash just give it to Debbie McCloney with your name on it so you get credit for your donation. If you have questions, please see Debbie McCloney or call 515-249-3545.

Pastor’s Ponderings

Volume 12 Issue 3 Page 2

to give up before you can be your best. Nowhere is this principle truer than in the spiritual dimension of our personal lives. There are certain acts, certain attitudes, certain habits, certain sins that will contaminate, infect, and poison our souls. The only way we can be spiritually well, spiritual-ly fit, and spiritually whole is to get rid of them, give them up, cut them out. Nothing less than rad-ical surgery will do! Now, be honest with yourself and with God. What is in your life that you need to give up for Lent? What bad thing in your life right now do you need to get rid of? Let me list a few possibilities. I'm sure you will think of others.

FIRST, GIVE UP BITTERNESS. Is there some bitterness in your life right now? If so, you had better give it up because it will poison your soul. Is there a grudge, a grievance, a smol-dering hatred, a broken relationship that is tainting your life right now? If so, please don't go to sleep tonight until you have set it right. Remember how Jesus put it: "For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?" (Matthew 16:26). The King James Version translates the word for life as "soul." With every fiber of my being, I'm pleading with you to think about this. If there is bitterness in your life, give it up for Lent. Give it to God. Let God bring heal-ing. With God's help, you can give it up forever!

SECOND, GIVE UP APATHY. Apathy means quitting on life. Apathy means not caring. Apathy means not trying. It's amazing to me how many people there are in our world today who get discouraged and throw in the towel. If you want to give up something for Lent, give up apathy! Give up negative, cynical, pessimistic thinking. …. You see, we destroy good things by ignoring them. Churches, schools, families, marriages, friendships, commitments, physical health, spiritu-al life, intellectual growth: all these good things can be destroyed by neglect, by apathy. Apathy is the opposite of commitment, the opposite of faith, and it can ruin your life. If you want to give up something for Lent, why don't you pick out some-thing bad to give up like bitterness or apathy?

(continued on page 3)

The Lenten study we are doing this year is written by James Moore and entitled “Give Up Something Bad for Lent.” Moore talks about how some people decide to give up something they enjoy during Lent as a way of making a sacrifice. Often it is a favorite food or drink; something they decide to do without during the Lenten season. But Moore began think-ing about the practice of giving up something for Lent a little differently based on a conversation at church one year. I like a lot of what he has to say, so I’d like to share some portions of his first chapter in the study book with you for some Lenten reflection. He writes:

It happened one morning a few weeks before East-er in an adult Sunday school class. During the gathering-in time, people were drinking coffee and chatting informally. Suddenly someone asked, "What are you all giving up for Lent?" People be-gan to discuss that question. Some took it very seriously and told what they were doing, but oth-ers took it very lightly. They joked, made wise-cracks about it, and brushed the question aside. But then, one woman who had just gone through a painful divorce said something powerful. She said, "I've decided this Lent to give up being unhappy! I'm going to give up being unhappy for Lent!" That comment touched me deeply because it made a lot of sense when I thought about it. After all, if we are going to give up something for Lent as a spiritual discipline, why not pick out something bad? Why not pick out something that spiritually we would be a whole lot better off without? It's really a very Biblical idea, isn't it? Jesus said to the disciples that they should deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him (Matthew 16:24). And he says it to us! Deny yourselves! Take up your cross! Follow me! We also could say it this way: "Get rid of those things in your life that prevent you from walking where Jesus would lead you. Get rid of those things in your life that are not Christ-like!" If you are smoking and it's destroying your lungs, quit smoking. If you are drinking and you are be-coming an alcoholic, quit drinking. If you are gambling and losing all your food money at the track, quit gambling. Whatever you are doing that is tainting and destroying your life, cut it off, quit it, and give it up before it does you in. Ask any dentist, any athlete, or any singer, and they will all tell you that there are certain things that you have

Volume 12 Issue 3 Page 3

Pastor’s Ponderings continued...

FINALLY, GIVE UP DISCOURAGEMENT. All of us have moments when we get down, when we get discouraged, when we feel sorry for our-selves. All of us have to walk through difficult valleys. All of us have to experience the Good Fridays of life, but the good news is that Easter's coming. Easter's coming! And if during these days of Lent we can—with the help of God and by the grace of God—get rid of some of the bad things in our lives like bitterness, apathy, or dis-couragement, we will be better prepared to re-ceive the Easter victory, the new life God has for us. And, if we can give up some of the things that are bad for us for Lent this year, then hopefully, prayerfully, we can give them up forever with the help of God

Bitterness, Apathy and Discouragement are just the beginning of the list of things that Moore recom-mends we give up for Lent. He goes on in later chapters to encourage us to Give up Harsh, Con-demning Judgments, Give up the Enemies Within, Give up Running Away, Give up a Bad Habit, and Give up Pettiness. I have to admit that some of the things on Moore’s list surely hit home as things I would be better off if I gave up. Maybe you found a thing or two on the list you’d be better off without, too. The idea, of course, isn’t just to give them up for Lent. The hope is if we could give those things over to God as things we would like to give up, then God could bring heal-ing that would last far past the Lenten season. Moore’s final chapter is entitled; “Wrap Your Arms Around Something Good for Easter.” Of course, the hope is, if we are able to give up those things that harm us, make us less than Christ-like; then we are better able to embrace the hope and life that is the good news of Easter. And live out of that hope! Please join me in thinking about what you most need to give up to God to arrive at Easter as hope-ful, Christ-like Christians!

Pastor Kathy

Schedule of Services

Sunday Morning Worship 9:45

Holy Thursday: April 3rd at 7:00

Good Friday: April 4th at 7:00

Weekly Theme: “Questioned for Christ”

In this series for Lent, Holy Week and Easter we will listen in each week as figures from the story of the passion of Christ are questioned concern-ing their relationship to Jesus Christ. Is there enough evidence to convict them of being fol-lowers of Jesus? Is there enough evidence to convict each one of us? Each service includes a drama set in a police interrogation room with a good cop and bad cop asking their “witness” about Christ, followed by a sermon reflecting on the theme.

Lenten Study

“Give Up Something Bad for Lent”

by James Moore

Sundays at 7:00 PM ending March 29th

Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ending March 31st

During Lent each year, some Christians give up something as an act of sacrifice and spiritual discipline. Often it is something like chocolate, knowing that after Easter Sunday they can once again enjoy what they have given up. This study challenges readers to take it further—to give up something spiritually that they would be better off not doing. He invites all to seek God's help to focus on eliminating one habit or attitude that is destructive. Imagine giving up envy, jeal-ousy, self-pity, apathy, procrastination, gossip, resentment, or negative thinking; how much better life would be. Cost of book $6.50.

JOURNEY THROUGH LENT WITH US!

Ft. Des Moines UMC, it’s programs and leaders; Bhutanese Nepali Truth Church in Iowa, it’s programs and leaders; Bloomfield UMC, it’s programs and leaders; Those who are home bound and their care-takers; And we especially name Frances Ramsey, Donna Ness, Fred Drew, and Jean Volz. Our Christian Sympathies to the family and friends of Doris Garland, who died on Feb. 3. Toni Devore expresses sincere thanks and grati-tude for the many cards, thoughts and prayers at the time of her mother, Maxine Gillihan’s, death. The memorial monies will be used to purchase a headstone for Maxine. Our Christian Sympathies to the family and friends of Martha Coleman who died on Feb. 23.

Please note the following directory correction: Laurie Jenkins’ phone number 255-9363; her cell number is 318-0969 and her email address is jenkinspiano@q.com.

Prayer Corner

Looking for a wedding shower, graduation or birthday gift? Don’t forget the church cook-book is still available for $15.00. Contact the church office or see Debbie McCloney.

Park Ave. Christian Church serves soup/chili eve-ry Wednesday during Lent. Serving is from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Cost is only $6 for soup or chili, crackers, bread, relishes, dessert and drink.

Plan ahead! Vacation Bible School/ Day Camp will be held June 8th through the 11th at Christ Luther-an Church, 6411 SE 5th St. Watch the newsletter and bulletin for details and registration forms!

Vacation Bible School

Volume 12 Issue 3 Page 4

From the Ad Council

At our Administrative Council meeting it was mentioned that our church members would like to know the progress of our church meetings. We will provide periodic updates to keep everyone abreast of what is happening regarding the study of our con-gregation.

One meeting was held several months ago on how our church may meet the needs of our commu-nity. As a result of that, one of the church’s mem-bers is beginning a community meal program. The plan is to provide a meal once a month to the resi-dents surrounding our church. Firm details will be provided as soon as they become available.

Another meeting was held with the district super-intendent about finances. He advised that the dis-trict office do a study, that upon completion, would have suggestions on how we may cut expenses so that we can remain open as a church. The District Office has named the committee to begin work on that study. Details will be provided as information is available.

The phone survey has also begun. More calls will be made to gather more information before a deci-sion will be made on necessary changes to the pro-gramming of the church.

Watch upcoming issues of The Poster for more information about the future of Ft. Des Moines United Methodist Church.

Easter Breakfast Is Coming!

Again this year, we’ll have an Easter Breakfast following worship on Sunday, April 5. The menu will include baked scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, orange juice, milk and coffee. A free-will offering will be received to off-set the cost of the meal. Make plans to stay for food and fellowship on April 5th!

6205 SW 9th St

Des Moines IA 50315-5516

Ft. Des Moines United Methodist Church

Events: 22nd WCF Baked Potato Bar Lunch 29th Palm Sunday 2nd Holy Thursday Service @ 7pm 3rd Good Friday Service@ 7pm 5th Easter Sunday! Special Offerings: Food Pantry Sunday will be March15th. Donations of cash, non-perishable food items, formula, dia-pers and brown paper grocery bags will be received. One Great Hour of Sharing Offering will be received March 15. One Great Hour of Sharing calls the church to share the goodness of life with those who hurt. United Methodist Com-mittee on Relief (UMCOR) is the not-for-profit international humanitarian-aid organization of The United Meth-odist Church. UMCOR brings hope, provides relief from hunger and disas-ter, and teaches peace. This offering undergirds UMCOR’s entire ministry.

Lesson Texts These are the lesson texts for the com-ing weeks, should you want to read ahead: 8th Exodus 20:1-17 Psalm 19 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 John 2:13-22 15th Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 107 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 22nd Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 51:1-12 Hebrews 5:5-10 John 12:20-33 29th Isaiah 50:4-9 Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Mark 15:1-47 5th Acts 10:34-43 Psalm 118:1-24 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 John 20:1-18

February/March 2015

Phone: 515.285.6545 Fax: 515.285.3740

E-mail:

kathysides@hotmail.com ftdsmumc@qwestoffice.net

www.fdmumc.org

The Fort Des Moines United Methodist Church:

a community of faith in worship and action,

open to all in the Spirit and Love of God.

Christian Education Classes will be held thru May 17, 2015

11:00-11:45 a.m.

Staff

Rev. Kathy Sides

Pastor

Laurie Jenkins, Church Musician

Pamela Schisel Choir Director

Jane White,

Administrative Assistant

Earl Sides

Custodian

Address Service Requested

We give thanks for:

YOU!