GreenbrierFUMC focus

Time to start making plans for one of our great annual church events!

TTrruunnkk oorr TTrreeaatt –– OOcctt.. 2266 It is one of those events in the life of

our church that is always filled with

creativity, laughter, kids and a whole

lot of fun. Start making your plans to

be part of our Trunk or Treat festival

on Wednesday evening, October 26th

from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. We always have

a ton of kids so fill up on candy,

decorate your trunk and watch the

costumed kids flock in. Theresa Lucas is once again

coordinating the event for us. There

will be a sign up sheet at the Welcome

Center to let us know how many cars,

trucks or vans we will have at this

year’s event. If you have any questions

just ask Theresa and she can give you

all the necessary information. We are

hoping to once again have over forty

cars decorated on our parking lot on

4400//4400 CCaammppaaiiggnn ttoo ccoonnttiinnuuee iinn OOccttoobbeerr We have some great news – there has been $30,287 pledged toward the 40 in 40 campaign. Although not quite to our goal of $40,000 this

is a great commitment by the church, in a very short period of time, toward some needed updates to our church. Based on the pledges to-date

at its meeting last Sunday, the Ad Council voted to proceed with completing the renovation to the entryway and bathrooms but defer the

replacement of the AC/heating unit in fellowship hall and the repayment to the endowment fund. The Ad Council will consider other options

for funding of these other two parts of the overall project and will act on them when appropriate with the AC/heating unit being the next

priority.

Again, we would like everyone to participate in this campaign. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to participate, or if you would like to

participate at a higher level, there’s still time. Just turn in a pledge card or make your contribution. It wouldn’t take much more to get us to

the next level and be able to fund the much needed AC/heating unit.

that evening. This is one of our outreach events

where we have a great number of

guests from our community and it

becomes a great opportunity to show

others what a warm, welcoming, grace

filled and fun loving church family we

are. This year our youth group is doing a

disco party in our old van (remember

the old van?) rather than a scary room

which should add some upbeat, fun to

our parking lot, If you have any 70’s

style disco stuff they could borrow for

the evening let Michelle Kirk know. Don’t miss out on the fun. Start

thinking about your trunk and grab

your treats and join us for Trunk or

Treat 2016!

CChhuurrcchh EEvveennttss Oct. 2nd – Communion Sunday Oct. 5

th - Choir Practice @ 5:30 pm

ELEVATE for kids! @ 6:30 pm Youth @ 6:30 pm

Adult Bible Study @ 6:30 pm October 9

th – Revelation Series

Continues at 9:00 & 11:00 a.m. Oct.12

th - Choir Practice @ 5:30 pm

ELEVATE for kids! @ 6:30 pm Youth @ 6:30 pm

Adult Bible Study @ 6:30 pm Oct. 16

th – Administrative Council

Meeting @ 4:00 p.m.

Oct. 22nd

– Men’s Breakfast @ 7:30am

Oct. 26th

– Trunk or Treat @ 6:30 pm

BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF GREENBRIERFUMC

OCTOBER 2016

OCTOBER 2025 – VOLUME 6

Kids Ministry News WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOR KIDS

ELEVATE: JOURNEY BELOW THE EARTH We continue our journey below the earth on Wednesday night. So

far we have learned that God is our Rock and I should use His

Word as my foundation as we studied the story of the wise and

foolish builders. We followed up with God as my Provider and I

should trust Him to meet my needs as we saw how God provided

for the Israelites. Then we built a wall as we studied Nehemiah

and focused on how God is Righteous and we should focus on

doing right. Last week we reached the half way point on our

journey as we learned about the Ten Commandments and how

God knows what is best for me. There are plenty of surprises

ahead in the next four weeks. If your kids haven’t been part of the

journey we hope you will have them join us on Wednesday nights

as we search and discover how to apply the Bible to our life.

Brother Kevin is meeting each Wednesday night with the kids on

this journey. It’s been fun …. so come join us!

ELEMENTARY SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWS

The Deep Blue Sunday School students spent September

learning about Joseph and how God is with us wherever we

go. In October they will learn about Moses and God’s

powerful acts.

CHILDREN’S CHURCH FOR OUR KIDS - SUNDAY

DURING 11:00 WORSHIP

We have been using the ShareFaith material for our Children’s

Church time on Sundays. It takes the kids through 52 Bible

stories during the year and gives them activities and sheets to

help reinforce the Bible story. If you are interested in being

part of our Children’s Church team please let Bro. Kevin

know. He is always looking for new volunteers to lead our

kids in their 30 minute lesson during the sermon time at the

11:00 a.m. service. You would be committing to lead about

four or five times a year.

Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

Ephesians 5:19

GGeett TToo KKnnooww YYoouurr CChhuurrcchh MMeemmbbeerrss

Bruce is a retired PHD research chemist and Claire is retired from

a craft business but although they are retired they are some of the

most active people. Their favorite thing about GFUMC is caring

for the food pantry which has become their passion. They shop

every day for the best bargains. They get the most for the dollar,

take your donations of food and then stock our food pantry and

bag up each of the 300+ bags that we give out each year. Bruce

also enjoys our Men’s Breakfast and Claire has prepared the

material for our teachers for Discovery Club and Sunday School

for years. Claire loves to travel… but Bruce feels like travel

interferes with his cat naps and would prefer to stay at home.

They moved from Portland, Oregon to Bartlesville, Oklahoma

and then to Greenbrier. Bruce is a Vietnam veteran (Army).

They have three children and seven grandchildren. Claire also

serves as a Greenbrier Middle school library volunteer in

between food pantry shopping with Bruce. You will normally find Bruce and Claire at the 8:30 a.m.

Communion service and then in the 9:00 a.m. service on Sunday

morning or in the food pantry at sometime just about every day! If you haven’t met them, shame on you, because they have been

here for eight years. So grab a jar of peanut butter at the store

for the food pantry, walk up to them… hand them the peanut

butter and introduce yourself. Peanut butter is a great ice-

breaker!

Bruce & Claire Welch Bruce and Claire came to Greenbrier looking

for a Lutheran Church but since there wasn’t

one, they decided to give the Methodist

Church in town a try. And boy, we are so

thankful they did!

Heather Rose came up with this great idea of “Get To Know

Your Church Members”. If you haven’t filled out a form, please

grab one from the Welcome Center, fill it out and hand it to

Heather or Bro. Kevin.

FFiinnaanncciiaall NNeewwss Parsonage Mortgage Now Entirely Paid Off!

Youth News Junior High Refuge Coming Up!

We are registered for Refuge on November 11-13, 2016. We have

nineteen 6-9th grade youth that will be going with us this year. Your

remaining balance will be due November 1 for those of you who

haven't paid in full already. The price for our youth is $85 and $135

for friends who would like to attend. We are still missing a few

medical forms and SOTO waivers so if you don't remember filling

these out, please get with Michelle as soon as possible to get that

done. We will be leaving at 5 PM on that Friday, November 11 and

will stop for a quick bite to eat on the way up there. Our praise team,

T4:12 will be leading worship for the event and we are extremely

excited for them. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare

for the Refuge weekends.

Michelle has set up a REMIND group for youth and also one for

the parents. She will have the youth sign into it at youth but will

need all parents to sign up by texting @gfumcyou to 81010. It will

only be used for last minute reminders, texts about departure or

return times, things like that. Thank you parents! This will help us

to communicate more effectively.

We will be participating in Trunk or Treat on Wednesday, October

26, but this year, instead of doing a scary room we will be having a

disco party in the parking lot using the old church van. So be

thinking 70's tie dye COLORFUL and if you have any decorations

that we could use for this, we would appreciate it! During our Sunday School hour we are doing a study about self-

worth right now and how we can keep ourselves from falling in to

the traps designed to make us doubt ourselves. It has sparked some

pretty good conversation and we would love to have everyone join

us! Sunday School is a lot of fun! Don’t forget CHOIR TOUR sign ups are October 15

th. Each

church is only allowed 5 kids to participate. You must be in 9-12

grade to go on choir tour. Cost is $100 and Michelle has forms

available. If you want to know what a blast Choir Tour is…talk to

Tricia Walker, Lacey Crosby or Brady Harlan. And then a big thank you to those who walked the surrounding

neighborhood with Mr. Carl last Sunday to share an invitation to

visit our church. Sounds like the “mugging” was more fun than

anyone anticipated. Thanks to Lacey for coordinating this and

pulling together a team of youth muggers and to Carl for putting it

together and to the UMM for the great shirts!

With our payment on October 1, the mortgage on the new

parsonage is now entirely paid off. With the parsonage paid in

full, we will begin to repay the $32,000 we borrowed from our

own building fund a few years ago. We borrowed that money

from ourselves in order to lower the interest and be better

stewards on what we were paying on the loan. In the midst of all the excitement about the proposed

renovations and the 40/40 Campaign to raise the necessary

funds, the giving to our operating budget has slipped a bit as

we head into the last three months of the year. So please don’t

forget the Operating Budget and the needs to fund the general

ongoing ministry of the church. As our church continues to

grow the expenses of our church grow as well. We appreciate

your faithfulness in giving to a God who has blessed us so

richly. Here is where we stand at the end of September: OPERATING BUDGET FOR 2016 $193,796.00

NEEDED TO DATE $145,347.00

GIVING AS OF SEPTEMBER 25, 2016 $136,294.09

DEFICIT TO DATE -$9,052.91

Be sure and read the note on the front page of the newsletter as

to where we are and the plans for the 40/40 Campaign. We

aren’t there yet but we will continue the Campaign into

October. You will see some improvements to our lobby and

front restrooms starting in the very near future! Great job

church! Keep the ball rolling!

FFOOOODD PPAANNTTRRYY SSUURRPPAASSSSEESS

LLAASSTT YYEEAARRSS TTOOTTAALL “Share with God’s people who are in

need.” Romans 12:13 The HOLIDAY FOOD DRIVE starts NOW! Needed are at

least 30 each of the following to be given out in November:

stuffing mix, instant potatoes, cranberry sauce, canned

yams/sweet potatoes, Jell-O, pie filling & pie crust mix (or

other holiday desserts) and canned milk. Food has been given out 315 times this year which is over

the amount given out for all of last year. Because donations of

food have been down lately, spending from the Food Pantry

fund (this is not a budgeted item) has increased from about

$500 to $700 a month. Please keep the food pantry in your

prayers that it can continue to meet the needs of Faulkner

county. Currently, the most needed items include: cereals, 1#

hamburger, small packages of chicken, hot dogs, tuna, fruit,

dry pinto beans, mac & cheese, and Ramen noodles.

Announcements

Blue Jean Give-A-Way will be back next August so we

wanted to give you a heads up so you can be saving up

your blue jeans. Box them up, bag them up and store them

away until this summer. We always need kids blue jeans so

as your kids grow out of them this year be sure and save

them for us! You will be hearing more about this next year!

Youth Praise Team, T-4:12, to play at LifeSong Baptist Church Youth for Christ Meeting on

October 7-8. Our Praise Team has been invited to play

music both nights of the Youth for Christ meeting at

LifeSong Baptist church. The event will be held outside.

The speaker for the two night event is Dustin Wisely, the

youth pastor at First Baptist in Magnolia, AR. The event

will be from 6-9 both nights. Young and old are invited to

come and share two great evenings of praise and worship.

You may have seen some of our youth in bright yellow

shirts pulling our big WELCOME mug around the

neighborhood last Sunday on a big green cart. They were

out for about an hour and a half, going door to door

inviting people to come to our church. They handed out

mugs to those who didn’t have a church home and

literature about our church to those who came to the door.

It was a great way to offer a simple invitation. Thanks so

much to our youth for your willingness to go and invite.

Perhaps the traveling welcome mug will make its way to

your neighborhood in the near future. Be looking for it!

Men’s Breakfast this month is being moved to

Saturday, October 22, due to a conflict the Pastor has on

the previous Saturday. I hope our men will join us that

morning at 7:30 a.m. for a great breakfast and fellowship!

UMW Annual Casserole Fundraiser: It's time to stock

your freezers! We will again have microwave and oven

casseroles with the following to choose from: Chicken-n-

Dressing, Chicken Tortilla, Chicken Spaghetti & Lasagna.

Added to the list will be 2 soups: Taco and Corn Chowder.

Orders will be taken: October 2, 9, & 16 with delivery

scheduled for: October 30th and November 6th. Order forms

will be available at the Welcome Center. Payment can be

made when ordered or at delivery. Our thanks to everyone in

the past for your support.

Lawn Mowing Volunteers are needed to finish up the

mowing season at the church. There is a sign-up sheet on the

bulletin board in the back of the sanctuary to pick a week.. We

have a riding lawn mower in our shed that you may use. If you

can help out simply sign up for the week you would like to

mow and we will get you set up. What a fun family activity

this could be! Thanks to those who have helped this past

month to keep our yard looking nice

It is almost time for Operation Christmas Child! This

year we will be a drop off point for our immediate area. The

GO store opens October 1 which is a great place to get items

specifically for this program at a reasonable price. The GO

store location is at the Ministry Center in Conway (near CVS

at the intersection of Harkrider and Oak Streets in downtown

Conway).

More information on this outreach program will be coming

soon. If you have any questions, you can contact anyone in

the YAHMAS Sunday School class.

Our Annual Charge Conference this year will be held on

Sunday, November 20 at 4:30 p.m. in our sanctuary. Our

District Superintendent, Rev. Richard Lancaster, will be here

to receive reports and to vision with us about the ministry of

our church for the coming years. We anticipate our five year

plan will be ready to present at this year’s conference. All are

invited to come.

UUppccoommiinngg EEvveennttss

Miscellaneous

STARTING JANUARY 8, 2017

31 WEEKS | CHURCHWIDE

Sunday Mornings in Both Services Wednesday Night Bible Study

Sunday School Classes Small Group

Children, Youth & Adults

For more information: www.thestory.com

AA NNaattiioonnaall CCaallll ttoo PPrraayy ffoorr aa GGrreeaatt

AAwwaakkeenniinngg oonn EElleeccttiioonn DDaayy

We will be opening our doors and our sanctuary for any and all persons who would set aside time for prayer at any point during the day of Tuesday,

November 8, from 6am to 6 pm. This is not about the outcome of an election, but rather, we will be praying for an unprecedented

expansion of the “Elect” of God in the years ahead. In short, we will band together in humble travailing

prayer for a great awakening to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our land.

This call to pray is being extended by the

New Room Network and Greenbrier FUMC for a day of extended prayer for our country.