Minerva Messenger Minerva United Methodist Church

204 N. Main St., Minerva, OH 44657 Church 330-868-4940, Fax 330-868-4825

e-mail: minervaunc@frontier.com, website: minervaumc.org Pastor Harley Wheeler

From the Pastor’s

Pen

Nursing Home Worship We will be in three facilities for wor-ship during Holy Week, where we will sing hymns, pray and Pastor Harley will offer a short message. These half-hour services are greatly appreciated by the residents. You are invited to take part by coming to the ser-vice to sing along and maybe help some of these, out ‘indoor friends’ find the page numbers. Wednesday April 27 St. Luke’s Assisted Living 10:30am Thursday April 28 Eldercare – 9:30, Arbors – 10:30am

The Big Crush Romans 16:20 “The God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” Pastors scan the conclusions of Paul’s letters for benedictions and blessings. For instance Philemon 25 says. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit.” This is a nice blessing to say at the end of a church service, or to write of the bottom of a personal note. But what would a person think if I put at the end of a thank you note; “The God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet?” It seems a little alarming, and al-so, well, presumptuous. We are well advised to be humble, expecting ourselves and others to make many mistakes. The ‘crushing of Satan’ brings up the picture of victories over evil that can be publicly proclaimed, and victories over past sins of habit, and we are, quite wisely, leery of announcing our victory over sin and the thwarting of the powers in the world.

But apparently not so for Paul. Remember he is the one who prayed, sang, and proclaimed the good-ness of God in a jail, and saw the doors fly open. He knew the worst sinner, (it was himself) and saw him be-come a faithful follower of Christ. We ought to share in his faith in final victory, and that signs of our salvation will be frequent. We ought to expect the Holy Spirit to make us Holy, and the Mighty God to accomplish mighty things. We should expect to see victory over sin in our lives, and we should expect to see the plots of evil persons brought to nothing. The inheritance of Eden is ours, where God promised that the Seed of the

woman, (that is, Jesus) would crush the serpent’s head. After all, what is Satan for, but for crushing? The God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Pastor Harley

Worship in April 4/3/16 “The Good, The Bad, and The Alive” Matthew 28:1-10 Communion 4/10/16 “A Channel Through The Heart” Genesis 12:1-3 4/17/16 Nathan & Amy Schmidt, Missionaries with World Gospel Mission in Bolivia 4/24/16 “Smoke and Salvation” Genesis 19:27-29

Pastor’s Bible Study We will continue in Jeremiah in our Tuesday Morning BibleStudy. We meet at 10:30am in the Crosstrainer’s Room. If you haven’t been to a previous study, you can always start on any week that you are able to come. We will be in the thick of the story of Jere-miah’s struggles to call a nation back to God, to challenge its lead-ers to do justice, and Jeremiah’s personal struggle to serve the God he loves. Come and be a part of this study.

A big thank you to those of you who sent me birthday cards for my “milestone”, 95th birthday this year. I kind of celebrated all week in case it’s the last one. Margaret Gotschall

Members of the UM church, I want to thank you all for the beautiful cards on the passing of my mother, Dorothy Smith. Mom was a very special person who God granted the right to live to 95 years young. I so appreciate you thinking of Jeff and I and your prayers. It s a rough road, but the Lord helping me as always.

Condolences to Marty & Sandy Mong

on the death of Marty’s sister, Marion Sabo

on March 7, 2016

Condolences to Susie & Jerry Hawk

on the death of Susie’s sister, Pat Sheely

on March 19, 2016.

Condolences to Carol Tice

on the death of her mother, Dorothy Smith

on February 6, 2016.

PRAYER CONCERNS: John Alexander, Carl An-thony & Family, Kelly Berta, Diane Binnig, James Bond, Andy & Barb Bratu, Michaela Bryan, Annette Campbell, Ava, Gayle Carl, Eva Mae Carter, Chad/Jen & Family, Robert Cinson, Evelyn Clark, Joyce Cooke, Louise Criss, Mikka Davis, Family of Me-

gan Dicko, Jeff Dine, Kylee Elkins, Marissa Essick, Families & Friends, Chuck Fan-khauser, Rebecca Fausnight, Carl Felger, Ruth Felger, Rose Ann Fusco, Hazel Gardner, Carol Garrett, JoAnn Geiser, Pastor Tim Gropp, Ray & Barb Haun, Lloyd Hays, Floyd Hays, Jordan Heckert, Vicki Herbert, Jacob Hoagland, Patricia Hoagland, Hugh, Ayme Hying, Jobs, Paul Kail, Michelle Kerr, Ken & Kay Lewis, Arthur Locke, Jess Lowry, Glenn Marshall, Lois Marshall, Roger McDaniel, Family of Robert McKernan, Family of Bill Mentz, Dorothy Middleton, Family of Beverly Milli-ken, Minerva UMC’s Food Program, Brooke Morgan, Sandy Morgan, Family of Daniel Nerstrom, Tiffany Nixon & Children, Daniel & Tiffany Palmer & Family, Linda Pearson, Family of Brandi (Weber) Pitts, CJ Plavka, Mary Ann Plavka, Family of Kathy Price, Marsha Prumm, Family of Delaney Riley, Tyler Roach, Becky Roden, Joyce Rogers, Laurie Sabo, Family of Marion Sabo, Corey Sells, Family of Pat Sheely, Jennifer Smith, Sheldon Stockum, Carolyn Taylor, Family of Fred Unkefer, Family of Norma Vestrand, June Wagner, Sandi Wagner, Diana Walborn, Marcia Warren, Steve Warth, Mark Whitacre, Kenneth White, Family of Ruby White, Velma Mills’ son Willie, Family of Roland Wolf, Norma Zwahlen

Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen & Marines–AC3 Nicholas G. Albery (Naval Air Station Oceana, VA), AM3 Zachary D. Albery (Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, WA), Jesse Clark (Ft. Bliss, Texas), Lewis Gibson (Korea), Brandon Jenkins (Texas) , Aaron King, Dan Lutz, Eli Maurer (Coast Guard Academy, Connecti-cut), Josh Miller(Texas), Sgt. Michael Murphy (Hawaii; USMC), Russell Nero (Air force Reserves-Leaving for Afghanistan), SA Devin Pennock (Great Lakes, IL; Navy), Kevin Price (California), Mitch Soles (Fort Sam Houston, TX; Navy), John Stehulak (Afghanistan), Justin C. Zeedrich

PRAYER CHAIN If you wish to have someone put on the prayer chain, please contact the church office and/or Jennie McClellan (330-868-6834) or Barb Brown (330-868-7691) with your request. Your

request will be handled with great care and will be passed along the chains and referred to the church of-fice for email purposes. Blessings to you all.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, a The upward glancing of an eye When none but God is near. James Montgomery

April Anniveraries April 4 Gary & Kay Stoffer April 8 Kory & Emily Swope April 12 Paul & Donna Kail April 25 Matt & Ashley Zahn

April Birthdays 1 Ryan Hawk, Joni Mitzel 3 Matthew Zeedrich 4 Jenny O’Brien, Isaac Borsh 5 Ryan Smith 6 Jamie Fankhauser, Angie Neidig 7 Nina Mock, Cyndy Lawson Taylor Zeedrich 8 Susan Fahey 10 Cali Clemens, Nicole Pittson 11 Virgil Springer, Tammy Hoffster 13 Justin Miller 14 Austin Shepard 15 Madison Hying 17 Evan Greitzer, Chris Collins, Peyton Decker 18 Karla Gareau, Denise Ward, Jennifer Jones 19 Xavier Havlicek 20 Duke Green, Karla Newman 21 Derrick Haines, Rhys Davies 22 Audrey Debo, Bob Lawson 23 Kevin Bell Mark Moore 24 Denise Felger 25 Kim Hale, Megan Pearson, Harvey Morgan 26 Janet Witherspoon 27 David Bush, Spencer Mapes 29 Heather Smith, Mark Ellis, Mary Phillips 30 Sierra Newman, Matt Danner, Peter Fahey

April Altar Flowers April 3 April 10 April 17 April 24 Davies

April Greeters April 3 Dale & Eileen Cogan April 10 Dale & Eileen Cogan April 17 Rich & Barb Brown April 24 Sally McDaniel

April Ushers Paul Binnig, Rich McClellan, Walt McClellan, Arin Rettig

Friendship Hour Schedule January None February Advent Class / Cross Trainers March Education Committee April Youth May Worship Committee June Choir July None August None September Men’s Group October Searchers Class November Open December In conjunction with Kid’s Christmas Program

April Nursery Attendants April 3 Renee Smith, Shelly Ridzon April 10 Sarah Russo April 17 Jessie Kirkpatrick, Cindy Sperry April 24 Laurie MCClellan, Cristin Rettig

Missionary Visit Sunday, April 17 We are delighted to welcome Nathan and Amy Schmidt who are missionaries with World Gospel Mission in Bolivia. We will hear about God has been doing in Bolivia and what work they plan to take up when they return. Minerva UMC has been faithfully supporting the Schmidt’s for many years and we are proud to be part-ners with them in their work.

Camp Wanake One-day Adventure

June 8th, 9am-5pm Our goal is to take twenty young people.

Anyone entering grades 1-9 in the fall is wel-come to come to Camp Wanake, in Beach City, Ohio for a day on Wednesday, June 8th. Come to the One-Day Adventure and

find out what camp is all about! We will swim, hike, cook out our lunch, ride a horse, and explore the Bible. We must register your child ahead of time, so talk to Pastor Harley if you are interested in sending your child.

The church will cover the cost.

Deadline for the May Newsletter is April 17. Please have your information submitted by the deadline. Thank you

Get ready! ….. Get set! ….. Go! …..

God's Olympics! ….. VBS

Through worship, games, snacks, crafts, etc, the children will learn about how commitment, focus, balance, strength, & endurance

are part of living their lives for Christ. We will run the race every Sunday in June plus July 3rd.

Our Olympic closing program will be July 10th. Please call Tiffany Whitmer: 330-904-1173 or

Carolynn Herstine 330-868-7554 if you can help.

I want to thank all the volunteers who brought their rain gear to help with carry outs at our March 10th Distribution Day. A thank you to our delivery teams and our inside workers. A HUGE thank you to those who stayed till the clean up was finished. We served 210 families with a total of 586 family

members. Thank you for all your hard work and faithful dedication to this outreach. Our next Produce Day is Thursday, April 14, 8am. Blessings, Cheryl In February the Emergency Pantry served 5 families with a total of 26 family members. So far in the month of March we have served 4 families with 22 family members. Thank you for your donations of canned veggies for the pantry. Amazing!

There has been a change…We are rerouting our monthly food dona-tions to our own Emergency Food

Pantry. Just as before, please give as you are able. Your donations will

help keep our Emergency Pantry shelves stocked so we can continue

to serve those in need in our own area. Thank you

Minerva UMC Emergency Food Pantry

Item of the Month for April is Pasta Sauce.

Our job is to love others with-out stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy. Thomas Merton

College Care Packages The school year is winding down for our college students, so we will be collecting items and pre-paring packages to send to them for the last boost effort to have a great finish! We currently know of

10 college students that we will be sending these gifts of love. These are the items that we would like to have donated: flavored water packets, individual cracker packs, snack pack pudding, Pens & pencils, packets of hot chocolate, individual candy bars / M&Ms / gum, Raimen Noodles, etc. Monetary donations will be accepted to help with the shipping costs.

Please have donations in no later than April 17th. Thank you for the love and support that you have given this project in the past. If you have any questions please contact Pastor Harley Wheeler or Cyndy Lawson.

Monthly Food Help is available at these locations:

Mon-Wed-Fri each week 12-3pm at Salvation Army

(old train depot on Valley St.)

1st Tuesday Monthly Community Dinner at Community Building

2nd Thursday

Free Produce Distribution at Minerva UMC

3rd Wednesday 10a-12p Emergency Pantry at Minerva UMC …

also available by phone call or stop by, any day

4th Friday 8am registration begins Food Distribution at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church

District Conference The District Spring Conference & Leadership Training will be held on, at Mt. Tabor UMC, 108 East Walnut Street in East Canton. Minerva church people are encouraged to come to District Conference to hear news and vote on some matters and nominations, on Saturday, April 23, 9 AM - 12:30 PM. (Check-in and refreshments will be from 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM.) The event will begin with the district’s spring conference followed by Leadership Training featuring Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman, Associate Professor of Homiletics and Hebrew Bible at Methodist Theological School of Ohio. She will speak on Preaching for Transformation. How can hearing the preached word help us to increase vitality as we do evangelism, small groups, administration, etc.? A panel consisting of Rev. Dr. Gary George, Rev. Steve Court, Pastor Seth Filburn, Pastor Jonathan George, Pas-tor Carolyn Nichols and Kathy Schmucher will discuss various topics relevant to churches today and will be fol-lowed by a question and answer session. The cost this year is $5.00 per person (plus a small processing fee) and can be paid online with a credit card or a check can be mailed to the Tuscarawas District Office. All registrations are to be done online. Ask the church office if you need help to register.

Work Trip Fundraiser There will be a craft fair held in Wesley Hall on Saturday, April 23 from 10-4pm to continue to raise funds for this summer's work trip to Henderson Settlement. We invite all who are crafty and willing to help to donate their wonderful handmade items to sell at the event. If you don't make things, there will be lots to purchase as well! Local vendors can rent tables at a small cost and details of what vendors will be there will be released at a later time. There will also be baked goods available for purchase at this event if "things" aren't your style! We thank you again for your continued support in our mission and we are look-ing forward to this exciting event!

Choir Fundraising Happenings

Our Minerva UMC Choir will be traveling to New York City the day af-ter Thanksgiving to perform with other choirs at Lincoln Center. We currently have 15 members performing. Needless to say funds need to be raised quickly to cover at least part of the cost of this trip.

Here are a couple ways you can get in on this once-a-lifetime op-

portunity!

The Choir will serve a ticked dinner on Saturday, April 2, 2016, 430-630pm, for anyone, but focusing on neighbors, friends and members of the community. Be sure to tell everyone you know! Tickets can be purchased through choir members and the church office.

On Sunday, April 3rd

, we will focus on our church family. We will hold a luncheon after church. Menu could be the same as Saturday or something different. This is to be determined Saturday evening.

In June, the choir will hold a Fundraising Auction in the church parking lot. They will be accepting dona-tions of good quality items for this event. If you have items you would like to donate, please contact Jeff or the church office to let us know of item(s) being donated. Please no clothing items. A few of the items we already have promised are: multi-speed bicycle, microwave oven, dish place settings, tread-mill, musical instruments.

We are currently looking for an auctioneer for this event. When this person is chosen, we can publish the exact date of the event. Closer to time, we need you to invite friends, family and neighbors to our sale. If we have enough sale items for at least a 3-hour sale, we will also have and food stand to raise funds.

Youth Info from John: Spring is finally here and summer is right around the corner Thank good-

ness. Beth and I have been diligently working on our summer schedule for the youth and it will be out soon. On April 3rd after our luncheon there will be a discussion about the youth for parents and anyone who would like to get involved. This will be a chance to get to know me a bit better and have a dialogue about where we see the youth going.

Summer Camp Have you checked out the camp brochure for 2016?

It is amazing! It is time to start making your plans for Summer Church Camp!

Camperships available—If your child would like to go to camp and funds are an issue, please contact Pastor Harley about a campership. Do this right away as the deadline is very early. Church Assistance—If your child is going to go to one of the East Ohio Conference Camps remember the church will pay half of your camper’s total cost, up to $100. If you want the church to help in this way, your child’s paperwork needs to be brought to the office so we can get a copy and submit a request for the funds. Do you have an interest in being a staff member or a volunteer at one of the camps? If so go to www.EOCSummercamps.org and click on Staff & Volunteer. There are positions open for counselors, lifeguards, program staff, adventure staff, food service, administration, special needs staff and mainte-nance. 2016 Camp Open House Dates Camp Aldersgate May 21 Open House and Summer 2016 Preview 2-6pm Camp Asbury April 17 Open House and Summer 2016 Preview 2-6pm Camp Wanake April 2 Resurrection Egg Hunt & Wanake Preview 2-6pm

Men’s Rally in the Valley Saturday, April 30th, at the Covelli Center, Youngstown, Ohio. Men of Faith in Youngstown, are bringing as speakers this year: former Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel, Devon McDonald, Roy Hall and more to speak to thousands of men about Christ and faithful living. The event is free. We are planning on taking a group in the church van. Mark your calendars for this event and let Pastor Harley know if you are interested in attending.

Art Camp VBS As a special treat for this year, we will of-fer a week-long Art camp VBS, 9am-2pm June 20-24. This will combine lessons in drawing, painting and more, with lessons

on God Our Creator. Volun-teers will be needed as we try to expand our ministry to area children, so let Pastor Harley or Chris Collins know you are interest-ed and available to help!

Ladies Mark Your Calendars Mother Daughter Banquet

“All the King’s Daughters” is our theme for this year’s Mother-daughter Banquet.

The date will be Thursday, May 5th, 6:30pm. Price is $7 for adults, $3.50 for ages 6-12, 5 and under are free.

Our men will once again be serving the meal, to all our honored daughters of the King. We will take special note of our mother and Daughter guests,

but we want to stress that we want to make a special night for ALL of our church women. So ladies, come one, come all!

More Information to Come! Tickets will go on sale in April

and will be available in the church office.

Vacation Bible School Our Vacation Bible school will be held Sunday Mornings from June 5th to July 3rd. We will have an Olympic theme for this year’s VBS, to teach our children to be

‘Champions for Jesus.’ This VBS will have some great games, les-sons, and crafts. See Chris Collins or Tiffany Whitmer to let

them know you want to help!

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

430-630p Choir

Fundraiser Dinner

3

915a Sunday Schl

1030a Worship

1145aChoir Lunch

4 5

1030a Bible Study

6

615p Joyful Noise

7p Harmony HB

7

7p Choir

8 9

Habitat Work Day

10

915a Sunday Schl

1030a Worship

11

630p VBS mtg

12

1030a Bible Study

12p Sernior Group

Lunch

13

615p Joyful Noise

7p Harmony HB

14

8a Prod. Del.

9a Prod. Distr.

7p Choir

15 16

17

915a Sunday Schl

1030a Worship—

missionary spkr

All Day—Wesley

Hall reserved—

shower

18 19

1030a Bible Study

630 Trustees mtg

20

615p Joyful Noise

7p Harmony HB

21

7p Choir

22 23

Craft Show

Spring Dist. Conf.

24

915a Sunday Schl

1030a Worship

25 26

1030a Bible Study

27

1030a Worship at

St. Lukes

615p Joyful Noise

7p Harmony HB

28

930a Worship at

Eldercare

1030a Worship at

the Arbors

7p Choir

6p Worship Com

mtg.

29 30