In Memory of Andrea AbbottUnited Methodist WomenSid & Pat HudsonBill & Lois HolmesDorothy ByrdEugene & Virginia SmithJohn & Bonnie HuffinesHarvey & Susan KranzlerHugh & Joy StoneJohnny & Judy KirbyHelen McMichaelLera LoganBonnie EdwardsAnne SimmsRoger & Betsy GekiereEd & Marilyn JoyceRuby NeelyJames & Peggy StuttsTroy & Beck ArterburyGlen & Shirley IndermanNancy PerotMaaike PlantingaSandy SariegoLarry & Ann Adams

In Memory of Neeltje AtsmaStephen WrightSid & Pat HudsonWillie & Mary BaneTroy & Becky Arterbury

In Memory of Lennie Lucile BaileyRex & Carolyn Tillery

In Memory of Mary HicksBarbara Olson

In Memory of Betty BurtonEd & Jean Pamplin

In Memory of Glynn VickersEd & Jean Pamplin

Special GiftS & MeMorialS

Members of First United Methodist Church express our thanks to each of you who have recently given a

special financial gift in memory or in honor of loved ones.

Please Note: Names added to the prayer list will remain on the list for 30 days if needed. They will be relisted by request.

Sympathy to...family and friends of Glynn Vickers....family and friends of Lennie Lucille Bailey....family and freinds of Cletus Brewer....family and friends of Gerald Blansitt, brother-in-law of Lera Logan.

It’s time to begin Crafting again for the 2014 Bazaar! No Experience nec-essary. We need new people and new ideas. So please consider joining us on Thursdays at 9:30 am. If interest-ed, please call Becky @ 903-860-3661 or Nicki @ 903-860-2976.

Join a Mowing Team

FUMC has 4 teams that rotate mow-ing during growing season. Each team spends one day a month mowing the church grounds. We are still in need of more help.

we need you!!!!!Contact our mowing coordinator be-

low for more information and sign up to help on one of these mowing teams.

Cody Bradford - 903-452-1135

Church LuncheonJune 29, 2014

After the 11 o’clock service.Today’s Christians will host a Love

Offering Luncheon on June 29th, in the Family Life Center and will be serving fajitas. Donations will go to support various programs in the church. There will be no lunch served after the Sunday School hour this time.

Crafty Ladies

Check It Out You are invited to stop by the library and

check out a book or video. Library Volunteer

NeededCan you give one day a week to help

maintain the church library? Books are checked out and returned, but need to be reshelved. Other books are donated and need to be processed.

If interested, call the office @ 903-537-3616.

June 22, 2014 Prayer ListKa AdamsLarry AdamsVal AndrewsNicki ArmstrongZoey ArthurMary BaneLinda BarrettJames BellRick Bender Carol BusheeTerri Coleman

Stephanie ColvinBennie ConnellyJames DuckNelda Easton’s HusbandTyronda EvansVictoria FletcherSally FordGene FrazierGayle FullerJeff GibsonChris Gilroy

Sarah HamrickJo HansenGary HazelittBill HolmesNorm HornKenneth JaggersNadine JenningsBernie KoberBill LacyChris LarsenSid Leslie

Bea McClainDale McDanielCharlotte MenardLauren MeyerMary MooreJune Carr NewsomNina RameyLena Mae ReederOscar ReederNeil ScottHugh StonePeggy Todd

This year FUMC Mt. Vernon will be hosting our community and church family children in a Wilderness Escape - Where God Guides and Provides. Children will learn to trust God as they join Moses on an incredible journey through the wilderness and discover what it was like to live in the Israelite camp. Each child will join one of the 12 Tribes of Israel for music and praise, Bible discussion, games, storytelling with Moses and his friends, and crafts in the Israelite camp.

Of course, we need our members’ help in providing this opportunity for our kids. Below are listed areas where your help is needed:

Tribe Leader – guide a family group through their wilderness experience. We will need approximately 14 leaders!Camp Craft Leader – Help children with crafts representing their time in the Wilderness. We need 7 craft leaders!Registration and attendance – Check children into VBS each day.Decoration and Clean-up crews (Saturday and/or Sunday previous to VBS and immediately following).Provide Snacks – for volunteers children pre-school age and younger.

Please call Pam Greenberg if you can help so she can provide you updates and materi-als at 214-236-4859 or the church office at 903-537-3616. God and Pam desire your commitment to His children.

Mark Beggs was selected as a Love-lace Scholar by the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. There were 10 first year scholars se-lected from applicants in the United States and Canada. He will be par-ticipating in the annual conference of the Hymn Society this July.

Thank you to Monty Newsom, who follows in the footsteps of Jesus as a talented carpenter as well as gifted singer! Monty designed and built music slots to correspond with the choir robes stored behind the sanctuary. We also appreciate the installation team pictured here: John and Ginger Shaffer, Monty and Carolyn Newsom and Becky Arterbury.

2014 VBSEntering Kindergarten-

Entering 6th GradeMonday July 28th –

Thursday 31stTimes – 9:30 am – 12:00 pm

VBS Activities12:00 pm -12:30 pm

Lunch served to all who want to join us

Finance UpdateJanuary Opening Balance $ 52,928.74Giving thru May 31 $ 259,372.26Spending thru May 31 $ 235,556.83May 31 Closing Balance $ 76,744.17

Choir Rehearsals will Resume Wednesday, August 6 at 6 p.m.

PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY

ATTENTION: CROCHETERS, KNITTERS and QUILTERS!

You are invited to join our prayer shawl ministry. Our hands can work to provide comfort, peace and love to those in need. If you are unable to join us, do-nations of yarn will be gladly accepted by this ministry.

We meet on the 2nd & 4th Tuesday of every month at 2 pm in room 201 in the Family Life Center. Please join us.

Easton Michael ReedParents: Michael &

Meredith ReedBorn: June 19, 2014

@ 3:23pmWeighed:7lbs 13oz.Length: 20” long

Rainbow Garage Sale

June 28th8am til 2pm

Summer has rolled around but no time off for the Rainbow kids! Summer camp has gotten off to a great start with outings to Little Creek Park, bubble day on the square, the petting zoo on the square, a tour of the Thruston House and nature trail, and the Pint-sized Polkas! June 16-20 the 4s, PK, and school age got to be “super spies” during VBS at the First Baptist Church. They will also be attending the library reading time, visiting the Alamo, and seeing Miki the Monkey! July has its own full schedule of activities – Dairy Museum, tour of a local bank, Whirled on a String, tour of the court house, Dr. Flack N Stein, the Tyler zoo, ice cream on the square, and VBS at FUMC!

We still have 3 classrooms that we hope get painted in July! If you would like to help us with that, please call the Rainbow office at 903.537.4663! We plan for everything to be in tip-top shape for the new school year beginning in August.

Rainbow News

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCHP.O. Box 659, Mt. Vernon, Texas 75457

903.537.3616 Website: fumcmv.org Email: office@fumcmv.org

First United Methodist ChurchHwy. 37 North of I-30PO Box 659Mt. Vernon, TX 75457

NON-PROFITORGANIZATION

U.S. Postage PaidPermit #30

Mt. Vernon, TX 75457

The

Messenger

Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Jack’s Journal June 24, 2014

Stephen Ministry Confirmation

June 13th, our youth had the opportunity to camp out at the Blueberry Farm owned by the Jordan’s. The youth had a really good time with swimming, jumping off the dock, fishing, eating smores by the campfire and more eating! They went on a long hike at the edge of the lake and I think most of all, more than anything, they enjoy themselves when they are

hanging out together. We call this our bonding time (the glue that holds our group together)! A heartfelt thank you to the Jordan family for sharing your piece of Heaven with us!

Youth Camp Out

As of today, thirty-seven percent of the purchase price has been funded by the generous second-mile giving of contributors. This helps us move towards our bank note retirement goal of 2014 year end. The current balance on the note is $36,733 or 63% to go.

We are excited to announce a new opportunity for giving toward this end. We have some anonymous donors who will match any funds given between July 1 and September 30, 2014 up to $12,500. For every $1 you give, the money will be matched, and $2 will go to paying off the bus. So, if you have been planning on giving but just “haven’t gotten around to it” or have already given some money and would consider another contribution, now is a great time as you can double the outcome!

Thank you for your support of the mission and ministry of FUMC.

“WE ARE MOVING TOWARD BANK NOTE RETIREMENT”

Read: Romans 12:1-2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be

transformed by the renewing of your mind. (NIV)

Back in the ‘70’s and 80’s, I experienced what is still known in the Boston Bay area of Massachusetts as the “T.” The T (MBTA) is a commuter rail, similar to the DART Light Rail, has various lines covering the eastern part of Massachusetts from the South Shore to the North Shore. Some of you may have experienced the T in your lifetime.

The scripture above is one of the mantras I speak of almost every Sunday, that is, being renewed and transformed in Christ’s image. That transformation comes to light as I recall from my feeble mind several experiences on the T while travel-ing to and from Fenway Park for Red Sox baseball games. I believe the route I took traveled along the Green Line from the South Shore, Weymouth/Quincy area to west downtown at Fenway Park and the route was transforming.

I remember at each stop along the route more and more baseball fans took their spot in the commuter rail car. After just a few stops the car was filled to capacity. All the seats were taken, and passengers were stuffed in standing positions like sardines. Personal space was nonexistent for about a thirty minute commute.

The cheers and excitement of fans and supporters of the Red Sox escalated. How quickly every passenger got caught up in the excitement! In fact, it was not wise to proclaim you were a fan of the Red Sox’s opposing team of that day. In other words, you conformed to the Red Sox fans surrounding you. On the return trip, depending on whether or not the Sox won and how keyed up the passengers were after hot dogs, peanuts, and beer, it was even more important to conform to being a Sox fan.

Interestingly, when you exit the train at Fenway Park or at your home destina-tion on your return trip, you had the free will to return to your normal position for or against the Red Sox. Essentially, you conformed to the character of the Red Sox fan while on the train and became yourself when off the train.

Unfortunately, this is the way we sometimes deal with our support, position, and character as a Christian. We are a strong Christians around other Christians, sharing the Light of the World in Christ, especially when we are at church or at a church event where peer pressure (or accountability) to be a Christian is high. However, as soon as we are seemingly away from other Christians and placed in a worldly situation we conform to the world.

Paul reminds us in our scripture text that our belief in Christ should permeate each area of our life, and God gives us the strength not to succumb to the world. Listen to how Peterson’s The Message says it in Romans 12:1-2:

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your atten-tion on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. May we have the courage to allow God to help us not to so fit into the culture or

fall into sin that people can’t tell we are Christians, where the Light of the World in our lives becomes dim. May we allow God to bring the best out of us and develop us to well-formed maturity; so, let His light shine. O God, please help us. Amen.Grace and peace,

OUR STEPHEN MINISTERS ARE READy TO CARE FOR yOU!

We all go through times in our life when we could benefit from a little extra care and attention. Stephen Ministers provide confiden-tial, one-on-one, Christian care to people who are going through a difficult time. They will listen, care, encourage, pray with and for you, and provide weekly support for you as long as your need persists. If you would like to find out more about Stephen Ministry for yourself or some-one you know (possibly a friend, neighbor, coworker, or relative) talk to Mary Bane at 903-860-2193. Our Stephen Ministers are ready to bring God’s love and care into your life.