Southport UMC Newsletter

It’s autumn.   And it arrived right on schedule.   Did you notice that?   We had 90-degree heat for days and then it was the autumnal equinox and boom, fall arrives.   And it has been pleasant ever since.   Well, mostly.   Here in Indiana anyway.   And I’ve begun to see advertisements for Fall Foliage Tours.   Either those you take yourself and drive around looking at the colors of fall, or the ones where you sit on a coach or boat and let someone else drive you around.   While I’ve tried to pay attention to the colors of fall as I drove around, I can’t say that I have ever taken a Fall Foliage Tour.   Maybe someday. But I thought I would do one here, in this space.   What, you’re thinking, put in pictures of brightly colored landscapes or maybe leaves?   No, I want us to take a look at some things that on our landscape here at Southport UMC for the fall.   A quick tour of some highlights, but also some invitations and ways you can participate in upcoming events. First of all, we

Join Pastor Derek for our next New Member Information Session, Sunday, January 6, 2019. We will spend time getting to know one another, then share information about Southport UMC, baptism, and membership. There will be time for questions too. The session will begin approximately 12:45 to 1:00, after the 11:15 worship service has ended and when everyone has had time to enjoy the community meal in the gathering place. Child care is provided by request.   If you have questions prior to the session, please contact the church office, 317-784-9508.

“It’s less about the task and more about the way that serving draws us closer to Christ.” COFFEE FELLOWSHIP TEAM EMERGENCY AND SUBSTITUTE NEEDS The Coffee Fellowship Ministry Team is looking for those wonderful helping hands willing to fill in when a team member has an EMERGENCY or needs a friend to SUBSTITUTE for them.   We recently had two different situations when a family emergency prevented the set up team from coming to church to prepare the refreshments for Sunday morning coffee time. Occasionally these situations happen at the end of the morning at cleanup time. Are you an “early morning person?”   Set up starts between 7:15 to 7:30 and with two people everything is prepared and coffee is hot and ready for all to enjoy. Are you a “late morning person”? Clean up from the morning starts at the end of the 11:15 worship service and with two people it takes about 45-60 minutes. Guidelines on set up and clean up are always available in the kitchen and training by

United Methodist Women are hosting a WORLD THANK OFFERING PROGRAM October 16th at 6:30 in the Gathering Place.  At this short program, we discuss how we can help the world through our collections.   In the past we have collected money representing the pairs of shoes we have (25 cents each pair), earrings (10 cents each pair) and windows in our house (25 cents per window).  This year we are collecting 10 cents for each necklace we have.  (Maybe time to clean out the supply?) United Methodist Women (UMW) has many programs to support women and children around the world as well as in Indianapolis.  One of the recipients of this World Thank Offering in Indianapolis is the Lucille Raines Residence downtown, located at 947 N. Pennsylvania St.  Phone number is 317-636-3328 for more information and to schedule a tour.   At this time this residence supports men and women actively engaged in rebuilding their lives from substance abuse.  They all share in learning to function independently and

Fall Clothing Drive Benefitting Family Promise and Interfaith Hospitality Network Families SUMC COLLECTION Sunday, October 7 thru Sunday, October 14 Please collect gently used clothing for children and adults, all sizes Place them in white kitchen trash bags Bring the bags to church during the week of October 7-14 (No shoes or household items please) Monday, October 15 our donations will be delivered to the Family Promise/IHN Day Center Goodwill Industries will pick up the bags from the Day Center; based on the number of bags received, Goodwill donates clothing vouchers so that Family Promise/IHN families may shop for the clothing sizes their family needs Please bring your bagged clothing donations Starting the week of October 7 - 14 ONLY Place bags under coat racks leading to the East Wing   THANK YOU!

There are many opportunities to serve and in many different ways.   This special organization, Little Angel Gowns (LAG) collects old donated wedding dresses, takes them apart and makes funeral wear for infants that have lost their sweet little lives to miscarriage, still birth, SIDS, etc. LAG serves 250 hospitals nationwide and many times will overnight the outfits for FREE anywhere in the United States. I am currently collecting used gowns to donate to the ladies of LAG so they may provide families with these tokens of love! If you or someone you know would like to donate a wedding gown, please contact me at wkkidwell706@sbcglobal.net. Kimberly Scott Kidwell

Dear servants...you are so awesome!  Again in September you raised the bar.  You donated a total of 406 pounds of food to Hunger INC Food Pantry located on Epler just west of Madison Ave.  This pantry services all of Perry Township residents and Beech Grove.   (At this rate we may need a van for delivery.)  We also had a late donation of buns totaling 19 more pounds.  Food can be taken anytime to the Pantry if you want to deliver on your own.  On one Thursday in August, the pantry passed out 1000 pounds of food to the 29 persons who were there the 3 hours the pantry was open.   Three of those 29 were homeless folks.  As you shop look for food cans with pop-top tabs for easy opening for those people without a home.  There are certain staples given out to everyone that are provided with the pantry money collected through Meijer's Simply Give donations each year. This includes saltines, canned tuna, stew, canned chicken, and 2 cans of fruit. The pantry has lots of peanut butter

October 4 – Jubilee Hosts Orientation October 4 and 7 – Support Community Food Pantries October 6 – Church Work Day October 7 - Community Meal October 7 to 14 – Clothing Drive to benefit Interfaith Hospitality Network Families October 11 to 14 – Men serving at Plainfield Correctional Facility October 18 to 21 – Women serving at Indianapolis Women’s Prison October 25 and 28 – Communion Server Information table in the Gathering Place From our Kairos Men’s Team with appreciation for your giving to the Faith Promise Fund Dear SUMC, Thank you for your generous support to our Kairos Ministry. The participants at Plainfield #22 will feel the love of Jesus through you. Sincerely, John Klipsch, Bill Holwager, Jeff Horne, Walt Trammell, Jerry Kidwell FAITH PROMISE SUPPORTED MINISTRIES Blood Drive Sunday - November 18 Interfaith Hospitality Network Families (IHN) 2019 dates – February 3 – 17, September 29 – October 13 Jubilee Ministry - Jubilee Christmas – Decem

2019 Church Pictorial is in the works.  Our database allows us to insert digital pictures of your family, either from your computer or ours.  We can print a pictorial directory from those pictures.  All you need to do is log into ACS Access or setup a login from our website, sumc.org, and you can insert your own pictures.  We also need everyone to check their addresses, phone numbers and emails to make sure everything is current. We will also be taking pictures for people who do not have a picture to upload.   Please call the church office if you have any questions or problems.  We look forward to seeing everyone’s pictures in our database and our 2019 Pictorial Directory.

2018 ¾ Pastor Doug has been bugging asking me for the payroll calendar for next year for months now.   Why?   Because he is a planner and he wants to be able to figure the Imagination Station budget monthly, and when we get payed can affect the monthly expenses.   You see, we get payed twice a month, so every now and then we get paid for three weeks instead of two, so he needs to know that to properly fill in his excel spread sheet. It seems to me that planning is biblical.   The bible is sprinkled with figures that show they are planners; Moses, David, Nehemiah, even Jesus.   Proverbs has plenty of references to planning in it too.   However, it seems in your planning you must leave room for one thing.   That is room for God’s will. Proverbs 16:3: Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. This year is now 75% over.   So, it’s time to assess how we have done so far this year and plan for next year.   So, I want to remind you that you can see your