Maranatha Class Website

What a wonderful and uplifting experience to "see" so many of you during yesterday’s inaugural Sunday School Zoom meeting!

These meetings will continue weekly on Sundays from 10:15 to 10:45 through this time of social distancing and can be accessed at:

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/572554305

The meeting was recorded and we are looking into posting it on the website for those who may have missed our class time.

Remember that if you have any social events, announcements, prayer requests, etc. that you would like included in the weekly newsletter, please let Sharon Earley know.

Sunday School Lessons

As previously announced, Joel is recording his lessons for Lent and they are being posted online.

The first three of five lessons in Joel Panciera’s Lenten series for our Maranatha Class are now available for viewing through Google Drive, using this link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_bWRaIlWADOMDFufZLbWkeQZWpwbkMNW

Joel encourages feedback. Send your questions or thoughts to joelpanciera.

Prayer
Michael Dishman gave the opening prayer. Ed Payton gave the closing prayer.
Next week, Janet Purinton will open us with prayer and Roger Rowe will close us with prayer.

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Happy birthday to the following folks:

Rob Reck – 7th

Bruce Chucoski – 8th

Dee Dueck – 10th

Happy anniversary to the following:

Dan & Martha Blevins – 7th

John & Judy Harkins – 9th

Upcoming Social Activities (and cancellations)

It is with much disappointment that the decision to cancel the Designer Showcase is official. I apologize but our Maranatha designer showcase auction party is cancelled. I pray for you health and safety during these unprecedented times. Lynn

The next class social is planned for Friday, May 1. We hope and pray there will be no need to cancel or postpone. It will be a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Maranatha with a lovely dinner and worship opportunity. Stay tuned for more details.

Due to the current restaurant restrictions, the weekly meeting of Maranatha Men on Tuesdays for food and fellowship has been suspended. We hope to restart again in the near future.

Christmas Party/Auction – December 12 at Tulsa Country Club

Upcoming Mission Opportunities

April 10 – Dinner at the Day Center for the Homeless – We have arranged to have the Boston Avenue caterer prepare the food and Bruce & Sharon Chucoski will deliver it to the Day Center where Day Center employees will serve the food. Thank you Bruce & Sharon.

July 26 – Serving dinner at Redemption Church

September – Operation School Bell

Oct 9 – Serving dinner at the Day Center for the Homeless

Nov 22 – Serving dinner at Redemption Church

JOIN THE McCURDY MISSION TEAM!
You have a chance to be a part of the first Mission Team to our Church’s new National Mission Partner, McCurdy Ministries in Espanola New Mexico (just north of Santa Fe). The team is hoping to go to McCurdy from May 22nd to May 27 (tentatively but schedule will be adjusted based on team members). If you are interested, please contact Ed or Judith Payton right away!

Joys and Concerns

For all of our class members, their families and our elders during these uncertain times.

Gary Linsky had shoulder replacement surgery.

Rob Morgan has been diagnosed with COVID 19 and is experiencing mild symptoms. Suzy is being tested.

Cisco Maldonado had a scan last week for any reoccurrence of cancer and is awaiting the results.

John Harkins was hospitalized with a brain bleed. He is out of ICU and expected to move to rehab soon.

Lynn Goodwin, who has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, began chemo Tuesday. If you would like to see updates as they become available, Lynn & Shari’s girls have set up a CaringBridge site and the link is caringbridge.org/visit/lynngoodwin

Jeff Allen announced that his son and daughter-in-law, Taylor and Lauren, are expecting a boy in September. Congratulations.

Mary Staat announced that Glenda Silvey (BAMC member) had a stroke and passed away this week.

Joanne Emmons (Chancel Choir mom) passed away this week from COVID 19 and her husband, Jerry, is recovering from the disease.

Bruce Chucoski’s sister, Lisa, is suffering from pericarditis (inflammation around the heart).

Pam Low’s brother and Karey Low’s cousin are suffering from prostrate cancer.

The Manduanos expressed concern for Nancy’s father who is in assisted living.

Our Caranatha team stands ready to help. For the month of April, please contact Sherry Griffin (918-629-5112) or Carol Maus (918-361-5392).

Other Class and Church Announcements

• Remember to register your attendance when watching or viewing the BAMC church service each week. It would be helpful if you would do this online rather than by calling the church as the church gets overwhelmed with calls for those who are not comfortable doing this online.
• Also remember to send in your Easter offering or make your donation online. The Easter offering helps to fund many of our church mission outreach areas.
• Easter is next Sunday!! Let’s make it a bit more uplifting and special by ALL (guys included) wearing Easter bonnets, hats, or other festive attire for next Sunday’s Zoom meeting! Don’t wait – make those plans today!

Class: The following is the email I mentioned in our Virtual Maranatha Class this morning. Wanted to share it with you . Please do your best to help her.

Good morning Michael! I hope this email finds you healthy and safe right now! I wanted to see if maybe you could share a few things on my behalf with the Maranatha Sunday school class?

• The big one is that the church has been doing a daily devotional via email and social media (if folks want to get the email in their inbox, they can sign up here: caitlindryke
• It was put in the paper this week, but as we are preparing for a very different Easter experience, I’m hoping to share some memories from Easter’s past, but need help from folks. Could Maranatha folks maybe email me any pictures and/or reflections they have from any previous Easter’s at Boston Avenue for them/their family?
• I’m working really hard to try to make The Word a relevant church lifeline during these times. If folks have any ideas or suggestions on content that they would like to see, I’m super open to it!

I know that EvaMarie is doing her best to support all of our Sunday school classes, but if there is anything communications-wise that I can do, please let me know– I love our Maranatha folks!

Remote regards,
Caitlin

Michael Dishman

Maranatha Class

As previously communicated, Maranatha will be hosting its first-ever video conference class on Sunday, April 5 from 10:15am to 10:45am. You should have previously received a message outlining our plans to use the Zoom teleconferencing tool and the various practice sessions that class members have been hosting this week. Please make an effort to attend at least one practice session before April 5. You’ll find connection details for our first meeting at the end of this message.

At the outset, we are keeping the Agenda simple. As we get better at this, we may expand it, but our current plans are to limit these check-ins to 30 minutes. You’ll find a few ground rules below for these meetings and the etiquette we’ll all need to observe to make this work. Apologies in advance if you find any of these severe, but we feel it’s best to clamp down early and evaluate how/if to relax these going forward.

Ground Rules

• All members of the same household should connect on a single device. This will avoid feedback and cross talk that can make it difficult for others to hear.
• Please turn off or mute all devices you are not using for the call.
• Please secure all pets, noisome children (or noisome adults) before the call. If they aren’t participating in the call, they will distract from the call.
• Each of you will be muted when you join. In the practice sessions, you should have learned how to “raise” your hand using the software. Should you raise your hand, the meeting host will call on you and unmute you. Once you have spoken, you will again be muted.
• Please limit discussion to Class and Church business. The Sunday calls are not for technical support, so please keep technical questions to a minimum.
• At present, Zoom is overwhelmed with people trying to do voice-only connections, so a smartphone, tabled or computer will be required for access. We’ll continue to monitor this and hopefully get this opened up for phone users as quickly as possible.
• If you experience technical issues during the meeting, please just make a note of what you are experiencing and let Ed Payton and Roger Rowe know of your challenges later – we won’t disrupt the meeting to provide one-on-one technical support.

Agenda

For our first meeting, our agenda will be as follows:

• Welcome and Review of Ground Rules – Meeting Host (Ed Payton)
• Opening Prayer (Michael Dishman – then Rotates Weekly)
• Church and Class Announcements – Michael Dishman
• Caranatha Update – Carol Maus
• Missions Update – Sharon Chucoski
• Joys and Concerns – All, time permitting. We will cut this off at 10:40.
• Closing Prayer – Host (Ed Payton)

Expect the first meeting to be rocky – we’ll get better as we go.

Connection Details

Host: Ed Payton

Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/572554305

Thank you. See you Sunday!

Michael

We hope and prayer that each of you are staying healthy. In order to maintain a bit of normalcy and to pass on relevant information during these uncertain times, I’ve elected to continue the weekly class newsletter. If you have any social events, announcements, prayer requests, etc. that you would like included, please let me know.

Sunday School Lesson and Class Time!

As previously announced, Joel is recording his lessons for Lent and they are being posted online.

The first three of five lessons in Joel Panciera’s Lenten series for our Maranatha Class are now available for viewing through Google Drive, using this link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_bWRaIlWADOMDFufZLbWkeQZWpwbkMNW

Joel encourages feedback. Send your questions or thoughts to joelpanciera@bostonavenue.org.

You should have also received an email providing information about the launching of weekly Maranatha Sunday School Class Zoom Teleconferences beginning next Sunday (Palm Sunday) at 10:15 am and associated “training or practice” sessions Monday – Friday of this week. I encourage you to participate.

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Happy birthday to the following folks:

Suzan Morgan – March 29th

John Harkins – April 1st

No anniversaries again this week.

Upcoming Social Activities (and cancellations)

It is with much disappointment that the decision to cancel the Designer Showcase is official. I apologize but our Maranatha designer showcase auction party is cancelled. I pray for you health and safety during these unprecedented times. Lynn

The next class social is planned for Friday, May 1. We hope and pray there will be no need to cancel or postpone. It will be a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Maranatha with a lovely dinner and worship opportunity. Stay tuned for more details.

Due to the current restaurant restrictions, the weekly meeting of Maranatha Men on Tuesdays for food and fellowship has been suspended. We hope to restart again in the near future.

Christmas Party/Auction – December 12 at Tulsa Country Club

Upcoming Mission Opportunities

April 10 – Serving dinner at the Day Center for the Homeless – due to the current situation, we are exploring other avenues for providing this meal. We will not be serving in person.

July 26 – Serving dinner at Redemption Church

September – Operation School Bell

Oct 9 – Serving dinner at the Day Center for the Homeless

Nov 22 – Serving dinner at Redemption Church

JOIN THE McCURDY MISSION TEAM!
You have a chance to be a part of the first Mission Team to our Church’s new National Mission Partner, McCurdy Ministries in Espanola New Mexico (just north of Santa Fe). The team is hoping to go to McCurdy from May 22nd to May 27 (tentatively but schedule will be adjusted based on team members). If you are interested, please contact Ed or Judith Payton right away!

Joys and Concerns

For all of our class members and their families during these uncertain times.

Continue to pray for Lynn Goodwin who has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and was to begin chemo today (Monday).

If you miss announcing a prayer request in class, feel free to email me at earleysharon1 with your request.

Other Class Announcements

It is time again to consider the contributions that our class will be making. A donations request form was attached to an early-March email newsletter. You may use it to submit a requested donation. The deadline for submission has been postponed. The form should be sent to Kendall Carpenter.

All,

The time was inadvertently left off the practice session being hosted on Wednesday by Pam Low. Here’s the complete information:

Wednesday, April 1, 7:00PM (Mac Users)

Host: Pam Low

Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/807190461

Also, we’ll be publishing a complete set of Ground Rules with the information for next Sunday, but here are a few that should help the practice sessions go smoothly:

• All members of the same household should connect on a single device. This will avoid feedback and cross talk that can make it difficult for others to hear.
• Please turn off or mute all devices you are not using for the call.
• Please secure all pets, noisome children (or noisome adults) before the call. If they aren’t participating in the call, they will distract from the call.
• Each of you will be muted when you join. In the practice sessions, you should have learned how to “raise” your hand using the software. Should you raise your hand, the meeting host will call on you and unmute you. Once you have spoken, you will again be muted.

Lastly, we thought you might enjoy a preview:

Michael Dishman

To All Maranatha Class Members:

Like most of you, we miss seeing our fellow class members. A group of us has been experimenting with the Zoom teleconferencing system and feel this is a viable way for many of us to meet while the church is not open for Sunday School. Our plan is to have an online “check-in” with fellow class members weekly in advance of the church broadcast at 11:00 am. Our first check-in will be held Sunday, April 5 at 10:15 am and will last 30 minutes. We’ll be sending out an invitation with more specifics as we get closer to that date.

So, how do you get connected? At present, a smartphone, tablet or computer is required. The larger the screen, the easier it will be for you to see and recognize your classmates. We’ll send out a weekly invitation with an agenda and instructions on how to connect each week.

If you are already familiar with Zoom, you pretty much already know what you need to know. If you have questions about how we are using this tool for the check-in, please contact one of the mentors listed below, Ed Payton or Roger Rowe.

If you’ve never used Zoom, please do not wait until April 5 to start – we will be unable to help you during the check-in. Instead, attend one or more of the Practice Sessions listed below. You should try to join a 5 – 10 minutes before the Practice Session starts by clicking on the provided link below the name of each Host – if you’ve never used Zoom before, you may be asked to download an app. You’ll be placed into a “waiting room” until the session actually starts. Feel free to contact your session Host in advance of your practice session if you have specific questions. Ed Payton and Roger Rowe are also available to answer questions prior to April 5. God bless you and your families. Keep safe. Thank you.

Michael Dishman

Practice Sessions

Note: We’ve listed below the area of primary expertise of the session host, for example, Rick Evans is more familiar with Macs and Jim Embrey is more familiar with Windows. However, you can connect to any meeting with your preferred device. For example, a Mac/iPhone/iPad user can connect to Jim’s meeting and a Windows/Android user can connect to Rick’s meeting.

Monday, March 30, 5:30pm (Windows Users)

Host: Jim Embrey

Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/266845205

Tuesday, March 31, 5:30pm (Mac Users)

Host: Rick Evans

Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/5538399409

Wednesday, April 1, 7:00pm (Mac Users)

Host: Pam Low

Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/807190461

Thursday, April 2, 4:00pm (Windows Users)

Host: Ed Payton

Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/794552017

Friday, April 3, 5:30pm (Windows Users

Host: Dan Blevins

Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/933660864

Additional Mentors: Sharon Earley, Ray Earley, Jim Embrey, Carol Maus, Barbara Meehan, Stuart Solomon, Richard Wansley

I received the following email from Shari Goodwin. I respectfully request that everyone in our class pray for a speedy recovery for Lynn and for united support for Shari and family. Thank you. Keep safe. God Bless you and your family. MICHAEL DISHMAN

Well, Lynn has decided to be an overachiever. All this Covid 19 stuff wasn’t enough of a challenge, so he’s been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in the midst of it. Took us a couple of months to get the diagnosis and a treatment plan. Lynn was supposed to get his port yesterday (Friday), but he keeps running a fever, so they decided to eliminate possible underlying causes before driving his immunities down. He’s almost finished with that, and the doc thinks he has a very good chance of beating this. Eight new meds have been developed in the last two years just for this.

He starts chemo Monday and the first round will be stomach injections so the port can heal. Tentatively planning to get the port Monday as well. If anyone would like to see updates as they become available, our girls have set up a CaringBridge site and the link is caringbridge.org/visit/lynngoodwin

It’s really easy to use – just click “follow.” Thanks for your friendship and prayers! SHARI GOODWIN

Jim Embrey submitted an excellent suggestion to me. It is important that we all register or "sign in" for attending church service. Under current conditions, we encourage everyone that watches the 11:00am service to register by (1) calling (918) 699-0129 or (2) go to the BAUMC website and then click on the "Register here" link.

Also, if you want to follow along and/or print out the sermon bulletin, here is the link. https://www.bostonavenue.org/uploads/documents/General/Sunday%20Morning%20Bulletin.pdf

*This link requires a bit of "clicking", i.e. from the home page, click on Worship, then Join us for Worship, scroll to the Traditional Sunday Worship Services – 9:00 – 11:00, then click "Click here to view this Sunday’s bulletin and Rev. David Wiggs’ sermon outline".

Thank you and keep safe. God bless all of you and your families. MICHAEL DISHMAN

See Richard’s Email Message to me. This is a great idea. He will send me devotions that he discovers and I will send them to all class members.

Michael,

I ran across a devotion which touched on a matter appropriate for our time – "uncertainty". I wanted to share it with you and if you feel worthy to do so, our entire class. In fact, I offer to coordinate getting volunteers to write (and potentially record) devotions once or twice a week until we return to our regular in-person class schedule. If you agree, I leave it to you to send the devotion to our class members and if you further agree, I am willing to hear from (rawansley) and coordinate others who may wish to offer brief devotions as well. Thank you for keeping us in-touch.

Richard Wansley

Richard Wansley Devotion #1 (03-26-20).docx

In order to maintain a bit of normalcy and to pass on relevant information during these uncertain times, I’ve elected to continue the weekly class newsletter. If you have any social events, announcements, prayer requests, etc. that you would like included, please let me know.

Sunday School Lesson

As previously announced, Joel is recording his lessons for Lent and they are being posted to YouTube. Here are the links to lessons #1 and #2. Enjoy!

#1 http://www.bostonavenue.org/uploads/media/audio/200301maranatha.mp3 This one is titled Lenten Series: The Spiritual Blind Spot, Pt. 1.

#2 https://youtu.be/IHRd2LyiE8Q

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Happy birthday to the following folks:

Suzy Morgan – 27th

Linda Nicks – 27th

No anniversaries this week.

Upcoming Social Activities (and cancellations)

It is with much disappointment that the decision to cancel the Designer Showcase is official. I apologize but our Maranatha designer showcase auction party is cancelled. I pray for you health and safety during these unprecedented times. Lynn

The next class social is planned for Friday, May 1. We hope and pray there will be no need to cancel or postpone. It will be a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Maranatha with a lovely dinner and worship opportunity. Stay tuned for more details.

Due to the current restaurant restrictions, the weekly meeting of Maranatha Men on Tuesdays for food and fellowship has been suspended. We hope to restart again in the near future.

Christmas Party/Auction – December 12 at Tulsa Country Club

Upcoming Mission Opportunities

April 10 – Serving dinner at the Day Center for the Homeless – due to the current situation, we are exploring other avenues for providing this meal. We will not be serving in person.

July 26 – Serving dinner at Redemption Church

September – Operation School Bell

Oct 9 – Serving dinner at the Day Center for the Homeless

Nov 22 – Serving dinner at Redemption Church

JOIN THE McCURDY MISSION TEAM!
You have a chance to be a part of the first Mission Team to our Church’s new National Mission Partner, McCurdy Ministries in Espanola New Mexico (just north of Santa Fe). The team will be going to McCurdy from May 22nd to May 27 (tentatively but schedule will be adjusted based on team members). If you are interested, please contact Ed or Judith Payton right away!

Joys and Concerns

For all of our class members and their families during these uncertain times.

If you miss announcing a prayer request in class, feel free to email me at earleysharon1 with your request.

Other Class Announcements

It is time again to consider the contributions that our class will be making. A donations request form was attached to last week’s email. You may use it to submit a requested donation. The deadline for submission is Sunday, March 29. The form should be sent to Kendall Carpenter.