Sunday 20 February 2011

From Michelle:

Feb 27 – Retired United Methodist Minister, Rev. Ken Tobler will be speaking on “Good Friday, It’s Important.”
March 6 – Brantley Tillery of St. Luke’s Redemption Church and Exodus House
March 13 – Class Business, class funds disbursement approval, and get to know your classmates (free visit time)
March 20 & 27 – Retired United Methodist Minister, Dr. Howard Plowman will be speaking on “My Favorite Scriptures”

Dr. Plowman has asked that we provide him with our favorite scriptures before he arrives.  He will select and then address as many scriptures as time allows.  Maranatha members may either fill out a slip of paper, which will be available at the check in table, or email them to me at mplacetul(at)sbcglobal.net (substitute an “@” for “(at)”).

Have a good week,
Michelle Place

From William:

Thank you to all who came Sunday and enjoyed a wonderful presentation by Boston Avenue Youth. What a wonderful ministry our youth provide to those in need.

Thank you to Pam Sherman for keeping the class minutes.
Thank you to Art and Karen Campbell and Denzil and Lisa Tallent for the wonderful refreshments and for greeting us at the door.

Greeters and Refreshments for Sunday 27 February:

Set Up: Gary and Patti Smith          Clean Up: David and Susan Rose

Thank you to Karen Campbell for a wonderful prayer.

February Birthdays
23  Ginny Walker
26 Ray Latchem
27 Jule Embrey

February Anniversaries:
26 Art and Karen Campbell

Visitors:
Elaine
Derick Blankenship
Jessica Baggerman
Rachel Tallent

Announcements:

This week our speak will be Ken Tobler. “Good Friday it’s Important”
February is Let’s Help Keep the Lights on for Cookson Hills. Donation envelops are available.
28 February is for all the Panera lovers. Eat dinner and Panera and 71st and Lewis and tell the cashier you are there on behalf of Project Transformation and Panera will donate 10 percent of the proceed generated to Project Transformation. Any questions call Debbie Peterson 699-0124.
Dinners for 8: Groups and Group Leaders have been assigned. If anyone is still interested in joining contact Skip and Paula Scott.

Joys and Concerns
Bethany Willyard – For those who wish to send Bethany a get well card or letter of encouragement, here is the address:
Bethany Willyard
C/O Monarch
P. O. Box 1267
Muskogee, OK, 74402

Johnnie Romo – Johnny is moving into a place of his own. Congratulations to Johnnie for graduating from Redemption.
Nancy – Recovering from surgery. A meal schedule has been formed for Nancy for this week and next.

Have a great week and hope to see all on Sunday.
William Meyer

Published in: on February 23, 2011 at 8:18 am  Comments Off on Sunday 20 February 2011  
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Maranatha, April 18, 2010

“Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the world we were young in.”
Peter Medawar (Nobel Prize Winning Zoologist, 1960)

Our Quote of the Day above was appropriate to our Class’ lesson this morning, delivered by Dr. Gary Peluso-Verdend, President, Phillips Theological Seminary. Gary began a two part series entitled, “Adolescents and Christianity in the United States: A Look Back Since WWII.” This moring, he acquainted us with the many ways in which young people of today are growing up in an environment different from many of us, older folks; he particulary pointed out the influence of technology on adolescents. Dr. Peluso-Verdend has set the stage for next weeks lesson discussing the relationship of these factors to the formation of values, ethics, and faith.

Prior to our lesson, we celebrated two birthdays this week, Mickey Maus (4/19) and Sarah Smith (4/23), and two anniversaries, Mary & Charlie Ninde (4/22) and Anita & Mark Rounds (4/23). Greeters who also brought great refreshments were Julie & Jeff Evans and Suzy & Denny Meredith-Orr. Congratuations to those celebrating special days, and thank you for the delicious food!

Nancy Morgan was a visitor for the last time; she now is a member! Welcome, Nancy! Our other visitors were Mary and Ed, parents of Susan Panciera. Mary and Ed, come again.

Lot’s of announcements were heard today. Suzy Meredith-Orr announced that Maranatha Class members have contributed 207 hours toward missions benefitting 450 people since January. Great job, Maranatha, and our thanks to Suzy and Denny for coordinating this activities!

“Dinners/Lunch for 8” groups will begin again this month. If you have signed up, then you’re in a group. If you haven’t signed up, then contact Pam Sherman for an assignment for this month. Also, contact Pam if you are interested in attending the May social event, a Drillers baseball game on May 23rd, immediately following the 11am service (lunch and the game for $20 per person).

Carol Grim showed us beautiful quilts made by her church quilting group, an activity supported in part by the Maranatha Class. She announced that one the quilts will be donated to Apartment M, Exodus House, another mission our our Class. Thanks, Carol and all the other quilters!

A special request was announced, looking for drivers to assist Disabled American Veterans access medical visits and other services. If you are interested in volunteering, call 628-2607.

We had a number of concerns mentioned this morning, the death of a friend and work colleague, illnesses of family and friends, the death of a grandson of a church member, a family who is facing a stressful legal matter, and a joy for a son who is to receive a fellowship to study for his PhD. Those in class this morning heard these concerns and joys; if you were not able to attend, please speak with me or another member about details about these expressions of joys and concerns.

Jim Embrey lead us in prayer following our announcement, joys and concerns.

Beginning next week, we will be asking all those who wish to have their specific joys and concerns placed in the weekly Class Report to write them down for us so that we can make certain that we get the correct details.

We’re always happy to have a large number of members as we did this morning, but we miss those of you who could not join us today. Come when you can, keep in touch! Have a wonderful, blessed week! Gary Peluso-Verdend will be our teacher again next week, completing his teaching series.

Richard Wansley and Meredith Davison
Presidents

Published in: on April 18, 2010 at 6:21 pm  Comments Off on Maranatha, April 18, 2010  
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Maranatha, April 11, 2010

I regret I was unable to send out the regular Report earlier in the week, but work-related demands have prevented me from do so. But, here it is now:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our teacher/presenter on Sunday was Reverend Stan Basler, Director of the Criminal Justice and Mercy Ministries for the Oklahoma Conference, United Methodist Church. Stan, his wife, and local staff members attended our class; we all listened as he described the New Day Camp, a summer camp for children of incarcerated parents. We were all impressed with this very worthwhile and labor-intensive effort of the UM church that is designed to provide a unique, positive experience for these children while also helping reduce the children’s risk for their own incarceration. Statistics show that children of incarcerated parents are from 7 to 10 times at greater risk of criminal acts later in their lives leading to an incarceration.

Reverend Basler’s presentation was most timely given that Sunday was the day that we made a decision regarding distribuition of our class funds, and New Day Camp was one of our designated beneficiaries. Sharon Earley lead us through a description of the process that the Funds Committee and class has used to date in identifying proposed financial recipients. She then presented the proposal; it was approved by the class without objection. Later this week and, again, on Sunday, a final statement of the distributions will be forwarded to you. Thank you Sharon and your Committee for sheperding a good process and great outcome, and my thanks to all class members who contributed financially to our missions within and outside Boston Avenue!

Prior to Stan’s presentation and approving the funds distribution, we recognized several birthdays and anniversaries: Birthdays – LeeAnne Nichols (4/11), Pam Low (4/14), Jerry Russell (4/15), and Joey Manduano (4/16); Anniversaries – Beth and Bob Winchester (4/11), Ginny and Jerry Walker (4/14), Nancy and Joey Manduano (4/15). Happy Birthday and Congratulations to those celebrating annivesaries!

Pam and John Sherman, Beth and Eric Green provided great refreshments, and welcomed class members and visitors. Thank you!

We had a number of visitors including Jeannine Bezotte, Janet Basler, Nancy Morgan (who we hoping to move from “visitor” to “member” soon), Matt North (Beverly’s husband; come again Matt), Brantley Tillery, Delores Ritter, Pat Herron, Kim Orr, and Darren (sorry, we missed the last name). Great members, great visitors!

There were a number of joys, concerns, and announcements; it was a busy morning. Prayers were asked for concerns that included Katie (and her family), young 33 year old mother of 2-year old twins, who recently started chemo for breast cancer, for Noel Ray who recently suffered a serious stroke, and a friend, Dale, who has been disappointed by the actions of a young woman whom she has been mentoring. We were also reminded of Kaiden, the 2 1/2 year child, who has a brain tumor.

One true joy was Beth sharing with us that Eric has received a “clean bill of health” at his last checkup; indeed, good news! Scott Morgan let us know that his adult child and family are moving back to Tulsa for work; however, Scott let me know as class was ending that they have a need – a good rental house. If you have or know of such rental house, or need information about the need, contact Scott Morgan as soon as possible.

Rob Reck led us in prayer prior to Reverend Basler’s presentation.

Several announcements for your calendars:

  • Our mission to assist with the Interfaith Habitat House is this Saturday, April 17th. Contact Suzy or Denny Meredith-Orr for more information.
  • New “Dinners/Lunchs for Eight” will be formulated soon; Pam Sherman will start sign-ups next week.
  • The May 2010 Class Social will be attending with other Church members a Tulsa Drillers baseball game on Sunday, May 23rd. The game starts at 2:05pm but lunch will be provided to all attendees at the new ONEOK Field immediately following the 11am service. Cost for the lunch and ticket is $20 per person. Contact Pam Sherman for details.
  • For those who purchased the Champagne Bruch with Gary Peluso-Verdend, President, Phillips Theological Seminary is Saturday, April 17th. Contact Ginny Walker, your host, for more information.
  • The Designer Showcase party is Monday evening, 7pm to 9pm, April 19th. If you have not paid and want to attend, the cost is $20 payable to Maranatha Class; contact Lynn Russell for more information.

Next week (April 18th) and the Sunday following (April 25th), Dr. Gary Peluso-Verdend will be our teacher/presenter. Be there, you’re invited; invite others as well!

We had a busy Sunday and lot’s going on; isn’t it great? Hope that I got all the facts straight. If not, let me know.

Richard Wansley

Published in: on April 13, 2010 at 6:08 pm  Comments Off on Maranatha, April 11, 2010  
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