** Note: Donovan Walling is now receiving care at the I.U. Hospice house. If you would like to send a card, here is the address; 2810 S. Deborah Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403.**
?PHOTOS NEEDED.? Do you have pictures of events at First United over the past year?? Play Fridays, Church Work Days, Shelter Staffers, Choir Practice?any shots will work.? Please email photos to Sara Ivey Lucas at sivey@indiana.edu so they can be included in the photo display for the annual meeting.? If you have printed photos, or a large collection, talk to Sara about how they can be shared for this project.? Photos are needed by Sunday, May 14 at 5:00 p.m
BREAD FOR THE WORLD OFFERING OF LETTERS LUNCHEON.?Bread for the World, a faith-based, non-partisan hunger relief advocacy agency with a plan to end hunger by the year 2030, is getting ready to kick off its annual Offering of Letters!
Bread for the World?s annual Offering of Letters campaign engages churches, campuses, and other faith communities in writing letters to Congress. Each year, a specific piece of legislation or legislative emphasis is chosen as the letter-writing topic. This is legislation?that can make a real difference to people struggling with hunger and poverty.?People come together to write letters as a group and present them as an offering to God before mailing them to Congress. Hundreds of Offerings of Letters are held each year, resulting in tens of thousands of letters to Congress. Supported with prayer, these letters are a bold witness to God?s justice and mercy. They have, and continue to have, a significant impact on the decisions made in Congress.
On Saturday, May 20th at 12:30p.m. in the Fellowship Hall, First United invites you (and the greater Bloomington faith community) to a?FREE?Offering of Letters luncheon. Guest Speaker, Dave Miner, a member of the Bread for the World Board of Directors in Indianapolis, will share stories of how Bread for the World has advocated for massive change in the area of hunger advocacy in the past, and will teach us how to engage in an effective letter-writing campaign. We will then write our own letters, which will be blessed in service on Sunday, May 21st during the offering and will be hand delivered to our representatives by Bread for the World advocates in June, to coincide with National Lobby Day.
In order to plan for food, it would be helpful if you could please RSVP via the Facebook event on the First United Facebook page OR e-mail Leah Mullins at?leah.mullins2014@gmail.com?to let her know you are planning to attend. Hope to see you there!
BE THE CHURCH. Throughout the month of May Outreach is asking you to help us to identify instances of Being Church. An instance of Being Church is helping those who are in need, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, visiting the prisoner, advocating for those on the margins.
Maybe you volunteered. Or someone you know. Or gave money. Or marched. Or called an elected official. Or wrote a letter to the editor. For the poor. The homeless. The prisoner. The racial minority. The religious minority. The earth. Being the Church is anything we do to improve the earth for all God’s people.
Please write these Being Church instances down on slips of paper that will be available throughout the month of May and add them to our collection. These will be displayed for Pentecost on June 2 to celebrate the birthday of Being Church. Because we need more rather than fewer?and you were Church more than once?you are encouraged to be generous with writing down instances of Being Church.?
A CONGREGATIONAL MEETING will be held immediately after church on Sunday, May 7, for the purpose of electing Church Officers and Board members for the coming year. The meeting will be brief. Your vote is important! ?Please plan to attend.?
CHURCH YARD WORK. ?Laura Kao?of the Board of?Building and Grounds will be putting in?an hour of?yard work on Thursday mornings at 8:30 whenever she is in town this growing season. ?She invites you to join her any?Thursday. ?If you let her know by e-mail that?you are interested, she’d know to tell?you when she won’t be there. ?laura_b_kao@hotmail.com
LAWN MOWING-?ALTHOUGH CHELSEA SCHOCH signed up for mowing almost every week of the summer, we would like to have a list of others willing to mow.? Chelsea?s best night to mow is Thursday, and sometimes it rains then. ?Also, we need people who would weed whack any time.? Sign-up sheets are near the kitchen door or contact?Chad Nunley?of Building and Grounds. ?cnunley92@gmail.com
FRIDAYS AT FIRST UNITED
?Play Friday:? Play Friday is a recurring family friendly event on the 2nd Friday of each month from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Pizza dinner is provided along with games and a craft activity. This event is fun for all ages. The next Play Friday will be on May 12 where we will continue a general theme of spring and summer. We will paint butterflies, bees, and ladybugs to go with the flowers in the hallway we made in April. It helps with food planning if you RSVP to Hopi Stosberg at hopi@stosberg.com. Hope to see you there!
Just Friday: Just Friday is a recurring adult justice related discussion group on 4th Fridays from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in Roger Williams Hall. From May-August our justice discussions will be focused on climate change.
Each month will focus on different aspects of climate change and how the things we do contribute to the problem. Discussion will revolve around how we can change and create change in the world to positively impact this issue. Dates for these discussions are: May 26 (Climate Change and Transportation choices), June 23 (Climate Change and What We Eat), July
28 (Climate Change and Our Daily Habits), and August 25 (Climate Change and the Stuff We Own). Contact Hopi Stosberg at hopi@stosberg.com if you have any questions.
MINISTER OF CARE FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 30, IS NORA SULLIVAN.? A minister of care is a church volunteer who visits members in their home.
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