KUMC family blog

They're Taking Over

If you've been out to the KUMC Community Garden at Zeffie Griffin's house you'll know that the weeds have come and they are taking over. The Youth Group was out there on Sunday night and they put a dent in the weeding, but there is still so much left to do, especially on the rows farthest from the house. If you have any inclination to do some work in the community garden, now is the time! Bring any weed destroying tools you might have. The plants could also use some watering - Zeffie has watering cans and a hose for that. The squash plants could use a spray of insecticide as they are gathering quite a following of squash bugs. You can go out to the community garden anytime you have time, you don't need to call ahead as long as you bring your own tools.

Brown Bagging for Food Insecure

Brown Bag Ministry Prepares and Packs

Where: St. Eugene’s Church, Wendell, NC

When: Saturday, June 12^th

What: 1400 Brown Bag Lunches

For: Food Insecure Communities in Raleigh & Eastern Wake County

Carpool: 8:30am from KUMC Parking Lot

Need to Bring: Family & Friends

 

The Blogmeister Cometh

Since I will be truckin' on down the road soon, Jo Ann Evans has agreed to be the new Blogmeister for the KUMC blog. You can send blog requests to her at kumcblog@hotmail.com.

Bring a friend night

I've been thinking for some time about how to grow the youth program here at Knightdale. We have this brand new facility and I want to see our youth group grow to fill up this space. I know that the best way to bring people to church is through relationships. Most of us found God and started attending church because of our relationship with someone who had a relationship with the Lord, whether that was a parent, a spouse, a coworker, or a neighbor. The best evangelism occurs through relationships. So I am declaring June 13, Bring - A - Friend Sunday at Youth. All of the youth are encouraged to bring a friend to our weekly youth meeting that Sunday. We will have snacks, games, and worship. Certainly we want the youth to bring their friends every Sunday, but with a special event like this one, I hope the youth will make it a point to bring someone they know and share the good times they have at Knightdale with that friend.

Sound youth decision

As some have already heard, the youth have decided not to go to Footprints at the MERCI Center this August since the goal of Footprints has shifted away from mission work and our youth did not want to participate in a program that did not allow them direct access to minister to people in need. I support their decision. As I understand it, our deposit will be refunded by the MERCI Center.

   The youth now plan to stay local in the Raleigh/Durham/Knightdale area to do mission work with those in need during that same planned week of Agust 1-7. Plans are currently being firmed up, but our youth will probably be helping at soup kitchens, preparing a meal for a battered women's shelter, distributing clothes to those in need, assisting distribution at our very own food pantry, and having some fun activities. Please pray that our youth will be an effective witness for Christ in their work in our local community this August.

Staying Power

One of the valuable things about our week in DIberville, Ms last week was the realization that we are part of a connectional church that has staying power. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast, FEMA, the Red Cross and a number of church organizations went there to help with the clean up and rebuilding, stayed for a while or several months, maybe a year. But the United Methodist Church made a commitment to go and to stay until lives and hearts and homes were healed.

Of course new storms, new crises, new devastation come along and people's memories tend to be short and the help goes elsewhere. But where people continue to hurt, live in awful conditions and feel destitute, help is still needed. We were a part of the continuing effort living out a commitment we made four and a half years ago to the people of the D'Iberville/Biloxi area to go back and go back and go back until there are no long people living in deplorable conditions. Christians don't abandon people who are hurting. Like the Good Samaritan, we stay with the injured until they are healed.

We were a little less than half of the total group there last week, but the people of Knightdale UMC were the core and the drivers of th overall effort. We did good work and did a lot of it. You can be proud of the disciples from among our community of faith. We did truly "grow in grace, faith and discipleship" among the wreckage. We were the hands, the arms, the legs, the feet of God in that place and were the face of hope to those people. And we will return until the hope is realized. Amen and amen.

"And the beat goes on"

Two key terms in the United Methodist system are "connected church" and "continuity." A pastor who has been part of our lives for the last nine years and saw us through building an entire new church facility moves on to where God leads her and a new pastor whom God has called to lead this church forward moves into that office to lead KUMC where God wants it to go from here.

As you Disciple Bible study folk know, God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt and into the 40-year journey to the promise land. But just as they were to cross into that land, God called Joshua, not Moses, to lead them in.

This is such a time. Regardless of who the pastor is, let us all seek God's will as God leads us all toward the kingdom.

Navigating the Blog

I have been hearing that some folks don't quite understand how to get around this new thing called a blog. Hint: if you click on the text in red you will be taken to another area. For example if you click on KUMC website, you will go directly to our church website. If you click on A Fire in My Bones under Other KUMC Blogs, you will go to Jenny's pastor's website. Clicking on the picture of the cross tower you will go to an album of pictures of the church family - not many yet, but we will add to and/or replace these as we go along.

Posts are posted from newest to oldest. The newest will be at the top. If you scroll down, you will see the ones posted prior to that one. Posts from past months are found under Archives at the top of the main screen.

Hope this helps y'all to a better experience with this new communication tool.