Fincastle UMC Flyer A Publication of Fincastle United Methodist Church

January 2020

Our Vision FUMC is a community of faith that welcomes all and seeks to embody

the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ through radical hospitality, passionate worship,

intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service and extravagant

generosity.

Souper Bowl of Caring - Youth Mission

Fincastle UMC youth will collect non-perishable food or money to help support the Botetourt Food Pantry from January 5th through February 2nd. Super Bowl Sunday, February 2nd, is also the ‘Souper Bowl of Caring’ when National attention is focused on the nutrition needs of our neighbors who may go hungry. We have participat-ed in this effort for several years, and all the food and money collected benefits Botetourt County residents.

Please bring non-perishable food items and place them in the designated boxes in the narthex and FLC. Checks can be made payable to FUMC with “Souper Bowl” on the memo line and placed in the offering. Thank you for helping our neighbors!

Tentatively — Saturday, February 8th, food will be delivered to the pantry.

TOW Resumes on January 15th Our Wednesday night fellowship meal and programs resume for 2020 on Wednesday, January 15th. Come at 6 pm for a delicious meal prepared by our own volunteer cooks and stay for our children, youth and adult programs. We are in the process of recruiting a music director for children classes and the youth and adult classes will be announced as the dates near. If anyone is interested in cooking a TOW meal please contact Fern Robertson at 473-2038. Thank you!!

Join us for a Fellowship Party! The SPPRC is pleased to announce several fellowship get togethers that will be held on Sunday afternoons during January and February. They ask that everyone attend one of these socials and let us know your preferred date. Each meeting will be hosted by a member of the church. Each event will feature the Pastor and his family and provide an opportunity for

everyone to become better acquainted with Kwang, Sunny and their sons. Light refreshments will be served and a member of the SPPRC will be present to help lead the discussions. Each “Party” will begin at 3:00 pm and con-clude around 4:30 pm. Please email or call the church office by January 5, 2020 with your first and second choice for one of the following 2020 Sunday dates: January 12 or 19; February 2 or 9. February 16 will be reserved for a snow or makeup date. After your reply, you will receive an email or letter informing you of the date and location of your assigned event.

*We ask that each person bring a jar of peanut butter or other item to support our backpack buddies mission*

January Birthdays

The FUMC Clothes Closet is located in the downstairs area of the Family Life Center and is open about 4 days per month. For

more information, contact Rhonda Campbell at 992-5008.

The Clothes Closet will be open on these dates in January:

Saturday, January 11th

Tuesday, January 21st

Saturday, January 25th

Tuesday Hours: 10 am—1 pm & 3—5 pm Saturday Hours: 10 am—1 pm

Clothing for children and adults at no charge. Donations of gently worn clean clothing are appreciated. Please call the

church office (473-3001) to arrange to bring donations during office hours,

Monday—Thursday 9:30 am to 1 pm. Donations may also be delivered at any time to the lean-to structure located at

the back of the FLC lower level.

6 Donna Hurd

8 Ronald Tyree

10 Daniel Baker

13 Stephanie Payne

18 Wesley Chesser III

21 Liliana Bolling, Juliet Harris, Jim Lane, Marie Tyree

22 Lee Turner, Jr.

28 Terri Ferguson

29 Benjamin Moser

31 Troy Ferguson

January 5 January 12 January 19 January 26

9 am Lay

Reader Art Pendleton Dick Vinal Kerry Campbell Roger Musgrove

9 am Greeter

George Meadows Melvin Corbett Steve Johnston Larry Walker

11 am Lay Reader

Paul Tucker Paige Ware Doug Harris Heather Butler

11 am Greeters/Ushers

Scott & Susan Critzer

John & Casey Bolling

Donna Hurd & Rebecca Boone

Doug & Gloria Harris

Acolytes Isaac Bell Liliana Bolling Savannah Corvin Jack Butler

Children’s Sermon

Paul Tucker Trina Yancey Betty Reynolds Art Pendleton

Children’s Church

Tracy Humbert Trina Yancey Rebecca Boone Art Pendleton

Nursery Heather Butler Paige Ware Teresa Corvin Gloria Harris

Coffee & Donuts

Trina Yancey Marsha Campbell Terri Ferguson Fern Robertson

Stewardship Eric Claunch & Bonnie Elliott

Bill Campbell & Paige Ware

Steve Johnston & Scott Critzer

Doug Harris & Carol Walker

Flowers Paul & Terry Tucker

Rick & Charlotte Dietz

Doug & Gloria Harris- In Honor of Juliet’s Birthday

Weldon & Susan Martin

January Worship Leaders

February 2nd: Nursery—Gloria Harris; Children’s Church—Tracy Humbert; Stewardship—Mary Bess Smith & Larry Walker; Flowers—Art Pendleton—In memory of Becky

FUMC Calendar for January 2020

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2 3 4

FLC Reserved for Hubbard Family

Party

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Worship 9:00 Sunday School 10:00

Worship 11:00

Removal of the Greens

Souper Bowl of Caring Collections

begin

Girl Scouts 6:00-7:30pm

In FLC

SPPRC Meeting 7pm

in FLC

Family meal for the family and

friends of Clyde Hypes

Choir Practice at 7:30pm

Clothing Closet 10am-1pm

in FLC

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Worship 9:00 Sunday School 10:00

Worship 11:00

Fellowship Party (1 of 4) at 3pm

Pastor’s Prayer

Meeting 7 pm in FLC

Pre-school gymnastics

11am-12pm in FLC

TOW 6 pm Choir 7:30 pm

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Worship 9:00 Sunday School 10:00

Worship 11:00

Fellowship Party (2 of 4) at 3pm

Rev. Dr. Martin

Luther King Jr. Birthday Observance

Girl Scouts 6:00-7:30pm

In FLC

Clothing Closet 10am-1pm & 3-5pm in FLC

TOW 6 pm Choir 7:30 pm

Clothing Closet

10am-1pm in FLC

26 27 28 29 30 31 FEB 1

Worship 9:00 Sunday School 10:00

Worship 11:00

Lenten Lunch Planning Meeting

in FLC at 2pm

TOW 6 pm Choir 7:30 pm

January Shared Blessing by Doug Ross

One of my favorite things to do in December is to watch a Christmas movie where boy meets girl, they don’t get along initially, then fall in love, then one hour and twenty minutes into the movie they have a falling out. With five minutes to go they reunite blissfully. That’s right I’m a fan of those Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies. If that makes me a sentimental sap, then guilty as charged.

While some of these movies fail to even mention the true meaning of Christmas, every once in a while I find a nugget. This movie has a pastor doing a sermon on Christmas Eve. He tells his congregation that the first Christmas present ever was the birth of Jesus Christ. That’s a fact, and it is a present for all who acknowledge His credentials as our Lord and redeemer.

Better still, Jesus is the gift that keeps giving. We can reach out to Him 24, 7, 365 for as long as we live. Our shared blessing is the gift of Jesus. We accept the Gift, gratefully and understand the gift was given in loving kindness from our God. Enjoy this Gift.

A shared blessing and gift from God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

General Board of Global Ministries Street Children Ministry UMC, MMC Cambodia

Merry Christmas 2019 Dear Friends,

Once again, we celebrate the birthday of our Lord Jesus, the reason of our being. He is also the reason of our loving and sharing. Most of all, Jesus is the reason of being here in Cambodia, the reason why the Board of Global Ministries have this mission, I thank God it also the reason why God has called me to get involved and have the opportunity to love and live with our sisters and brothers here in Cambodia. It is because that He first loved us that we who have re-ceived him as Lord and Savior love Him as well. And by loving Him we obey his command, “Go therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the world.”…(Matthew 28: 18-20)

We are partners in this venture. We have been helping each other through the years. It is now 19 years

(please put the right number of years) that you and I have been sending your assistance for this ministry. Through your prayers and financial assistance the love of God is concretized through our work with the Street Children Ministry.

Blessings have been pouring out from your kind hearts in order to sustain our program. The Street Children in Cambo-dia, together with their families have been enjoying blessings upon blessings. We bring Christ to the hearts and homes of these less privileged children and their families. They come to know Christ not only through word, but through con-crete assistance in their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

Once again, the under-privileged children, HIV/AIDS patients, and the sick people of Cambodia, want

to send you their heartfelt gratitude through this letter. Thank you so much. As we celebrate Christmas this season, we praise God through our simple activities of songs, dances, dramatization and sharing food together. Thank you for the gifts that are only possible because you have open hearts bountiful of love to share to the last, least and lost.

Our activities are educational guided tours, Sunday school, orphanage visits, and celebrating national festivities. As we do this, we are joyful for the many changes that happen in their lives. They are all responsible family members and become good citizens, leaders in their respective communities. They become instru-ments of God to bring the Good News as they receive this good news from us. Thank you again and again. Attached are Christmas Cards painted and sketched personally by our gifted children who are recipients of our love. May God bless you more and more. A blissful Christmas and Prosperous New Year are all that we can do. We praise God for you.

God bless you. ……………………. Clara M. Biswas Team Leader of Street Children Ministries, GBGM, UMC PO BOX 2493

Gingerbread House Decorating

Following the meal at the December 4th TOW, the group activity enjoyed by all

ages was decorating gingerbread houses.

12 Children got to take their festive and edible houses home and the 18 houses

made by the Adults and Youth were taken to the local Assisted Living

Facilities.

Thank you Rhonda Campbell for coordinating this event!

FUMC Christmas Activities

FUMC entered a float in the Annual Fincastle Parade on December 8th.

A great day and fun had by all participants.

Thanks to all who decorated the float—FUMC won 2nd Place!!

A group of FUMC members went out around town to bring Christmas joy through song to some of our members who cannot attend service at this time.

Christmas Carolers visited the Glebe, Carrington Place, the Brian Center and the homes of Doug Ross, Pat and Barbara Kagey and Dean Williamson.

The Dirty Santa game was a big hit again this year. Following the meal at the December 11th TOW the adults played the anonymous gift exchange game while the youth and children decorated holiday cookies.

Advent Season at FUMC

News From the District Office

Treasurer/Finance Committee Training Tuesday, January 14 @ 7 pm First UMC, 125 W. Main Street, Salem VA UMC Conference Treasurer, David Dommisse, will share best practices for local church finances including: internal accounting controls, best practices for handling church funds, audits, year-end statistics and more.

Registration is encouraged by email RoanokeDistrict@vaumc.org or call 540-989-3335

UMW Co-Sponsors Day at VA General Assembly Registration is now open for United Methodist Day at the General Assembly on Jan 30, 2020 presented by the Virginia Board of Church & Society, United Methodist Women and the Virginia Legislative Network Committee. New location for the event, The Pace Center, 700 W. Franklin Street in Richmond.

Contact Phyllis Geoghegan, District UMW President phyllis9@verizon.net, 804-896-6297

Laity Invited to Re-Connect with Bishop Lewis Bishop Sharma D. Lewis is inviting laity from around the conference for a time of connection following her return from medical leave. The event will be held February 8, 2020, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Woodlake UMC in Chesterfield, and live streamed to Thrasher Memorial UMC, in the Roanoke District. "It is my deep desire to reconnect with you in a personal and special way having been away from you for six months on medical leave,” Lewis said. The event is free and open to all laity. Lunch will be served.

Lenten Lunch Planning Meeting January 28th

There will be a meeting to discuss the Lenten Services and Lunches on Tuesday, January 28th at 2pm in the Family Life Center. We will schedule the cooks for 5 lunches - dates listed below. Many people look forward to these lunches and we can use lots of helping hands. Contact Susan Martin at 473-2636 with any questions.

Lunches begin at Noon on—March 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th and April 1st

Our Church Bell History by Eric Claunch

This bronze bell was made by George Hedderly, a bellfounder from Nottingham, England. When the Daniel Hedderly foundry closed in 1794, George emigrated to New York City where he worked with John Bailey. He moved to Philadelphia and cast bells in his own foundry until his death in 1813.

George was born in 1755 in St. Marys, Nottingham, England. He was apprenticed as a framesmith in 1769, when he was 14 years old. (A framesmith was someone who made weaving frames. Nottingham was famous at that time for lace making.) He later worked with his father and brother, Thomas II, probably doing the frame building and bell-hanging work.

On the death of his brother, Daniel, George found himself in charge of the foundry. Trade was not brisk and he resorted to regular advertisements in papers. After the death of his first wife, Hannah, he married a second time, to Sarah Sills in 1792.

In March 1793, the son of George and Sarah – Francis – was baptized at St. Mary, Nottingham. Shortly thereafter, George disappeared from Nottingham and emigrated to America, leaving his wife and child in England.

In America, George formed a partnership with John Bailey, a New York artisan. On February 27, 1794, they placed an advertisement in the New York Daily Advertiser announcing the establishment of the ‘New York Bellfoundery’. By 1798, he had moved his business to Philadelphia, where he operated the foundry until his death in 1813.

Note the steel clapper has indented the bronze bell over time (just right of clapper shadow), causing stress points which could eventually cause the bell to crack.

A number of bells that he crafted here in America are known to have survived:

1804 Raleigh, NC, courthouse bell

1804 Williamsport, PA, courthouse bell

1805 Hillsborough, NC, courthouse bell

1806 Old Swedes Church, Southwark, Philadelphia

1807 Sunbury, PA, courthouse bell, now hanging in the First Presbyterian Church

1807 First Presbyterian Church, Trenton, NJ

Edwin Hedderly was George Hedderly’s son. There is no evidence that either worked with Pass & Stowe who twice recast the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. This bell is cast with a crown and mounted on a yoke used for

ringing. Crowns on bells were usually used to mount stationary (non-swinging) bells and a yoke was not used. For bells being rung every week (likely in early years), they should be rotated on their yoke every 30 or 40 years to prevent stress points where the bell could crack. Unfortunately, because of the current mounting, this bell cannot be turned to lengthen its life unless lowered and unmounted from the yoke.

Sources: George Dawson, of Nottinghamshire, England,

http://www.georgedawson.homestead.com/archaeology.html,

and John Hedderly of Devon, England, and

Large Bells of America: History of Church Bells, Fire Bells,

School Bells, Dinner Bells and Their Foundries, Neil

Goeppinger,

31 Aug 2016, pps. 29, 37, 105

PHILADA was a common abbreviation of Philadelphia at the time and is the same spelling as on the Liberty Bell.

The Date on the bell is 1811

January 2020

December was the beginning of the Church new year and the end of 2019. It has been a time to meditate on how God poured out His grace on my family and me and how God has been with my family and me in the past year. I witness that this meditation on God’s grace leads us to gratitude, joy, love, and hope.

Six months have passed since I received my appointment to Fincastle United Methodist Church. Looking back, the time has passed quickly and has been filled with the grace and love of God. The ministry in Fincastle is a blessing from God for my family and me. The ministry at Fincastle UMC is first a cross-racial and cultural ministry. The church family is kind and supportive of my family and has helped us to settle into the community. We have been grateful to be asked how we are doing every time we meet with someone from the Fincastle community. They don’t know how thankful we have been each time they have asked how they can support our ministry and us.

In December, my house was filled with material and wrapping paper for making gifts. My wife, Sunny, thought about church families and prepared gifts for them, taking pleasure in imagining the joy of her intended recipients. I also witnessed that by distributing the gifts, her joy was doubled and returned to her. Meditation on the grace and love of God gives us gratitude, love, joy, and hope.

Sunny, our kids Aidan and Kevin, and I have prepared for the New Year with that hope. In January and February, I hope you will be able to get to know each other and share God's grace at the Fellowship Parties.

While we stand in this moment between 2019 and 2020, let us reflect on Deuteronomy 8. Moses tells the Israelites to remember the grace God gave them for forty years in the wilderness. Moses introduces God, who prepares the Israelites to enter the Promised Land, by observing God’s commandment to walk in obedience to Him:

2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. … 6 Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 6-7 NIV)

Grace and Peace,

Kwangmin Shin

January 5 Isaiah 60: 1-6

January 12 Matthew 3: 13-17

January 19 Isaiah 49: 1-7

January 26 Matthew 4: 12-23

January Worship Schedule

www.fincastleumc.org Rev. Kwangmin Shin, Pastor

Mary Rae, Organist

Brooke Stackpole, Choir Director

Laura Elliott, 9 am Music Leader

Michele Deaner, Administrative Assistant Annette Lane, Financial Secretary

Barbara Kagey, Financial Secretary

Fincastle UMC PO Box 63 Fincastle, VA 24090 540-473-3001

Botetourt Retired Educators Lunch

On December 9th, FUMC hosted the annual Botetourt Retired Educators Luncheon in our Family Life Center. All attendees enjoyed a wonderful meal, fellowship and a special treat—a performance by the Breckinridge Children’s Chorus. Thank you to all who made this event a success!