Great Things Are Happening!

Vian UMC has been selected from many deserving applicants to receive BOTH the Petree Grant and the DBOM Grant! These grants will allow us to create an audio/video booth at the rear of the sanctuary. This will enable us to place TV’s at the front of the sanctuary by each door, where we can display announcements, Scripture, new song lyrics, videos and movies. The ability to host community movie events will become an additional outreach to our community. The men have formed a local chapter of UMM. All of the men in the area are invited to become involved in this ministry. Local and district opportunities are available for all of the men. They are developing plans for their first fund raiser and we are excited about the possibilities that this ministry will provide. When men join together in prayer and in action, what an exiting outreach for all!

Messenger the church

Monthly Newsletter of Vian United Methodist Church | February 2013

2/10 Circle of Care Sunday

2/13

Ash Wednesday 6pm

2/17 1st Sunday of Lent UMM Meet at noon

2/18

President’s Day

3/1 World Day of Prayer

3/9 Winter Jam in Tulsa

3/10 Daylight Savings Time

3/31

Easter Sunday

Mark Your

Calendar

What is the significance of ashes being placed on the forehead on Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. Lent is a time when many

Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation

and spiritual discipline. Ash Wednesday emphasizes two themes: our sinfulness before

God and our human mortality. The service focuses on both themes, helping us to realize

that both have been triumphed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The minister will lightly rub the sign of the cross with ashes onto the foreheads of

worshipers. The use of ashes as a sign of mortality and repentance has a long history in

Jewish and Christian worship. Historically, ashes signified purification and sorrow for

sins. It is traditional to save the palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday service to

burn to produce ashes for this service. The ash cross on the forehead is an outward sign

of our sorrow and repentance for sins. *Adapted from The United Methodist Book of

Worship

"Catch the Spirit NOW" will be the theme for the Retreat Gathering of United Methodist Men in our Muskogee district as well as Men from the Northeast Area of the Oklahoma Indian Methodist Men at Camp Egan on Feb. 22nd-23rd. Our District Superintendent Emery Mason will be one Keynote Speakers as well as Steve Davis, former OU Quarterback, ABC TV Football analyst and current guest host of the Sports Animal Radio show in Tulsa. Registration forms are available and all of our men are encouraged to attend. The UMM held their second meeting Sunday January 13th and Bill Nygard, President of the Muskogee District UMM was the guest speaker. Their next meeting will be Sunday February 17th after morning worship. Lunch will be provided. Wednesday Youth Services With our recent grant awards, we’re hoping to have our new Wednesday evening youth services up and running February 6th. Teens will be invited to come to the church immediately after school where a snack will be awaiting them. They will have the opportunity to watch movies, do homework, play board games, darts or ping pong and other activities as time allows. At 5:30 we will serve dinner. At 6:00 we will move to the sanctuary for worship service. Everyone is encouraged to become involved. If you can help with the teens after school, you are both wanted and needed. Retired teachers make wonderful tutors to kids who need a little help in certain subjects. Sitting down to dinner with our youth opens up lines of communication and they love to be engaged in conversation. Joining them in praise and worship allows for new ideas and insights into the future of our youth and our church. There’s also the need for people to prepare snacks & drinks, prepare the evening meal and clean up after. However you can become involved, you are appreciated. Welcome new members! We would like to welcome all the new members received over the past two months. John Hult, Sr, Taegen Ellis, Creighton Ellis, Rita Larson, Fred Hamon, Daphne Hamon, Samantha Hamon, Allie Hamon and Kyle Hamon—welcome to Vian UMC! We are so happy to have you as a part of our growing family! If you have never formally joined the church and would like to become a member, please see Pastor Marcia.

UMM Retreat

What an exiting time to be a part of God’s church! As we enter into 2013, our question should be “Where can I serve?” “Where can God use my gifts and talents?” We are so blessed to have such warm, caring and loving individuals at our church. The first thing a visitor always says to me is how wanted and accepted they felt when they arrived. It’s time for us to take things to the next level. It’s time for us to share the love of Christ with our families, our neighbors and our community. As plans are underway for services and events in the coming year, everyone has gifts and talents to offer. Your gift may be working with children, youth or older adults. Your gift may be to spend time in intercessory prayer for the various ministries of the church. Both are equally important and equally needed. But whatever your gift is, don’t let it sit dormant on a shelf, use it for the glory of God. God has blessed Vian UMC over the years and He’s not finished with us yet! Welcome 2013! Peace and Love,

Pastor Marcia

A Word from the Pastor

Please lift up the

following in prayer:

Margaret Horn

Perego family

Crawford family

Phyllis Hill family

Sarah Bane

Len & Peggy McCarty

Vernon & Loraine Lawrence

Billie & John Foster

Lucille Ford

Jimmy Hughes

Adrianne Elbin

Don Brockman

Don & Patti Jamison

Freddy Howard

Lucille Gossett

Dick & Bess Chamberlin

Darrel & Margalo Vix

Debbie & Sarah McDonald

Bill & Margaret Bane

Barbara Jean VanHooser

Richard Hawkins

Mary Ann Castle

Joy Pryor

Juanita Long

Kyle Coke

Pete & Kelly Jack

Lucy (Loraine’s sister)

Debbie Tackett & family

Coraline "Corky" Reid

Tonya Roop

Diantha Judkins

Ruby Green

Linda Hall

Diana Anderson West

Keith & Amanda Dobbs

Bill Ball

Cathy Davis

Naomi Carron

Katy Cabe

Jenny Callhorn

Joney Long

Colbert Croft

Tom Casteel

Tina Thompson

David Richey

Teresa Webb

Linda Brown

Donnie Jamison

Debbie Brockman

Bill Speer

Justin Mills

Please pray for our country,

leaders and the following in

our military family:

Brandon Van Hooser

Nathan Garrett

Will Boyd

Jim (Buddy) McCoy

Jimmy Hemphill

David Atkinson

Chris Graham

Ryan Tyler

Cody Baird

Marcus Lawrence

Kevin Lamb

Kevin Bray

William Jenkins

February Birthdays!

5 ~ Amanda McCoy 6 ~ Brandt Brown 6 ~ Paula Brown 7 ~ Norvell (Red) Lee 14 ~ Declan Herriman 17 ~ Silas Sloan 22 ~ Loraine Lawrence 27 ~ Haley McCurdy

Please take a moment to remember these members

with a card, phone call or visit. Their information

is listed below for your convenience.

Margaret Horn

PO Box 445

Vian, OK 74962

918-773-5333

Don & Pattie Jamison

PO Box 495

Vian, OK

918-773-5490

Bill Bane

Rt. 2 Box 73

Sallisaw, OK 74955

918-773-8182

John & Billie Foster

PO Box 555

Vian, OK 74962

918-773-8278

Rev. Len & Peggy McCarty

PO Box 259

Vian, OK 74962

918-489-2564

From the Bishop

If you log onto www.okumc.com and click on the link for the Bishop’s Corner you will find articles written by our Bishop Robert Hayes, Jr. I thought I would share with you his article for the new year. Declaring my dependence "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you." (Psalm 73:25, NIV) Every year businesses of every size and description conduct what is commonly called inventory. People who have been assigned this task will tell you that the complete cataloging of all materials is a painstaking process. In these first days of the new year, consider that word inventory from a Christian perspective. When I did, I quickly concluded that businesses find value in identifying the aggregate worth of their goods — and their process provides a model for you and me. Should there not also be a "spiritual inventory" that details what we own in relationship to God and our faith? Surely the beginning of a year invites us to take stock of our beliefs and make a declaration of the importance of God in our lives! When I completed my sophomore year in college, The Methodist Church sent me (and 21 other students) to Europe and Russia for several months. As we crossed from one country into the next, we encountered serious-minded customs clerks at every border. They uttered only one line: "Have you anything to declare?" Today’s article is my declaration of my absolute and utter dependence on the God I serve! As I attempt to tally the value of my life’s experiences, I quickly arrive at the bottom line: Without God in my life, all meaning, value, and hope would be gone. God is the One who holds my life together. Without God, I would be lost. As he closed his prayer, a 10-year-old boy uttered, "And please, God, look after yourself, because if anything happens to you, we’re all sunk!" It may surprise you, but the little lad and psalmist were on the same page. Child and author alike were struck by the outright necessity of God. What would happen if we took God out of our world? The very first thing, I believe, is all goodness would vanish from life. People often generalize about the bad in the world. But if God did not exist, if we did not have Someone/Something (God) to have faith in, there would be no moral compass for living. We have seen what happens when nations and individuals eliminate God. Gates open into concentration camps; life is devalued; the human spirit is seen as something to be broken. Innocent children are taken away when visited by evil in the quiet of a schoolroom. Secondly, if we did not have God in our lives there would be no meaning in living — life would begin in nothingness and end

in nothingness! Granted, at times it is so difficult for us to see any purpose, especially when things happen that we cannot and do not understand. But because we believe in God, deep within us we hold onto hope, assured there is a reason, an explanation that will make our living tolerable and purposeful. And lastly, if we did not have God, all our help would be gone from the world. John Buchan wrote, "An atheist is a person with no invisible means of support." Somehow Buchan knew that if God was eliminated the invisible presence of the One who sustains, strengthens, and heals would not exist. As I inventory the many times I have made it safely through difficult and dire situations, I know it was God who brought me through them! I have witnessed for myself God’s presence in the operating room when the doctors reached the limits of their skills and God took over. I have heard God singing the refrain when, after losing someone I love, I’ve sung songs of deep pain into the night. Somehow, God has turned those songs into anthems of joy in my heart. What have I to declare? With the child and the psalmist I declare that, in the changing of the seasons and the ever-evolving years of my life, I have none in heaven but God, and there is nothing on earth I desire more than God! "O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come; Our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home. A thousand ages in Thy sight are like an evening gone; Short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun." (Isaac Watts, 1674-1748)

"Whom have I in heaven

but you? And earth has

nothing I desire besides

you." (Psalm 73:25, NIV)