Staff/Volunteers

Chris Jorgensen Jannene Sass Cindy Keiser Page Moore Marlys Lubash Pastor Music Director Office Manager Treasurer Financial Secretary & Membership Secretary Office Hours: Contact Us:

Monday-Thursday 4444 Frances St. www.hanscomparkchurch.org 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM Omaha, NE 68105 info@hanscomparkchurch.org Phone: 402.553.3312 Fax: 402.553.3313 Follow us on Facebook

Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a

house on bedrock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It

didn’t fall because it was firmly set on bedrock. – Matthew 7:24-25

Dear Friends,

I write this note a half-a-month into my time as your newly minted pastor and just as we finish our

Vacation Bible School (VBS) program. I am absolutely blown away at the generosity of time and

talent that the volunteers for VBS have given this week. Because of their hard work, skillful

organization, and enthusiasm, we have hosted 50 (fifty!) children from HPUMC, St. Luke’s UMC, and

many beyond our two congregations for a time of growth, learning, and fun. This week, as I

watched all the families drop off their kids, all the youth volunteers shepherd them around the

building, and all the adult volunteers scurry about making sure everyone was feeling safe and

loved, I could not have been more proud to be your pastor. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This August, we move into a season of thinking about stories. As human beings, how we

understand and imagine our own stories can make a profound difference in the way we live. As

Christians, there is one big, giant, cosmic story in which we participate in our own tiny way. We will

spend this month reflecting on that big story, God’s story, during a sermon series called The Story

We Stand On. As we come together in our “Getting to Know You” small group meetings to hear

each other’s sacred stories, I invite us to ponder the marvelous story of God’s faithfulness to God’s

people, God’s reconciling work in Jesus Christ, and God’s Holy Spirit that built the very first Chris-

tian communities and inspires us still.

Let’s encounter God’s magnificent story together this August as we prepare to explore what the

next chapter will hold for us as individuals, families, and a family of faith.

With love and blessings,

Pastor Chris

Monthly Calendar

Sun. 10:00 AM Worship

6:00 PM AA (Meeting Room)

Mon. 9:30 AM AA (Meeting Room)

10:30 AM Advanced Tai Chi

1:00 PM Beginner Tai Chi

5:30 PM Garden work

Tues. 7:30 PM AA (Meeting Room)

Wed. 10:30 AM Advanced Tai Chi

1:00 PM Beginner Tai Chi

Thurs. 7:30 PM AA (Meeting Room)

Weekly Events Calendar

Sunday School

Sunday School has ended for the

Summer. It will begin again this fall.

Ages 3—5th grade

Wednesday Nights

Dinner/Creative Night has ended

for the summer. Both will return this fall.

SHARE Orders

August 9th: 5 PM

August 12th: 9 AM

Distribution Day:

August 26th 10:15 AM

8-03 6:30 PM 4H

8-05 3:00 PM Meet & Greet with Pastor Chris hosted by Gaspers

8-06 3:00 PM Meet & Greet with Pastor Chris hosted by Mashek’s

8-07 5:30 PM Worship Team Meeting

8-08 2:00 PM Meet & Greet with Pastor Chris hosted by L.. Gruidel @ St. Andrews Hall

8-08 7:00 PM Meet and Greet with Pastor Chris hosted by S.Berger’s

8-09 5:00 PM SHARE Orders

7:00 PM Meet & Greet with Pastor Chris hosted by A. Hamel @ St. Andrews Hall

8-10 9:30 AM Busy Bees

8-12 9:00 AM SHARE Orders

8-13 11:30 AM Meet & Greet with Pastor Chris hosted by B. Wiles place tbd

8-14 5:30 PM Stewardship & Finance Meeting

Trustees

6:30 PM Mission Team Meeting

7:30 PM Church Council Meeting

8-15 7:00 PM MIM

8-21 Newsletter Deadline

8-24 4:00 PM Wedding Rehearsal

8-25 5:30 PM Brown /Hauptman wedding

8-26 10:15 AM SHARE Distribution

8-28 6:30 PM Circle Theatre thru 8-31

2nd Quarter Financial Report

Segue Mission Trip

The Segue had a great trip this summer to Pawhuska, Oklahoma inside the Osage Nation Reservation. The area has such rich history. It is hard to boil the trip down to a single thought, so let’s follow boB’s rambling road.

We stopped on the way to Pawhuska in Kansas City for a day of fun and sun. We were graciously hosted by the Avondale United Methodist Church. The members and Pastor welcomed us making sure we had all the comforts of home. The Segue spent the day at Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun. God blessed our group with spectacular weather making it the perfect day. After dark, when we finally arrived back at Avondale UMC church, we had a late supper and a little downtime before our weeks marathon began. Sunday morning, we joined our new friends at Avondale for services and Sunday school, then we were off to Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

The area itself was beautiful. Not the dry desert landscape stereotyped in our brains although the heat and humidity did get quite high, but that just added to the experience. The land offers the reservation ample resources from farming to cattle to oil. Pawhuska was the original oil boomtown. As a matter of fact, it was so sought after, the one dollar bill has a mark (a tiny spider) by the upper right 1 as a thank you from the US government to this proud nation. A nation who served the US government in forging paths into the West.

Other interesting landmarks included the Pioneer Woman. She lives in Pawhuska and attends the Lutheran church where the boys slept. Her dedication to the town, her community and her faith can be seen everywhere you turn. From revitalizing the downtown beginning with a store / restaurant called the Mercantile to buying the old Walmart building and making it a manufacturing facility providing jobs to helping her church build a new gorgeous building and leaving the old for the community to use; everywhere we turned we enjoyed her hospitality.

There is a Catholic church in town whose stained glass windows are nothing short of amazing. They were the first windows to highlight people in the glass. The were commissioned in Germany and became the subject of contention when WWI broke out, so they were buried in the sand on the river’s edges to survive. Then they were dug up and worked on and shipped just before the Nazi’s took them. Wow, talk about being woven into world history! The entire sanctuary is wrapped in the these windows with deep colors and an awesome story intertwining local and biblical history.

Next, Pawhuska is the home to the first Boy Scout Troop in the United States of America. They have a museum rich in Boy Scout and Girl Scout history. Trails blazed, treaties signed and pictures of Troop 1 now used for the Wood Badge Troop.

Lastly, Tom Boone, a community icon, gave us a tour of the town and took us to the Million Dollar Elm. By the 1920s, oil leases sold in the shade of a “Million Dollar Elm” brought prosperity to the Osage Nation. Production from Osage County alone launched the careers of Frank Phillips, J. Paul Getty, Bill Skelly, E.W. Marland, Harry Sinclair – and Clark Gable. The Osage Nation covers more than 2,200 square acres and although anyone can own property in Pawhuska, the Nation retains mineral rites for anything below 4” of soil. Very interesting.

Our site was broken into 2 pieces since our group session was so large at 69 people. The main church site was just outside of Pawhuska on a wooded hill overlooking the town. The main hall used for gatherings, meals, worship, etc. was there. The girls bunked in the Sunday school rooms of this church. The boys used an older hall attached to the old Lutheran church near downtown Pawhuska about a 5 minute ride away. The Lutheran’s have since built a larger, more modern church, but kept the old building for community use. The boys site was open only from 10:45PM to 7:15AM, so planning was paramount. Our worksites included various homeowners, the Catholic soup kitchen and the town’s elementary school. Stephanie took on the soup kitchen guarantying some of the best spaghetti and chili the town has had, just not at the same time. Arnold tackled Miss Lou’s house, some gardening next to the Methodist church and a lot of painting at the school. boB’s group took on taming a neglected lot for Miss Nicole and getting her trailer ready for a future crews to spruce up. Everyone learned a lot and connected with the community through their service work. The biggest connection came on the 4th of July. We joined in the festivities by watching their first ever 4th of July parade. The parade participants included the equestrian club, a stroller walker group and a fire engine. Everyone was so excited and proud. The parade route ended in the heart of the downtown with a large stage setup and vendors along the sides. A storm the night before knocked out power so shop owners were moved out on the sidewalk adding to the ambiance. The whole event was quite magical, especially running into the United Methodists Women’s group giving away apple cobbler. The kids gave them hugs, ate some pie and we all enjoyed some pictures together. Then we were off to the elementary school for service work.

Cont’d next page...

Service work in July in Oklahoma can get a bit dirty and smelly with teenagers, so each day at 3:30 we gathered at the Pawhuska High School Field House in shifts for cold showers. The shifts are setup by groups responsible for prepping food, cleaning, dishes, etc. A gas line had been severed early in the summer, so no gas was available to make hot water. It was blessing in disguise, however, as it was nice to cool off, if only for a bit.

The lessons aren’t all achieved through service work, the youth also spent time each day exploring their faith. Each day starts with daily devotions. The ONLY quite time each student gets is here. They answer questions in their travel journals related to the theme and prepare their minds for the day ahead. After this, service work begins. At the end of the day, everyone gathers for LGG (Large Group Gathering) where we sing, laugh and debrief from the day’s activities. LGG ends with Bible lessons and dismissal to church group time. There we gather as only Hanscomites for an hour and dive deeper into the Bible lessons. The theme for the week was The Good Life. Each person explored how to lead and live the very best life they can. The takeaways are based in this verse… “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” –Jesus (John 10:10).

Hopefully you enjoyed this snippet into our trip. The Segue learned so much and is very grateful in supporting everything they did to earn the funds to be able to go. THANK YOU. Thank You. Really, thank you. This is a trip they will talk about their whole lives. A foundation on which they will build their faith, their children’s faith and their children’s children’s faith. The congregation of Hanscom Park UMC has put into motion a downhill snowball of love and kindness whose full affects won’t be realized for countless generations to come. I am awed by your support.

boB Austin

8-01 John Buckley

Dave Tripp

Steve Berg

Morgan Bostic

8-02 Byron Bothwell

Jessica Gittins

Emily Thompson

8-03 Maurice Mashek

8-04 Nicole Anderson

8-06 Mitch Darling

Brandon Novotny

Taylor Evans

Kellis Bostic

8-07 Rick Cotner

8-08 Bob Austin

8-11 Nicole Owen

8-13 Dee Hunter

8-14 Megan Hobbs

8-16 Ellee Poore

8-17 Tish Marcum

8-19 Kara Petermann

8-20 Bev Armour

8-22 Kevin McCormick

8-23 Randy Hineline

Erik Pearson

8-24 Dale Dorsey

Judy Petermann

Charleen Bonacci

Cody Armour

8-27 Marge Sandlier

Robert Frederick

8-28 Greg Chapp

John Ptacek

8-29 Michael Waller

8-31 Samantha Sublett

Birthdays