Food Drive for MACC

Can we collect 100 bags of groceries for MACC between now and April 10th ?

The Outreach/Mission Committee believes we can! Starting this past Sunday, we will be placing the donated bags of groceries on the altar and then storing them until the BIG DAY on Sunday April 10th .

We especially need: meat soups, beef stew, canned meat, pasta sauce, cereal, corn, peas, tomatoes, baked beans, bak-ing mixes and coffee, diapers sizes 4 & 5, corned beef hash, chili with beans, canned white potatoes, juice, rice/pasta mixes, jelly, mixed vegetables, spinach, clam chowder, peanut butter, canned pasta (ravioli, spaghetti & meatballs, etc.), condiments, tuna, dry boxed pota-toes, dry red kidney beans, mayonnaise, gelatin/pudding mixes, ramen noodles, sugar, green beans, beets, beans (black, white, pinto, etc.), chicken soup, yams, snacks, hot chocolate, pasta, carrots.

Everyone is invited to join the committee on Sunday afternoon, April 10th to deliver the bags to the MACC Food Pantry. We will then sort the food, check the expiration dates, and stock the pantry shelves. Jacki Campion, Director of Volunteer Services, will be on hand to explain a little about how the pantry works. Several people have expressed an interest in seeing where their donated food goes and how the food pantry operates. This is also a wonderful opportunity to involve the children in giving to those in need.

We expect this will run from about 1:30 to 2:30 or 3:00. We hope you will be inspired during this Lenten season to think of your neighbors who may be struggling during the economic downturn. James 2:8 reminds us: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”.

More information will be forthcoming as to times and logistics.

New Tidings and Today's Special Sermon

Newly on our website you will find the March edition of Tidings, our monthly newsletter, as well as many sermons including the very special one shared with us today.

North Stars Singing this Sunday

Hear the children of North United Methodist Church sing "Sing When the Spirit Says Sing" at the 10:30 service this Sunday.

Local Music this Sunday at 6pm

Come see one of NUMC's own, Caleb Cadman play with One Achord at a benefit concert at Ellington Wesleyan Church (Rt.140, 276 Crystal Lake Rd) Ellington CT at 6pm Sunday. Read more at the Facebook entry for this event.

What’s all the “murmur” about?

This February we are taking the “pulse” of our music ministry.
Do we have a healthy “rhythm” or do we need “resuscitation”?
Are we keeping “pace” with your musical needs?
Help us “monitor” our program by leaving suggestions in the box found in the new narthex.
Also, “no pressure” . . .
But if you like music, why not consider becoming a choir member?
You can’t “beat” it!
- Chris Collins

Good Clean Fun

This Saturday is the first of a series of Good Clean Fun gatherings for children and youth ages 8 to 15. GCF evenings are open to the children and youth of North Church and their friends.

Cost is a mere $10 per child and will include adult supervision of the following: Games, Activities, DJ music and Refreshments.

Call your friends and come join an outrageously fun night!

Saturday, February 12 from 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm

Questions? Want to Volunteer to help or chaperone?
Call Anita at 860-712-9991

PRAYING THE PSALMS

During the next nine weeks, up to Palm Sunday, we will engage in a sermon series focusing on the Psalms. The Psalms come to us from our Judeo-Christian roots. Psalms were the hymn book of ancient Israel, were used during worship in the early church and continue to be used today throughout both the Jewish and Christian world.

As I opened the bible recently to look for a psalm to find words to fit my situation (sometimes I prefer to use other people’s words. They seem so appropriate!) I was struck by how many psalms were psalms of lament – grief over the situation in which the person praying finds herself, a complaint to God, a petition to God and thanksgiving that God is faithful to attend to the particular situation. There are other psalms as well -- Psalms of praise, psalms of thanksgiving, royal psalms, wisdom/torah psalms, entrance (to the temple) liturgies, prophetic exhortation, psalms of confidence and trust.

Scholars believe that many of the individual psalms of lament were prayers from individuals in distress who went to the temple to pray for God’s help. Sometimes the prayer is for relief from evil – sickness, war or conflict, and sometimes the prayers are admissions of the praying person’s own guilt, but always the psalms acknowledge our fundamental dependence on God for life and the future. The righteous are those who understand this and try to live it.
We will be following the psalm of the day in the lectionary calendar, begin-ning with Psalm 119 – the longest psalm in the bible – 176 verses, although we will only be reading the first eight verses in worship, UMH # 840. The fact of the matter is that this psalm is repetitive, but we find the essence of the teaching in the first eight verses – those who follow God’s law are blessed, or happy. So I have titled the first sermon HAPPY PEOPLE. I follow this theme throughout the series with a description of the kind of people the psalm focuses on, so for example one sermon will be titled Righteous People, another Humble People. The neat thing about following the lectionary is that themes run through all of the readings for the day, and so I am able to include references from the other readings, to tie the message all together neatly.

I hope you will find the series useful in enriching your personal prayer life and for your own personal spiritual growth. (Shalom. Shalvah) Peace, Safety and security to you, which are the results of praying the psalms.