DR. ALLEN PREACHES

I hope everyone will come to church tomorrow to hear a great preacher. Dr. Doyle Allen served as District Superintendent when I served as lay member of the Annual Conference and on the PPR committee. He took a special interest in our church and held revivals for us. He also had the very difficult task of providing ministers during a hectic time when we were changing pastors every few months out of sequence with the normal June appointments. If I recall correctly he appointed Hubert Austin, Travis Summerlin and then persuaded Dr. Chaffin to come out of retirement on a temporary basis to help us out. We all need to come out and show our support.

I am glad Rick Potter is commenting on the blog. Everyone is invited to comment.

Charles

STICKS, STONES AND MEETINGS

Sticks are showing up at the parsonage. The walls are up and the roof trusses can't be far behind. I have been told that Larry Crockett has his roof trusses and he is one week ahead of the parsonage. Stones (the bricks) can't be far behind.
Meetings include the Finance Committee at 7 and the Admin Council at 7:30 Wednesday night. I hope that if you are on either one you will make the meetings.

Today I visited with Lois Garrett. She has Judy Porter helping her this week and they both looked like they were at the Mary Kay convention. Lois is as beautiful as ever, but said they won't let her walk because she tries to fall. We don't want her to break anything. I saw Jim Senkel at Kiwanis and he promised he would try to do better by posting to the blog.

Have you practised being a Christian by loving someone today that you really don't like. Love your neighbor is not always easy. But it is a commandment!

Charles

OUTREACH MINISTRY

The Disciples class has undertaken an outreach ministry to share Sunday School literature with others. It started with sending a current copy of our literature to Jimmilee Payne in Rising Star nursing home. This caused quite a dust-up when he accosted Rev. Senkel and told him that if everyone in church had read that Sunday's lesson on getting along that there would be no problems in our congregation. So even though he is not in class we know Jimmielee is with us in spirit and commenting on each week's lesson.

We were looking for a place to share our old literature and even though it is out of date, the material was very good. We were looking for a prison ministry and Jane Bonner volunteered to check with the Callahan County jail in Baird. They said they would appreciate the old material. Rev. Senkel pointed out that we had surplus New Testaments that had been given to our church because of the fire. So some of them were added to the box along with a note in each one stating that it was being shared from FUMC CP. It has been appreciated and we thank Jane for the hard work for the Lord. We are spreading the word in our small part of the world.

Charles

GIVING

I appreciate Judy updating us on the Food Pantry. I want to report that Judy gives everything to our community. Today she was giving blood along with Rolan Jones and Reggie Pillans. She gives her time to serve in every way. She reports that Lois Garrett is doing well and would appreciate short visits to help her break up her day.

I appreciate all the giving that our congregation does. I hope you do also.

Charles

DONATIONS......DONATIONS !

The Food Pantry has received quite a few donations the last 2 months. Hollis Shults Sr. gave money. Jean and Joe McWilliams cleaned out their travel trailer and gave us food. Beverly Brown from Cottonwood brought us spaghetti and sauces. Vickie and Dean Dillard gave us pork meat. Frankie Hyles donated deer sausage, pork and beef meat. Many thanks to the Cottonwood community for collecting seven grocery bags of food for us at their 4th of July celebration. The Baptist church gave us bread. These donations help us accomplish our mission to "feed our flock". Those who regularly help sack and deliver on the first and last Wednesdays of each month are Tom and Arlene Stephenson, Sharon Ames, and Johnnie Bland. We welcome anyone who would like to volunteer. Just show up at 8am on those Wednesdays.

I attended the mandatory Food Bank Agency meeting in Abilene in May and learned the new rules and financial guidelines. Of course there is more paperwork required. All of our clients filled out the new certification forms in June and July. We are serving an average of 40 families consisting of 80 people each month. There is a definate need in Cross Plains and we are filling it the best we can.

We always need paper sacks. Items needed are peanut butter and cereal.

Judy Porter, food pantry director

SLIGHTLY OPTIMISTIC

I am somewhat optimistic about progress on the church building. We are moving forward on the plans and specifications. I delivered copies to two builders in Abilene and after meeting with them I believe we can build our building within our budget. We still need to decide on a builder and get all the costs pinned down.

We met July 6 and Blanche Thrasher was having her knee operation early on the 7. I am praying that she is recovering and will be blessed by the operation. Dick Koenig said that Lois Garrett would appreciate visits. I hope everyone drops by occasionally.

At this time we need all of our church members working together by attending Sunday School and Church and meeting with the committees we have been chosen for. We all need to practice the prayer that Christ taught us "to forgive those who trespass against us". Remember the disciples asked how many times should we forgive someone. You all know the answer to that one.

We still need more posts. Judy needs to let us know how the Food Pantry is doing. Others with news or comments need to use this venue.

Thanks for letting me use it.

Charles

LET'S COMMUNICATE

Rev. Wallace Bennett, chair of the communications committee, said that they met and want to have more input to this Blog. I encourage everyone to sign up to post to the blog. Right now we have Judy Porter, Sharon Pope and Rev. Senkel who have done so. However none of us have posted lately and we should be communicating better. Of course I send a lot of email to my FUMC mailing list so that I don't republish here. Maybe I should because this can be read by others than our members.

The way this thing works, I have to approve you to be able to post. However anyone can submit a comment when they read a post. That comment comes to me to approve for posting and I have never turned down a comment. ( I have only received a couple.) I will give permission to any member who wants permission to post. Just email me and let me know.

As I said in my last message with the minutes of the Building Committee sent to my FUMC mailing list I am very encouraged about the progress on the church. We have engineers designing the metal building, the foundation and the mechanical/electrical/plumbing and will have specs to permit accurate bids by subcontractors in a week or so. We need to choose a contractor/construction manager to put it all together and start construction, if we can afford the now completed design.

I missed the Independence Day celebration at the Dillards. But Lou and I are really blessed by having our daughter, son-in-law and a granddaughter here. Today they are cleaning windows on our house and anyone who has seen our many windows can appreciate having that job done.

Sunday school and church attendance was small this last Sunday, but when the holiday is over, maybe more will come back to church. If you have quit coming, this is to let you know we miss you!

Charles