Missions – Page 25 – Princeton UMC Blog

April 23, 2015October 6, 2020

Welcome to the Oasis!

WELCOME TO THE OASIS! This Sunday, for Communiversity, Princeton United Methodist Church will show radical hospitality — opening its doors to foot-weary Princeton visitors. We will offer rest rooms, table seating, sunscreen, and a toddler area. This “Oasis” will even feature a sandbox for toddler play.

The teens will sell baked goods for the Appalachia Service Project and the handbell choir will play.

It’s all in PUMC’s mission statement —

To be a place where ALL are welcome. We embrace and celebrate the vast diversity of the people in our communities, our country and our world.

More than 40,000 people are expected to attend.

April 21, 2015October 6, 2020

To be a place where all are welcome

Have you noticed the Stand Against Racism poster in the downstairs hall and in storefronts around town? Merchants who support the Stand Against Racism campaign, by putting the signs in the window, are featured in a two-page color spread in Town Topics this week. The ad was sponsored by an anonymous donor to Not in Our Town, an interfaith, interracial group to which our church belongs. Special thanks to Joy Chen — a member of PUMC who is also vice president of the Princeton Merchants Association and proprietor of JoyCards — for designing the poster.

Princeton United Methodist Church and its members are committed to this cause. Our vision statement says that we aim to be a place where ALL are welcome. “We embrace and celebrate the vast diversity of the people in our communities, our country, and our world.”

Consider following the Not in Our Town Princeton blog, a curated selection of media coverage and a calendar of pertinent events.

April 7, 2015October 6, 2020

The Gospel According to Calypso

Many value the Calypso – the indigenous music of Trinidad and Tobago – exclusively as tourist or Carnival entertainment, says Catherine Williams, pastoral care assistant.

“However there is much that is akin to preaching in this genre, and the calypsonians themselves would be the first to admit it,” says Catherine. She returned to her home country of Trinidad & Tobago to research her doctoral thesis. “It was my delight to discover anew this cultural gem from my country of origin, and to use it as a lens through which to focus on local preaching.”

Catherine will speak at the Circle of Friends meeting on Tuesday, April 14, at 10:30 a.m. at Rocky Hill’s Trinity Church. The Circle of Friends, part of United Methodist Women, meets bimonthly. RSVP to 609-924-2613 and big a bag lunch; beverage and dessert will be provided. All women are welcome.

Catherine&HomileticsStudents — A January class of Homiletics students at the West Indies School of Theology in Trinidad and Tobago.

March 31, 2015October 6, 2020

“My help comes from the Lord”

Such a scurry, in the 4th/5th grade class, to cut out flowers, illustrating both the Garden of Gethsemane and this month’s memory verse. Now it hangs outside Room 204, and it reminds us that after the time of trial came joy, and the fulfillment of the promise, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2).

psalm 121 poster

March 30, 2015October 6, 2020

UMW Bakes for Womanspace

Hundreds of cookies are on their way to Womanspace today, baked by United Methodist Women putting our new kitchen to great use! Here is the photo album.

Womanspace replies: Please know that your hard work and the time you put in will touch many…and often it is the little touches of comfort that carry us through difficult times.

March 24, 2015October 6, 2020

Learning Resilience

Feelings are like waves, says Karin Brouwer. You cannot stop them from coming, but you can decide which ones to surf. Karin spoke at the March breakfast, served by the United Methodist Men, on Finding Inner Resilience to Meet Life’s Challenges. Karin trained as a trauma, abuse, and grief recovery counselor, and her insights were so valuable that everyone asked for the power point notes. Here they are.

March 17, 2015October 6, 2020

Masks from the Congo: March 21 Auction

3 Luba Shankadi mask

This mask from the Congo is a traditional Luba craft, not created for the tourist trade. Bidding starts at $200.

This amazing Luba Shankadi mask will be on sale, in a live auction, at the African Soiree on Saturday, March 21. Anyone may buy other items at the African marketplace, from 4:30 on, but you need a ticket to the dinner to participate in the Kuba art auction. Go to the United Front Against Riverblindness website for tickets.

Also, a cowry-shell and bead purse. How unusual! Cowry shells were a form of money, so this purse is a double-entendre — cowry shells on a handbag that holds money. Bidding starts at $100.

And — just for fun — here is Jack wearing a title holder’s hat of office, similar to one in the auction. Our own Michele Tuck-Ponder will call the auction, all to benefit United Front Against Riverblindness, giving hope to thousnds of Congolese.

March 11, 2015October 6, 2020

Ruth Woodward, Pat Hatton: Quilt for ASP

A quilt designed by the late Ruth Woodward will be featured at the dinner auction, to benefit the Appalachia Service project, on Saturday, March 14 at 6 p.m. Ruth — a PUMC member who was committed to missions — did not finish it before she died, so Patricia H. completed and donated the quilt.

Her pasttime was quilting, but in her professional life she was an historian, author, and editor. She wrote the history of PUMC. She co-edited at least two volumes of a biographical dictionary and was a supporter of, and the historian for, the Women’s College Club of Princeton.

The dinner and auction, in Princeton United Methodist Church’s Fellowship Hall, will be hosted by youth in grades 9 to 12. The evening also includes many bargains at a silent auction. All proceeds go to the annual service trip to Appalachia, where the teens work to make homes warmer, safer, and drier. Tickets are $5.

To complete the circle, Michele TuckPonder will “call” the auction for this quilt, and she lives in the Woodward’s former house.
2014 11 slider for asp

March 7, 2015October 6, 2020

The Feed Truck Folks in Mission

Volunteers organized by the Feed Truck from Kingston United Methodist Church held a Volunteer Meetup workday today (Saturday, March 7) at PUMC. Click here for the Facebook album and share!

We heard about the Feed Truck from its executive director, Jessica Winderweedle, when she preached at PUMC in January. Each month, The Feed Truck partners with a different local non-profit that works to alleviate food insecurity and economic injustice in our area (thefeedtruck@gmail.com).

Today the more than 2 dozen volunteers — seminary and university students, KUMC church members and staff, and PUMC volunteers — accomplished lots. In Fellowship Hall’s newly-renovated catering kitchen, they made chili for Cornerstone Community Kitchen under the direction of Darrell Baum, Feed Truck chef, and they also made raspberry jam. They helped sort mounds of clothing for the Clothes Closet at CDK and for Threads of Hope closet at Chambers United Methodist Church. They decorated breakfast bags for Cornerstone Community Kitchen and did other useful tasks.

Thanks to Christina Ong, a Malaysian student in her final year at seminary, Aron and Sara Tillema (both seminary students from California), Katie O’Hearn (on the staff at KUMC), KUMC volunteer Alan MacIlroy, Arby Barrett of Manahawken, Theresa Henry, a mole bio graduate student at Princeton, Aida Haddad (seminary student in program ministry at KUMC), Skitch Mattson and Adam Tobey (seminary students who are Feed Truck Chaplains), Meghan Kane (an RVCC student), Melissa McKamie (ask her about musical theatre!), Michele Bylsma (who works at Riverside School), Amanda Nicol (KUMC member), Jessica Rigel (seminary student from Pennington), and Meredith Cox (seminary student from Atlanta Georgia). Also to PUMC members Judy Miller, Annette Ransom, seminary intern Brady Beard, and Jeanette Timmons, volunteer extraordinaire from the Jewish Center of Princeton. There was even a father-son team. Richard Adams is a seminary student and his father Gregg was visiting this week from Virginia. Praise the Lord for the use of talents and time!

March 5, 2015October 6, 2020

Sunday School Mission Project: March 2015

In the spirit of service, the 2^nd-3^rd and 4^th-5^th grade Sunday School Classes will be sponsoring a mission project through Church World Service. The children in the 2^nd-3^rd grade class reviewed options last week and selected to prepare Hygiene Kits. According to Church World Service, “In the face of natural disasters, violence, or grinding poverty, Hygiene Kits can mean the difference between sickness and health for struggling families.”

(The photo shows a child displaced by the 2011 Mt. Merapi volcano eruption in Indonesia receiving CWS School and Hygiene Kits. Photo: Matt Hackworth/CWS)

Children can bring supplies from the list below to Sunday School from now through March 29. That day, the children will assemble the kits. Then we will bless the kits in a church service and send them to Church World Service.

Supply List:

One hand towel measuring approximately 16″ x 28″ (no fingertip or bath towels)
One washcloth
One wide-tooth comb
One nail clipper
One bar of soap (bath size in wrapper)
One toothbrush (in original packaging)

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant[a] is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” John 13:12-17.

For stories about how the kits are used, click here.

by Tracey and the other Sunday School teachers