2020 The Year in Review

rst United Methodist Church - Victoria, TXrst United Methodist Church - Victoria, TX

I hope you had an opportunity to watch my “State of

the Church” address that was emailed a while back.

In it, I wanted to convey how proud I am to be the

senior pastor of a church that didn’t let COVID or any

other obstacles derail us from BEING THE CHURCH.

I am genuinely proud of all of your eorts… that goes

for all of the church sta as well as laity.

This newsleer is designed to give you an idea of

what the church has been up to over the past year,

and what to look forward to in the coming year.

The vision I have for First United Methodist Church

is to be a lay-driven church. Actually, I believe all

churches should aspire to being lay-driven. If we look

back to Moses’ ministry, we see that his father in law

set him straight on his limitaons. Moses had made

a fairly common mistake among clergy; he tried to do

too much. He tried to keep the ministry to himself,

but it wasn’t working out too well. In Exodus 18:17,

Jethro, Moses’ father in law, says to him, “What you

are doing is not good. You will surely wear yourself

out, both you and these people with you. For the task

is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.”

Basically, he told Moses that clergy have

ministry responsibilies, and laity have ministry

responsibilies… let the lay people do theirs! Even

Jesus sent out the disciples on their own.

Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “The gis he gave were

that some would be apostles, some prophets, some

evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the

saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body

of Christ.” That seems like prey clear direcve for a

lay driven church…. “to equip the saints for the work of

ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”

While I’m in a quong mood, I’m reminded of one

of my favorites by the founder of the Methodist

movement, John Wesley, “We are not as smart as the

laity think we are; and they are not as dumb as we

think they are.” Now, I don’t think you are dumb, but

the message that Wesley was sending to the clergy

was the same as Jethro’s counsel to Moses: The task

is too heavy for pastors to do it alone, and the laity are

not only capable, but called.

In the book, The Lay-Driven Church, by Melvin

Steinborn, he lays out an old vs. new mindset shi that

needs to happen when it comes to ministry. Let me

share a few with you:

Old: The pastor is called by God to be a minister.

New: Every Chrisan is called by God to be a minister.

Old: Ministry is the task of the pastor, supported by

the people.

New: Ministry is the task of the people, supported by

the pastor.

Old: The people assist the pastors in doing what they

believe God is calling the pastor to do.

The State of The Church

New: The pastors assist the people in doing what they

believe God is calling the people to do.

Old: The pastor has all of the gis required to nurture

and care for a congregaon.

New: All of the people together have the gis required

to nurture and care for a congregaon.

Old: The pastors bear the burden of the ministry. The

people hold the pastors up in prayer.

New: Both people and pastors bear the burden of the

ministry. They hold one another up in prayer.

As a church, FELLOWSHIP, OUTREACH, MISSION, and

DISCIPLESHIP are essenal. Remove any one of these

and the church becomes severely out of balance.

When fellowship, outreach, and mission are nurtured,

discipleship grows.

Brief denions

Fellowship: Builds community within our church

family.

Outreach: Reaches beyond the walls of the church to

introduce others to Jesus Christ.

Mission: Extends the love of Christ through works of

mercy.

Discipleship: Is a journey in which we grow in faith

and relaonship with Christ.

Key Scriptures

Fellowship – “And let us consider how to provoke

one another to love and good deeds, not neglecng

to meet together, as is the habit of some, but

encouraging one another, and all the more as you see

the day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:24-25

Outreach – “For everyone who calls on the name

of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call

on one in whom they have not believed? And how

are they to believe in one of whom they have never

heard? And how are they to hear without someone to

proclaim him?” – Romans 10:13-14

Mission – “Lord, when did we see you hungry and

feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or

needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see

you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The king will

reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the

least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for

me.’” – Mahew 25:37-40

Discipleship – “Go therefore and make disciples of

all naons, bapzing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching

them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of

the age.” – Mahew 28:19-20

And, nally, INVITATION. Invitaon is essenal in all

aspects of the church. When Jesus called his disciples,

it began with an invitaon, “Come, follow me.” We

must be invitaonal in all that we do. As we connue

in 2021 and ancipate vaccinaons to clear the way for

us to get back to normal, we are going to have to work

at re-building relaonships and engagement. It is going

to take intenonal invitaon to welcome people back

to in-person worship. There is nothing more important

than having a relaonship with Jesus Christ, and if we

have that relaonship, and seek to follow him, we must

also love our neighbor by inving our neighbor to come

along, too. As things get back to normal, we cannot

sit back and lament that our worship services are a

fracon of what they were a year ago… Let’s INVITE

everyone we know to join in the beauty of worship

and ministry with us! In fact, let’s begin inving

NOW. If you’re acve on social media, share a link to

the livestreams. Post a photo of ministries or small

groups that you are parcipang in and extend the

invitaon for others to join you. Share something that

parcularly touched you in worship on Sunday… Invite,

invite, invite… your friends, family, and neighbors are

depending on you.

Wow, this has goen to be a much longer arcle than

I intended for it to be. Sorry about that! I’ve got a lot

more to say, but I suppose I had beer save up some

stu for next me.

God bless you,

Pastor Wade

The State of The Church

The year 2020 started o with a bang. We were busy,

busy during January, February and the rst part of

March. We started out with a Board Member work

day to clean the shop and get ready to reopen aer

the Christmas holidays. We also spent a full day

planning for 2020. Plans included our Semi-Annual

Sale, Volunteer Luncheon, teaching cooking skills to

the teenagers in our church and preparing dinner for

Dinner Church. At Dinner Church we also handed

out “cheater eye glasses” and large print Bibles to

anyone in need. We were moving along great unl

COVID-19 came to town, and then everything came

to a halt. Twice Blessed closed down on March 19th

and remained closed unl June 2, 2020. Closing down

and reopening at a me sensive consignment store

created a huge technological challenge for this group of

“older” women, but with God’s help and a lot of work

and prayers, we persevered. In August, we managed

to give $500 to Christ Kitchen along with boles of

water that our awesome customers and volunteers

donated. We also donated $250 to VCAM, $250 to

Food Bank of the Golden Crescent, and $250 to the

Telferner Food Bank. We connued to the 10% of

our prot throughout the year and make our loan

payments. In September, we started selling pumpkin

bread for the pumpkin patch commiee. The pumpkin

bread was a big hit, and we connued to sell bread

into November. October, November and December

are always busy with seasonal items and holiday gi

giving. This year was no excepon and we had great

sales. In December, we collected coats and outerwear

for children and donated them to VCAM. Considering

all that has taken place this year, those of us working

at Twice Blessed truly feel twice blessed. If you have

some me and would like to be a part of this wonderful

ministry, please stop by and talk to us.

Kathy Bowen

Twice Blessed Showroom, Board President

Twice Blessed Showroom

Youth Ministry

As you can imagine from the other complicaons we’ve

faced as a church with rethinking worship, Sunday

school gatherings, and events, these last 10 months

have been quite a bit dierent and a bit challenging for

our youth ministry. We made signicant aempts in

the spring at moving to a virtual ministry with the onset

of the coronavirus, but those were short-lived as we

struggled to gain tracon and to maintain the interest

of our young people. It also became apparent that our

mission trips along with other summer plans were just

not going to be possible this year. As COVID connued

to keep us apart, we worried about what kind of toll it

would have on the momentum we had been gathering

since last fall and if we’d essenally have to start over

again once we were able to start meeng in person.

But God has been incredibly faithful in the midst of

everything going on and has given us much to celebrate,

especially these last 4 months. As summer was coming

to an end, we decided to try a few outdoor events to get

our youth back together again, and we could not have

been more surprised at what we saw. At our 1st of 2

movie nights we had 23 people show up, including 12

youth! We followed that up with a Splash Bash event

with a bunch of water games to welcome our new 6th

graders, and we had 7 new youth get connected! And,

at our 2nd movie night, we had 19 youth show up! 19!

And what was even beer was that we knew we had

more coming because that number didn’t include all of

our regulars or all of our new 6th graders!

The start of school slowed us down a bit again as we

chose to briey resume virtual youth ministry while

waing to see how the schools would fare, but we have

been back in person now for over 2 months and things

are going great! We’ve got our group on a 4-week

rotang schedule with about half of our group meeng

each week (high school, then middle school, then

boys, and then girls), and we connue to see lots of

parcipaon. We’ve had 26 youth parcipate at some

level in the program this fall, some regulars and some

friends that they have brought with them, which is huge

considering that we had only half of that last fall and

averaged only 7 on a given week! And since we began

meeng in person, we’ve also averaged more youth with

only half of our group meeng at a me than we did last

fall when we had our whole group meeng every week!

On top of our regular numbers, we have 16 youth

signed up and commied to aending our mission trip

this coming June! We’re heading to Alamosa, Colorado

in 2021 to do some hands-on service with some local

ministries there, and we’ll be doing things like working in

gardens to meet food needs, doing home repair projects,

and running a kids club in a rural community in the

Valley. It’s going to be a great discipleship opportunity

for our youth, and we look forward to bringing the

congregaon into partnership with us as we ramp up

our fundraising eorts to help get them there.

One more excing thing that we’re working on with

our youth ministry is that we’ve been revisioning and

strategizing to take our youth ministry to a whole new

level. Pastor Wade and I met with several folks earlier

this fall about the future of our youth program and how

we can begin moving it from being an isolated, stand-

alone ministry within the church to one that becomes

a truly whole-church, relaonal ministry. We began a

conversaon around solidifying our mission and core

values—our purpose—for this ministry, and about how

we can connue to strengthen and grow what we’re

doing by increasing our points of connecon between

the youth and the rest of the congregaon. And as this

vision develops more, we look forward to bringing the

congregaon alongside us as an integral part of helping

to love on and grow these amazing young people in

their faith.

We are so excited about what God is doing in this ministry

with our youth right now, and about the growth we are

seeing in spite of this pandemic. It’s been a strange

and challenging year, but God has sll been doing some

amazing stu within our youth ministry!

Rev. Ryan Jenson

Associate Pastor and Director of Youth Ministries

YOUTH

Youth Ministry

Children’s Ministries

began with a couple of dierent surveys

through email to gather informaon on

children’s ministries.

The ‘Women 2 Women’ ministry group formed and

was able to meet several mes before everything shut

down. We even managed to do a couple of studies via

Zoom unl we broke for the summer.

Not being able to do anything in person, technology

has been a huge piece of my job since March. I started

with daily challenges and bible verses on Facebook.

One of my favorites was to paint a rock from your

yard with a message of hope and love and leave it for

someone to nd. The Bible verse was “The Lord is my

rock, my fortress, and my savior.” Psalms 18:2. I did a

photo scavenger hunt in April, where families would

take a picture of an item they thought answered the

clue and upload it to the post. I later did one for Easter

the same way. There was a month of Prayer for Kids

and 31 Days of Prayer for parents, teachers, sta and

school administrators leading up to the rst day of

school.

Back before Easter I started mailing acvity packages

to the kids to try and stay connected (i.e. worship

bullens, a COVID-19-me capsule packet, sermon

notes, coloring books, sckers, a monthly acvies

calendar for the family, masks, candy, etc.) One of the

biggest challenges is that children’s ministries covers

children age 0 through 5th grade. In other words, one

size doesn’t t all. Finding material relevant for all

ages doesn’t exist, so I had to get prey creave with

what I put in them. Some families have mulple kids,

some have girls, and some have boys or both with all

dierent ages, so no two packages were the same. We

have nearly 70 kids spread out over 40 families in our

church directory.

In June, about 20 families registered for our quaranne

friendly virtual vacaon Bible school. With minimal

preparaon, easy-to-follow instrucons, and a video

that led parents and kids step-by-step through each of

the 3 days, BOLT was easy and super fun for families to

do at home. They parcipated in games, cras, music

and lessons that illustrated what it means to listen to,

focus on, and follow Jesus.

For Sunday School I found some really great video

curriculum that I would post on Facebook on Sunday

mornings. Materials were mailed that would help

families go deeper into the lesson.

Our friend, Scooter, made his re-appearance in April.

He was a regular during children’s Sunday School three

or four years ago, but I thought it would be fun to

invite him back. Together, he and I made a bunch of

2020

children’s sermon videos. He and several friends also

helped me with a special Easter video, “The Virus that

Stole Easter,” and a Mother’s Day video greeng. Pastor

Wade built him a really cool puppet theatre – of course

I had to give it my creave nishing touch. And if that

wasn’t enough, Scooter started wring a Blog in July

that can be found on the FUMC website.

I was thrilled to be able to have promoon Sunday in

person in September. Two of our seven 3rd graders

received their new bibles in worship. We weren’t able

to send our 5th graders o into youth as we normally

do, so bags were delivered with a special gi for each

student. We also did a blessing of the backpack tags

before school started - the tags were mailed with the

acvity packages for September.

When in-person worship started back I decided to

change the way I was doing children’s worship packets.

They are now in Ziploc bags that can be picked up on

the way into worship and taken home aer the service.

I connue to serve on the Board of Methodist Day

School. Acvity is limited, but we were able to do our

MDS prayer partner cards in September and deliver

cookies to the sta prior to school starng.

Liz Parker was hired in November as our new Nursery

Coordinator, and together, we have hired three new

caregivers for the infant and toddler nurseries. We

hit the ground running on November 29th when we

opened the nurseries and re-started children’s Sunday

School with a series on Advent, which will run through

December 27th with a birthday party for Jesus.

Brooke Mercer

Director of Children’s Ministries

*New email address: brookemercer@fumcvictoria.com

Children’s Ministries

The Pumpkin Patch

at FUMC Victoria

enjoys a 28-year

history. Originated as

a fundraising acvity

for the youth groups in

the church, Pumpkin

Patch has expanded

the outreach to include

food pantries and

specic idened needs

within our church and

community. By far, the

largest percentage of

funds earned go to support children and youth.

In the last few years, The Pumpkin Patch Team has

returned 60% of the revenue to Pumpkin Patch

USA who supplies the pumpkins grown on a Navajo

Indian Reservaon in Farmington, New Mexico. In

cooperaon with the Navajo Naon, they grow 1,200

acres of pumpkins, employing over 700 workers

during harvest months of September and October

and keeping some full me o-season sta comprised

enrely of Nave Americans in a region with a 42%

unemployment rate.

Funds from The Patch have supported children

aending summer camps, youth aending mission

trips and spiritual retreat weekends in the winter.

Funds have supported the scoung acvies of our

church sponsored scout troop from helping scouts

meet the rising cost of parcipaon/registraon fees

to purchasing tents, Dutch ovens, lanterns, and other

camping supplies to helping fund high adventure trips.

The Patch on

Opening Day

2019 with over

3,500 pumpkins

in our yard! In

2019, FUMC

Victoria returned

$18,242.46

while prong

(including sales,

donaons, and

Pumpkin bread)

$16,116,67

The Pumpkin Patch

Many non-prot organizaons and churches

experienced nancial dicules in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic. Our church did not and for that

we are grateful to every one of you.

FUMC Victoria applied for and received a payroll

protecon program loan for 89,249.39. This loan was

forgiven because we were able to maintain our payroll

and sta throughout the loan period. Our Wesley Nurse

ministry applied for and received two grants totaling

$51,000 so that those in our community could connue

to receive medical and prescripon assistance while

keeping our Wesley Nurse and volunteers safe.

The overwhelming generosity of our congregaon is

amazing. We stayed current on loan payments with Texas

Methodist Foundaon and paid our apporonments in

full in November. Not only were we nancially stable

during this me of uncertainty, we also were blessed to

be able to make many updates to our campus, expand

our ministries, upgrade our technology and connue to

spread the word of Jesus throughout our congregaon

and community. Ministries connued, albeit in a very

dierent way.

In addion to supporng our church and ministries, the

response of our congregaon to other organizaons

was heartwarming. Examples include $14,762.50 to

Christ’s Kitchen, $4,387.50 to VCAM, $2,950 to FUMC

Orange for Hurricane Laura recovery eorts, $2,240 to

UMCOR and many other communion oerings.

Our 2021 Mission Plan was approved by Church Council

and we look forward to expanding and deepening our

ministries in this new year. Your connued support

enables us to Be The Church in so many ways. Blessings

to you all this new year!

Finance Committee

2020 has been an eye opener for Methodist

Day School and one the sta, students, and

parents will never forget. In March of 2020,

the MDS Board of Directors were tasked with

the tough decision of the school's fate. Aer

deliberaon, meengs, and LOTS of prayers

the board decided to close the school doors

for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school

year. The health and wellness of ALL involved

at the school was the key focus and leading

decider of what the school should do. During

the summer, the board connued to meet and

formulate a plan to reopen in August 2020 and

was successful with a plan. With LOTS of new

state COVID regulaons and guidelines, MDS

successfully reopened on August 19, 2020

eager and excited to connue to share God's

love with the students. The sta deep cleaned

each class, prepared for the new normal, and

has taken the school year day by day. We are

thankful and so happy to say the health and

wellness of the sta and students has been

overwhelmingly posive. We ask that you

connue to pray for the sta and students and

look forward to the opportunity to connue

MDS tradions in the future.

Methodist Day School

2020

was certainly a year unprecedented.

When COVID 19 hit our service areas

we were asked to stay dedicated by MHM and be

paent. With this we remained steadfast in serving our

communies for the least served with great exibility

amidst a constantly changing landscape. My phone

from the oce was transferring all calls to my personal

cell phone at home in Cuero the enre me during the

pandemic and connues connected to me. This meant

elding calls all days of the week as well as aer hours

as individuals were stressed and in dire need of various

services with unemployment and some with no income

means. Methodist Healthcare Ministries contacted all of

their Wesley Nurses and inquired as to what was not

being provided as services to our clients and I replied that

our Free Clinic with Texas A &M was being closed and

access to care for the underserved was not available as

well as other services from the clinic. This was of utmost

importance to MHM to provide nancial assistance to

access care. We then were asked to apply to the grants

department. I was blessed with two very generous

grants from Methodist Healthcare Ministries to support

our Victoria community during the past 8—9 months.

I thank them for their dedicaon for our ministries to

the 72 counes of the district. MHM has granted over 4

million during the pandemic to the 72 counes and this

includes a grant to Christ’s Kitchen and the Victoria Food

Bank. I have been humbled and proud to witness the

way each of us at MHM responded to this crisis. Each of

us created soluons and demonstrang an unshakable

commitment to connue providing access to care

for those that need us most. Whether we delivered

diabec supplies to homes where transportaon was

unaainable, mailed supplies to homes out of town, or

le supplies outside the WN building where no contact

was at risk, diabec supplies were not halted during

this me at all. Our free clinic was not held for over 8

months with Texas A &M Medical School residents and

therefore the WN accessed funding for many individuals

with no insurance to go to the residents that pracce

at DeTar Family Clinic and MHM covered the visits as

well as MHM covering the lab studies at CPL lab for

these underserved individuals. Prescripon Assistance

was overwhelmed for the past 8 months at the local

pharmacy during this pandemic. Our pharmacy bill has

been averaging over $4000.00 a month during this me

and this has also been covered with the WN grant from

MHM as well.

In support of our services, the mission to build a healthier

community together, we were proud to partner with

local non-prot organizaons and provide nancial

support to improve the health of the Victoria community.

These organizaons included Be Well Victoria, Victoria

Homeless Coalion, Christ’s Kitchen, Victoria Chrisan

Assistance Ministries. These organizaons were

instrumental in locang the underserved individuals

that rely on the emergency room for their medical needs

and have no access to care otherwise. A great majority

of the referrals to the WN had not seen a doctor in

many years and suered with mulple chronic disease

states. Through the grant funding the community was

impacted with medical visits to a Primary Care Provider

totaling hundreds of paents. Many of these individuals

have resided in molded rooms of a motel for the past

three years since Hurricane Harvey and have not seen

a doctor for many years, one individual remarked it

was over a decade. These individuals have not only had

inial visits but with funding and aer lab studies done

had follow-up PCP visits and medicaons that have

desperately been needed, especially those that were

diabecs. The number of paents that were accessed

an ophthalmology visit was over 100 with glasses also

being received. Most of the paents that needed a visit

to an eye specialist were diabecs and had not seen

an eye doctor in years and had developed renopathy

complicaons.

The challenges of my ministry during this pandemic was

keeping abreast of all the paent visits, rescheduling

appointments, making sure paents received

transportaon to visits, and geng checks to these

mulple enes daily. I found myself wring check aer

check and traveling over several mes a week for paent

needs. I was reimbursed by Heather weekly. Our church

ministry reached so many new uninsured paents with

the incepon of Be Well Victoria.

As we remain diligently focused on how best to care for

the most vulnerable in our community amidst COVID

19 public health concerns, we want to provide all of

you with informaon on how Methodist Healthcare

Wesley Nurse

Ministries is priorizing team member and paent

safety. With everyone’s health as a primary goal, we

screen all paents prior to being able to enter the

building. We as Wesley Nurses must do a prescreening

on the computer prior to leaving our home daily. If

no indicators are found paents as well as the Wesley

Nurse can report into the building.

On top of the standard cleaning performed in our oces

we are now performing extra cleaning daily and aer

each paent visit. We are equipped with a hand sanizer

staon as well as implemenng industrial disinfectant

sprays. Mandatory masks are required of all those

entering the building and keeping 6 feet or greater.

Our lives have dramacally changed with COVID 19 but

we persevered, stayed strong, and the commitment to

serve connued. As of December 1,2020, I have over

1500 paents entered in the computer for this year and

one month to go. Prescripon Assistance is once again

at the forefront of the needs to these individuals that

have no insurance and numerous disease states.

Although the uncertainty remains, the constant is how

each of us connue to press forward to fulll our mission

of “Serving Humanity to Honor God” in remarkable

ways. May we each connue to be used by God as we

work to improve the wellness of the least served. I am

so very blessed to serve here at FUMC and the enre

Victoria community. Many connued blessings to each

of you and your families in 2021.

Grace and Peace,

Kathy Frels BSNRN

Wesley Nurse

Congregational Care

One of the goals of the Congregaonal Care

Commiee (CCC) is to communicate with church

members. Members of CCC have stayed in touch with

phone calls, texts, emails, ecards, cards and hand

painted postcards.

The CCC helped with the New Members Luncheon

aer church on February 23, 2020.

Homebound Communion came to a halt in April, 2020

due to COVID 19. A modied homebound communion

started back up in September. Rev. Wade Powell,

Rebecca Thornbury, Becky McKenzie, Linda and Hugh

Hanes have been delivering communion and "The

Upper Room" safely to peoples doors.

Normally, the CCC would have had a breakfast for the

graduang high school seniors and their families in

May. Hopefully we will be able to honor the graduang

seniors in 2021.

CCC members wrote personal notes that were

included in care packages Pastor Ryan sent to all the

college students. We hope to connue this ministry.

Christmas bags for the homebound were dierent

this year This year we suprised many people of

the congregaon with beauful poinseas at the

beginning of December.

Although we are not able to visit in person or hug you,

you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Wesley Nurse

Administrative

• Schedule of required annual reviews ap-

proved

• Service contracts reviewed, updated and

documented

• Handicap Accessibility Audit of the entire

campus was documented

• Electrical Power Assessment was complet-

ed to provide a thorough safety and func-

tionality survey of all incoming power and its

distribution through out our entire campus.

Minor issues were corrected immediately,

while more extensive work required on the

Education Building main power equipment

will be planned, funded and completed in

2021.

• Investment funds at Texas Methodist Foun-

dation and Prosperity Bank have been

reviewed and documented. Distributions

have been placed in new, usable accounts

that mature in 2021 and 2022 and will be

utilized to grow our church and our mission.

Parsonage

• Exterior repairs of the bay windows were

completed

• Trees were trimmed

• Interior received new plumbing xtures and

blinds

Security

• Wesley Nurse entrance security system is

in place

• Wesley Hall entrance light is now on a timer

for safe entrance & exit

• An 8-foot cedar fence will be erected be-

tween the Children’s Ministry Center and

the 505 Bridge Street property

Interior Improvements

• Sanctuary HVAC system was replaced.

• First Connect room was remodeled and is

ready for use

• All tile oors in the main building, Christian

Life Center and Education Building have

been stripped and waxed

• Wesley Hall and downstairs areas of the

Education Building were painted

• The ATTIC has been painted and is ready

for the youth this coming year

• The kitchen received a new stove and is

ready for service to our congregation

• Wesley Nurse facilities – the two-room suite

has new furniture, more electrical outlets

and has been painted. The area has been

streamlined to handle the increasing needs

of this excellent ministry

Exterior Improvements

• Parking lots were re-striped, handicap logs

and tire stops repainted.

• Steps and external handrails repainted

• Fire Escape cleaned and repainted

• External doors inspected, repaired, sanded

and repainted as needed

• Ramp at the north end of the Education

Building porch replaced

• Sidewalks, steps and ramps pressure

washed

• Education Building porch and walkway has

a new anti-slip surface

• Three new benches are in place at the main

entrance generously purchased by the

Pumpkin Patch.

• Main parking lot peninsula was cleaned out

and replanted

• Alley cleaned and accessible after shower

trailer was removed

With fewer in-person activities due to COVID-19 this past year, the Trustees took the opportunity to

complete needed updates and repairs to our facilities. As the new year begins, we are pleased to report

the following accomplishments:

Trustee’s Report

We hope to see you all in 2021 and that you will all enjoy our beautiful campus!

United Methodist Women

Social Distancing

UMW

We could not meet in April – August because of the

pandemic. The teachers at Shields School wanted stued

animals for all the Kindergarten and First Graders aer

they returned to the classrooms. Many of the children

had had traumac experiences and the animals would be

a way to give them some security. The UMW purchased

these animals and they were delivered to Shields on the

rst day of virtual instrucon in September. Because the

animals were small, the children were able to put them

on their desks.

With no meengs nor worship services, Joyce Brown

President sent out leers to the members as a way to

keep in touch since some do not have computers. They

contained informaon about what members were

doing, illnesses, and church news. These leers were

well-liked, so she connued sending them aer we

resumed meengs in September.

Our church hosted the Crossroads District UMW meeng

in September both in-person and by Zoom. Cindy Powell

was elected Treasurer for 2021 and 2022, and Kathy

Hunt from our church was elected President.

School Ministry

We started this year with big

plans and then a pandemic

showed up. It’s hard to

imagine a school ministry that

involves social distancing.

Our ministry has always

been hands on at Shields

Elementary. This year was so

very dierent, but sll so very

inspiring.

As teachers scrambled to gure out how to educate

children when schools were

shut down in the spring, we

stepped up to support our

teachers by treang them

all to lunch delivered from

Jason’s Deli and providing

them all with gi cards

from Vela Farms for Teacher

Appreciaon Week.

With high hopes that the

2020-2021 school year would be back to normal,

we connued to plan for the new school year. Since

we couldn’t all gather in Wesley Hall for our annual

Teacher Luncheon, we

decided to have a Teacher

Breakfast at the school for

all teachers and sta. They

enjoyed breakfast tacos and

a wide variety of breakfast

rolls and snacks. The next

week, we delivered back to

school boxes for the teachers

lled with goodies. And because we are all sll children

at heart, Kona-Ice visited

the school next and we

treated everyone to sno-

cones! We joined with the

United Methodist Women

in providing back to school

gis of stued animals

and prayer rocks for the

students. As the teachers

and students adjusted to

new schedules and new

technology and new ways of

learning, we provided snacks

for the students and had

a coat drive for those that

were without warm jackets.

We closed out the year with

our annual Christmas Store

and giving tree. Children

shopped for their loved ones

in our Christmas store and

their gis were wrapped and labeled for them to take

home. One lile boy picked a cross necklace for his

mom because she had a serious illness and had been

hospitalized. He told us

that he wasn’t scared,

because he and his mom

had faith that she would

be okay. Santa arrived

at Shields to read the

story of baby Jesus and

to pass out all the gis

purchased from your

generous donaons. Every child received a gi……

Every child was thankful……Every heart was full.

Even during these strange mes of

2020, FUMC connues to spread the

love of Jesus through the halls of

Shields Elementary. We are looking

forward to many acvies at the

school during the new year. Your

faithful support of this ministry is

changing lives, lling hearts and

impacng so many.

They Zoomed the Conference Men’s

Retreat

They are Building Ramps!

They are Building More Ramps!

They are Building Ramps and More Ramps!

They Taught Youth Car Repair & Maintenance

Methodist Men

They are Working at Christ’s Kitchen

What have the Methodist Men been up to?

January - December 2020

Wade Powell ..............................................................Senior Pastor

Ryan Jenson ......................................................... Associate Pastor

Will Durham ..................................Contemporary Worship Leader

Ashley Hunter ..........................................................Music Director

Keith Cox................................................. Associate Music Director

Brooke Mercer ............................. Director of Children’s Ministries

Liz Parker ............................................................. Nursery Director

Rebecca Thornbury ......................................................... Secretary

Heather Linville.................................................. Business Manager

Jennifer Burriss .............................. Methodist Day School Director

Harlan Greene ................................................................ Custodian

Kathy Frels ..............................Methodist Ministries Wesley Nurse

Cameo Mead ............................... Methodist Ministries Counselor

Your thoughts for the coming year

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