Mount Holyoke Cooperative Parish Picnic!
Our sister church, South Hadley UMC, is hosting a picnic for everyone, and we are also invited. All five churches in our Mount Holyoke Cooperative Parish will gather together on Sunday, August 16, at 11:30 AM at Buttery Brook Park in South Hadley. South Hadley UMC will provide the main dishes, and if you would like to bring a side dish to share, that would be wonderful. If you are interested in going, please let Pastor Soo know by Sunday, August 9, so she can send the headcount ahead of time. We hope many of you can join and enjoy this time with our sister churches.
WUMC Book Club
Please join the Wesley Book Club on August 17th at 9:30am for Mystery Month! Plan to read and/or present a favorite mystery writer, and share why you enjoy it.
Contact Gerry Harvey for the Zoom link. The Wesley Book Club reads a wide range of titles and meets monthly to discuss what we have read. Join us for one meeting or come regularly. If you have a favorite book, share it with us!
Calling All Bikers!
Will Bike 4 Food, an annual fundraiser for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, will be happening on Sunday, September 20th. The ride includes distances of 4, 12, 25, 50, and 100 miles—the ride options for the Wesley Team (Wesley adults, kids, and friends) will depend on interest and having at least one adult rider per distance. The cost to participate is $35 for youth and $50 for adults. All participants receive a free t-shirt and a ticket to the after party. Adults are expected to raise a minimum of $200 (Wesley friends will sponsor you!). If you have any questions or plan to ride, please contact Sarah Serwa (sserwa@gmail.com) or Mark Miller (markmiller@umass.edu).
Fall Hearthsiders Small Group
The Hearthsiders group presents an opportunity for our Wesley Family to make deeper connections with others in the
congregation through regular small group gatherings in our homes (at our hearths). Our goal is to have additional sustained opportunities for fellowship outside of coffee hour, to meet new friends, and to enjoy a meal together where normally, each person brings a dish to share but a theme might be set by the host. We will meet once each month (September, October, November, January) in randomly assigned groups of eight people with a designated host.
By the end of the four months, you will have had a chance to make deeper connections with about 32 members of our church family! THE GROUP IS OPEN TO SINGLES and PAIRS, so don’t let the lack of a partner hold you back! It is also not REQUIRED that you host, though the more hosts we have, the easier the scheduling. We hope to start this group in September, so sign up ASAP in person on the clipboard soon to be outside the sanctuary, by filling out the Google Form located HERE, or by contacting Pat O’Hara directly (text is best – 413-687-5722 or email pbohara@amherst.edu).
WUMC 20th Anniversary Reflections
Dear Church Family,
This Fall we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of our church family’s move to this wonderful church on the hill in Hadley. We are compiling a booklet of devotional reflections written by our own members, those who were present at the move and those who have joined our family since. We would be blessed if you would contribute a short devotion (about 250-300 words) based on the theme of “Growing where we are Planted.” This could be a recollection or memory of the move to the new building or a reflection on how our church family continues to grow and expand our ministries in Hadley and the world. We would love to have some of these ready for our kickoff in September, so submit them at any time HERE or by submitting them to me Ted Blaisdell directly at hagrid417@gmail.com. Please note that we will continue to collect them through our formal celebration at the October 25th service, so, if you want to take your time, that is fine. I will select some of these to be read in worship during the Fall. Thank you for prayerfully considering this devotional task.
Warmly,
Ted Blaisdell
Wesley Church Anniversary Celebration Working Group
Fall Fair News
Summer is the perfect time to begin getting ready for the fall fair. How can you help?
★Save the Date! The Fall Fair will be held on Saturday, November 7th. Please mark your calendars and plan to participate.
★Forgotten Treasures: Don’t forget – our Silent Auction and Grandma’s Treasures are always looking for special items!
★Food: For those of you taking advantage of all the produce the Valley has to offer, please set aside a few jars of jams, jellies, relishes or sauces. These are always big sellers in our Country Store.
★Calling All Crafters: Do you like to create? Is there something that you might like to make over the summer or early fall that could be donated to the Fair? New ideas and goodies are always welcome.
★Join the Committee! Watch for the next meeting and join us! New volunteers and ideas are encouraged. Please contact Nicole Wetherell, Chair, at nwetherell@comcast.net for additional information.
Craig’s Doors
We continue to collect supplies for the local homeless population, and as the seasons change, so do the needs. The team at the Resource Center has shared they are most in need of: sunscreen, medicated lip balm and lip balm with sunscreen (i.e. Blistex or Carmex), lightly worn adult shoes (durable quality), adult socks, adult underwear (mens large/XL most needed sizes), umbrellas, and travel size hygiene products. Donations can be placed in the bin in the church entrance. Thank you!
Not Bread Alone
Each Saturday, Wesley volunteers help at CHD’s Not Bread Alone, Amherst’s soup kitchen. Our tasks are to pick up donated food from Whole Foods (some weeks), make fruit salad, make sandwiches (some weeks), and sort and display donated produce. It is a short time commitment (typically 9–10:30am), but our consistent help is always greatly appreciated. You can volunteer as little or often as you would like. If interested, please email Ruth Harms to be added to the monthly emails with the volunteer sign up.
In addition, more help is needed for volunteering in the kitchen, particularly in the summer when college students are not around, but also throughout the year. They serve three meals every week. On Wednesdays, they start setting up and cooking at 12 p.m., they serve the meal at 4 p.m., and they finish cleaning up by about 6:30 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays, they start at 9 a.m., serve at 12 p.m., and finish by about 2:30 p.m. If you have questions or would like to volunteer, please email Bob Stover, Program Supervisor, at rstover@chd.org.
Healing Prayer Group
Healing Prayer continues to be offered by the Healing Prayer Ministry. We meet each Thursday, but we pray all week long. If you have a prayer request of any kind at all, please contact Nancy or Richmond with your request and we will pray with you and for you. We promise you a 100% confidentiality and full respect and to be sensitive to your circumstances.
Wesley United Methodist Church 