Midweek Moment

This past Monday our staff attended an online time hosted by Bishop Carter and a couple of other pastors from the Florida Conference's Clergy Care Team that Pastor Debbie is a part of. Bishop Carter reflected on "Surviving the Wilderness of a Lenten Pandemic" with both clergy and laity. We wanted to offer this as a resource for you as well. The video is about 30 minutes long and you can view it by going to this link: https://www.flumc.org/surviving-the-wilderness-of-a-lenten-pandemic

Also, please remember that Wednesdays in Lent our sanctuary is open for you to come and pray from 11am to 1pm. That's this Wednesday the 3rd, as well as March 10th, March 17th and March 24th. One of the pastors (Daryl, Debbie, CJ, Mal or John) will be available in the sanctuary if you would like someone to pray with you or to anoint you with oil for healing. If you can not get here for prayer in person, please call the church office and one of the pastors will call you back to pray with you over the phone (352-787-1829). 

Grace and peace to you in this Lenten season!

 

A Special Celebration

On Tuesday in the Garden, we gathered to recognize and honor Connie Dooley for her ten years of ministry to the church as our treasurer. We recorded part of the celebration which will be included in this week's worship services.  So thankful for Connie and all she does for CUMC and the community. 

In the News

The church has been in the newspaper a lot lately. We were mentioned in an article about Ash Wednesday offerings in the area from local churches, including the Lent at Home Kits. That article sent several families from the community without any church affiliation into the office this week to pickup kits! They have all been distributed now! 

Also our Prayers Shawls and Woolies Ministry got some well deserved press. 

And the librarian at the Fruitland Park Library called the paper to come out and cover our check presentation as part of Winterfest - $2,000 to pay off children's library fines, which helped 215 kids! 

Also some of our music ministry folks made the paper too - Charlie Snyder and Barb Hanberry. They often do driveway concerts and give the proceeds to benefit our food pantry! 

God is good! 

We're so thankful for the generous spirit of this congregation in mission and ministry to the world! 

Blessings

Winterfest - A Volunteer's Perspective

We shared some pictures yesterday, today we wanted to share some reflections from one of the Winterfest volunteers about her experience. Many thanks to Jan Hancharik for volunteering and sharing this with everyone! 

Winterfest - In Pictures

These pictures do not represent all of the areas we were able to reach out to and bless, but its a small sample of the connections we made last weekend. Thankful for all our volunteers taking God's love and grace out into the community - no strings attached! 

Rock and Wash Laundromat Lady Lake 

Circle K/Shell Gas Station 

Fruitland Park Cafe 

Food Distribution at the Church (along with Toy Distribution and Welcome Tent) 

Winterfest Update

Very very excited for this weekend and for our Covid-style Winterfest! Wanted to give an update on just what was happening this weekend. 

Tomorrow, Friday February 5th - We will be delivering pizza and cookies to all of the students and staff of Fruitland Park Elementary school in the afternoon (650 people!) 

Saturday February 6th - 

• We will be hosting a food distribution on our site in partnership with the Society for St. Andrew. We will have 1,396 boxes of food with produce, meat and dairy to hand out to folks in the community, first come first serve, starting at 8am. The UMW have also collected toys to be handed out that morning as well. 
• We will also have a handful of church folks (masked and distanced) at some local stores with funds to pay bills: 
• Family Dollar in Fruitland Park ($2,500)
• Shell station in Fruitland Park ($2000) 
• Fruitland Park Cafe ($1000) 
• Leesburg Laundromat ($650)
• Rock and Wash Laundromat in Lady Lake ($650)

• We're also donating $600 to cover entrance fees at Lake Griffin State Park for the weekend. We are donating $5,000 to the local utility department to cover people's bills who are behind and paying off $2,000 in library fines from 215 children so that they can check out books again. 

We started with a budget of $5,000 and the congregation has donated almost $11,000 more this month to expand our reach. We are also inviting congregation members to participate on their own by paying it forward at the coffee shop or grocery store that weekend in spirit. You can come in and pick up WInterfest cards from the office today or tomorrow to hand out this weekend. 

Even though this year is different, I am very excited about these opportunities and the ways we have found to still minister to our community this year. This is Your Community, United! 

 

Lent At Home Kits

Lent At Home Kits are now available for you to pickup at the church during office hours, 

or on Sundays at worship.

Each kit contains an overall guide with explanations and connections to the worship services, as well as a daily prayer journal, a finger prayer labyrinth on yardstick, ashes for Ash Wednesday and items to represent Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter for you. Stop by and pick yours up soon! Lent starts on Wednesday February 17th!