FUMC of Newport News, VA - Tower - 2004 - March

March 2004 - Tower - Page 3

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T.O.C.

Index

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Hopeful Living at Home

May is Christian Family Month. Here are a few suggestions to enrich your family life.

Remember your blessing, individually and as a family. Set one night a week (at least) to eat dinner together as a family. At dinner go around the table and ask each person to name an experience that brought hope to him/her during the week. Thank God for these experiences and for being able to share them. Ask God to give hope and blessings to others. As each person names a blessing, write it on a slip of paper and put it in a cup or jar. When someone in the family has a "hopeless" day, take a slip from the blessing cup and read it as a reminder of hope.

Schedule regular family nights -- weekly or monthly. At these times, check the family schedules; talk about ideas for future plans as a family; discuss situations that have occurred in the home that have brought hope to someone else or caused someone to feel hopeless.

Use the FACTS model for a ten-minute daily family devotional. Allow at least two minutes for each part:

Focus: Take two minutes of silence or silent listening to music, and think about hope in daily living. Use Psalm 23 to focus.

Adoration: Sing a song or say words of praise to God.

Confession: Tell another ways you have sinned or mistakes you have made. Offer one another the words, "When we confess, God forgives us. Thanks be to God."

Thanksgiving: Share what you are thankful for today.

Supplication: Join hands with one another. Pray for your family, for those in need, and for the world.

Study scripture together. Some of the key scripture passages that mention a source of hope are: Genesis 8:6-22 and 21:1-7; Joshua 4:1-7; Psalm 23 and 65; Matthew 5:1-14, 28:1-10, 18:16-20; Romans 8:38-39. Ask one family member to read the scripture. After hearing the scripture, ask each family member to say what that particular scripture means to him/her.
Establish a Family Covenant for Hope. This covenant can be renewed every three months; however, the basic elements of the covenant stay intact. The promise of love, forgiveness, acceptance, truthfulness, growth, and witness is the basis of the covenant. This leads to peaceful living in the family. (See sample of this covenant below.)

Quarterly Finance Committee Report

Bob Walker, Finance Chair

Good News! Our 1^st quarter Operating Budget Income for this year has been met! Congratulations to all of our congregation!

The A.C. renovation for our Sanctuary is complete and paid for out of our Rental Property Account (i.e. $35,600). This amount includes the repair of the louvers and the rain water leak above our stained-glass windows.

Next, the painting of our Sanctuary began on April 19 and will take about three weeks. Please don't forget your contributions to our "50^th Year Sanctuary Anniversary Fund" which will go towards this much-needed renovation. (Cost will be $24,950).

Also, on behalf of our Minister, our Church Staff, the Finance Committee, and the entire Church Council, we would truly like to thank everybody for their continuing support for the operating and renovation of God's House.

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If you have any comments on any of these pages, please email me: Robert W.(Bob) Mckitrick, thanks.

Last update:May 1, 2004