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August 26, 2011
Volume 157, Number 24
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Youth ministry becoming a movement
Hundreds of students attend summer camps, leave changed, energized
By Rachel L. Toalson
Managing Editor
 Students, along with camp director Spencer Thomas and camp worship leader Ben Toalson, lead worship during the last morning of River Camp.
Intense. Amazing. Life-changing.
Those are the words leaders use to describe this year’s Southwest Texas Conference youth summer camps, which were attended by more than 800 participants and included more decisions to follow Jesus and recommitments than ever before.
“God’s spirit is moving in tremendous ways,” said the Rev. Rusty Freeman, conference director of youth ministries. “I wish our laity could come and see this movement of God’s spirit and be a part of this revival that is taking place with our students.”
Freeman said he believes the impact of students’ lives from the summer camps will be long-lasting.
“Those who attended My Mission camp will realize a greater desire to serve those who are hurting and become the hands and feet of Jesus,” he said. “Those who attended one of our three summer camps encountered Christ afresh and are hopefully making a change in their local churches as agents for excitement, urgency and enthusiasm for what Jesus has done and is doing in their lives.”
Freeman said this year’s camps were different because of servant leadership.
The adult leadership team, he said, has “never been stronger” because the team is “layers deep in strong adult staff leaders.” He could not show up to camps and they would run smoothly, he added.
 During Southwest Texas Conference camps, students engage in worship and study together but also have ample time for fellowship and fun.
The student leadership teams, Servant Team and Work Crew, are “diving deeper into levels of service” to and worship of the Lord and investing in the lives of peers while being “shepherded by our adult staff,” he said.
“It’s an amazing layer of discipleship that has taken years to develop, and I am just blessed to be able to witness it,” Freeman said.
Becky Jackson, youth events coordinator for the conference, said that discipleship and continuing connections between leaders and camp participants set the Southwest Texas Conference apart from other conference camps.
“(Leaders) connect with (campers) throughout the year, whether it be facebook or texting, which gives them the support they need between camps and youth meetings,” she said. “Our camps are also ‘fluid’ or ‘organic’—they are ever-evolving, often on the spot.”
On the last full day of Quest camp, she said, Freeman was given the vision that they were to spend a full day in worship. At 12:45 a.m., the leadership team began to pray about how that vision would be “carried out to the glory of God by breakfast time,” Jackson said.
“It proved to be one of the most amazing God movements we’ve had at camp,” Jackson said. “The flexibility to heed the holy spirit at all times makes our camps unique and has played an important role in the movement that is now taking place within our Methodist youth.”
Freeman said God is continuing to shape and mold the youth ministry and the students engaged in it. He has students who have been with him now for 10 years and are making their transitions into their adult lives. They haven’t assumed leadership positions, he said, but they are discipling and mentoring other youths into “Christ-like followers.”
“It is amazing to evidence the maturity of spirituality and the continued excitement students share when attending camp and meeting with the Lord face to face,” Freeman said.
Dave Stewart, youth minister at Oak Hill UMC, said he has witnessed the conference youth “building a culture of encountering God.”
  Top left: Students have a contest for one of their theme nights. Worship and teaching is interspersed between activities that develop relationships between the students. As a result, youth make friends outside their church youth and maintain those relationships throughout the year, leaders said. Top right: Students at River Camp, held at Alto Frio Baptist Encampment, await directions on the next activity. Bottom: Quest camp at Mt. Wesley in Kerrville included a water balloon and shaving cream fight.
He brought eight students to Quest camp, he said, and three of them had never been to camp and were “virtually uninvolved” in any of the spiritual aspects of the church’s youth ministry. Those students “had an amazing time and are now plugging into the ministry” at Oak Hill.
On the other hand, he said, three of his most active-in-the-youth-group students surrendered to a call to ministry.
“It was so noticeable this year that kids came anticipating a move of God,” Stewart said. “The result is that kids who were new or unused to how Southwest Texas camps go were swept up into the experience.
“The beauty of the move of God is that all are welcome and all can be encouraged and changed.”
Freeman said he knows the students who attended this year’s camps will be different.
“They were taught what it means to live life with ‘no boundaries,’” he said. “It means we are free to Christ to become who Jesus has called us to be. No boundaries suggests that we can’t put God in a box any longer. God will break out and blow our minds for his kingdom’s sake.
“My continued challenge to our students is to be who Christ is calling you to be. To not give in to the desires of the flesh but to live according to the spirit of God. I hope the change our students enjoy is to become more like Jesus Christ to one another.”
Northern Hills to combine worship services
The only deaf congregation in a United Methodist Church in Texas invites its hearing brothers and sisters to a combined gathering next month.
New Life Deaf Fellowship (NLDF), San Antonio, is hosting hearing believers at their “Call to Worship” service Sept. 18 at 11 a.m. in the worship center of Northern Hills UMC, San Antonio. The service is in American Sign Language (ASL) with a voice interpreter for the hearing. It will be a contemporary format led by members of the deaf congregation.
“For the hearing, this worship will be conducted in an excitingly different way—the deaf way,” said James Williams, pastor. “A vital ministry of Northern Hills UMC, this service reaches out and provides the gospel of Jesus Christ to this underserved population.”
It is particularly helpful for those with deaf family members who have been unable to find a worship service that accommodates their needs. Historically, it is more likely that the deaf attend hearing services, which provide an interpreter communicating in ASL. But this service invites hearing individuals to experience the deaf leading prayers, signing songs, teaching the Bible and preaching, he said.
NLDF is a mission congregation of Northern Hills UMC. Established in the fall of 2001, the congregation originally held worship services at the Methodist Student Union at San Antonio College. It moved to the chapel of Northern Hills Church in 2002. It currently consists of about 50 members.
St. John’s UMC awarded grant to improve education
St. John’s UMC, San Antonio, is taking steps to improve the health of pregnant women and their children and was recently awarded $8,000 in grant funding by the Texas Chapter of the March of Dimes. The funds will help to expand and enhance the Parent Place, a program operated at St. John’s and administered by the Wesley Nurse Health Ministries™, a mission of Methodist Healthcare Ministries.
Utilizing the Becoming a Mom™/Comenzando bien® curriculum provided by the March of Dimes, expectant mothers are provided the opportunity to convene in a supportive group setting to learn more about prenatal care. The program covers topics such as nutrition, stress, labor and birth, postpartum care and newborn care. These educational groups are free and open to the public.
Currently, the Becoming a Mom™/Comenzando bien® program is offered at El Mesias UMC in east San Antonio, along with Westlawn UMC on the Westside. The March of Dimes grant will allow for the enhancement and expansion of the prenatal education program to Bethel UMC, First Mexican Baptist Church and St. John’s UMC.
For more information about the Parent Place program, contact Norma Gonzales, R.N., the St. John’s Wesley Nurse, at (210) 433-7639.
Dripping Springs UMC touches 350 kids with VBS
 Dawn Owens, Vacation Bible School director, and the Rev. David Skinner, pastor of Dripping Springs UMC, were decorated as human sundaes after kids met a goal for the school supply fund during the church’s VBS.
DSUMC had two mission projects this year for VBS: to collect food donations for the Helping Hands Food Pantry and to collect monetary donations for the Helping Hands School Supply Project, which provides school supplies for children in need. The children and their families were clearly passionate about these two mission projects—more than 900 pounds of food was donated for the Helping Hands Food Pantry and more than $2,100 was raised for the school supply project.
During the week, the Junior Chefs learned that the Bible gives us the recipe for our life—so be ready for God’s call, give happily to God and others, believe fully in Jesus as God’s Son, remember Jesus’ life and teachings and celebrate God forever. Children were introduced to stories of biblical festivals that reveal these ingredients and link the Old and New Testaments to our lives today.
As a reward for raising the most money for the school supply fund, the Merry Macaroni (5th Graders) got to decorate Pastor David Skinner and VBS Director Dawn Owens as Human Sundaes.
Passionate Worship Conference will invigorate, vitalize
Wright, team leader said, “Our worship can have a broader, more authentic range beyond the traditional and classical, and can integrate music, silence, sounds, and movement in new and exciting ways.”
On Friday, which spans 6-10 p.m., the first plenary will be led by the electrifying Chester D.T. Baldwin of Houston, an award-winning worship artist, with the prophetic preaching and prescriptions for worship from Bishop Will Willimon, North Alabama, and accompanied by the San Antonio Area Gospel Mass choir and Ensemble.
On Saturday, which spans 9 a.m.-2:45 p.m., the innovative worship creativity of Dr. Marcia McFee of Lake Tahoe, in morning (with Baldwin) and afternoon plenaries will guide our worshipping spirits to new heights, depths and breadths. Because our worship culture varies from place to place, we’ll see how McFee uses familiar elements of worship in fresh new ways that will stimulate our thinking and worship planning.
If we put on our collective archaeology hat and consider excavating our congregations’ current religious culture, we may discover more than one in our midst. Alice Mann masterfully lays out four different cultures: activist (social change), civic (public good), evangelistic (witnessing), and sanctuary (divine transcendence). Mann and Gil Rendle of the Alban Institute, explain this and more in their wise, practical book “Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations.” [Alban: 2003] The Passionate Worship Conference has hope-filled potential to “meet you where you are” and begin a transformation process that will blow the fresh breath of God through your worshipping community and into the world.
Experiencing a week of work and worship this summer with the ecumenical Iona Community in its ancient Abbey, I stood on the tiny Scottish Isle of Iona, and understood first-hand why it is known as “a thin place.” The Rev. George MacLeod (1895-1991) of the Church of Scotland said, “There appears to be very little separating the physical from the spiritual.” The Iona Community choose not to refer to daily morning & evening services of worship in the Abbey church as “worship” but rather as “spaces,” reflecting the belief that all daily work is an offering to God; that work and worship are one and the same. The services are intentional space – an offering to God that is not work. May we experience the Passionate Worship Conference as “a thin place” offering ourselves in worship to God.
More information is available at www.umcswtx.org/passionate-worship-conference, including advance, discounted registration, with guaranteed Sat lunch, continues online through midnight Sept 1. Group registrations meeting discount criteria and sent together, must be received in the UM Center Registrar’s Office by close of business Sept. 1. After Sept. 1, the flat fee of $75 applies, and all registrations will be processed “at-the-door,” period.
Conference United Methodist Women to have annual meeting
Oct. 7-8
Southwest Texas Conference United Methodist Women are privileged to welcome Susan Aguilar, Southwest Texas Conference Peace with Justice Coordinator, as our guest speaker at the 37th Annual Meeting, to be Oct. 7-8, 2011 at First UMC, Corpus Christi. Aguilar is well known to United Methodist Women from her participation in National Seminar, teacher, workshop leader at Young Women’s Events and participation in Legislative Event.
United Methodist Women from throughout Southwest Texas Conference are encouraged to come together for this annual meeting. Theme for the meeting is “Walking in the Path of Peace.” Event begins on Friday evening at 6:30. A workshop on “Highlighting Changes to our United Methodist Women’s Organization,” led by Terry Schoenert, Sue Sidney and others, plus two tours, will be available earlier in the day. Mission items will be brought to support Rainbow House, a ministry of Corpus Christi Metro Ministries. The annual meeting will continue on Saturday with opening worship at 8:30 a.m., a luncheon and closing communion worship. Aguilar will speak Saturday morning prior to the business section of the meeting.
For information and registration materials, see www.gbgm-umc.org/swtxumw/. In order to facilitate caterer’s deadline, reservation deadline for event is Sept. 23. Registrar for event is Barbara Mobley, (361) 643.4907 or barbaramobley@swbell.net. For further information, contact Margaret Glueck at (512) 836.3493 or mglueck@alumni.utexas.net.
United Methodist Women is a nearly 800,000 member organization within The United Methodist Church whose purpose is to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for justice. United Methodist Women members give about $20 million a year for mission work related to women, children and youth in the United States and around the world.
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Corpus Christi District News
What does our wordhip say about us?
Imagine going to church because of the girls, or boys! It was like a page from my history. My Dad told of his coming to the Methodist Church not because of evangelism or any other spiritual effort, it was because he liked the look of the young ladies from the Methodist Church who came by to pick up his older sister for youth group. All it took was that first visit to his house by those MYFers and my dad decided that he would join them. And he did. And he married a young lady from another church. I’m referring to the life of Francis Asbury as I read a biography called, “American Saint: Francis Asbury and The Methodists,” by John Wigger. It turns out that a contemporary of Rev. Asbury, The Rev. George Shadford and a close friend had intentions of attending a Methodist meeting not “for the design of getting any good for our souls,” but to meet two young women. “But the preacher’s opening extemporaneous prayer was like nothing Shadford had ever heard, and he was hooked. After prayer, the preacher ‘took his little Bible out of his pocket, read over his text, and put it into his pocket again. I marvelled at this, and thought within myself,’ “Will he preach without a book too?”’ Sure enough, the preacher ‘began immediately to open the Scriptures...in such a light as I had never heard before.’” Shadford was touched by the “gift of God” that this preacher possessed as he “spoke very closely” about the kinds of sins that Shadford was most ashamed of in his own life. The sermon had a special relevance to his life and he wrote, “If this be Methodist preaching, I will come again,” he thought. “For I received more light from that single sermon, than from all that ever I heard in my life before.” That night, he wrote, “I thought no more about the girls whom I went to meet.”
The Rev. Asbury earlier had been touched by what he experienced in a Methodist meeting as well. It wasn’t the content of the sermons, he wrote, as it was the zeal of the preacher and their listeners. He would later recall that he “did not understand” much of what Revs. John Fletcher and Benjamin Ingham preached, but “the devotion of the people more than made up for this. ‘I soon found this was not the Church -– but it was better, the people were so devout – men and women kneeling down – saying Amen. Now, behold! They were singing hymns – sweet sound! Why, strange to tell! The preacher had no prayer-book, and yet he prayed wonderfully! What was more extraordinary, the man took his text, and had no sermon-book; thought I, this is wonderful indeed! It is certainly a strange way, but the best way. He talked about confidence, assurance, etc. –– of which all my flights and hopes fell short.” (John Wigger, American Saint:Francis Asbury & The Methodists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 28-29.
It’s in our DNA as United Methodists, this specialness towards prayer, preaching and participation in worship. We have a long history of those whose personal walk with the Lord Jesus translates into a meaningful and visible, contagious manner of being; something the world is hungry for! What are we offering now? How are we doing in our prayer life? All prayers matter. All prayers are good. All prayers are heard. But do we worship God in offering our prayers? Does God know who we are when we call upon God, that is to say, does God hear from us often or just when we need God? How do we listen to sermons? Do we do so expectant and excited about what God is about to reveal to us for our needs and the needs of the world?
(Due to limited space, we are unable to print all of the article, please see it in its entirety at www.umcswtx.org.)
Corpus Christi District Happenings
Linda Morrow
Director of District Ministries
Being a disciple is not a part time job. Each of us is called to model Christ moment by moment each and every day. As Christ’s ambassadors our words and actions at work, school, while shopping, recreating, in the community, and even while we are on the road should be reflections of the love we have experience through Christ and now offer to our family, friends, neighbors, and the world. How and where are you being Christ’s light in the world?
On September 17th the Southern end of the District is having their Awards Celebration Banquet. The churches of this part of the District and our brothers and sisters of the Rio Grande Conference in this area will celebrate those who excel at being Christ’s light in their churches, the community, nation and world. It should be an awesome time to share ministry and the people who minister.
As disciples we often need time to rest and reflect, pray and be spiritually fed so that we can continue to carry out our mission and ministry. On October 7-8 the District is hosting a Spiritual Retreat at Mustang Island Conference Center, on Mustang Island in Corpus Christi. This retreat will be led by Rev. Peter Aguilar with the topic being Christ Centered Prayer. It is only 24 hours long, beginning at 4pm on Friday and ending on Saturday at 4pm. This retreat offers a time away to be refreshed and nourished by good physical food and great spiritual food. There will be three sessions spread out over our time away allowing each participant to be come to new understandings personally as they learn about contemplative prayer its deep biblical roots, and experience Christ’s loving presence through prayer, worship and quietness. Registrations have been sent to each pastor of the District or they can be found at the District Website: http://www.ccdistrictumc.org
If you have been wanting to take another step forward in serving within the church or district, then you may want to consider the Lay Speaker Training being offered on October 1st at First UMC in Odem. This year we are offering both Basic Lay Speaking and an Advanced Class on Leading Small Groups. For more information you can email me at ccprogram@bizstx.rr.com or check the Web site.
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Kerrville District News
On the road with Kerrville’s Bill Henderson
Is Jesus Christ present in your community? Or let me put it another way – is the Body of Christ seen, experienced and glorified as YOUR United Methodist Church moves among the neighbors in your community? So many around your church buildings and nearby are beaten up by life and laying beside the roadways, so many are waiting by the pool for someone to help them into healing waters, so many are so unkindly judged and feel stoned by harsh looks and words, and so many are hungry for the bread of life. Are you and I there as the presence of Christ, with feet and hands of compassion and hope?
It is exciting sometimes to see and celebrate when the healing touch of the body of Christ makes a difference in bringing hope to a forlorn people. And that is happening in Eagle Pass. Several of our churches are involved in a growing mission. Obviously First UMC, Eagle Pass is making local connections with key community leaders reaching to those in need. Could I list a few others helping, even with the danger of leaving one out? How about Boerne, Coker, Johnson City, St. Paul Kerrville, University San Antonio, Alamo Heights? Even First Houston! Floods and tornados have torn through two colonias in Eagle Pass destroying or damaging hundreds of homes. These churches have moved in and are making a difference in the lives of many.
 Outside one home that has been repaired, Bishop Jim Dorff visits with Rev. Harlene Sadler of First, Eagle Pass and Rev. Becky Baxter-Ballou, executive director of Mission: Border Hope.
What is exciting is that this church has claimed a huge area with so many needy neighbors as their “mission field.” They are involved with the city mayor, the county judge and commissioners, a Baptist preacher, a Catholic priest and many more as they organize to face the challenges of poverty and despair.
Those organizing “Mission: Border Hope” have bold dreams to build a center for missions that might include a clinic, a dormitory for volunteers, a warehouse for supplies, a women and children’s shelter and more. It is exciting to watch this one small church “organize to beat the devil” and make possible our connection or our conference churches to find a place to make the presence of Christ known.
This one small church is showing us all what all of us could do in our own communities – that Christ might be glorified. Can you and your church do the same?
Kerrville District happenings
Tent Revival
Lakehills UMC
Old Fashion Tent Revival
At Lakehills, Texas
October 9 - 11
6 - 8:30 pm each day
The theme for this revival is Revitalizing the Saints and Harvesting the Seeds of Vacation Bible School. Food will be served each evening beginning at 6 pm, and worship services are from 7 - 8:30 pm.
Sunday the emphasis will be on gospel music, and Pastor Everett McCarley of Lakehills UMC will preach. Monday the emphasis will be on family, and Pastor John Work from Lakehills Baptist Church will preach. Tuesday, the emphasis will be on youth and the Pastor Doug Johnson from Pipe Creek Baptist Church will preach. Check your weekly bulletin insert and the Anchor for more information.
Center Point UMC
 Center Point United Methodist Church
Our first building was built in 1876 out of cypress by Rev. W. E. Pafford and Turley Cooke. It was located where the present day Center Point Cemetery. A piece of that church was used to make a baptistery stand in 1941.
The second building was built, but lost due to a storm in the mid 1880s.
The current building was built in 1911 under the leadership of Rev. Waltrip. The cost of the building was $14,000.
Come, join in the celebration!
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San Angelo District News
We are partners in ministry
In this age of scarcity, the utilization of resources must be shared. Bishop Dorff, in his Episcopal Address at this year’s Annual Conference has challenged all of us to create partnerships in mission across our Conference. In fact, the Bishop has instructed all the District Superintendents to ask our congregations at our local church conferences this year the question: “What are you doing to engage in mission and ministry with other congregations in your community?”
We already have a pretty good track record here in the San Angelo District with some good models of mission partnerships. On July 1 of this year a historic partnership took place with the appointment of Rev. Alicia Tovar to Lakeview and Bethel churches here in San Angelo. What makes this “historic” is the Lakeview church is a Southwest Texas Conference church and Bethel is a Rio Grande Conference church!
Also, Wesley Church and Trinity Church here in San Angelo have already begun a partnership by worshipping together every 5th Sunday and sharing in providing a Vacation Bible School for the community. They have planned a “Back To School Block Party” in the neighborhood. A new task force has been formed with key leaders from both congregations to see how they may more effectively reach out to their shared community on the northside of downtown San Angelo.
There are other examples all around the District such as “feeding the children” programs and shared VBS resources. In the far eastern part of the district, Art UMC is sharing with Trinity/Castell their pianist for Sunday worship. There may be other shared ministries in the District that we don’t know about. Let us know, so we can celebrate with you.
This is The United Methodist way - it is part of our connectional heritage. I believe we have the tools – with God’s help – to truly be One Church– One Ministry – One People.
San Angelo District Happenings
First UMC, Mason
Deandra Palacio
Summer camp at Mt. Wesley brings back memories for many adults who grew up in this area and had the privilege of attending camp during their childhood. Memories are still being made and are making a lasting impression on the kids who are able to attend each summer!
The children at Mason First United Methodist Church are fortunate to have the love and support of their congregation. Each year, beginning in October, the education committee begins having fundraisers to raise money so that any child, who wants to go to camp the following summer, will be able to attend. A Mexican Pile On meal has been the favorite, but they have also done hamburger luncheons and a pancake breakfast. The generous giving of the congregation raised enough money this past year to pay for the majority of the cost for 29 kids, grades 3-12, to attend camp.
The theme at camp this summer was “Keeping the Earth”. The kids learned how to take care of the wonderful creation that God has given us and how important each part of creation is. We are the ones God has entrusted to take care of his creation and that is a huge, yet wonderful job to have! The love shown by each of the camp staff to the children was just amazing. You can truly see the love of God in the face of each adult volunteer who was at camp.
Deandra Palacio, the Children & Youth Director at FUMC Mason, was able to attend two of the camps with the children this summer and saw firsthand how much this experience blessed the children and adults who went to camp. When the kids get to camp, many are a little apprehensive, especially the younger ones, about being away from their parents and away from their own bed, but by the closing program, they are begging to stay longer!
Deandra shares an amazing experience from camp, “The first night in the cabins, the kids were wound up from having an amazing day and didn’t want to go to sleep. I suggested to them that they each get into their bed and get out their Bibles and read. At first, they were hesitant, but within ten minutes, they were so excited about the stories they were finding in the Bible and telling one another to read their favorite passage! The next night, they asked if they could read their Bibles before I had a chance to suggest it! Of course I said yes! I know that the excitement they have for reading the Bible as well as all that they learned, is going to carry long past their week of camp.”
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McAllen District News
S.O.S.: Serve Our Schools in the McAllen District
As I write, my children are bemoaning the fact that they have to go back to school. My remarks about children around the world who count it as a dear privilege to attend school, to learn to read and write and add, are not particularly welcome responses in my home, but they are in fact true. The law of our land puts kids in school as a matter of course, even if the kids don’t realize what a gift it is.
The public schools of Texas are finding their budgets squeezed and cut this year, to drastic effect in some places. Our state lawmakers have made the financial decisions that lie behind those cuts, decisions we may or may not agree with. The effect, however, is clear. Schools are still entrusted with our children, those who will grow up to make laws and run our communities and care for us in our old age. And schools are challenged with finding ways to do more with much, much less.
Early this spring, our district missions committee offered a challenge to our churches—make contact with your local school or school district, and see how you can be of help during this difficult time. To date, 14 of our 34 churches have responded with a plan. Aided by a Rethink Church: Impact Community grant from UM Communications, we will join in a day of service on September 17—painting, landscaping, putting up bulletin boards, making copies, serving lunch. And many churches will be helping recruit volunteers for the long haul, people to listen to children read or help them do math, people to learn a child’s name and to say in person, “I care about what happens to you.” We’re calling it S.O.S. – Serve Our Schools.
I am grateful for a connectional church that uses our apportionment dollars to help the local church move in new directions. I am grateful for all the new relationships and partnerships already forged, even before the actual event. I am grateful for the willingness of our people to look beyond our walls to the children God has given us, in every community, to serve and to love. I trust that as we work, the activity of the Holy Spirit will continue to unveil the kingdom of God, already in our midst.
Pray for us and for the children of your own community. And stay tuned for an S.O.S. report.
Kerrville District happenings
Lyford UMC
Women of the Lyford United Methodist Church have been working throughout the year on handmade blankets for children. Paired with donated stuffed toys, they will be Christmas gifts for children of the Mexican border cities of Rio Bravo and Reynosa.
The gifts will be distributed by Bill and Lynne Jacoby, also Lyford UMC members, whose Rice and Beans ministry in Rio Bravo and Reynosa is in its 26th year.
Pictured with some of the completed Christmas gifts are L-R, Katy Johnson; Sandra Ezell; Bea Nyquist; Betty Oaks; Margaret Lucas; Inelda Gonzalez and Rev. John Smith, who has been happy to lend his moral support—but not his sewing skills. A number of Winter Texan friends also worked faithfully on the blankets while they were in the Valley and are expected back soon to help complete the project.
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Briefs
Passionate worship conference to be Sept. 9-10
A dynamic worship conference will be offered
Sept. 9-10 by the Southwest Texas Conference
and hosted by Alamo Heights UMC, San Antonio.
The Passionate Worship Conference, which
features Marcia McFee, Bishop Will Willimon,
Bishop Jim Dorff and Chester D.T. Baldwin, begins
at 6 p.m. that Friday.
“My personal opinion is that there will be no worship
event of comparable value as easily accessible
until after you retire,” said the Rev. Carl Rohlfs,
San Antonio District superintendent, in an e-mail
to all San Antonio church leaders.
The event will feature information about
and resources for traditional, contemporary,
blended, emerging, liturgical and non-liturgical
worship styles. The event is open to lay
leaders, pastors, musicians, music teams, choir
members, worship planners and key leaders.
Passionate Worship Conference is sponsored by the
Southwest Texas Conference Board of Discipleship
Worship and Music Team.
Chester D.T. Baldwin, recipient of GMWA’s
Best New Artist, Stellar Award, Texas GMEA
Organist of the Year and electrifying worship
presence, leads Friday evening’s San Antonio
Area Gospel Mass Choir & Ensemble and
presents Saturday morning with Marcia McFee.
After Sept. 1, the cost is $75 at the door.
Child care is available for $15 per child.
Register online at www.umcswtx.org.
Kerrville District
The Kerrville District staff has compiled
the information for Page 6 and paid to
use the space as a district newsletter.
Bill Henderson
Superintendent
dskerrville@texxa.net
Elizabeth Cover
Admin. Assistant
kdumc@texxa.net
Address:
222 Sidney Baker S # 528
Kerrville, Texas 78028
District Office
(830) 896-6400
Fax: (830) 896-6407
Program Office
(830) 896-6400
Corpus Christi District
The Corpus Christi District staff has compiled
the information for Page 6 and paid to use the
space as a district newsletter.
Eradio Valverde, Jr.
Superintendent
districtsuper@bizstx.rr.com
Sheila Campbell
Admin. Assistant
ccdistrict@bizstx.rr.com
Linda Morrow
Ministries Director
ccprogram@bizstx.rr.com
Address:
3510 Gollihar Road
Corpus Christi, TX 78415-2750
District Office
(361) 852-8268
Fax: (361) 852-3370
Program Office
(361) 852-8268
District Calendar
August
25 Clergy Family Picnic, First UMC,
Beeville, 6 p.m.
September
1 Sea City Workcamp, District Office,
6 p.m.
District Board of Laity, District
Office, 6:30 p.m.
9-11 Worship Renewal, Alamo Heights
UMC.
12 Witness Deadline.
17 District Celebration, First UMC,
Corpus Christi, 5:30-8 p.m.
19 United Campus Ministry, District
Office.
26-27 Cabinet Meeting
October
6 Sea City Workcamp, District Office.
7-8 District Spiritual Retreat
12 DCOM meeting, District Office,
9-3 p.m.
13 District Professional’s meeting,
Wesley UMC, 9-3 p.m.
14-15 First UMC, Beeville 150th
Celebration.
17 United Campus Ministry, District
Office, 5:30 p.m.
18 Witness Deadline.
San Angelo District
The San Andelo District staff has compiled the
information for Page 8 and uses the space as
a district newsletter.
Larry Altman
Superintendent
sangds@suddenlinkmail.com
Amy Moore
Operations Manager
sangom@suddenlinkmail.com
Gini Christian
District Ministries Coordinator
sangpd@suddenlinkmail.com
Address:
1315 S. Abe Street.
San Angelo, TX 76903
District Office
(325) 486-1500
Fax: (325) 482-0033
Wesite:
www.gbgm-umc.org/umcsa
District Calendar
August
26-28 Cabinet Retreat.
September
5 District Office closed, Labor Day.
9-10 Passionate Worship Conference,
Alamo Heights UMC, San Antonio.
22 Pastors and Professionals Meeting,
St. Lukes UMC.
24 Lay Ministries Training, Art UMC.
26-27 Cabinet Meeting.
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