Open Source – Prayer

This week we will begin a new series on Spiritual Disciplines.  Each week we will be looking at a different Spiritual Discipline.  We will be using an “open source” format (you can read this post here to find out what that means).  This Tuesday we will be looking at, in, and doing some prayer.  I want to encourage each one of you to think of how you pray, what prayer is, why you prayer, and examples of prayers.  When you think about all of those come and join us tomorrow night and join us in this open source format to find out more, learn new ways, and hear stories of prayer.  Maybe you don’t know a lot about prayer or maybe you don’t know anything about prayer… please come and join us anyway.  This will be a great time to find out and hear from your friends about what prayer means to them and what prayer is all about.  If you have any questions about this feel free to comment them on this blog here of shoot Patrick an email.  Bring a friend to join us this Tuesday and we will see you soon!

Gutter Clean Out Day – Today

Today is Gutter Clean Out Day.
Come on up to the church!

Breakfast – 8:00am
Clean Out – 9:00am
Other group leaving for clean out – 10:00am
(or after 10:00am Upward Game)

 Go HERE for more info!

Emusanda Community Update

We got some mail!  Last year we gave money, as a group, to The Water Project.  The money that we gave (totaling over 1,000 bones last year) was used to build a well in Kenya.  Specifically it was used to build a well in the Emusanda Community.  We got a letter the other day from the water project with some GPS coordinates and information on the project.  You can check all that information out here.  You could also check out the picture from Google Earth of the location the well was built in. 

Check out the GPS coordinates.
Latitude 0.276500
Longitude 34.690770

(this is a google earth screenshot from my computer)
On the left is the Google Earth Image.

Awaken – Open Source

Throughout Lent, at Awaken, we will have “Open Source Sermons”.
We will begin this before Lent – starting with this Tuesday (2-9). 

This is how it will work….
The overall theme throughout Lent will be spiritual disciplines. Prayer. Fasting. Service. Worship. Simplicity. Solitude. and so on…  Instead of having a formal “sermon” or “message” for the night we will engage in an open source sermon format.  The idea with open source is that everybody can contribute and give input on different ideas and practices and then use what works best for them.  This is the same idea as that of open source computer software.  When it comes to Open Source Sermons we will invite people to openly share their ideas on that particular spiritual discipline.  This will allow others to share practices, found content, and created content on prayer, fasting, simplicity, so on… and how they go about it.  This is going to be a great time to learn from each other. 

This Tuesday – February 9th – we will be looking at Prayer.  We will talk about prayer and we will do some prayer.  Come and pray with us this week.  Bring a friend or two with you and we will see you then.

Don’t worry about it if you don’t know anything about Prayer or other spiritual disciplines… just come on out and be a part of this.  It is going to be lots of fun and we are very excited about it! 

I will put up the dates and what our Open Source Sermon topic will be about soon and before each week, so you can know ahead of time what we will be talking about.

UMCOR Health Kits

Meadowbrook will assemble UMCOR Health Kits in March

KIT CONTENTS
Place these items inside a sealed one-gallon plastic bag.
1 hand towel (15” x 25” up to 17” x 27”, no kitchen towels)
1 washcloth
1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)
1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)
1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz. and up)
1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, no child-size brushes)
6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages 

(NOTE: UMCOR Sager Brown is now purchasing toothpaste in bulk to be added to health kits before shipping to ensure that the product does not expir before it is sent. Please include $1 for each kit you send toward the purchase of toothpaste.)

Because the emergency kits are carefully planned to make them usable in the greatest number of Situations and strict rules often govern product entry into international countries, UMCOR requires that the kits contain only the requested items—nothing more.

Gutter Clean Out Day

Here is what you need to know about Gutter Clean Out Day.
This will happen February 6th – THIS SATURDAY!
We are cleaning out the gutters of the people who put their name on the list to have their gutter cleaned out.  This is our 6th year to do this, and ever since we started Awaken 4 years ago we have had a good group participate!  It is a lot of fun and great to help out!

Here are the times you need to know.
Free breakfast at 8:00am
Groups will leave at 9:00am to begin cleaning.
However… due to the Upward Sports games and a couple of coaches that would like to help… There is also a group that will depart from the church after the 10:00am game on Saturday to begin cleaning out some gutters.   
We will be done when we finish!

Bring a ladder if you have one and some gloves.
See you Saturday.
Contact Patrick if you have any questions!
patrick@mbrookumc.or

Awaken: February 2nd

Yesterday was Groundhog Day!  We also had Awaken!  We began our worship with singing of several songs.  We did not have Justin with us this week, but he will be back with us next week on the drums/piano.  After some singing, Kyle brought the message for the night.  We talked about light and salt.  After the message we had a time of meditation and prayer.  We loaded up that prayer board with requests, celebrations, joys, and concerns (be sure to check that out in the picture below).  We then closed with a last song and our benediction.  Come and join us next week as we begin a new series “Awaken – Open Source” – we will be looking at Prayer next week.  Check back here on the blog to learn more about how this will work and what it will look like.  We are all very excited about our Lenten series.  Bring a friend to join us next week and we will see you then.

Prayer Board for February 2nd

(click on the image to make it bigger)
If you would like to add to the prayer board please do.  Leave us a comment on this post with your joys, concerns, requests, or celebrations and we will be in prayer with you.  We hope you will be in prayer with us!

Gutter Clean Out Day is this Saturday February 6th.  There is free breakfast at 8:00am in the fellowship hall.  Then there is a group that will start at 9:00am.  There are also several of us starting after the 10:00am Upward Sports game.  Come and join us in this time of mission/volunteerism/fellowship/fun! — More info to come.

Valentines Day – Gift of Hope

http://new.gbgm-umc.org/

Flowers are beautiful, chocolates are tasty, but neither one lasts. A gift to UMCOR through The Advance ensures that 100% of your money goes to Haiti, and guarantees that the relief efforts there will continue until the people of Haiti are back on their feet

Make your gift online at umcorhaiti.org, download this card in color or black and white and insert it into a traditional Valentine’s Day card. This year, give the gift that lasts.

Awaken (2/2) is tomorrow night!

Come and join us for Awaken tomorrow night!  Worship starts at 8:00pm, but come on out as early as 7:00pm.  We will have music, prayer, fellowship, and some message.  Bring a friend or two with you!  What a great time to worship with friends and meet some new people.  We will see you around 8ish!

Celebration of Black History and Lent

Coming in February!
Put this on your Calendar.
Celebration of Black History Month and Lent 

Sunday, February 14 – 10:50am
Rev. Kyland Dobbins & The Meadowbrook Choir 

Monday, February 15 – 6:30pm
Dr. Sylvester Key & The McMillan Choir 

Tuesday February 16 – 6:30pm
We will not have Awaken on this night – come to this!
Rev. Beverly Gilliam & The Morningside Choir 

Ash Wednesday, February 17 – 6:30pm
Rev. Carol Gibson & The Saint Andrew Choir