Recent News

The saying is that everything is bigger in Texas and the Custer Road UMC Revelation Choir is a great example. The 125-member high school choir will present a concert in our sanctuary on Tuesday, June 14 and we are soliciting housing for as many of the youth and their chaperones as possible. While they are prepared to roll out sleeping bags on the gym floor and use our showers if necessary, we would like to provide homes for as many of their group as possible. Home stays have always been a memorable part of our Chapel Choir tours. Host families will need to provide breakfast on the 15th. Please check your calendar and contact Don Dunham or 630.968.7120, ext. 210 regarding how many youth you are willing to host, if you have pets and whether you have a gender or age preference.

Recently 36 retired United Methodist bishops released a statement calling on The United Methodist Church to remove its ban on homosexual clergy. “Once upon a time, it wasn’t there, and it doesn’t have to be there,” said Bishop Don Ott.

The church will have a chance to remove the restriction at our 2012 General Conference. The Methodist Federation for Social Action and the Reconciling Congregation Movement are proposing that all offensive language about homosexuals be removed from our Book of Discipline.

Judy Koptik has a plan to help those efforts. She initiated a GENERAL CONFERENCE BOOK FUND, with the goal of sending one copy of Ermalou Roller’s book: On Thundering Wings: Homosexuality, Love and the Church on Trial to every delegate of our 2012 General Conference. She believes that this book might convince delegates to insist that church law recognize and respect that we are all created in the image of God.

Please decide now to be part of this important effort by contributing generously to the fund. (So far 102 books have been purchased; we’ll need 898 more.) Each book costs $16.95.

Write checks to First United Methodist with the notation: GCBFund. Your gift will be tax-deductible.

Thanks for caring and thanks for helping.

We are excited to announce that we plan to send a delegation from our church to visit the women of UPAVIM in Guatemala City this summer. The visit will take place from July 6th through the 14th. Ray and Ina Osborn, who participated in the 2008 delegation, will be leading the group and we hope to encourage anyone who is interested in developing our relationship with these remarkable women to join us. Under-18s need to be accompanied by a parent and we already have a family considering this; you do not need to know Spanish as a translator is provided. Most of the cost of the trip is covered by fundraising that we’ve already done, but participants will be asked to fund their own airfare and some expenses, which will amount to around $550.

This is a different kind of mission trip where we offer ourselves and our friendship rather than our building skills and material wealth. During our time in Guatemala, we will spend a few days living in the homes of some of the women, discovering the delights of their culture and the hardships of living on the margins of society. We will witness their courage, strength and faith in God and we will be changed! In the past few years, we have begun to share how we can work together to build a better world and we are working on a joint project to help the women reopen their medical laboratory at the clinic within UPAVIM.

Please give prayerful consideration to the idea of joining us in July. A meeting to share further information for those who are even a little interested will be held on Sunday, March 6th at noon in room 213. Or contact Ina or Ray for more information.