The Newsletter of

St. Paul’s UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST McConnellsburg, PA

Trinity UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST Fort Loudon, PA

The Beacon

OCTOBER 2017

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God — not because of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

The Fort Loudon-McConnellsburg Charge STAMP

of the

United Church of Christ

228 North 2nd Street

McConnellsburg, PA 17233

United Church of Christ Emergency USA Fund Each year in the United States hundreds of natural disasters occur. And each year in the United States resettling

refugees and new immigrants face large-scale emergencies. Some natural disasters are large enough to make the

news, but often dozens of smaller natural disasters escape media attention. The Emergency USA Fund allows UCC

Disaster Ministries to respond to both large and small natural and human-caused disasters in all U.S. states and ter-

ritories. This Emergency USA Fund also enables the United Church of Christ to be even more deeply involved in

refugee and immigrant emergencies within the United States. If you prefer to donate by mail, make checks pay-

able to United Church of Christ, with "Emergency USA Fund" in the memo. Mail to: United Church of

Christ c/o Financial Services office, 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland OH 44115. Un-designated giving allows the

United Church of Christ to respond where resources are needed most but if you prefer to designate your gift you

may do so by noting the disaster or refugee/immigration emergency in the designated box on the on-line form or in

the memo line of the check. 100% of funds to the United Church of Christ designated for U.S. disaster relief are

used for disaster relief and rehabilitation programming within the United States. 100% of funds to the United

Church of Christ for U.S. refugee resettlement/immigration emergencies are used for providing humanitarian assis-

tance in these situations within the United States. *Funds raised in response to a specific solicitation,

that exceed the amount necessary to respond fully to the designated disaster or emergency will be directed towards

other emergency-relief and disaster-preparedness efforts in the United States.

TRINITY’S FINANCIAL UPDATE

Month Received Budget to Date Expended

Jan/July $31,159.16 $44,075.78 $29,024.89

August $12,036.91 $ 6,294.54 $ 8,849.39

Totals YTD $43,196.07 $50,372.32 $37,874.25

Trinity would like to thank all the volunteers who helped at the Peach Festival, friends from St. Paul’s and the community, as well as our own members. Net proceeds from the festival were $7,591.36, the best ever!

Secretary - Pam Carmack

buckpcar@embarqmail.com (717)-485-4795

St. Paul’s UCC

228 N Second Street, McConnellsburg, PA 17233

(717)-485-5554***mcbucc@embarqmail.com

Facebook & www.uccmccbg.weebly.com

Trinity UCC

P.O. Box 253

13189 Main Street, Fort Loudon, PA 17224

(717)-369-4773***trinityuccftloudon.webs.com

www.pccucc.org (Penn Central Conference)

www.ucc.org

www.mercersburgassociation.wordpress.com

Dates for the Mt. Parnell Lions Club meeting nights …

October 12, October 26, November 9, 2017

January 11, January 25, February 8, February 22, March 8 and May 10, 2018

Trinity Special Events Fall activities include our Food and Clothing Giveaway

on Saturday, September 23 from 10:00 to 12:00; a

Potpie Buffet Supper on Saturday, October 7, from 3:30

to 6:30; Trick or Treat Night on Friday, October 27

from 6:00 to 7:00; a Chicken BBQ at the church on

Saturday, November 4 from 10:30 to sell out; Trini-tea

on November 11, and cookie collection for truckers on

November 26. We will also be working with the oth-

er churches in Fort Loudon to hold the Thanksgiving

Eve service at Freedom Lighthouse. You are invited to

join us in any of these activities.

Trinity United Church of Christ Peach

Festival 2107

On behalf of Trinity United Church of Christ, I

want to thank you everyone for their generous do-

nations to cover the expenses for the 2017 Peach

Festival. I’m sure you are aware that many

churches are struggling to meet their budget.

Thanks to the help and support of members of

both Trinity and St. Paul’s the Peach Festival was

a great success this year bringing in much needed

funds for our church. Glenn Crouse will be

providing the final financial report to us but just

let me say that the Festival has been steadily

growing and this was our best event yet. There is

not enough room to thank each individual person-

ally; however, I want to especially thank Pam Car-

mack and Donna House for donating their time to

sell food tickets. We also want to thank St. Paul’s

Church Women United for their generous dona-

tion and I know we had some personal donations

from St. Paul’s as well. As our congregation gets

older and the membership is dwindling it is a

blessing that our partner church is so willing to

help us. Thanks also to everyone at Trinity who

personally donated money, time, food, drinks,

supplies, solicited sponsors for the entertainment,

and recruited family members to help. It takes

many hands to pull off an event this large and we

are so grateful to everyone who pitched in from

both St. Paul’s and Trinity.

Thank you again.

Linda Best

TCC Consistory President

CHRISTMAS CHILD SHOEBOX MINISTRY

SOME CHANGES THIS YEAR

By: Mary Haubrick

There are a couple of small changes in the instructions for packing the shoeboxes this year for the Samaritan’s

Purse Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes. NO TOOTHPASTE OR CANDY CAN BE INCLUDED. These

items are no longer allowed due to custom regulations. The cost to cover shipping for each box and other pro-

ject costs has increased to $9.00.

Empty shoeboxes are available at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ for anyone who would like to participate

in this outreach ministry. Thanks to Yvonne Krebs, we received a donation of larger shoeboxes for this project.

Since the boxes are larger, it is not necessary to completely fill the box to full capacity. You may also use your

own empty cardboard box or purchase a plastic shoebox with lid.

DEADLINE FOR RETURNING THE FILLED BOXES TO ST. PAUL’S IS SUNDAY, NOV. 12.

Things to consider when filling a box are:

Determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl and the age category:

2 to 4; --------5 to 9;--------------- or 10 to 14.

Suggested items are School Supplies: pens, pencils and sharpener, crayons or markers, stamp and ink pad

sets, writing pads or paper, solar calculators, coloring and picture books.

Toys: small cars, balls, dolls, stuffed animals, kazoos, harmonicas, yo-yos; jump ropes, small Etch a

Sketch, toys that light up or make noise (with extra batteries), slinky

Hygiene Items: toothbrush, mild bar soap, (Put in a plastic bag), comb, washcloth, etc.

Other: T-shirts, socks, ball caps, sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches flashlights (with extra batter-

ies)

A Personal Note; In a separate envelope, you may enclose a note to the child and a photo of yourself or

your family.

DO NOT INCLUDE: Candy; toothpaste; used or damaged items; war-related items such as toy guns,

knives, or military figures; chocolate or food; seeds; fruit rolls or other fruit snacks; drink mixes

(powdered or liquid); liquids or lotions; medications or vitamins; breakable items such as snow globes or

glass containers; aerosol cans.

A donation of $9 is requested for each shoe box to help cover shipping and project costs. If you are not

able to shop to fill a shoebox, you can still participate by your donations that will be a great help to this spe-

cial ministry. A gift to Operation Christmas Child helps cover processing and shipping expenses and al-

lows teams to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with children and their families. Make checks payable

to Samaritan’s Purse with a note on the memo line “Operation Christmas Child”, and give donation to

Mary Haubrick.

For more information, contact Mary Haubrick at 987-3604 or mhaubrick@embarqmail.com.

News from the Search Committee

The Search Committee has been “searching”, but this task has not been an easy one. In the beginning

the committee carefully compiled a profile of our two congregations and sent it to Penn Central Conference of

the United Church of Christ to be placed on the job search network. This profile would help prospective min-

isterial candidates to become familiar with our two ministries, church activities and communities.

Also, a special profile was sent to Lancaster Theological Seminary in hopes of attracting a possible

recent graduate.

Over the past two years the Search Committee has received a wide variety of candidate profiles from

all over the United States. The profiles were read and discussed, and references were checked. In the judge-

ment of the committee members, three possible candidates were selected and contacted from interviews either

by phone or in person. These personal interviews were very friendly and informative, but did not yield any

positive results. Here is what we learned from the comments of these prospective candidates:

They were impressed with the amount of activities and accomplishments of our two congregations with

limited membership.

Two of the candidates once discovering how “rural” our two congregations were, opted to select minis-

tries in a more urban-suburban area.

One candidate, who visited us on site, showed a strong willingness to be pastor here, but would require

health insurance coverage that had a small co-pay and a “pre-existing condition” rider. The coverage was

in access of $20,000…which along with salary and other benefits, was too pricey for our limited budgets.

Upon checking references, a number of candidates had served multiple congregations in a short period of

time, indicating personal issues and conflicts. Something our committee wanted to avoid.

These are the issues the committee is facing in our attempts to attract viable candidates: (a) small member-

ships, (b) limited budgets, (c) rural communities.

HOWEVER, while we have been searching our congregations have been blessed to have two fine,

outstanding interim ministers serve in our midst keeping our members worshiping and working together.

As I am writing this article, a new profile of a Spring graduate of Lancaster Theological Seminary

arrived from Penn Central Conference. The committee will start the careful process of checking this candi-

date. Your committee is on the job and still searching.

Respectfully submitted,

Loy Garber

St.

Paul’s

Sunday

School

Classes

Are

Practicing

Random

Acts of

Kindness…

You

can

too!

Random Acts of Donations

Money Donations Needed for the Children’s Sunday School snacks...give to

Seleen Shives.

Money Donations needed for Church Women spon-

sored Halloween Treats for Trick or Treat night at the church. See

Donna House.

OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS

3 Rosie Shives

6 Donna House

7 Betty Burns

9 Darlene Seiders

Bill Alexander

12 Connor McElhinny

13 Zereau Higgins

15 Kimberly Pryor

Matt Pryor

17 Loy Garber

Karen Rosenberry

18 Jeanne Sweeney

18 Benson Mester

19 Barb Hurst

21 Cecil Mester

24 Bethany Wynn

Skip Daniels

25 Kadence Lake

28 Mary Lou Fritz

29 Linda Garber

30 Amanda Zeis

Betty Daniels

Dorothy Stevens

Gary Stevens

Gene and Barb Bricker

Joyce and Thurman Hassler

John Hornbaker

Military and families

Zeis family

Jean McLucas

Diane Baxter

Tom Hamil

Nancy Barmont

Korbyn Rotz

Nancy Lawyer

Sawyer Bye and Family

Meril Fetters

All individuals and families sorrowing or

dealing with an illness

All Sunday school classes

Our Church & ministries

If you have any additions or corrections to the pray-er list or the birthday list, please contact the church office.

Trinity’s Ushers:

Betty and Sam Burns

St. Paul’s Ushers:

Nevaeh and Abby

St. Paul’s Flowers:

Jody Shimer and Seleen Shives

2017 Pray, Serve and Proclaim the Good News!

Saturday, September 23 Trinity Food and Clothing Giveaway on from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Sunday, October 1 Trinity and St. Paul’s World Wide Communion

St. Paul’s $100.00 of our morning offering will be sent to Neighbors in Need

St. Paul’s Contemporary service and Fellowship Lunch and

Blood Pressure Sunday (get your blood pressure taken by one of our nurses)

Wednesday, October 4 Trinity Choir practice, 6:30 PM

Saturday, October 7 Trinity Potpie Buffet Supper at the Community Center, 3:30-6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, October 10 Trinity consistory meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, October 11 St. Paul’s Church Women United meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, October 17 St. Paul’s consistory meeting, 7:00 p.m.

TO BE ANNOUNCED St. Paul’s Trick or Treat (watch for date and time)

Friday, October 27 Trinity Trick or Treat Night from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, October 31 500th. Anniversary of the Reformation

Saturday, November 4 Trinity Chicken BBQ at the church 10:30 a.m. to sell out

Saturday, November 11 Trini-tea (watch for more information)

Sunday, November 26 Trinity Cookie collection for truckers

(watch for more information)