Fincastle UMC Flyer A Publication of Fincastle United Methodist Church May 2020 Our Vision FUMC is a community of faith that welcomes all and seeks to embody the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ through radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service and extrav- agant generosity. Naonal Day of Prayer on May 7th Pray at Noon with Bishop Sharma D. Lewis Almighty God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, We thank you for your blessings, past, present and future. You are our rock and the source of our hope in all things and at all mes. As Jehovah Jireh, our provider God, we ask you this day to stretch out your mighty hand and eradicate from the face of the earth forever this virus called COVID-19 (coronavirus) that is spreading rapidly from connent to connent. We also pray that you, Jehovah Rapha, our healing God, would place your hand upon all of those who have been stricken by this virus and restore them to full health. Be with those who have lost loved ones and are grieving. Protect all who are caring for those with this virus and keep them from contracng it themselves. Calm our fears and provide us with your peace that surpasses all understanding. Strengthen us with the joy of the Lord and help us to hold firmly to the hope that only you can provide. Unify us that we, the Virginia Annual Conference, may be able to experience anew the promise of your presence in and through the unity of our faith, hope and trust in you in the days ahead and forever. We offer this prayer in the mighty name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. AMEN. 2019/2020 Secret Pal Program By Donna Hurd, Coordinator Thank you to all who parcipated in this year's Secret Pal program. Unfortunately, due to the current pandemic, we will not be having a secret pal reveal luncheon which is typically held in May. The secret pals have been revealed to our college students either by text or email, and this year's parcipants were: Student College or University Secret Pal Emma Butler Washington & Lee Bey Reynolds Jake Deaner Virginia Western Community College Rhonda Campbell Chris Fechisin Harvard Susan Marn Ethan Humbert Roanoke College Donna Hurd Hunter Sell George Mason University Michele Deaner Jill Tucker Brooklyn Law School Carol Walker We are so proud of all of our college students and hope they have a great summer break. The FUMC Secret Pal program is a wonderful opportunity to let our hard-working students know that we liſt them up, keep them in prayer and acknowledge special accomplishments and occasions throughout the school year. If you are interested in being a Secret Pal for the 2020/2021 school year, please send an email to [email protected]or text/call (540)598-1459. Thank you!
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Fincastle UMC Flyer A Publication of Fincastle United Methodist Church
May 2020
Our Vision FUMC is a community of faith that welcomes all and seeks to embody the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ through radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service and extrav-agant generosity.
National Day of Prayer on May 7th
Pray at Noon with Bishop Sharma D. Lewis
Almighty God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
We thank you for your blessings, past, present and future. You are our rock and the source of our hope in all things and at all times. As Jehovah Jireh, our provider God, we ask you this day to stretch out your mighty hand and eradicate from the face of the earth forever this virus called COVID-19 (coronavirus) that is spreading rapidly from continent to continent.
We also pray that you, Jehovah Rapha, our healing God, would place your hand upon all of those who have been stricken by this virus and restore them to full health. Be with those who have lost loved ones and are grieving. Protect all who are caring for those with this virus and keep them from contracting it themselves. Calm our fears and provide us with your peace that
surpasses all understanding. Strengthen us with the joy of the Lord and help us to hold firmly to the hope that only you can provide.
Unify us that we, the Virginia Annual Conference, may be able to experience anew the promise of your presence in and through the unity of our faith, hope and trust in you in the days ahead and forever. We offer this prayer in the mighty name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. AMEN.
2019/2020 Secret Pal Program By Donna Hurd, Coordinator
Thank you to all who participated in this year's Secret Pal program. Unfortunately, due to the current pandemic, we will not be having a secret pal reveal luncheon which is typically held in May. The secret pals have been revealed to our college students either by text or email, and this year's participants were:
Student College or University Secret Pal Emma Butler Washington & Lee Betty Reynolds Jake Deaner Virginia Western Community College Rhonda Campbell Chris Fechisin Harvard Susan Martin Ethan Humbert Roanoke College Donna Hurd Hunter Sell George Mason University Michele Deaner Jill Tucker Brooklyn Law School Carol Walker
We are so proud of all of our college students and hope they have a great summer break. The FUMC Secret Pal program is a wonderful opportunity to let our hard-working students know that we lift them up, keep them in prayer and acknowledge special accomplishments and occasions throughout the school year. If you are interested in being a Secret Pal for the 2020/2021 school year, please send an email to [email protected] or text/call (540)598-1459. Thank you!
Clothing for children and adults at no charge. Donations of gently worn clean clothing are appreciated. Please call the church office @ 473-3001 to arrange to bring donations during office hours, Do-nations may also be delivered at any time
to the lean-to structure located at the back of the FLC lower level.
4 Dana McCaleb
5 Angela Coon, Dick Vinal
10 Linda Bolton, Art Pendleton
14 Barbara Kagey
17 Keith Yancey
19 Paige Ware
20 Dean Williamson
21 Dusty Ross
24 Dwayne Yancey
25 Conner and Hunter Ferguson
29 Bo Finch
30 Joshua Dietz, Claire Pelligra
May Birthdays
May 3 May 10 May 17 May 24 May 31
10 am Lay Reader
Kerry Campbell
Doug Harris
Terry Tucker
Dick Vinal
Roger Musgrove
Children’s Sermon
Paul Tucker
Trina Yancey
Betty Reynolds
Art Pendleton
Marsha Campbell
May Worship Leaders
Navigating “Interesting” Times by Bill Campbell
These are indeed interesting times.
I am reminded of the old story; so old I will spare you the retelling, about the man who put his faith in the Lord during a flood only to learn later that his faith was well founded: the Lord had sent him two boats and a helicopter.
If he only used it, the man had been supplied what he needed. These are stressful times for all small businesses and small churches are no exception, but we too are supplied what we need. Our membership has stepped up and maintained support. We all recognize that the expenses don’t decrease materially just because we are not having physical services right now. Mission needs are actually greater. Many in the world are hurting. Our people are generous and responsible. This is no time for that to change.
We are also helping ourselves in other ways. The recent Federal Government assistance legislation included loans to small businesses to incentivize retention of employees. Churches are among the small businesses intended to use that money. We of course are retaining our employees. They are outstanding and they deserve our support at this time.
As you may have heard in the news, the first installment of funding was applied for and committed rapidly. Our finance committee, with unanimous Church Council approval, applied for a loan from those funds. In only two weeks we were approved for a loan of $21,100. We are required to use that for payroll, health and pension benefits and utilities. By a fairly complicated formula we expect some portion of that loan to be forgiven. That is the government's plan, purpose and intent for those loans.
After using the funds for the required purposes, we will pay back any unused and unforgiven portion at only 1% interest. Given the limited allowed uses, we are not borrowing money just to pay routine bills and overhead. There will be no residual debt as a result of this transaction. We obtain the funding, use it for the stated purposes, and repay such portion of it as is not forgiven.
Like the boats and the helicopter, the loan is a tool we can use to help ourselves during financially stressful times. It doesn't reduce the need. It does help with planning and dealing with some of the stresses. Ultimately, it is not a large percentage of our annual budget. It just helps some. Some of it will have to be paid back, albeit at the very favorable interest rate of 1%. For planning purposes, we should treat it like it would all need to be paid back. At least until the government tells us otherwise!
Thanks to all of you for your hard work and support.
It is hard to believe I started work on an e-mail for Church Council six weeks ago, returning to it only recently. It is harder to fathom all that has changed in those six weeks.
Like almost everyone else, I think we spent a couple weeks sort of in shock, not knowing what the future would hold or how best to proceed. Guidance from state government and the conference helped focus our thinking. We would have to learn how to operate without physically attending worship, without in-person meetings.
While we may still be refining that process, we are making great progress. One of the most uplifting experiences of the last three weeks has been to see the absolute joy our members experience during Zoom worship services. Clearly we all want and need to see each other, talk, find out how everyone is doing, have a laugh together.
As is true with our in-person worship services, we are strongest when we have the greatest participation. Those who have not joined the Zoom sessions yet need to get on-board! The technology is not difficult to use. A com-puter, tablet or smartphone will work. We could easily have twice as many attendees.
After all, for most of us it is not the case that we have a lot of competing activities demanding that time. We’re not traveling out of town. We’re not going anywhere for Sunday dinner. One need not spend a lot of time getting dressed up! I wouldn’t suggest jammies but if you look neat enough from the waist up you are OK! The Sunday morning shower is optional! With no dressing up and no driving anywhere, the time commitment is shorter than it is on an “ordinary” Sunday.
This is really very easy to do. You’ll enjoy a nice, well-planned service with Pastor Kwang’s sermon, music by Brooke and Mary Rae, a children’s message, the sharing of joys and concerns and announcements. There may not be a lot going on but you can find out what is happening.
There is no collection although we still do bless our gifts and offerings because we are still keeping up with those. We are blessed that our Church Family understands that our expenses really don’t go down much just because we are not attending a physical service. Mission needs don’t go down at all. In fact, they are greater than usual in a time of such widespread suffering.
10:00 next Sunday. You’ll get an e-mail with information about the service including a link to click on. Be there!!
And when all this is largely past and we are able to meet again, we may, as with so many other societal issues, experience a variety of feelings. There could be resentment that governmental action interfered with our right to worship as we choose. There might also be a relief that early and strong steps may have helped the citizens of the Commonwealth and our congregation in particular, avoid a “worst case scenario.”
The one feeling we should all share is the joy of being able to gather again as a congregation of God’s children, to give thanks for our many blessings, to enjoy each other’s company, to have a heightened appreciation for that opportunity that can only be stronger by having been without it for too long. In short, when we can again take our places in the pews -most likely in one that feels familiar- we should resolve to be there more regularly, more frequently, more thankfully than ever before.
If the doors are open, let us all be there!
Psalm 122, vs. 1
I was glad when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of the Lord
From Susan Martin, Senior Adult Ministries Team...
I just wanted to thank everyone involved with the Lenten Lunches and Services that we were able to have this year. We sometimes worry about bad weather but we have never had to worry about a pandemic before. Over 60 people attended each of the two services that we had. I have people in the community tell me how much they look forward to the Lenten Services each year. We have so many people who help with the planning and the services themselves. People help with publicity, set-up, cooking, clean-up, greeting people, and many other jobs to make the services run smoothly. We can hope for better luck next year. Again, thank you.
Together on Wednesdays—Resumes via ZOOM Our spring semester of TOW has resumed using the Zoom online meeting tool. Although we cannot meet to share a meal we can still meet online and pray together, share devotions, smiles, laughter and stories.
Our first TOW via Zoom was held on Wednesday April 22nd and we had approximately 19 people logged onto the meeting. The meeting began with Pastor Shin’s opening remarks and a prayer followed by a passage read by Doug Harris from the Upper Room Devotional Guide books and then opened up to the attendees to share stories, show off pets and just enjoy each other’s company. We’d love to have more join the meetings so please look for the TOW Zoom link in the Tuesday e-mails!!
Also, we are seeking input about what kinds of studies, programs etc., you would like to see in the TOW on-line meeting and also when TOW resumes in September after the summer break. Please forward any suggestions you have to the church office [email protected] or Rhonda Campbell [email protected].
We would also like different volunteers to read the passages from the devotional guide each week, if you are interested please let Rhonda Campbell know at [email protected] or 992-5008.
Rebecca Boone shared these two articles. The Doodle article, on the left, is a reminder that drawing uses different areas of the brain and has many cognitive benefits. The article on the right includes positive thoughts and reminders of all we still have available to us during our stay at home time. Thank you for sharing Rebecca!!
2020 KITS FOR CONFERENCE The Virginia Annual Conference has been rescheduled for
September 18-19, 2020. If you would like to begin to collect
items for kits, here are the instructions for the hygiene and school kits. If you are doing a hygiene kit, $1.00
should be included to purchase toothpaste for the kit. All kits, both hygiene and school kits require $1.00 for
postage. Only the items on the list can be included; no additional items are accepted. If you would prefer to
donate money, someone can shop for you. Kits can be brought to the Family Life Center and we will find a
place to store them or you can just keep them until September.
Hygiene Kit
One hand towel (15 x 25 –17 x 27 inches) One washcloth One comb-- Must be sturdy with at least 6 inches of teeth-- No pocket combs or picks-- Rattail and combs
without handles are acceptable but must have at least 6 inches of teeth One toenail or fingernail clipper-- No emery boards or metal nail files Bath-size soap (3 oz. bar or larger)-- No Ivory or Jergen’s soap, Do not remove from packaging One adult toothbrush-- Do not remove from packaging-- Personal advertising not acceptable 10 adhesive bandages (¾ by 3 inches)-- Common household bandages acceptable One one-gallon size re-sealable bag
Assembly Instructions
1. Lay hand towel flat on a table. 2. Lay the washcloth in the center of the hand towel. 3. Place all remaining items on top of the washcloth (except the plastic bag). 4. Fold the sides of the hand towel to cover the items. 5. Grasp the bundle tightly and roll over the remainder of the towel. 6. Place the tightly rolled bundle in the plastic bag, remove air, and seal.
School Kit One pair blunt scissors--Round tip only--No plastic scissors One box of 24 crayons--Only 24-count boxes are accepted Three one-subject notebooks--No marble composition books--No 3 or 5-subject notebooks One pack of loose-leaf paper--100-200 page packets are acceptable--Wide or college rule accepted One hand-held pencil sharpener--1-inch or longer--Remove from packaging One ruler--12 inches or 30 centimeters long--Sturdy or flexible material accepted Six unsharpened pencils One eraser--Two inches or larger One two-gallon re-sealable plastic bag
Assembly Directions
1 .Stack all paper items on top of each other.
2 .Place all loose items on top of paper. ( Small loose items may be placed in a smaller re-sealable bag.) 3. Place kit inside of re-sealable bag and seal.
Musical Journey of Brooke Stackpole
Brooke began to study music and singing when she started her junior year of high school. It wasn't until college that she began to sing classical music and eventually, opera. After receiving her bachelor's degree from Liberty University, she pursued a master's degree in vocal performance at Radford University. She began singing with Opera Roanoke during her graduate studies and was lucky enough to land her first professional debut during that time. Upon completion of her graduate studies, she began to work as an administrator for Opera Roanoke and a private voice teacher, both of which she still does today. Growing up in church gave Brooke a strong appreciation for sacred music and the effect it can have on connecting congregations. She is in her fifth year at FUMC and feels as though she's finally found a home-church. She has enjoyed getting to know the welcoming people at FUMC and looks forward to when they can all meet together again.
Shared Blessing by Doug Ross
This is an interesting period in the Christian calendar. Christ has been crucified, Christ has risen. The disciples are terrified and self-sequestered. Sometimes in difficult circumstances, it is prudent to take a step back. Matthias is chosen to replace Judas.
Jesus appears to them and assures the disciples they will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. The 50th day after the Sabbath of Passover Week (Easter), the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, who were speaking in tongues. They were emboldened and prepared to fulfill The Great Commission – to tell the world about Jesus Christ.
What happened next was the opposite of self-imposed sequestering. The apostles and disciples went forth and now two billion people on Earth have received and accepted the Word.
Hopefully, in a matter of weeks, contemporary America will come out of self-sequestering.
We profess that we believe in the Holy spirit each Sunday. The Holy Spirit was with us before and during sequestration. Food for thought. The Holy Spirit - A blessing from God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
The Trustees recently held their monthly meeting in the open air, another new way of doing business during a pandemic. After the meeting, the old tin radio sign from the cinder block radio shop was removed from the building. The building and attached vintage sign are newly acquired by FUMC as a result of the purchase of the Calvin Austin Property in February 2019. The vintage radio sign will be donated to the Fincastle Historic Museum, located in downtown Fincastle, to preserve its value to the community and for all to enjoy. When the threat of the virus is at bay and door begin to open to the public again, be sure to stop by the Fincastle Museum!
Musical Journey of Mary Rae The journey begins at age 3 when I am told I played hymns hands together and Happy Birthday! My father was a fine organist/pianist and used to play huge evangelical, services with the then UK's equivalent of Billy Graham at the Royal Albert Hall in London. I watched him play by ear so much that I thought that is how one always did it so I just followed along doing the same thing in a childlike way. My mother also played complicated Beethoven sonatas for example and I'd watch both of them fascinated. From an early age I’d play for hours at a time simply for pleasure (as well as climbing trees etc., and generally being naughty with friends).
Life at home was less than the best and there was huge comfort in switching on the radio to find evensong and the sublime sound of the boys and men's voices singing the hymns of the faith and more from the world famous King's College, Cambridge choir, I clearly recall this at age 6. Then at age 8 the lessons started and I was thrilled to learn the standard composers, discovering the beauty of some of their simpler pieces as well as the challenging ones. Instead of treats that most children had my mother would buy me music books. At age 9 when at boarding school I started to accompany the school on the evening church services, I was the only child in the whole school who was allowed to practice on the principal's grand in her drawing room which was a high privilege! I had already been taking examinations with the Royal Schools of Music piano levels and delighted in practicing and discovering new pieces for myself as well as playing by ear and it was a strange thing for me to watch most other pupils dislike the discipline of it when to me it was pretty much up there with chocolate! Competitions followed, which I never came first in but always had a go. Summer holidays were spent in the nose bleed section of concert halls enjoying the latest music. Then there was a chance to have a professor who auditioned me for piano, he did not teach young children but I got lucky. Whizzed through the rest of the exam levels and started work on the LRAM, which is a diploma from one of the Royal colleges of music. By this time I was starting to get bored ... life was full of boyfriends, beer and baloney so I gave it all up!!
Once we transferred to the USA I happened to see an advert requesting someone to babysit their grand piano whilst they swanned off to live in New York for 5 years, so there it sat with me looking at it which followed on from a neighbor who happened to be a concert pianist with 2 grands in her sitting room. I thought God was telling me to get my little daughter to learn the piano but, she hated it! So I figured God must have been nudging me instead and was appalled to find I could barely play more than the simplest of hymn tunes and nothing classical whatsoever. So I started practicing again and subbed at a local church, moved down to Virginia where the children begged for flute, ballet and choir lessons so how to pay for that lot?? Landed up accompany-ing the Roanoke College Children's choir, The Radford University Children's Choir and a whole lot of accompany-ing of the voice students there as well as a few at Roanoke College. Then along came accompanying the Suzuki Flute School students, and becoming the accompanist at Radford High School choir, which musically is a very prestigious job to have at the time. The work was intense and the students won many choral awards. It was a delight to help them towards some national choral awards as well. During this time I was also playing organ at various churches and still accompany (piano) at 2 of them and one year I was the accompanist for the Virginia Conference Youth Choir and we went abroad to do mission work, returning to a 3 week concert gig in Virginia.
There have been lots more bits and pieces during these years and it has been a great experience being involved in and learning from some of the finest teachers in the area but then it came time to retire and Fincastle UMC came upon the horizon! Who would have thought the dream of retiring to play in a little English village some-where turned out to be an American version of the same thing! I feel I have been undeservedly blessed by God on so many levels and am more than grateful to be a part of the UMC community here at Fincastle. Thank you for having me!
FUMC Pipe Organ Project and History
by Gloria Laughon Harris
Our pipe organ is 110 years old! A twelve rank Pilcher organ, it was built in 1910 for a church in Williamston, North Carolina. First Baptist Church in New Bern, North Carolina purchased it in 1965 and had replaced it with a larger organ in 1990, packing the Pilcher organ in storage. FUMC purchased it in December 1991 from the First Baptist Church in New Bern.
Our entire church was involved in this project. We learned of it from Eddie Claunch’s co-worker who was an organist. Our minister Dr. Bill Wash, with a degree in organ music, played a crucial role in our decision to purchase it. A group of our church members, many of whom were youth and their parents, and Rev. Wash went to New Bern in December, 1991. They labeled and packed the organ, including over 700 pipes. Others helped unpack it when they arrived at our church late at night.
Years later, Doug and I vacationed in New Bern and visited First Baptist Church. We met the organist who fondly remembered playing the organ and our church purchasing it.
Many members of our church removed gold paint from the pipes to restore them to the original pewter finish. The wooden pipes were in good condition. An organ builder, who had once installed this organ, was hired to rebuild it at FUMC. With help from Donald Booze, Wes Chesser and Bill Mateer, they installed the organ January-March 1992. Rev. Wash designed, and Bo Finch built, the chambers that house the pipes.
I was church organist at the time. It was both an honor and a thrill to play our pipe organ for the first time for church service on April 5, 1992. I remember the first congregational hymn was God of Our Fathers, a triumphant hymn to play featuring the trumpets. It is always a joy to play our pipe organ.
Choir director Jean Claunch, The Rev. Bill Wash, and organist Gloria Laughon were pictured in a 1992 Roanoke Times article about the FUMC organ.
May 3 John 10: 1-10
May 10 John 14: 1-14
May 17 John 14: 15-21
May 24 Acts 1: 6-14
May 31 Acts 2: 1-21
May Worship Schedule
After canceling in-person worship due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have delivered recorded sermons and hymns to the congregation by email for several weeks. The Worship Committee, a few church members, and I pondered how we would continue worship during these unique and challenging circumstances. We decided to go with Zoom, and developed online worship. We communicate and cooperate with each other by email for online worship. We were grateful that we could worship together on Easter on Zoom, see each other's faces, and share fellowship. Now, through Zoom, we can keep our social distance, while continuing to worship together, hold small meetings, and even continue our fellowship table.
Now we must also think about how we can fulfill God’s mission and the mission of our church. Because the coronavirus is invisible and spreads very quickly, this can make us afraid to do the things for God’s mission we normally would do. Of course, we need to take the precautions recommended by medical professionals. But I believe nothing can stop us from witnessing to the love of our Lord. We believe that the Holy Spirit is with us, and that God calls us to testify about the gospel. The gospel is as needed today as it ever has been.
After the apostles met the resurrected Lord and experienced the Holy Spirit, they testified to the gospel. They suffered greatly because of their testimony. Jesus was not a sinner, but died on the cross. The apostles carried both a burden and a fear to witness that Jesus Christ is the gospel. The apostles knew they would be persecuted, but witnessed to Jesus despite their fears.
Today we face a different kind of fear than the fear the apostles faced; we worry about the health and economic implications of Covid-19. We must testify to the gospel. Like the apostles, we must overcome our fear through the communion of the Holy Spirit and the grace we receive. Although our fears are different, I hope that we can be inspired by their courage and work hard. I hope that we can continue to testify to the gospel by recog-nizing and paying attention to the dangers of the virus, and by remembering the grace and love we have received from the Lord. Our community and neighbors will need our help. I believe that the Lord is calling us to testify to His love and grace. I hope that we listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit who calls us.
We have a desire to do good, but sometimes we don't know how to put this into practice. Especially when we encounter difficult situations, we often worry about how to overcome these barriers alone and easily become overwhelmed. Rather than worrying alone, we can remember that God has given us coworkers. Let’s talk with our sisters and brothers about how to practice the love of the Lord and testify to His love to our neighbors. Let us share wisdom in conversation, and let us turn good intentions into deeds. We must remember that we are called to testify about the gospel.
7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 8 So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. 9 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. (2 Timothy 1:7-9 NIV)
Grace and Peace,
Kwangmin Shin
Fincastle UMC PO Box 63 Fincastle, VA 24090 540-473-3001
1 tsp. salt 2 tsp. vinegar ½ lb. ground beef ½ lb. bacon
Drain the butter and kidney beans, not the pork and beans. Fry bacon until crisp and drain off the fat. Fry hamburger until browned, and drain off the fat. Crumble the bacon. Combine all the ingredients and put into a casserole dish. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Casserole can be topped with shredded cheddar cheese if desired.
A double recipe fills
a 9 x 13 inch pan.
Three Bean Casserole After this dish was served at TOW a request came in for the recipe to be posted in the newsletter. Terri
Ferguson graciously agreed to share the recipe, which was taken from the cookbook of the Truxton United
Methodist Church in New York where they attended for 23 years. Enjoy!
