Serving Christ for over 130 Years January / February 2014 Est. 1879

Dear Friends, My entire ministry I have subscribed to a book of daily devotions called “Disciplines”. The book is published by, The Upper Room. The book contains daily devotions for the year and includes a study guide for each week and provides a wonderful way to be in God’s Word. What follows is part of the introduction to the 2014 edition written by Pamela C. Hawkins. “The old leather book on my grandmother’s nightstand fascinated me. Worn thin at the edges and along the creases of the spine, tan hide showed through what had once been a soft black cover embossed with shiny gold lines and letters. Before I was old enough to know it was a Bible, I knew it was a book my grandmother treasured. I knew it was a book she picked up every night and read in the dim lamplight of her bedroom. I knew this because she let me sleep in her room when I was a little girl, and watched her as I snuggled to sleep under a quilt on my little cot set up at the foot of her bed. What I value most is the cherished image in my mem-ory of my grandmother in that soft light, Bible in her lap and glasses on her nose as she turned to God’s Word at the close of the day.” I believe that most all of us can identify at some point with the above story. So as we begin a new year I would encourage you to make sure you set apart a special time to read God’s Word on a regular basis. God will speak to you through his Word and you will receive strength and encouragement to live out these precious days of a blessed new year. I trust that you will explore and experience all the pos-sible blessings that comes through the spiritual discipline of reading and reflecting on scripture. In His Grace

Ephesians 2:8-9

BBBBoooobbbb

Inside this

Edition...

Pastor’s Message 1

Local Church News 2

Local Church News cont. 3

January Calendar 4

February Calendar 5

Birthdays and Anniversaries 6

My Pennsylvania Mission Trip 7

Mission Trip cont. 8

JOIN US EACH WEDNESDAY FOR

AT 5:00 P.M. IN THE CHAPEL THEN,

IN THE FELLOWSHIP HALL THEN,

AT 7:00 P.M. IN THE HALL, AFTER DINNER.

Thy Word is a lamp

unto my feet and a light

unto my path. Psalm 119:105

2 The Oneco Clarion

WHAT IS EPIPHANY?

Epiphany is commonly known as Twelfth Night, Twelfth Day, Three Kings’ Day, or the Feast of Epiphany. It means “manifestation” or “showing forth”. It is also called Theophany (“manifestation of God”), especially by Eastern Christians. Epiphany refers not only to the day itself but to the church season that follows it – a season that has a varied length be-cause it ends when Lent begins, and this depends on the date of Easter. It commemorates the first two occasions on which Jesus’ di-vinity, according to Christian belief, was manifested: when the three kings (also known as wise men or Magi) visited infant Jesus in Bethlehem, and when John the Baptist baptized him in the River Jordan. The Roman Catholic and Protestant churches emphasize the visit of the Magi when they celebrate the Epiphany. The Eastern Orthodox churches focus on Je-sus’ baptism. Epiphany is one of the oldest Christian feasts. It was cele-brated since the end of the second century, before the Christmas holiday was established. Like other Christian sea-sons, the church appropriated Epiphany from an old pagan festival. As early as 1996 BCE, the Egyptians celebrated the winter solstice (which then occurred on January 6) with a tribute to Aeon, the Virgin. It is important to note that the holiday was established prior to the Gregorian calendar’s introduction.

The Oneco United Methodist Women will meet on Thurs-day, January 9, 2014 in the Chapel. This will be our pro-gram planning for 2014 and election of officers. All women interested in missions are invited to attend. Carol Hany UMW President

The United Methodist Men will be meeting at 7:30 a.m. on the 4th Sunday of each month for breakfast and fellowship. All are invited to come and join us. We have donated $200 to go for the Christmas food baskets to participate in the United Methodist Women ministry, $175 for a young lady to get into the Learn to Fish ministry, $100 to the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home and also $100 to the Society of St. Andrew. We rang bells for Salvation Army at the Wal-Mart in Oneco for two days in the month of December, and everyone worked hard with the Christmas tree sales. Stan Wish, United Methodist Men President

OUR CHURCH PRAYS DID YOU KNOW? Not only do each of us offer up prayers on be-half of someone during our regular worship services, but we also have a group who meets on Wednesdays at 5:00 PM in the Chapel (when there is a dinner) to lift up specific individuals in prayer. DID YOU KNOW? That Prayer Request cards are located in the pews for completion and to turn in with your offering? Those re-quest not only go on the list found in the bulletin but are also re-leased to our prayer group. DID YOU KNOW? All of the requests that go to our prayer group are also released to those members of the congregation who have committed to prayer during the week. They go out via email. You can very easily sign up for a weekly updated list by writing to ourchurchprays@yahoo.com. DID YOU KNOW? Any prayer requests you give to the church and/or prayer group should be updated periodically? If you’ve put someone on the list, you can keep us updated by using a Prayer Request card. Simply write ‘Updated’ at the top. DID YOU KNOW? Even if you can’t come to the Wednesday meetings or even if you don’t have a computer, you could still get a copy of the weekly update. Simply put a note in the offering plate with your full name or call the Church Office and you’ll be able to pick one up the following Sunday in the appropriate mail box at the rear of the church. DID YOU KNOW? Oneco United Methodist Church wants to be known as a church that prays. Please join us in prayer. Carolyn Boyle

Extravagant Generosity

Thank you so much for your generous purchasing of gift cards, monies, and change for the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home this past year. I know it is all very much appreciated. The Children’s Home is a powerful ministry with some amazing testimonies of changed lives all to the glory of our Lord and Sav-ior. God bless, Nadene Wish OUMC Representative for FUMCH

‘ANGELS’ AMONG US

I just wanted to give everyone an update on the newest ministry of our Church. If you haven’t arrived from the North as yet, don’t be surprised to see Teddy Angels sitting in the pews when you get here. These cuddly bears are available for sponsorship at $5.00 each and you can either give them to someone you know or leave them with the ministry to be distributed. Introduced on Laity Sunday, October 20th, more than 150 Teddy Angels were sponsored in less than a month. Not only were many given out to friends, relatives, neighbors and even grand-kids, but we were also able to distribute 14 to our shut-ins and 15 were used in the Holiday Food Baskets. We have confidence that many more will be donated to the ministry so that they can be distributed to first-time users of our Food Pantry. Even when the food is gone, Teddy Angel will still be there. The Teddy Angel Ministry was founded on the principle of help-ing those who are sick, hospitalized, lonely, hungry, grieving, or simply in need of a ‘pick me up.’ They are doing just that! Do you know someone who needs a lift? A Teddy Angel could do the trick. Each bear comes with a tag identifying it as a reminder of God’s love and faithfulness. It also lets the recipient know that prayers have been lifted up on their behalf. There’s even a place on the back of the card for your short note or signature. Make someone smile with a Teddy Angel that they can hug! I’ve had the pleasure of seeing faces light up when someone was presented with a Teddy Angel. You can have that pleasure as well. Carolyn Boyle, CLS Teddy Angel Ministry

The Oneco Clarion 3

“BE HUMBLE OR YOU’LL STUMBLE”

With these words, famed preacher and author D. L. Moody paraphrased a concept that runs throughout the pages of the Bible. A multitude of scripture verses tell us of the need to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that, in his time, he can exalt us. Conversely, we are told that those who exalt themselves will be humbled by that same mighty hand until they are ready to admit their need for God and submit to his will and way in humility and love. Even though most Christians know the Bible has much to say about humility, it is a difficult concept for many of us to embrace—mainly because we often confuse humility with humiliation. However, when we allow Scripture to enlighten our understanding of this thing called humility, we get a much different understanding of the word! Humility, in God’s vocabulary, is admitting we are human and made from the dust of the ground. In fact, the root of the word “humility” is “humus”—the Latin word for soil. In God’s world, humility is not about embarrassment or self-debasement. Instead, it is about finding our worth and dig-nity in the Lord’s strength. When we humble ourselves be-fore God, we simply admit he is God and we are not. From God’s perspective, humility is a grace gift. It is the realiza-tion that, in spite of our humanness, we have been chosen to be children of God and invited to live in our Father’s presence. Humility is about being moldable and teachable as we allow the warmth of God’s marvelous love to shape us and make us into the one-of-a-kind creations he fash-ioned us to be. Only the humble can rest assured that they are loved, appreciated, and valued just as they are—human foibles and all. As we grow in grace and knowledge of God and his ways, we learn the true meaning of humility—and it is as different from humiliation as day is from night! Humiliation is about being deficient, where humility is about being human. When we are human, we agree with the Lord that he is God and we are his creatures, totally dependent on him for pro-vision, protection, and salvation. When practiced over time, the Spiritual disciplines, especially Bible reading and prayer, teach us that the real meaning of humility is to trust God enough to put our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls into his almighty hands. When we are humble, we admit that we cannot live in our own strength and power and we begin to trust in God’s love, mercy, and grace. God gives grace to the humble! The admission of our own powerlessness is the beginning of the true power we have in Jesus Christ. May we all be objects of God’s grace by humbling ourselves under his almighty hand.

Elizabeth Crews www.mywinningwords.org

Florida United Methodist Children’s Home

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 Office Closed

2 6:30 PM

3 4

5 Epiphany Sunday

6 Trustee Mtg 7PM

7 Staff Mtg. 9AM Parkinson’s Class 10:30AM Scouts 7PM

8 5:00 p.m 6:00 p.m. Lasagna

9 UMW Planning Mtg. & Officer Elections 6:30 PM

10 11

12 13 14 Parkinson’s Class 10:30AM Scouts 7PM Finance Mtg. 7PM

15 5:00 p.m 6:00 p.m. Chicken

16 6:30 PM

17 18

19 20 Office Closed

21 Parkinson’s Class 10:30AM Scouts 7PM

22 5:00 p.m 6:00 p.m. CF/Salisbury Steak

23 6:30 PM

24 25

26 7:30 AM

27 28 Parkinson’s Class 10:30AM Scouts 7PM

29 5:00 p.m 6:00 p.m. Ham Harmony Notes

7:00 p.m.

30 6:30 PM

31

JanuaryJanuary The Oneco Clarion 4

2014

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

2 Communion Sunday

3 Trustee Mtg. 7PM

4 Staff Mtg. 9AM Parkinson’s Class 10:30AM Scouts 7PM

5 5PM 6PM Meatloaf

6 6:30PM

7 8

9 10 11 Parkinson’s Class 10:30AM Finance Mtg. 7PM 10:30AM Scouts 7PM

12 5PM 6PM Roast Pork

13 UMW Mtg. 6:30PM

14 15

16 17 Office Closed Administrative Council Mtg. 7PM

18 9AM Parkin-son’s Class 10:30AM Scouts 7PM

19 5PM 6PM Lasagna

20 6:30PM

21 22

23 7:30 Am

24 25 9AM Parkin-son’s Class 10:30AM Scouts 7PM

26 5PM 6PM Chicken Golf Lakes Singing Men 7PM

27 6:30PM

28

The Oneco Clarion 5

Celebrating a Birthday

Celebrating Love

JANUARY 2014 ANNIVERSARIES 1/5 Michael & Kimberly Harrell 1/18 Everett and Helen Calkins 1/18 Calvin & Kelli Horton 1/25 Craig and Barbara Ripley

FEBRUARY 2014 ANNIVERSARIES 2/4 William & Dolores Caraker 2/06 Frank & Karyla Gill 2/12 Dan & Jaonne O’Harold 2/13 Wesley & Belinda George 2/16 Terry & Margaret Dhein Billy & Wanda Selvidge 2/21 Robert & Linda Green

JANUARY 2014 BIRTHDAYS 1/01 Sandra Wilcox Edna Chapman 1/03 Barbara Pernat Shirley Dorrance 1/04 Cecil Galford 1/05 Grady Wilgus 1/10 Larry Bauer 1/12 William Knecht 1/13 Philip Lundy James Baker 1/14 Tom Hale Mary Alexander 1/16 Carol Feldpausch 1/17 Kimberly Renee Jean Charles Real Jean, III Virginia , Ginny” Kalmback 1/18 Barbara Allen Kathrine Hancock 1/20 Betty Eastin 1/21 Carrie Humke 1/22 Dan O’Harold 1/24 Mark Flaker 1/25 Melvin Murtorff 1/26 Uldine Weber Kelli Sue Horton Annette Stein 1/27 Kimberly Ann Spaulding Barbara Jahnke

1/28 Jim Boyle Linda Shuts Chirstine Prokosch 1/31 Barbara Miles FEBRUARY 2014 BIRTHDAYS 2/01 Sheri Lohbauer 2/02 David Boyd Christine Harrell 2/03 Patti Cassidy 2/05 Calvin Horton, Sr. 2/08 Phyllis La Plante Henry Priebe 2/09 Harold Schubert 2/10 Shirlene Yamnitz 2/11 Diane Bradbury Mary DeMarco 2/12 Kennedy Cranford Charles Hopson 3/13 Terry Dhein 2/14 Stephen Parent 2/15 Pete Case Jay Cassidy 2/18 Shari Goodchild 2/19 Randy Smith 2/20 Janie “Echo” Leytham 2/21 Juanita Mann

2/22 Clyde Bass 2/25 Garry Norem 2/26 Dorothy Marble Don Diers Wayne Harrell 2/27 Gordon Gingerich 2/28 Earnest Keller

6 The Oneco Clarion

If your birthday or anniversary has been left out or is incorrect, please accept my apology and, please call the office at 755-5943 and let me know. Thank you, Lisa

MY PENNSYLVANIA MISSION TRIP On Sunday, October 20, 2013 I got up at 4:00 a.m. to catch a flight by 7:00 a.m. along with my cousin, Linda, heading Tennessee to pick up my mom and step father so we could then drive to “Amish Country”, Lancaster, Pennsyl-vania. Talk about a long day! I had heard of this mission packing project at my church. One of our northern couples did a presentation on it one Sun-day and it just happened to be within the US borders, so I thought, “I can do this one!”

“GAIN” (Global Aid Net-work), founded in 2003, is a sub ministry of the well known “Campus Crusade for Christ International”, now known as “Cru” which was founded by Bill and Vonette Bright in 1951,

and is supported by such organizations as “Feed My Starving Children”; “Gleanings for the Hungry” and more. The main purpose of Cru is helping to fulfill the Great Commission in the power of the Holy Spirit by winning people to faith in Je-sus Christ, building them in their faith and sending them to win and build others; and helping the Body of Christ do evan-gelism and discipleship, where the purpose of GAIN is help-ing address tangible needs in areas of poverty and despair and provides hope through evangelistic outreach. At present GAIN is overseeing projects in more than 25 countries in the following areas: Africa, Central Asia, Latin America, the Car-ibbean, and the Middle East and Cru has a Ministry pres-ence in 191 countries. We arrived in Lancaster Sunday evening and since we weren’t scheduled to work until Tuesday, on Monday morning we visited Hershey and got our fill of chocolate, took a nice educational bus tour of the town and had a wonderful day. Tuesday through Thursday we worked in the warehouse making salvation bracelets, sorting

and folding clothes, packing seeds, etc. I tied so many knots because I spent most of my work time making the salvation bracelets. I really enjoyed doing those! I tried a little of the clothes sorting, but could not keep my interest in it long enough, so went back to bracelets. Then tried packing the clothes, but went back to bracelet making. You get the picture, right? I later discovered, after moving to

a different location for what I thought was just more bracelets for the bears necks, that they used them in two different ways. The first ones I worked on were made to go around the neck of a little stuffed “Teddy Angel”, hmm… which would then go to a small child somewhere in the world, and the other bracelets were to actually go on wrists of people, some-where in the world. I had thought that the necklace on the bears neck was to become a bracelet on a child’s arm, but that was not the case. Apparently those were added décor for the bear and the child got his or her own bracelet to match. I also found out that the precision on the amount of leather

The Oneco Clarion 7

protruding from the end of those knots was a very important dif-ference in whether it would fit on the bears neck or a persons wrist. I tell you some of the details of the bracelet making for a purpose. By the end of that work week, Sixty Thousand, Two Hundred (60,200) bracelets had been made. That’s a lot of knot tying, folks! We didn’t quite work until 4:30 each day, but we did start at 8:30 a.m. and work, until at least 2 o’clock, each day. A couple of times, I walked out into the parking lot and noticed cars from TX, NC, VA, MD and a few other states, which was nice to see. For some reason I was thinking that there would only be Penn-sylvanians there. There were a couple of groups of school aged children there on field trips and they all got to experience the whole package from making the teddy necklace to putting them on the bears and packing the bears in their prospective packaging. It was good to see the children learning the mean-ing to each bead color on the necklace. Do you know them? Of course, my cousin Linda and I had to do some Pennsyl-vania shopping and get some souvenirs. We did some driving through the town of Lancaster and hit the local souvenir shops. The coun-try is amazing! One side of the street is a business and the other side there is a beautiful farm up on a hill. I wondered why the bike lanes on the side of the street were so wide, and I quickly found out. While driving down the street you may en-counter several horse drawn, covered buggies going up and down the same street you are on, thus the wideness, and I

guess you’d call these “buggy lanes”! It was really amazing to see these Amish folks out in there daily lives right in the middle of everyone else’s daily lives. It was like old, country, living, meshed with new. On Thursday afternoon,

My Mother, Linda and I went on an Amish farm tour, in one of those buggies, driven by the Farm owner himself! What an in-teresting thing to see! A lot of what I expected and a lot of what I did not expect! If I heard right and remember correctly, the Amish day be-gins very, very early! If the cow milking is at 4:30 a.m. then that means an early rise time and for a not-so-good morning per-son, no thank you. I did expect that bit of knowledge, though, and the animals and the crops, how-ever, I did not expect to see a huge dairy tank in its own room just off the barn where the cows are kept. Guess they are not as old style as I had originally thought. They also use hand-held milking devices that run to a jug that holds about seven gallons, rather than strictly milking by hand. I also found out that Land-O-Lakes is the company who

collects their milk. I see their products in our stores every day but never think so much of where it is coming from, and now every time I see L-O-L I will always think about that farm in Lancaster, PA. We also went to an Amish restaurant think-ing the food would be different, and in it’s own way it was, but the only thing different was that

(Continued on page 8)

Wayne & Heather Campbell joined on 10/28/13 from Emanuel Baptist and St. Joseph’s Catholic.

Christina (Lohbauer) Hill joined on 10/28/13 from St. Joseph's Catholic.

James Smith passed on 12/9/13.

Earl Goodwin passed away up north sometime around Thanksgiving.

January/February 2014 Newsletter, “The Oneco Clarion” published bi-monthly E-mail: omethodist@tampabay.rr.com Website: onecoumc.com Sunday School: 8:30 a.m. Sunday Worship Service: 10:00 a.m.

May through October only Sunday School: 9:45 a.m. Sunday Worship Services: 8:30 a.m. & 11:00 a.m.

November through April only Wednesday Evenings: Family Life Dinner-6:00 p.m.; Bible Hour 7:00 p.m.

September through May only

Pastor Rev. Robert Green

Music Team

Diane Bradbury & Greg Rohr

Office Manager, Editor Lisa Willis

Custodian

Julia Stephens

Address Label Here

8 The Oneco Clarion

Oneco United Methodist Church P.O. Box 908 Oneco, Fl 34264 Phone: (941) 755-5943 Fax: (941) 752-1623

Article Deadline for the March/April 2014 Newsletter is:

Monday February 3, 2014

(Continued from page 7)

you sat at a big table with other strangers to eat. As far as I was concerned, and I must use my Tennessee voice on this, “The Amish ain’t got noth’n on my mama when it comes to cooking!” I felt like I was just sitting down at the dinner table of my mothers, when it came to the spread we received. Fried chicken, roast beef, Sausage, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, bread, corn casserole, salad and of course des-serts which consisted of your choice of pie and ice cream. It was all spectacular, however, as I stated above, it was just as if I were a child again sitting down to dinner at my mother’s table. Maybe not as many meats in one meal but I was raised on that very same kind of food. It was southern cooking in Pennsyl-vania! But then, I remember, Pennsylvania was one of the original colonies settled here, so why wouldn’t it have that good old fashioned kind of food and cooking! We briefly, as in driving through, got to see some of the historical battle grounds in the civil war, i.e. Gettysburg, etc. and all in all, it was a great trip and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only down side was just how utterly ex-hausted I was, once I got home! Here are the numbers that were sent to me in a letter from GAIN a few weeks after my return:

Resource: Produced: Aprons 369 Blankets made 250 Gospel bracelets 60,200 Stuffed animals 83,315 Used clothing 20,944 lbs. New clothing 26,275 lbs. CarePacks 10,287 Rice and beans 124,848 meals Lisa Willis Office Manager/Newsletter Editor

Photos: Courtesy of Linda Boston

IN’s

OUT’s

&

2

0

1

4

Resource: Produced: HarvesterPacks 10,250 Walkers 141 Crutches 51 Canes 57 Adult diapers 2,986 New pairs shoes 2,810 Total volunteers: 3,916