January 2022 Volume 69, Issue 1 Page 1 Worship Sundays at 10:30 AM Mabaan at 12:30 PM

First Church Staff

Pastor Rev. Edgar F. Solís

Director of Music & Composer in Residence

Ben Allaway

Associate Organist Lonnie Liggitt

Finance Manager Michelle Mathews

Office Manager Lisa Karen Determann

Director at Creative Center for Young Children

Connie McFarlin

Custodian Lino Ordonez

(515) 244-6209 DMFirstChurch.org

info@dmfirstchurch.org

First Church is on a mission to transform the world into a more just and loving place. How do we do that? We do that by offering our time, our talents, our gifts, our service and our witness to our local community and the world. Each year the Outreach Committee makes available to members and others opportunities to be difference makers. This is the last article of our “Church on a Mission” series. We hope you have discovered how your giving is making a difference in our community and the world. For the last few years, First Church has provided financial and prayer support for United Methodist missionaries working around the world. We have been in covenant relationships providing $1,700 of salary support a year to Rev. Kristen Brown in Palestine, Rev. Chin Cho in Mongolia, and Patrick Booth who is serving in Cambodia. Each of these people has heard a call from God to serve and we give God thanks for them and their work. We also thank you for your financial gifts to the church that make our giving possible.

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A Farewell Message One of my favorite television shows of all time is MASH. As I was preparing to write this article, I was reminded of the last scene of the final season. Many of your will remember it as even today it stands as the most watched finale of any television series. After the ceasefire had been declared bringing to an end the hostilities of the Korean conflict, two of the main characters, Hawkeye and BJ are trying to figure out how to say goodbye. So much had passed between them. Hawkeye tells BJ how much he loves him but BJ just couldn’t bring himself to say out loud the word goodbye. As Hawkeye gets into the helicopter to leave, he looks down and sees the message left to him by BJ; the word goodbye spelled out with rocks.

I have to admit that I’m feeling a little bit like BJ today; I’m not sure how to say goodbye. A lot has passed between us in these last thirteen years. Like Hawkeye and BJ, we have laughed together, cried together, experienced highs and lows, and had our disagreements but in the end like Hawkeye, I want to tell you how much each of you has meant to me. First Church and its members have been a blessing to my life and I hope in some small way I have been a blessing to yours. So as I move into retirement and First Church moves into a time of visioning for the future, it is time to say goodbye but it is also time to say hello to what the future has in store for all of us. As I end this goodbye, I want to share with you my favorite benediction. It is found in the book of Numbers 6:24-26 and it is my prayer for each of you… The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

Christine

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Advent Activities

Children’s Christmas Program

On Sunday, December 12th our worship service was visited by shepherds, angels, sheep and Mary and Joseph. Children of First Church and several from CCYC participated in telling once again the Christmas story. We want to thank the children for sharing with the congregation and thanks also goes to:

Ben Allaway – Music Shirley Christoffersen and Laurie Hoskins – Costumes and

after party Ami Kercheval and Kacey Doll – Music words coaches

Photos by Craig Strayer

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The “BIG WEEKEND” - FUMC Visioning for the Future

Most of us will agree that our church has been through several changes and challenges over the past few years. For this reason, our Church Council decided to hire a consultant to help us create a vision for the future. Based on his nationwide experience and expertise in guiding United Methodist churches, as well as other denominations, Paul Nixon was chosen. He leads a non-profit organization with many resources to assist us in this process. If you would like to know more about Paul and his group, here is the website: https://www.epicentergroup.org/

In late September during a retreat for the Church Council and others who wished to attend, Paul spoke to the group via Zoom and gave us an overview of the process we would be using. Out of that, a Consultation Team was nominated and selected: Arnie Brown, Jacque Coulson, Ben Jung, Angie Sadler, John Sarosi, and Wanda Wendt. The purpose of the Consultant Team was to work closely with the Consultant to do advance preparation for the “Big Weekend” congregational consultation on January 22 and 23, 2022. The congregation was given the opportunity to complete a survey to share values and priorities. The resulting data was analyzed. Five key questions were determined to receive additional input through focus groups of 6 to 8 participants. In addition, there will be an after-worship Open Forum, led by Paul Nixon, where each person can give input and feedback. Here is schedule for the “Big Weekend” when Paul Nixon will be present in person to lead the process.

Schedule:

Jan 22

9-10:30 am. Focus Group 1

11-12:30 pm. Focus Group 2

Lunch break

2-3:30 pm. Focus Group 3

Jan 23

10:30 am. Worship, Paul Nixon Preaching

11:45-12:15 pm. Open Forum with Consultant

12:30-2 pm. Focus Group 4 (with lunch provided)

2:30 -4 pm. Focus Group 5

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Patrick Booth, Advance #3022599

Director, Project ARK (Advancing Resilient

Khmer) https://www.umccambodia.org/ark/

+855 (0)85 436 902

Missionary Update From Patrick Booth

Why I Became A Missionary I felt God's call to help others very early in my life. I discerned that God wanted me to serve - but not as a missionary - as a local counselor, which I did for many years. It was on an international mission trip to Chile that God first called me to answer the cry of his people on the other side of the world. I decided to seek commissioning as a missionary with Global Ministries as I witnessed the courage of a volunteer-turned-missionary that had served to help educate impoverished villages in the driest deserts on the Earth. I asked myself, if this missionary was used by God to provide education in destitute places, why could I not be a missionary too? I was challenged, and I decided to make the choice to become a missionary. Have you ever considered becoming a missionary? Not everyone is called, but we can share the responsibility of sharing the Gospel wherever we live. Please share my story with your friends and church members and invite them to join with us in mission through their gifts and prayers.

Let's get to work!

Patrick

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News Update from Our Missionary

“Foundation”

I am so proud of our program participants! After seven long weeks of learning together, struggling together, being frustrated together, achieving together, and, ultimately, overcoming together, our participants have completed their first major construction project!

We were so pleased to have the opportunity to partner with Petram Design International and Eggshell Cambodia to finish a new building that will allow Eggshell Cambodia to expand their Child Haven Daycare operation from a single-room church building to a nine-bedroom complex with indoor play-places, staff area, admin offices, kitchen facilities, and an enclosed, shaded outdoor play area on the roof.

The completion of this project marks a major milestone in our work in Cambodia. We know now that we have the capability and capacity to do what we intend to. We know that we can weather the storms that Cambodia will inevitably bring to us. We know that, together, we can achieve more than we ever could dream of doing alone.

These are not just new understandings for us as a program, these are lessons that we were able to demonstrate to each individual participant along the way. Our men learned that they are capable of more than they used to believe, they learned that they can withstand difficulties along their chosen path, and they learned that cooperation brings more success than the most talented individual can ever achieve alone.

We still have many lessons ahead of us and there will certainly be more obstacles to overcome, but right now we are pleased to have a firm foundation under our feet. At this time, our hope comes not from the services we can provide to our participants, but rather from the services that we have witnessed our participants provide to our clients.

Well done, boys. We salute you.

Patrick Booth, Director Project A.R.K., Cambodia

Advance #3022599

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In November, 3 members of First UMC, Twila Glenn, Wanda Wendt & Lesley Gesaman along with Richard Nordin from Trinity UMC went on a week-long bus tour exploring iconic human and civil rights places in Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma. Some of the places we visited were:

Human Relations Day Sunday Human Relations Day Sunday celebration is January 16, 2022. This offering is collected the Sunday before the observance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and supports Community Developers, United Methodist Voluntary Service and Youth Offender Rehabilitation programs.

To give online, scan QR Code

with your smart phone camera.

MLK Freedom Bus Tour Submitted by Lesley Gesaman

The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery The Legacy Museum is situated on a site in Montgomery where Black people were forced to labor in bondage. Blocks from one of the most prominent slave auction spaces in America, the Legacy Museum is steps away from the rail station where tens of thousands of Black people were trafficked during the 19th century. The Legacy museum provides a comprehensive history of the United States with a focus on the legacy of slavery. From the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its impact on the North coastal communities across America through the Domestic Slave Trade and Reconstruction, the museum provides detailed interactive content and compelling narratives. Lynching, codified racial segregation, and the emergence of over-incarceration in the 20th century are examined in depth and brought to life through film, images, and first-person narratives. The Legacy Museum offers an immersive experience with cutting-edge technology, world-class art, and critically important scholarship about American history. continued

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Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma

The Edmund Pettus Bridge, now a National Historic landmark, was the site of the brutal Bloody Sunday beatings of civil rights marchers during the first march for voting rights. The televised attacks were seen all over the nation, prompting public support for the civil rights activists in Selma and for the voting rights campaign. After Bloody Sunday, protestors were granted the right to continue marching, and two more marches for voting rights followed.

Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham Kelly Ingram Park became an important focus of the nation’s Civil Rights Movement. America’s second revolution was a struggle for human rights and simple decency for African-American citizens. The park became the International focus of civil disobedience for Blacks demanding equality. Historic footage of police attack dogs and high-powered fire hoses remain indelibly imprinted on the memories of those who saw the images on televisions and in newspapers around the world in the 1960s. It was those very images that created the turning point in the struggle for desegregation. Sculptures throughout the park are vivid depictions of police dog and fire hose assaults on demonstrators, many of them children. Thousands of visitors come from around the world each year to learn about Birmingham’s painful and pivotal role in a nationwide call for civil rights. National Civil Rights Museum at Lorraine Motel in Memphis

The National Civil Rights Museum, located at the historic Lorraine Motel where civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, gives a comprehensive overview of the American civil rights movement from slavery to the present. Serving as the new public square, the Museum is steadfast in its mission to chronicle the American civil rights movement, examine today’s global civil and human rights issues, provoke thoughtful debate and serve as a catalyst for positive social change.

continued Photo: Lorraine Motel – site of MLK assassination, home to the National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis.

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Through its interactive and immersive historical and contemporary exhibits from slavery to Black Power, from voting rights to immigration, from Jim Crow to Dr. King’s last days at the Lorraine Motel, the museum examines civil and human rights issues (then and now).

The bus tour was led by Abraham Funchese, pastor at Jubilee UMC in Waterloo and Human Rights Director for the City of Waterloo. This trip will be offered on an annual basis in November of each year and the cost is very economical. We highly recommend that you consider going on this trip sometime in the future. You will be glad that you did.

A potluck & presentation will take place at First UMC on Sunday, February 13th.

Please mark your calendar and join us. Below is a poem written by Naomi Campbell an African American student from Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, IA. Naomi wrote this poem after we visited one of the museums on our trip.

I’ve been here before

White privilege means we both get pulled over, but you make it home to your family. White privilege means you don’t have to change your tone at a job interview, White privilege means you can walk outside with a hoodie on your head and no one gets

scared, White privilege is Karen being p***** off about our bbq But see me ... I have black privilege because I’ve been here before. 56 years ago my people marched, Yet 5 days ago my people marched, I’ve been here before, I’ve hung from the tree of discrimination, I’ve watched my dad give his all to a corporation that enslaved his freedom I’ve been here before, The fountain of my pain still runs, I am on the bus sitting alongside Rosa Parks, I’ve been here before, Protected by the same people who killed my brother.

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E-mail: info@dmfirstchurch.org

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First United Methodist Church 1001 Pleasant Street

Des Moines, IA 50309 (515) 244-6209

DMFirstChurch.org

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NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE

PAID DES MOINES, IA PERMIT NO. 4308