“In GOD we trust!”

Staff: Revs. David & Carolyn Williamson, Co-Lead Pastors Peggy Namie, Office Administrator Nataliya Birmingham, Church Treasurer Mike Sanflippo, Music Director Barbara Polomsky, Organist

Jason Forrest, Contemporary Music Leader Martha Yamnitz, Children’s Ministry Director Amanda Richter, Nursery Attendant Coordinator Jessica Chaulk, Ana O’Donnell, Nursery Attendants Bob Rusin, Property Maintenance Manager Barbara McColskey, Deaf Interpreter

Grace United Methodist Church 8 Carrera Street

St. Augustine, FL 32084

Our September Mission Offering is: Campus to City Wesley (CCW) *Please use your mission envelope when giving.

Grace Notes & the monthly calendar are sent out via email unless you request otherwise. Printed copies of Grace Notes & the monthly calendar are available at the church

or via mail (upon request). You may also view the newsletter at gracestaugustine.org .

From Pastor David...

It’s been about 120 days since we embraced God’s vision to be a church for all generations, making disciples of next genera-tions for the transformation of the world. We continue to move on this spiritual journey as God’s Spirit gives us light and di-rection to take next steps. It has been beautiful to see people across generations praying for one another. Do you have a cross generational prayer tri-plet? I do! I’ve been praying for Luke and Lydia and they’ve been praying for me. My daughter Julia got connected with Donna and Elaine. They met together several times to listen to Elaine’s life story and write it down for her as she faces the end of her life. This has been life giving and faith forming for all involved. You can be part of a cross generational prayer triplet by filling out a green card in the sanctuary or calling the church office to let Peggy know. We spent some time this summer inviting people to think about their experience of God’s grace. We had several people share part of their story during worship. They talked about how looking back on their life they realized God had been at work even when they didn’t realize it (prevenient grace). And they spoke about the moment they realized Jesus had died to forgive them, to save them from sin and death (justifying grace). And they spoke about how God continues to grow them up in faith through sanctifying grace. Did you think about your “grace-line” this summer? Well, it’s not too late! When you spend this time thinking about your ex-perience of God’s grace throughout your life it strengthens your faith, AND it prepares you for future conversations with friends, relatives, neighbors and co-workers who may be curious about your faith story. In the days to come we plan to continue walking toward this beautiful vision by looking at all our existing ministries and con-sider what they might look like through the lens of this vision. This will happen during our first VISION POSSIBLE DAY coming up on Sunday, September 10 from 4-6 p.m. I hope you all will come out to this fun church-wide creative event. Read more about it in this newsletter. Also, you won’t want to miss the PowerHouse Family Worship Experience on Wednesday, September 6 starting at 5:30 p.m. We will be worshipping together across generations and have a special guest, Rev. Melissa Cooper, with us to teach and facili-tate conversation about generational differences. With Melissa, we’ll learn ways to appreciate those differences and leverage them for God’s kingdom building work. I’m so grateful to be one of your pastors along this exciting spiritual journey!

September 2017

A Word on Stewardship...

What If Your Paycheck Didn’t Come Regularly? Most of our folks are blessed with consistent and dependable paychecks or pension checks. Yet, have you ever thought about how you would manage your bills and schedule your payments if you were never sure how much money you were going to have in your bank account? This is a problem that our church faces every month. Weekly giving to the operating budget can fluctuate anywhere from $4,000 to $13,000. While we are most grateful for any gift that anyone can give at any time, to help us maintain a more consistent cash flow, we have established an online giving program. Those parishioners who are using the program tell us it is a great help to them, too. It allows them to clearly budget the amount that they want to give back to God and helps them feel assured that the church is receiving their gift even when they are out-of-town or forgot to write a check and bring it on Sunday. You can either set up automatic bill pay through your bank (and they will send a check to the church) or you can go to the church website, www.gracestaugustine.org and give from there. It is also very easy to give through texting 904-717-47721- it will give you step by step instructions on what to do. Does that sound crazy to you? Give it a try- it's super easy. This is a safe and secure way of giving. If you would like to learn more about this easy, safe and secure way of giving. Your giving makes a Kingdom difference! Thank you!

3 New Sunday Morning Groups

to Begin Meeting in September! Three new Sunday morning groups will begin meeting on the 3rd of September. One of the groups is for middle & high school youth, one is for adults, and the last is for children pre-K thru 5th grade. These groups will meet from 10:30—11:00 each Sunday. The youth will meet in Room 8 upstairs and the Adult group will meet in Room 2 also upstairs. Children of the adults in this class will meet with Martha in Room 6 for our new Unto Others group. Unto Others is for children ages

preschool through 5th grade with the focus of working on mission/service projects to be used in our church and in our community. Grace UMC highly recommends those attending these new Sunday morning groups to park in the Flagler lot so as not to get

blocked in as worshippers for the 11:00 service arrive and fill the church parking lot.

Mission For The Month Of September—Campus to City Wesley/CCW Campus to City Wesley Foundation is the United Methodist multi-campus ministry in Jacksonville, St. Augus-tine and the surrounding area. CCW exists to reach college -aged adults on the campuses of Northeast Florida and prepare them to be leaders and laborers for the cities of the world. We aspire to be a diverse community of disciples and seekers who will live to make Jesus famous—transforming the world for the glory of God. For more information, if interested go to info@campustocity.org.

Mark your calendars NOW for upcoming events…

Annual Nights of Lights Red Train Ride & Refreshments December 12th/Tuesday, we will gather at the church at 6:50pm to board the Red Train at 7:10pm and then return to the church for refreshments. Beginning in November we will take reservations and payment for this event. The cost is $10 per adult and $5 per child.

Boy Scout Troop News GUMC Boy Scout Troop 243 met Monday night August 7th, for their Awards Dinner in the church Fellowship Hall. It was attended and enjoyed by 41 people, this was an increase in participation from the 33 present at the last Awards Dinner on May 1st. Pastor Dave gave the blessing before dinner and the parting prayer. Ten scouts went to Summer Camp with two adult leaders. The scouts earned a total of 30 different awards and have 13 partial Merit Badges with one rank advance-ment this period. On August 1st , another youth has joined the troop. Pastor Dave has agreed again to provide the BSA PRAY Program for the God and Church Award training for the troop scouts. The training will start in January through to Scout Sun-day the 2nd Sunday in February. The troop appreciates all the support given by Grace Church and a special thank you to Bob Rusin and Peggy Namie for their detail contribution to the Awards Dinner setting. Scoutmaster Roy Blake

Busy Fingers Busy Fingers will resume meeting this month after taking a break for the summer. They will meet on the third Thursday, September 21st, 1-3pm in the Wesley Room and subsequent third Thursdays: October 19th and November 16th. If you are interested in joining this group or would like more information, please contact Vee Markel budvee@bellsouth.net or 904-794-7817.

Circle Of Concern Please pray for: all unspoken prayer requests, Grace United Methodist Church, Phyllis Reed Adzima, Carlos Avilles, Francessca Bellavista, Mark Hunt, Norm Allmen, Claudia Johns, Jason Morehead, Haleigh McKee, Jason Harvey Breeze, Judy Kieffer, Marc Anthony Johnston, Sally Barnhart, Elaine Hudson Tillman, Eddie Walker, Cindy Amy, Lori Ward, Curt & Cathy Tucker, Ann Riley, Judy Teagle, Jimmy Jones, Robbie Marshall, Janet Preble, Nicole Loprena Ishii, Shirley MacMullen, Cindy Nicholson, Carol Sinks, Allen Family, Mary Cummings, Fogg Family—5yr old son Drew, DuWayne Krueger, Julia Carter, Sue Amole, Timothy Brown, Angie Lowe, Connie Long, Family of Lillian Reid, Faith Broome and the family of Robert Goodwin, Allie Goodwin, Delbert Goodwin, Diane Dodge, Kym Gilliam Jones, Leilani Savick, Gabriel Gonzalez, Char Bevilacqua and the family of Carl (Vince) Vinson, Jocelyn Flynt and the family of Dorothy “Dottie” Thompson, Chris Lane, Brenda Gibson, Tom Heineken and family of Shirley Williams, Barbara Dennison, Amaleigha Shipley, Frank Shipley, Family of Fred Grubb, Kyle Power Allegro: Betty Fleming Bayview: Elaine Edwards, Elaine Frenzke Bayview—The Pavilion: Don Allen Clyde E. Lassen State Veterans’ Nursing Home: Jim Donnelly Moultrie Creek Nursing & Rehab Center: Maria Schineller, Carol Sinks Westminster Woods: Midge Berger In The Military: Joel Prevatt, US Air Force, Maj. Will Bermeo, Lt. Christopher Bordino-US Navy, Jacob Bradley, M Sgt. Kat Brumfield-US Air Force, Brandon Burnette-US Army, Nicholas Callahan, Brandon W. Clark, Capt. Jimmy Harris-US Army, ISC Ray LeMieux, SSgt. Miles Massey/USAF-OSI, Brian Riggenbach, MAC Albert J. Spiess, Master Sgt. Justin Smarr, CTR Mark Spurling, Jr., Jason Strohmetz, Thessalomica Vila-Navy, Tom Wetmore, John Young, Jr., Haley Parks, USAF, Adam Martinez-Petty Officer Second Class Please Note If you have a friend or a loved one in the military, please send in their picture and their rank to be placed on the bulletin board. You may drop it off at the office Monday—Friday, during regular office hours (listed below), mail or e-mail Peggy Namie at office@gracestaugustine.org.

If your name is not listed in the birthdays or anniver-saries and it should be, please contact Peggy Namie in the church office via phone 904-829-8272 or email office@gracestaugustine.org . Thank you!

September Birthdays 3rd Shirley Dunkle 4th Paula Merritt 5th L.C. Cole 6th Fran Lake 7th John Dunkle 8th Brenda Blake • Dale Hensel 9th Jaycie Leibin 11th Barry Dunham Charles Hazen 12th Kalia Chaconas • Dina Taylor 13th Char Bevilacqua 14th Cindy Amy • Harlan Trofholz 15th Terri Thompson 16th Penny Colee 17th Carol Vander Wal 19th Miles Minkoff • Linda Mullins • Robert Peter 20th Don 22nd Norma Day 23rd Sidney Forrest • Andrew Santoro 24th Barbara Dennison • June Miles 25th Jonathan Osgood 26th Jerry Broyhill 27th John Flynt • Steven Kleiber

September Anniversaries 1st Harry & Marjorie Daugherty Fred & Jan Ruch 5th John & Jocelyn Flynt 7th Roy & Brenda Blake 10th J.B. & Mary Jane Hunt 25th Steve & Debi Ziemer 26th Walt & Dottie Hardy

Hurricane Matthew Recovery For additional information and to learn how you to help, please contact: Pete Royal, Diaster Case Manager at (904) 687-9561 or proyal@flumc.org Stan Russo, Diaster Case Manager (386)-234-1813 or srusso@flumc.org Tom Heineken, Project Coordinator at (904) 671-4549 or theineken@flumc.org

Thoughts From Our Lay Leader

By Becky Weiss

Dear Friends, As United Methodist Christians our mission is “to make disciples for the transformation of the world.” Jesus himself called his followers to share the Good News and to make disciples. (Matthew 28:19)

In his book, Building a Discipling Culture, Mike Breen writes, “If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if you try to build the church, you will rarely get disciples.” Breen is a minister, church leader, and author who has led mis-sional churches throughout Europe and the United States. He explains three stages in the process of discipleship: Infor-mation, Imitation, and Immersion. In our journey toward discipleship, we first need information. We gain this information through reading scripture and cur-riculum, listening to sermons (especially sermon series), and through small group, highly challenging Bible studies. Breen says that our culture is becoming increasingly biblically illiterate so gaining information is necessary to follow the path of becoming a true disciple. Imitation is the next stage in the journey in which we learn from a role model who invests time and caring in us. Many disciples learn from loving and faithful mentors in the areas of prayer, scripture reading, service and compassion toward others. Of course, our perfect teacher is Jesus. All of our imitation should reflect His example. When we combine information and imitation, we move on in our journey of discipleship toward immersion. Immersion happens when we make connections between the information we have learned and the role models we have watched. When this connection takes place, we participate in experiences in which we are transformed. Transformation might hap-pen in camps, short-term mission trips, retreats, or “outside the walls” ministry to lost and hurting people. As we consider God’s vision for Grace Church, how is He calling us to be disciples? What does it truly mean to be a Jesus follower? Jesus did not command us to build the church. He called us to make disciples, to baptize in the name of the Fa-ther and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach obedience to his commands. Effective discipleship creates the church, not the other way around. Where are you on the discipleship journey? I am blessed to be traveling on the discipleship road with all of you. In Christ’s Love, Becky

United Methodist Women—UMW

Hello everyone, I don't know if everyone is as ready as I am to get started on another season of UMW, but it seems like eons since our May meeting! I miss my friends and the plans for the coming year. I hope that we will see a lot of new faces as we begin in Sep-tember as well as many familiar ones. There is nothing better than seeing ladies there that go to different services than I do so I can get to know them better. That, to me, is the beauty of smaller groups in the church. The September meeting will be held on September 14th in the Fellowship Hall at 10am and if you have a time crunch, we are almost always out by 11:30, so you can plan your day that way. We have refreshments prior to our meeting and they give us time to chat with everyone and get to know people that are new to us. There is a devotional and a program (always interesting) and a business meeting to discuss future involvement in other areas of the church. So, come on down ladies and let's get the new season of UMW started off with a BANG. The things that we do can only be improved by the number of ladies involved! I look forward to seeing all of my "old" friends as well as many "new" ones!! In His Name and mine...Paula Namie September 14th at 10am—Program: Martha Yamnitz Devotion: Paula Namie Hostesses: Karen Bradley & Mildred Thomas

Reporting For The Month Of JULY-

Dalit Freedom Network (from GUMM) $ CareFest $ In JULY: Dining With Dignity served 68

Mission Offerings:

Mission Trip to Cuba $ 25

Transportation $ 671

Youth Mission Trip $ 3,259

Rise Against Hunger $ 895

Florida Conference $ 740

VBS Mission Project/Panua Mission $ 1,463

Habitat for Humanity $ 830

Children’s Home $ 4,756

Young Life Capernaum $

Alpha Omega Home $

MUip (Cuba) $

Children’s Camp $ 1,924

St. Francis House $ 1,340

UMVIM

Office Hours: The office hours for Grace United Methodist Church are: Main Office: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 8am—3pm Tuesday, Thursday 9am—3pm/Peggy Namie—Office Administrator Finance Office: Tuesday & Thursday, 9am—3pm/Nataliya Birmingham—Church Treasurer

All GUMC Offices will be closed on Monday, September 4th in observance of Labor Day

Chancel Choir Resumes on Wednesday, September 13th

Consider joining the choir when it resumes practices on Wednesday, September 13th. No worries if you think it's difficult; it's not! We're back to weekly rehearsals then. Think about joining us!

Deadlines For Church Publications:

→Weekly Bulletin Submissions ARE DUE BY 2PM THE WEDNESDAY PRIOR TO THE BULLETIN THAT THE INFORMATION IS TO BE INCLUDED IN: September 3rd bulletin—submissions are due by Wednesday, August 30th 2pm September 10th bulletin—submissions are due by Wednesday, September 6th 2pm September 17th bulletin—submissions are due by Wednesday, September 13th 2pm September 24th bulletin—submissions are due by Wednesday, September 20th 2pm October 1st bulletin—submissions are due by Wednesday, September 27th 2pm

→Newsletter Submissions FOR THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF GRACE NOTES ARE DUE BY 2pm Wednesday, September 20th

September Meetings:

· Church Council Meeting—September 7th/Thursday at 6:30pm in the Wesley Room · Finance Committee Meeting—September 12th/Tuesday at 11am in Room #4 · Trustees Meeting—September 12th/Tuesday at 7pm in the Wesley Room

ALL meetings at the church are open for anyone to attend. For SPRC meetings, please call the church office in advance.

Dining With Dignity The September Dining with Dignity will be held on Friday, September 15th at 6pm. You are invited to come help do any or all of the following: set-up, prepare, serve, and clean up after the meal. If you are interested, contact Mike Osgood, 904-377-2686, dcs0823@bellsouth.net .

Altar Flowers

Our church is so beautiful and the flowers on the altar each week just add to that beauty. If you would like to sponsor the flowers one week, please sign up on the Flower Chart that is located in the rear of the sanctuary. You can dedicate the flowers “in honor of” or “in memory of” by writing a note (sheet below the Flower Chart) that will be added to the bulletin for the week that you have chosen. The cost of the altar flowers is $30 for the two arrangements that are on the altar. You may take the flowers with you after the 11am service concludes or you may leave them for the CareTeam to share with our Homebound. What a beautiful way to honor or remember someone!

Job Openings For: Audio Tech A part-time hourly position, approximately 6 hours weekly. Requires time on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings to run sound for worship music band and worship services. See job description at gracestaugustine.org . Send inquiries and applications to Rev. David Williamson. Nursery Helper A part-time hourly position, approximately 4-5 hours weekly. Requires time on Sunday mornings (2-3 hours) and Wednesday evenings (2 hours) particularly on the first Wednesday of the month. See job description at gracestaugustine.org. We need reliable adults with demonstrated skills in caring for children, infant to 3 years old. We have two openings at this time. If you or someone you know may be interested in serving God’s Church in this way, please reply to david@gracestaugustine.org.

Did You Know You Can Give To Grace UMC Online Or By Text? Visit the church website gracestaugustine.org and click “Give Online.” Or you can text an amount to 904-717-4772 and then follow the instructions to designate your contribution to the general, capital or missions budgets. This is one way you can stay consistent with your commitment to financially support the ministries of Grace Church. With online and text giving you can still give even if you are out of town or on vacation. Thank you!

United Methodist Men—UMM’s Breakfast

The Grace United Methodist Men will resume meeting on Saturday, September 23rd at 8am. The guest speaker from the Crime Prevention Taskforce will discuss ways we can protect ourselves at home, work, and while traveling. Please join us!

Stephen Ministry Corner The Importance of Confidentiality in Stephen Ministry Confidentiality is a cornerstone of Stephen Ministry because it is absolutely essential for building safe, healing, caring rela-tionships. Stephen Ministry is Confidential Stephen Ministers don’t reveal what their care receivers have told them. Not to the pastors, not to the Stephen Leaders, not to their spouses or friends, and not to other Stephen Ministers. Why? Because trust is vital for a caring relationship to be effective. Care receivers are experiencing difficulties that leave them feeling very vulnerable. Discussing their innermost feelings is an important step in the healing process. But in order to open up and discuss that which is troubling them most, care receivers need complete trust in their Stephen Minister—and the assurance that what they say will not be circulated to others and become news for gossip. This assurance builds trust and creates a safe place where care receivers can risk revealing their most painful issues---problems they might not even discuss with close friends or family. Confidentiality helps create a relationship that promotes healing and hope. Do you or someone you know need someone they can trust?

Your Stephen Minister Leadership Team Sue Amole (904-553-8536; samole2013@gmail.com) Roger Carlson (204-483-7183; revrogerj@yahoo.com) Marie Russo (804-712-3712; mqrusso71@gmail.com) Stan Russo (804-243-1814; stanrusso46@gmail.com)

Find Us Online!

PowerHouse Family Worship

Wednesday, September 6th from 5:30 to 6:30

All are invited to join our PowerHouse once a month family worship service! This month we will be focused on our friendships with those of different generations. Kids are usually fabulous when it comes to making friends with those their own age, but how do they build a friendship with your adult friends, or with older members of our church? This message will fit perfectly with our Grace Kids Wednesday Camp focused on friendship, but you don’t have to be part of Grace Kids for this message to help your family grow in God’s love. Come and be a part of the excitement as we worship together, discuss how friendships affect our family, and of course you are welcomed to stay for dinner following the service.

See you at PowerHouse!

Ultimate Friend

Challenge!!

Grab a friend and get to Grace United Methodist on Wednes-days from 5:00-6:30 for the Ultimate Friend Challenge! Friends will work through our challenge course together, learn a Bible story teaching them a characteristic of a Godly friend, have a yummy snack, sing, pray and of course play! Each child will get a Super Friend Cape and have the opportunity to earn badges to attach to their cape. Who can earn them all??? So kids, be thinking about who you want to bring with you to compete in our weekly Ultimate Friend Challenge Game and parents be prepared to bring an extra body or two in your car on Wednesdays! Grace Kids Wednesday Camp is held every Wednesday from 5:00—6:30 for kids age 3 years through 5th grade. Grace Kids Camp is an active midweek program that allows our kids to learn while deepening their friendships with each other and with Jesus.

Being Salt & Light In August, the kids made cards for each Parks & Recreation maintenance worker thanking them for all their hard work keeping our parks clean and safe for us to enjoy. We hand delivered the cards along with ice cream and all the toppings necessary for a nice, COLD ice cream sundae at the Parks & Rec. offices at the end of one of their extremely hot work days.

Get information on the times, ages of children involved, and other important information at the Children’s Ministry page on our church website. www.gracestaugustine.org/#/ministries/children Stay up to date on any announcements or special events along with great pictures and stories from our kids at our Chil-dren’s Ministry Facebook Page. www.facebook.com/GraceMethodistChildrensMinistry/

News from the Finance Committee

Shortly after adoption of our 2017 Budget we officially became aware that the Church did owe Federal and State income taxes resulting from the operation of our parking lot. The 2017 short term solution was for the church to reduce our Apportionments to the Florida Conference from $69,076 to $11,277. The Florida Conference agreed with this solution since they had in the past (in writing), stated that we did not owe taxes on the income from our parking operations. We are working with the Trustees to address our tax issue prior to adop-tion of the 2018 Budget. In December of 2016 the Church Council approved a 2017 Budget with a positive balance of $952. Both 2017 income and 2017 expenses were projected to be less than they were in 2016. In July, the Finance Committee recommended that the Church Council amend the 2017 Budget. The major changes in the Amended Budget included an increase in giving, a decrease in funding for our apportionments, reallocated funding to pay our 2017 income taxes, and reallocated funding for a fulltime Children’s Minister, and several increases in funding for maintenance needs. The current budget projects a positive balance of $1,244. As of the end of July our giving is slightly ahead of our 2017 amended Budget projection and our expenses are slightly lower than our 2017 amended projections. Our financial records and audits are open for your review. The Finance Committee routinely meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 11am at the Church. A Tentative Agenda is routinely published two weeks in advance of the meeting. The Final Agenda and supporting financial documents are published one week prior to the meeting. Conley Weiss Chairmen, Finance Committee

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Barb Polomsky, Organ

“Something Old, New,

Borrowed...and Blues!”

Saturday

September 30

5:00 pm

Grace United Methodist Church

8 Carrera St.

Free-will Offering

Hurricane Matthew Recovery Project/UMCOR As you my know, Grace UMC has had members involved in helping Hurricane Matthew survivors restore their homes to a safe, sanitary, and functional condition since the storm hit us last October. Pete Royal and Stan Russo are serving as UMCOR-trained Disaster Case Managers who work with those in need throughout St. Johns County to get them the help they need. Additionally, others in the church regularly help repair the homes of those who still have storm damage nearly a year later. These "Angels" are a small but dedicated group who are faithful in their service to others and strive to be the "salt of the earth and the light of the world." Hurricane Harvey serves as a reminder that our own community suffered damage - and is still in need - even though most of us have long recovered. Our church vision includes hurricane relief work as part of our Future Story and we'd like to invite you to be a part of that ministry. Your offerings to the Hurricane Fund and/or your volunteer participation as an "Angel" would be most welcome. Please consider giving of your time, your talents, and your treasure as you are led. ALL are welcome, whenever you can - in whatever capacity you can! Please let us know if you are interested in joining us! Blessings, Tom Heineken Hurricane Matthew Recovery Project theineken@flumc.org (904) 671-4549

HELP WANTED!!!

Grace UMC has a tradition of helping others in need. We have supported Habitat for Humanity with build projects, are help-ing local families recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew, and always support the annual CAREFEST

event – a community-wide, church-based endeavor to help many of our needy neighbors with repairs in their home or yards.

This year’s CAREFEST is set for Saturday, 30 September and starts with a breakfast and short service followed by the “mass deployment” of numerous church teams who spread throughout the community to work on projects for part or all of the

day. This year GRACE UMC will be painting one home, recently repaired from hurricane damage, and hope to repair some siding

on another home. All you need is a big heart and to hear the call of our Wesleyan traditions!

Youth 16 and over are welcome to participant!!

Please sign up on the sheet in the hallway, or contact Jeff Walton (jtdgrp@yahoo.com) for more information. Please join us - and help us, help others !!!!