posted Sep 25, 2017, 2:22 PM by Bowmansville UMC
October 3 Joan Kowalski October 5 Al May October 7 Jeff Creighton October 9 Steve Siekmann October 11 Melissa (Stoos) Gilroy October 13 Sheryl Ziolkowski Bonnie Skare
October 14 Phoenixx Walters October 20 Crystal Creighton October 21 Linda Rupert October 26 Chris Barnosky
October 5 Sheryl & Dennis Ziolkowski October 11 Ted and Carol Janicki October 17 Chris and Tracy Barnosky |
posted Sep 25, 2017, 2:07 PM by Bowmansville UMC
Greetings everyone!
It has been a while since we sent out a newsletter and there is a lot of exciting news to report.
About school:
In May, members of Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary met with representatives of Asbury Theological Seminary and began serious discussions to launch a joint Masters in Church Planting degree program which could be completed by students at BMTS.
In June, after 3 plus years of hard work, 14 students graduated from Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary. The graduating class included students from Estonian, Ukraine, Nigeria, and Latvia.
BMTS just began a new session of school on August 23, 2017. All told, there are 22 new students which is a larger class than last year. We have students from Estonia, Ukraine, Finland etc. They are a good group. It is always inspiring to meet people who have answered a call for ministry.
Last spring, we did some creative thinking and prepared a cool new admissions materials and a video to introduce seminary to prospective students. The video is in Estonian, but you are welcome to see it here:
https://youtu.be/utE_zPe5BL8 |
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| About church:
In summer Kulli participated in the Wesley Summer Seminar and spent a few weeks at Asbury Theological Seminary working on an article related to John Wesley’s Eschatology. Külli is also involved with a committee at UMC in Estonia to translate and publish Wesley-s 52 sermons in Estonian language for the first time. We hope to print by May 2018.
Every year Estonian Methodists come together for a summer conference. This year Doug presented (and Kulli translated) two sessions there. Our theme was Romans 12:1-2, making our lives a living sacrifice. It was a very good conference. Every night there were prayer teams ready to pray with people. We felt refreshed through that event. |
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 | | Ferry to to Saaremaa to Evangelical College Students Camp |
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About summer:
Our best summer days were spent camping with the Evangelical College Students who invited Külli to speak to them. We went as a family and took part of the entire experience. It was held on an island of Saaremaa where nature is particularly pure. We enjoyed seeing a variety of plants and picking wild berries, and went swimming in 18C water of the Baltic Sea. Local people were very social and every interaction takes time. It took 30 minutes to buy a postage stamp at Saaremaa! It is easy to get caught in long conversations at a store over a loaf of bread or varieties of fish! The camp was hosted by an Orthodox church. Youth paid their rent in labor. So as part of the program we chopped and piled up wood.
We came across this humorous book Estonians Inside and Out. Under the title What Estonians love the author writes:
“for some unclear reason, an Estonian likes to chop wood and pile it up.” … “Chopping wood is somewhat difficult for those who live in houses with central heating. First, you do not have a place to chop wood. Second, you do not have a place to pile all that wood you have chopped. Finally, you do not need it, because the room is already warm enough. In this situation most Estonians who live in the city have found the solution in the form of a country cottage.”
So the city folk go to an island to have fun chopping wood. And a lot of fun it was. Working together, not much speaking, but we all bonded well. We are friends forever for we chopped wood together. Our kids were taught how to chop, pile and drive a tractor. What do Estonians do with all that chopped wood? They heat their homes 9 months out of 12 and sometimes even in July. And they also have sauna. And a nice wood pile makes a very good background for a photo.
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|  | | Doug operated the heavy duty wood splitter at the youth camp. |
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 | | Külli chose the old fashioned axe to split wood. |
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|  | | Karl, Kristofer and Kalev helped to load, transport and pile up wood. |
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About prayer requests:- Please pray for Karl, Kristofer and Kalev. For their new year at school and kindergarten.
- Please pray for stability in Estonia and upcoming elections. During this summer we saw a lot of NATO planes. It was reassuring to us, but also a reminder that we live in a complex world.
- Please pray and support those who live in hurricane-ridden areas dealing with so much loss.
- Please pray for and support the important work done by us and other missionaries. We just sent away one of our seminary’s best workers to mission in Brazil. Our dean commented: “For some reason God likes to work that way: we must give away in order for us to receive.”
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posted Sep 25, 2017, 2:03 PM by Bowmansville UMC
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updated Oct 16, 2017, 5:39 PM
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A thank you from Sandy M.......
Thanks to all who helped with RALLY DAY. The weather was beautiful and everyone seemed to have a good time. Of course, the food was plentiful and delicious. Thank you again for your help.
A few pictures of the day were shared by Kristen
Worshipping outside together on a glorious Sunday morning
What a hot dog! Looks good on you Tyler!
Chef - Pastor Jim |
posted Aug 29, 2017, 2:40 PM by Bowmansville UMC
Sept 2 Kathy SchellSept 4 Aaron Stenzel Sept 6 Grace Creighton Sept 10 Ken May, Mike King Sept 17 Milly Whittaker Sept 18 Wilma Taylor, Darlene Stoos Sept 19 Bill King Sept 22 Carl Lathrop, Sharon Wilde Sept 25 Austin Stenzel
Sept 20 Ed and Nancy Wierbowski
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posted Aug 29, 2017, 1:32 PM by Bowmansville UMC
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updated Aug 29, 2017, 3:03 PM
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Pastor Jim and his wife, Cheryl packed up their vehicle and headed for Red Bird Missions in Beverly, Kentucky after church services on August 20. Thanks to the generosity of the members of BUMC, both monetary and purchased items, they had many gifts to take with them for the good of all at Red Bird.
A BIG THANK YOU to all of you at BUMC and to Jim and Cheryl for taking the items.
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posted Jul 15, 2017, 10:56 AM by Bowmansville UMC
posted Jul 15, 2017, 10:51 AM by Bowmansville UMC
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updated Jul 15, 2017, 10:54 AM
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June celebrated her July 13th birthday with her church family on July 9. She has been blessed with a loving family, and we are blessed to have her a part of our church family. Happy Birthday June!
(See photo gallery for more pictures) |
posted Jul 1, 2017, 12:26 PM by Bowmansville UMC
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updated Jul 3, 2017, 1:01 PM
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July 1 Tim McCarthy July 2 Andrea McCarthy July 3 Tracy Barnosky July 11 Deanna Skare July 13 June Brandt July 31 Cheryl Pillard
July 2 John & Jeannette French July 23 Greg and Darlene Stoos July 27 Pastor and Rev. Cheryl Brown |
posted Jul 1, 2017, 12:20 PM by Bowmansville UMC
To all the family members of our BUMC: Just FYI…. If any of you ever have any questions, issues, concerns, or needs (personal or whatever), please contact Pastor Jim or me as your Lay Leader and we will do our best to address them as soon as possible. Pastor Jim wants to be attentive to all of our needs, but he needs to be informed of them, of course, being cognizant of privacy issues. If you choose to talk to me, that is just fine as well, as I am in touch with him at all times & we meet to discuss problems, issues, concerns and joys since that is part of my role as Lay Leader. I will try to be aware of what is happening in our family as well so I can help however I can. Thank you to all of you, my dear friends. We indeed, are a family whose members love and care for each other. Let us continue to do just that. Wilma P. Taylor |
posted Jul 1, 2017, 12:16 PM by Bowmansville UMC
Congratulations to our graduates! - Class of 2017 Angel Stenzel graduated from Depew High School and Justin Brown graduated from Lancaster High School
Good luck and may God Bless you as you continue your journey of life. Also graduating from Kindergarten are Shawna McCarthy and Lindsey Siekmann. Blessings to these young ladies as they start the next phase of their education in First Grade in the fall. |
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