WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT FROM US?

On Saturday, April 30,  the East Central District had a Mission Study at our church. The program asked the question What Does God Expect From Us?
 

By 9:30 the room was all set up

The United Methodist Women Purpose was on the wall

Display about Mission U

There was a display about the Reading Program.

The reading program plans

forms and certificates

Bonus books and podcast

and where to find the books.

Information about  the rebranding United Women in Faith

and information about it.

At 10 o'clock there were about 40 woman signed in and ready for the program to begin. It was nice seeing woman from all over our East Central District (ECD)

Linda Welander welcomed everyone.

She is the ECD Education and Interpretation Coordinator. Pat Harrell and Linda were the presenters.

Pat led the first 2 sessions.

The first session was about all people have intrinsic worth and why we believe this.

We brainstormed why we believe this

then we worked in groups to generate a collage of reasons and sources of this belief.

Working in groups

cutting out pictures

being creative

putting on words

time to be done.

Then we shared.

Kitty shared that her father taught her no matter where or who all people have worth.

Celeste shared about all the pictures and words on their poster.

Pete told what their group had put on their collage.

Janet sharing their work.

Betty shared.

Anne's poster was shared.

Diane presented their poster. Lot of fun, creativity and good sharing.

Our next activity was deciding if the statement was etiquette, morals or ethics?  A little bit of a challenge.

The second session was on attentive presence. Attentive listening is important. We took turns sharing something about ourselves with each other and really focused on listening to what they were sharing.

Empathy is the key that can unlock door to our kindness and compassion.

During our lunch a picture was taken of the ladies that are going to go to Assembly 2022 in Orlando in May. About 1/2 of the woman at this mission study are going. 

After we had lunch Linda started session 3 about historical clarity.

Historical clarity allows us to recognize patterns of oppression. How we got there.

We use historical clarity to act against injustice.

Reckoning with the past is not easy, but we cannot rush to reconcile without taking responsibility for learning about our past.

The last session was on Meaningful Participation. God's Grace, Sanctifying grace, reconciliation and Shalom.  

Our next activity was to look at some of  Jesus' parables and then take one and write it in a way people today would identify the concept.

Unfortunately I had to leave a little early and missed the sharing of the rewritten parables and closing. It was nice meeting in person, doing activities together, and learning from this mission study. A lot of planning and work went into this program. Thanks to Pat and Linda.