A SISTERHOOD OF GRACE

                East Central District United Methodist Women 13th District Annual Meeting

 was held on October 20,2018 at the First United Church of Oviedo. The welcome and call to worship was given by Linda Gustatson, District President.

 Denise Clonts, the President of UMW of Oviedo welcomed all the churches present. The women from Oviedo's UMW did an excellent job of welcoming, directing and helping with the meeting.

 Pam Anders introduced the keynote speaker.  She did an great job,especially since the speaker changed on Thursday. Kay Roach, the President of Florida Conference UMW was to be the speaker. Unfortunately her sister passed away and notified Linda on Thursday she was unable to come. Keep Kay in your prayers.

 Sherry Davidson the state secretary of program resources asked Kay what she could do to help, so she became the key note speaker on a days notice. She gave a brief history of UMW. In 1869 two wives of missionaries from India spoke to 8 women in Boston. They heard a need and took action. 150 years later this is still what UMW is about. Today the word is BOLD, where there is a need we can't be stopped. Social action and missions are important part of UMW today.  If you think it, you can do it. Being a part of UMW gives you support when you personally have a need too.

 Phoebe Luster, District Membership and Patty Wolf from Oviedo had a nice memorial service to honor those who had died this year. The following names from First United Methodist of Clermont were read: Betty Sack, Annie Laurie Lynn, Helen McKellop and Edith Bruns.

 We had communion given by Rev. Brian James, the pastor at Oviedo.

 After a short break the business meeting began with Linda presiding assisted by Alma Manney, parliamentarian and Diane Abresky recording secretary. There was election and installation of officers, unfortunately only 2 of the 5 opening were filled.

 Pam Anders, Social action Coordinator, reminded us again about the campaign to boycott Wendy's and fill out a postcard asking them to sign onto the Fair Food Program. She also brought to our attention the Living Wage for all campaign.

 The meeting was adjourned and we gathered in the fellowship hall for lunch.

 It was a very good meal of salad and chicken.

 We had a nice representation from our church. Barbara Reed, Dottie Mathias, Lorna Beoersma, Diane Wells, Kathy Werner

 Noelene McCall, MiMi Sanderlin, Pam Anders, Evelyn Rose.

Joyce Smith and also Janet Blume who is the District Education and Interpretation Coordinator.

SEWING PROJECTS

 Noelene and a few other ladies from Lunch Bunch met on  Sept.24 to make bags from T-shirts for the Faith Neighborhood Center, which no longer supplies bags for people who come for food. This is a great project to recycle T-shirts we no longer use and helps Faith Neighborhood and the people that need their services. 58 T-shirts bags were made.

Women from the  Daughter of Lydia Circle were busy on September 24 sewing the Christmas stockings to be given to South Lake hospital for all the babies born in December. Over 100 stockings will be given to the hospital along with a white hand knitted hat for each baby.

On October 5, 2018 Jan Becherer and Noelene McCall took the 58 T-shirt bags to Faith Neighborhood and presented them to Trish Kry. Trish was very grateful for them and the clients really like them. This is an ongoing project and will enhance our efforts to keep plastic bags out of the environment. Adult small or medium t-shirts work best.

2018 MISSION STUDIES SAMPLER

 On Saturday woman from 11 different churches gathered at Community of Faith UMC in Davenport for the East Central District UMW Mission Studies Sampler. Clermont UMW had 16 women in attendance. We were welcomed by DianeAbresky, Community of Faith UMW president. They have an active UMW for they had 21 women in attendance.

 Pam Anders talked on social action.

 Wendy's need to join their major competitors in working with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to join the Fair Food Program in order to guarantee farm workers' human rights in its supply chain.

 You can sign a postcard and support this campaign to inform Wendy's that you are a person of faith who believes in the Biblical call to treat workers fairly, and for them to sign onto the Fair Food Program.

 Joyce Bright, a member at Conway UMC and taught at Mission U this summer, did the study presentation on "What About Our Money?" It has us look at how we relate to money within the context of our faith. The book high lighted on the screen is Born on Third Base by Chuck Collins. It is on our reading list for this year. Chuck was the great grandson of meat packer Oscar Mayer and at the age of 26 he gave away his inheritance. Sounds like an interesting read.

 This study is for all ages, adult, youth and children. Look in the May issue of Response magazine for articles about money.

Diane Wells presented the study on "Health and Wholeness".

 This is a global issue. We need to be in community with each other, plants, and animals.

 Her presentation was interactive with planting leaves, and two skits.

There was a lot of literature available to pick up and buy. Pat was getting quite a selection of books for our library and pamphlets to share with the circles. We should keep reading and studying on all these topics.

PEOPLE OF FAITH

United Methodist Women of FUMC  hosted our annual event "People of Faith" on September 26,2018. The title of the program was "Child of God". Our guest speaker was Rev. Bill Delia, a member of FUMC. He gave a very informative program on the challenges our children face today in this changing world. The table talks gave everyone opportunity to interact and discuss the issues.

Rev. Delia included some wonderful guitar playing and singing of songs he composed pertaining to a child being a child of God.

There were 63 people in attendance with 6 area churches represented.

Les Prestegard and Sherrill McAlister gave the Bible verse readings.

Gabrielle Hasting from Clermont Head Start gave an explanation of their services  They were the recipient of the Love offering.

The Daughters of Lydia hosted the program. Many brought food to share so the meeting ended with a very nice luncheon.

GATHERING OF FINE FRIENDS

 Thanks to Pam Anders for promoting this event when it was announced that Patsy Clairmont, Anita Renfros, and Jan Silvous were coming for their Full Circle Tour at Real Life Church. 

 55 women from FUMC attended the show on Friday, September 7th.

 Pam arranged for us to all sit together and had large signs held up so we could find where we were sitting in the auditorium.

 Our seats were reserved with papers saying First United.They were great seats, as close as we could have been to the stage.

 The evening started out with singing secular and religious songs that were popular through the last six decades. It was fun seeing pictures of them and their families in each of the decades.

 Patsy Clairmont is a Christian motivational speaker. She was very funny and had a great message.

 Anita Renfroe did a great parody on songs from the movie The Greatest Showman, or as she called it The Greatest Woman.

The night ended with her teaching us to sing this song. Great words to recite each day.

CIRCLE MEETING

The Lunch Bunch Circle met the second Wednesday of September. Evelyn Rose presented a program on United Methodist Women, explaining the purpose and vision, who belongs, why we should join and what we do.  UMW is faith, hope and love in action. We were glad to welcome three women who were interested in joining and also welcome back some members who haven't been able to attend for a while.  Today members brought packages of cookies for Debra Woodard to use for Kairos, a ministry taking the word of God to women and men in prison.

LOCAL MISSION GIVING

 Carol Lane, Andrea Beaver, and Margaret Lay have been working making beautiful holiday wreaths and flower arrangements for the Holiday Bazaar. The bazaar is one of the biggest ways Clermont UMW raises money so we can help support local agencies and missions.

On September 4,2018 Evelyn Rose and Jean Gibson presented a check to Linda Krupski, the founder of LovExtension. This organization assists elderly and disabled clients in South Lake county with food, social visits, and many other needs. The clients are sometimes home-bound and dependent on someone coming by with food to help stretch a fixed income or valuable information about social services that may be available. UMW of Clermont believe in and are very supportive of the mission of this organization.