Category Archives: Announcements and Stuff

United Women of Faith
March 20^th Meeting

The UWF will be taking orders for flowers to decorate our sanctuary for Easter.  Watch for order forms in the bulletins or talk with Cinda for details.

On Easter morning, there will be a continental breakfast following the early (out of doors) portion of the service.  We need people to sign up to help fill our fruit bowl for breakfast. There’s a sign-up sheet in the fellowship hall.  Please bring your donations in, ready to go, washed, cut up, etc.

Please come to our next UWF meeting on April 17 at 1:00 p.m.

Advent Lenten Sunday School
This Lent, we will begin a new Lenten Study Series “The Message of Jesus” by Adam Hamilton. Our first study class will be on Sunday, March 9^th beginning at 9:30 a.m. Study books are available. Please see Pastor Gary. All are welcome and invited to take a special journey during Lent with Jesus. The class will consist of short readings during the week, classes on Sunday morning with viewing a DVD presentation by Adam, followed by discussion of Adam’s presentation and our readings looking at the important themes of Jesus’s teachings.

Missions
Recently, we received a “Thank You” letter from Family Promise. Our Christmas Mission giving of $154.00 was used to support a family that was able to transition from temporary housing into their own place and with our assistance, the children had a joyous Christmas with gifts for all.

We are currently looking for mission ideas for this spring. One suggestion has been made to consider that would be helpful is The Trinity Food Bank, which we have and are continuing to support, has started a Baby Pantry and is experiencing a great demand for diapers, formula, baby food and other essentials for infants in need. Please give us your feedback on this possible mission or another local missional need that you have become aware of.

Sacred Moments
I would like to remind us that during our worship time to be considerate of others. It is a time of prayer, singing, rejoicing and meditation. Quiet time should be respected. Communion time is a reverent time when we focus on the receiving of the elements and Jesus’s presence with us.

While this happens seldom, please turn off the sound for your cell phone during worship. I have been guilty recently of not leaving my cell phone in the office and have had it vibrate during worship which has distracted me, and I apologize for it.

Pastor Gary.

From Shar B.

Hello friends and neighbors! With the help of friends, I am presenting a concert for Hope and Strength as we live through the very real challenges of loss or brokenness in this new year.  Come join us on Sunday, February 16, at 3:00 p.m. at Olivet Evangelical Free Church in Fruitport.  If you have, or are experiencing brokenness or loss, this time is for you – or your friend. Facetime Live is a possible option.  More details later.

A Note from the Treasurer

Year End Donation Statements

It’s quickly approaching time for me to fill out individual donation forms showing what your donations to the church were during 2024.

If you’d rather not receive a form showing your giving, please let me know as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Cinda

Mission Project for December

In the past, Claybanks had assisted Montague UMC with hosting families in the Family Promise Program. With a permanent home now in Muskegon we are reconnecting with Family Promise to sponsor a family for the holiday season. A special Love offering will be taken up on Sunday, December 8^th to support a family with gifts for the children and parents of a family.

Peru Mission Update
From Richard Lindell

Preparations are continuing for the mission trip with his church. They are preparing medical supplies, clothes, and eyeglasses which will be distributed between everyone’s checked baggage for the trip. Travel plans are being completed for the group. Richard will continue to keep us up to date on the trip as their departure date comes closer. He is appreciative of our prayers and support.

Women of Faith

Our Women of Faith group met on October 17.

Our most pressing task was to decide how to donate our ‘surplus ‘ funds, made from our annual Strawberry Social last summer. After a discussion we decided to donate $150 to each of the following organizations:

C.U.R.E. International 
Muskegon Rescue Mission
Every Woman’s Place 
MOKA
The Ladder
Oceana Council on Aging
Crystal Valley Care Fund
Oceana County Medical Center
White Lake Giving Tree
Women of Faith treasurer

Another topic of discussion was the disarray of the back rooms of our building. We decided to have a cleaning day on October 25, at 1pm, to sort and straighten up the Sunday school rooms, the library, nursery, and storage rooms. We want these rooms to be presentable and ready to be used as needed.

Our next meeting will be on Friday, November 29 at NOON. We will be decorating the church for the Advent season and can use the help of anyone who would like to join us. We will be serving a pizza lunch. Please consider lending a hand in this fun task.

Thank You!

Thank you to all who said yes to continuing to serve the Claybanks UMC on the various committees and Administration Council. Thank you to those who have said yes to new or additional positions to the Council and committees of the church for the next few years. Our church had a beautiful reflection on Sunday, October 20^th in that so many from Claybanks UMC attended our Church Conference at White Lake UMC along with seven other United Methodist Churches.

Disaster Relief

With the hurricanes and floods this fall the United Methodist Council On Relief (Which we support on UMCOR Sunday each spring) has been continually active in providing materials, service, and volunteers to help those effected by those disasters. Should you want to respond you can direct your financial donations to: Advance 901670 Global Ministries The United Methodist Church, 458 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE Building Q Suite 1 Atlanta, Georgia 30308 or visit the website:umcmission.org.

Missions
Thanks everyone for supporting Muskegon Pregnancy Center with your contributions of diapers, wet-ones and pull-ups given in September.

Our Mission for October and the first half of November is food for the Trintiy Food Bank. We will be collecting food item (and Cash donations) for prior to Thanksgiving. Please support this project by bringing your donations and placing them on the mission table in the Fellowship Hall.

Women of Faith
Edith Bogart opened our meeting with a short devotion and prayer.  We carried over from our August meeting a discussion regarding simplifying our funeral luncheons.  Several ideas were discussed and hopefully it will be a long time before we need to use any of them.  We reviewed our yearly donations from 2023 and will present the names of new possibilities at our October meeting.

Our next meeting will be October 17, 2024.

Cinda

Thank You!
The congregation of our little country church never ceases to amaze me. Again, this year I asked for volunteers to help with the Ragnar Relay Race. I expected to have a hard time getting our volunteers since we had to be at the church at 5:30 AM. Nope, not the case. Every volunteer position was filled readily and filled with a smiling face. I asked for twelve dozen cookies and got approximately eighteen doz. It takes a lot of people to help put this on and I believe almost EVERYONE helped. You are all amazing and made my job so much easier. I couldn’t have headed this without your help. Thank You, thank you, thank you!!!!

Konnie
Thank You!
I want to thank the Women of Faith for their beautiful thank you card and generous gift. I have and will always gladly work for you with no expectation of any repayment. I just bought more ink for my printer so let me know when you need anything.

Konnie
Laity Sunday – October 20^th
We are continuing to seek the Holy Spirit moving within our church family for a member to witness to us as our message that Sunday. We are also looking for others to assist in our Worship service in our announcements, liturgy, prayers, and scripture readings. Please prayerfully consider being part of our service that day. Contact pastor Gary to see where you can use your gifts.

Spiritual Saturday – October 19^th
An ecumenical retreat designed to nurture our life with God will happen from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Ludington United Methodist Church (5810 East Bryant Rd, Ludington). A number of  prayer walks will be experienced. For additional details, see the flyer on our information table in our Fellowship Hall.