Church Remarks for the 2007 Yearbook of the Primitive Methodist Church

CHURCH REMARKS$2007 YEARBOOK
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2006 CHURCH REMARKS WYOMING DISTRICT It is with sorrow that we note the closing of the Wilkes-Barre First Church. This church served Christ in this community since at least 1872 through May of 2007. Acornley’s History (c. 1909) notes, “A room was rented in the city of Wilkes-Barre, where services were held with very gratifying results.” Wilkes-Barre First built a church on Sheridan Street in 1873 where they met until 1900. They moved to the Odd Fellows Hall at the corner of Market and Meade, then to the present Sherman Street building, completed in 1903 and dedicated in May of 1904. The true measure of the gratifying results of 134 years of ministry in Christ’s name will be revealed on the Day of the Lord. We sadly note the closing of the Old Forge (Lawrenceville) church. This church was made a mission work of the Avoca Church in 1901. The church on Bridge Street has bee circuited with Taylor and Avoca at different times during her history. Many souls have been saved and believers edified in this beautiful house of worship. Her legacy is truly an eternal testament to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. CHERRY STREET BIBLE CHURCH, PLYMOUTH – We praise God for His wonderful blessings. Our hearts are sad because Pastor John, Andrea and children will be leaving us to answer God’s call to become Church Planters & full time directors at PMBC. We will miss them very much. God has blessed our church. Attendance has been over 100. Fourteen adults were received into membership. Our youth groups are very active with many willing workers. Several youth are attending Bible colleges. A youth work team traveled to Guatemala. We were able to send many children to PMBC. Our parsonage was used to house missionaries and others this past year. Our new enlarged, paved parking lot was used for a Fall Festival to reach neighborhood children for Christ. God is truly blessing Cherry St. Bible Church. PLYMOUTH FRANKLIN STREET – The Lord is faithful and continues to bless us. We celebrated our 135th Anniversary in October. Rev. Donald Gilmore was our speaker. It was a busy year. We had one conversion. The congregation celebrated together at two wedding ceremonies, with two more this year. We have mourned with five church families at the loss of loved ones. Sewers of Kindness are still active having distributed 13 quilts in 2006. We continue to support students at Utatlan School, Precious Moments Calendar, and PM Missions. We participated in joint Christmas and Lenten services with our sister churches and look forward to growth in 2007. SCRANTON – Our prayer chain was kept busy, with many needs in our church and extended families. We are grateful for answered prayers, especially Judy’s recovery from serious surgery. Two children prayed the salvation prayer at VBS and Rev. Morris reports one adult conversion. The debt of $31,475 for church restoration will be fully paid next month. Despite pouring rain we enjoyed a family picnic at PMBC, sponsored by the Youth Group. We continue participation in Operation Shoe Box and Christmas Angel Tree. Rev. Morris and Judy will be retiring after 22 years at GRPM. They will be missed, and are wished a healthy retirement. WILKES BARRE EAST END – Lamentations 3:22, 23 says: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS! We give thanks to God for always being faithful to us. He has blessed us this year in so many ways. We had our annual Easter Egg Hunt this year with about 56 children participating but they must come with an adult so there were close to 100 people from our neighborhood who got to hear how Jesus came and died for their sins. It was a great event. We also had VBS which went very well and then our Annual Fall Festival which brings a lot of families to the church as well. We have seen attendance increase a lot this year as well as the finances of the church. Our missions giving also exceeded our goals. Our Ladies’ Aid is very active, they donated over $5,000 to the church. I think being involved in the United Front Ministry has played a big part in our church growth. Our church is growing and we are looking for new ways to reach out into our community with the Gospel of Jesus. WILKES BARRE LAUREL RUN – We had a project of reading through the Old Testament in 2006. We also purchased a DVD projector and have movie nights for adults and kids such as “The Gospel of John” during Lent. This year was the 100^th anniversary of the Giant’s Despair Hill climb. So we used The Great Race as our theme for VBS. We also had a booth at the Hill Climb and gave away 200 goodie bags with a gospel tract and an invitation to our church. We collected school supplies, underwear and winter coats for the Indians at Tree of Life. We ended the year with Christmas Bible School, caroling to our shut-ins and collecting shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. WILKES BARRE PARSONS – Rev. K. Gene Carroll has retired from the active pastorate after forty six years, including twenty in Parsons, and Rev. Andrew Jerome has been invited as pastor. Lillian Hughes went to be with the Lord. We sent a large quantity of bats and baseball hats to children in the Dominican Republic. Scott McGrady is attending Lancaster Bible College and James Sienkiewicz is applying for the active pastorate at this Conference. Rev. K. Gene and Marge Carroll (retired) and Rev. William and Thelma Fudge (retired) are members of the Parsons church. WILKES BARRE MESSIAH (BEAR CREEK) – The Messiah Church praises God for His great blessings. For the spiritual and numerical growth of believers, for the enhancement of our worship experience with the computer and projection system, for the faithful support by all within the church of various ministries, for the increasing love for each other and our Lord, for the outstanding support of missions and ministries, for our Bible Study leaders and the goodness of the Lord Jesus. Praise God for the 100^th birthday of Mr. Norman Franks, a faithful servant of God. AVOCA – We’ve had an active year. Our pastor preaches Biblical sermons. The congregation takes part by praying, Scripture reading, and giving testimonies. A church newsletter is published each month, with our church functions. The pastor visits parishioners, birthday cards and cards to shut-ins are sent. We have taken in 7 Jr. members, and have a good youth group and CUBS – Christian Unity Builders. We celebrated a Passover meal with the youth group. We now have an Elder Board, sent Samaritan boxes, Precious Moments, fellowship time after Church services, and are planning for a Senior Adult Fellowship. We are having outreach within our community. Praise the Lord. DICKSON CITY – Looking back, we at Dickson City PM Church can say we have been Spirit-filled. We all have many reasons to praise our Lord. As we said good-bye to Pastor Johnson and Carol and wished them well, we welcomed Pastor Tyler, Leslie and Zachariah. Our youth group, J.A.M., is doing nicely. They had a Halloween outreach, and all seemed to enjoy spreading God’s Word. Our praise team, Choose This Day, has been busy with their music ministry. Our other ministries have also continued to move forward according to God’s will. We look forward to God’s blessings in the coming year. NANTICOKE – We praise God for His blessings upon our church this past year. We have offered Pastor Kyle an open-ended contract and he has accepted. We had a successful VBS. Have added three new members. Our Trick or Treat Alternative Night was over 200 young people attend. Children’s Bible Adventure Club continues to reach young people in our community. JERMYN – We have had a wonderful year here at Jermyn. Our choir continues to lead us in worship creating a spirit which is conducive to receiving God’s Word. Our Children’ Sunday School is very strong with good participation from at least 12 teachers, music and craft leaders. Last summer’s VBS was the largest we have had in memory. Over 110 children attended with a nightly average of over 90. The annual Christmas pageant was wonderful with excellent participation by about 20 of our young folk. Semi-annual missions projects, Secret Sisters, and fellowship dinners round out a satisfying program. We are pleased to have Rev. Johnson and family in our congregation. BLAKELY – This year Blakely completed the Conference sponsored 2 year re-development program, Project 6:15. As part of our continuing effort to reach the community we held a Flea Market and VBS. As a result, we have a new family attending our church. We continued our participation in the Community Unity Service, combined Lenten and Good Friday services, a 5th anniversary memorial service for 9/11 which honored our local police, fire and EMT personnel. Thanksgiving and a grief service for those who had suffered losses during the year. Pastor again was invited to speak at Memorial Day services and re-elected as Chaplain to the fire department. We also participated in the Operation Christmas Child program and filled 27 shoe boxes. We were reminded as a church this year of Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a as three of our senior saints were called to glory be we were blessed by the addition of a healthy baby boy. God is good all the time and we continue to praise Him for His many blessings. LAWRENCEVILLE (OLD FORGE) – We thank God for His faithfulness to us for leading us through some difficult times this past year. We pray for His guidance and leadership for our church this year. We hope to fix our outside steps leading into the Church, maybe paint the main door of the building. As we grow closer to the Lord we hope that our lives will show god’s love for others and help build His Kingdom. TAYLOR – We praise the Lord for seeing us through another year of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our church doors remain open and the welcome is extended to any and all that would come, as we heartily encourage people to do so. One person accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and was admitted into adult membership by confession of faith. The Junior Church ministry continues to be a valuable asset and our missions giving remains strong and committed. We have invited Rev. Robert F. Finley to continue to be our pastor and he has accepted. HAZLETON – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with al spiritual blessings.” Our youth remain committed to reaching out through the puppet ministry. Our Mothers to Mothers project is popular. The children in VBS raised enough money to purchase 200 chicks for Samaritan’s Purse. Our Fall missions project was “Health Care for Mothers and Infants” through Samaritan’s Purse. We sent 62 boxes to Operation Christmas Child. This year we purchased and delivered Christmas gifts to children of prisoners from seven families in the Hazleton area for Angel Tree Ministry. Glory to God! (This year we celebrate our 135^th anniversary) JOHNSON CITY – “…those who honor Me I will honor…” God never lies. We’ve been honoring Him through offering evangelism training and outreach opportunities. Over forty people are taking The Way of the Master Evangelism Training Course. We’re challenged to present the Gospel in many ways. Many are being blessed and are growing in faith. Several evangelistic outreaches took place over the past year with more being planned. We also are preparing to participate in a Franklin Graham Festival in June 2007. We continue supporting international missions also. God keeps allowing us to honor Him in too many ways to tell here. Thank you, Lord! NEW LIFE MOUNTAINTOP – We are thanking the Lord for so many blessings this past year. Our church family continues to grow. We have taken in 25 new members and added 6 new teachers to our Bible teaching staff. We are excited about participating in Graham’s ministry “Dare To Be A Daniel.” We were able to install a new sound system in the sanctuary giving us the capability of recording sermons on cassette. The outside of the church has also been improved. Tom and Margaret Sima have landscaped the front and rear entrance of the church adding 5 new flower beds which makes a big difference in the appearance of the church. A new 4 ft X 8 ft lighted sign has been added to the front of the church. The parking lot has also been expanded to make room for the extra cars. Our summer concert and sermon series, “What Husbands and Wives need to know” was a success mainly because of the band “Choose This Day.” We consider them a great asset to our denomination. We look forward to a new year of serving the Lord in Mountaintop. Return to Index at the Top of This Page SCHUYLKILL DISTRICT: TAMAQUA – Our objective remains to consistently permit the radiance of God’s benevolence and compassion to pour through us into others’ lives, so that they might distinguish the difference He generates, the hopefulness only He can confer, resulting in a genuine comprehension of Christ as Savior and Lord. The methods of our undertaking: to build upon the foundation of fellowship the Lord has blessed with – recurrently endeavoring to “give ourselves over” to applying His perspective to the particulars of our lives; bearing one another’s burdens; collectively worshipping our Lord for who He is, and what He continuously accomplishes in our lives. SAINT CLAIR – “Prayer is the key to Heaven, but Faith unlocks the door.” This past year our pastor has stressed Prayer, and have seen many answers to prayer. Our efforts have included praying for our PM Churches, local churches, conference boards, and our elected borough officials. Each week we hear requests, and of answers to prayer, showing everyone that God still hears and answers prayer. We held our 175th Anniversary, with Rev. Kropp sharing at the banquet, and on Sunday, Rev. Jeffrey spoke to those present. Our ladies ministry has been a success. We have taken part with the other churches in the area for Lenten Services, a Sunrise Service and the Thanksgiving Service. The trustee board has purchased two air conditioners for the parsonage, a new front door with storm door, and a new dishwasher. The Church Hall received new drapes, and two of our Sunday School rooms had new carpet installed. The church family sadly reports the home-going of Rev. Loyd Dean. GIRARDVILLE New Life Community Fellowship – God is good! We all have received many blessings this year. We had a very large VBS to bring our youth ministry into the community; the youth group is strong and active. Our church enjoyed Christmas caroling and fellowship with the community. All of this affirms God’s love for us and our brethren. We pray for a new pastor as we turn to the conference for help. SHENANDOAH – We at Bethel PM Church greet you in the Name of Jesus Christ. Though we are a smaller congregation, we are a close-knit church family. Our doors are open each Sunday and visitors are always welcomed. Due to good stewardship we were able to have extensive repairs done to the church and parsonage. Pastor Ron & Sandy have been with us many years & our bond of love has grown during that time. God has blessed us. MOUNT CARMEL – We are again blessed to have Rev. Smith and Darlene continue to be our spiritual leaders. We have been blessed this year with a newly remodeled basement. We are able to have so many more events now to bring in new members. God has been good to us as a new family has started to come on a regular basis and usually every Sunday we have a new person or two attend our worship service so we are growing. We have also started a cottage Bible Study at the home of one of our members and have started a chancel choir that sings once or twice a month. We continue to help the Cornerstone Community Center and also twice a year prepare and serve meals at St. Steven Community Center Soup Kitchen. Deb and Pastor Gary Owens have also started a Bible Study at Building Bridges at Northwest Academy for Girls. God has and continues to be good. SHAMOKIN – We thank God for another year of His faithfulness and blessings. We are continuing our ministry outreach through the Manna for Many food bank and we had another good year with the church people making shoe boxes for the Franklin Graham Ministry, Samaritan’s Purse. Shamokin and Mt. Carmel churches join together for fellowship and special services. Through the members and the organizations we now sponsor six Guatemala students. During this past year our church hosted The Community Ecumenical Service where Pastors and congregations from 10 churches met and worshiped together. MAYFAIR COMMUNITY – The Mayfair Community Church has had a very difficult year. We voted to ask for help from the National Mission Board. As of June 1^st we will be under the supervision of the NMB. We pray God will have His way with Mayfair this coming year. HATBORO COMMUNITY – “Unto Him that is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever, Amen!” Ephesians 3:20. We continue to remain faithful in preaching the message of Christ crucified and risen – a message of hope for the sinner! We can only imagine how God will lead us into new areas of ministry and outreach as we seek His will for tomorrow. We have launched a new, full-time, licensed, Christian child care ministry to meet this need in our community. Attendance is up and our membership continues to slowly grow. We are pleased to see more twenty- and thirty-year-olds attending our services. We continue to have many outreaches and touches within our community throughout the year. Praise God for His goodness! TRINITY LANGHORNE – “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” We know God has a purpose for our church and are looking forward to the future. We praise the Lord for 2 new members and many visitors. Our Sunday School has a Monthly Breakfast, a Picnic and Trenton Thunder Game. Our other programs include: Sunday Night Adventure Club for youth and TNT Teen Group, Kid’s Choir, and COWS. Community outreaches include: Blood Drives, Corn Roast, Ladies’ Retreat, Fall Festival, Youth Christmas Play, Easter Egg Hunt, Choir Top Ten, and DVBS. ALLENTOWN – This year we have continued to ask the Lord, “What do you want to do through Christ Methodist Church in Allentown?” One aspect of the answer has been that the Lord of the Church has given us a ministry of helping the hurting in our congregation. While Pastor McKenzie has remained free of any signs of Lymphoma, others in the congregation have suffered from other physical and emotional needs. It has been an encouragement to see the spirit of sharing in prayer that has continued as we learn to bear one another’s burdens. Biblical teaching remains a high priority. We are learning that the things God brings into our lives, or allows to come into our lives, are there to prepare us for additional ministries that will be coming our way. LIONVILLE – Lionville Community Church continues to seek to fulfill its mission of proclaiming God’s Better Life. While we have faced many challenges, we press forward. This year we continued some of our regular ministries such as an Easter Egg Hunt, Benevolent Ministries distributing food and other items to area families, Operation Christmas Child and Christmas presents for local Foster Children. We also reached out in new areas this year, including a Car Show and Blues Concert, a multi-band concert and a Coffeehouse. We look forward to partnering with NMB to build on these ideas and move forward as God’s people in Chester County. NEWTOWN – Newtown Community Church is in the process of repositioning its ministries to more accurately align with the vision that God has begun to clarify for our church family. As a result, God is moving our members into new ministry opportunities and renewed hope for our future. In June of 2006, we held a Community Day carnival type event. With two live bands, including the band “4Given” from within our own denomination, face painting, a karate demonstration, and other youth activities, we saw over 150 people visit our church facility for the inaugural event. We also hosted a movie night, showing the feature film, “One Night with A King” that resulted in several guests in attendance, and increased community awareness. We currently offer a twice monthly Saturday evening coffee house. We are grateful to God for His faithfulness to our history, and faithfully anticipate an even greater future for our church family at Newtown. Return to Index at the Top of This Page PITTSBURGH DISTRICT: We are privileged to have in the District these retired men – Revs. Clarence Allwine, Loren Anderson, Merle Wilson, Tom Watkins and Bernard Murphy. Watkins and Murphy are supplying the Beaver Falls and Westmoreland City churches. Our Ministerial Widows are Violet Hildebrand, Virginia Malanowski and Dorothy Thomas. Three of our missionaries with IMB are Ronald Anderson, William Vasey and Jennifer Trigg. Rev. Steve Ramsier is with the NMB and Rev. David Parry is in Special Ministries. WESTMORELAND CITY – We continue to be the salt of the earth and a light in the community. We praise God for His presence among us. Our Membership Committee has been diligently working and we expect to receive at least 15 new members early next year. A handicap ramp was added to the side entrance of the church. Our church continues to serve the needy with the food bank and assistance from the Salvation Army. Last year we were able to wend a substantial gift to the Katrina disaster relief fund. One of our former Sunday School teachers, Gerda Hartland, went home to be with the Lord. DOOR OF HOPE – Had a very active year, which included the following: received 20 new members, 16 baptisms and our average attendance was up by 25 people. We have an active youth group of about 20. We have an outreach event every 6 weeks with an average attendance of 100. Started a women’s ministry in the church and started scrapbooking and craft classes. VBS has an attendance of 80 children a day. Ha a block party that was attended by 400 people. Gave out 335 backpacks to school children, 25 turkeys at Thanksgiving, and 500 Christmas gifts to needy children. PITTSBURGH SECOND – We praise God for His many blessings this year. Our parsonage has been renovated by the men of the church and is rented. Our outreach support has grown. We continue to support the Beulah Baptist food and clothing bank, Samaritan’s Purse Shoeboxes (60), monthly shut-in visits & sending boxes to a man serving in Iraq (which he shares with others). Our flea market/yard sale was a huge success. The Youth Program and Sunday School are continuing to grow. Christmas Eve and Easter Services were well-attended (83). We praise God for His comfort and guidance this past year. SWISSHELM PARK – We thank God for His goodness. We have added new members, and continue to see attendance growth. We had our roof replaced and enjoyed a spirit of agreement concerning the steps necessary to the process. We continue to enjoy seeing the community at our doorstep through events that bring believers together, such as Community Lenten Services, the Fall Festival of Praise, and a church-wide Christmas Program – and through events that bring seekers such as VBS and our Halloween outreach. We participated in “Operation Christmas Child”, Precious Moments, PM mission projects, and began a home Bible study. We are blessed! MERRITT – There has been a lot going on over the past year at Merritt PM Church. Our youth ministry has tripled in size, where we are having a constant group of 43 students in attendance ranging from lower elementary to High School. Our Thursday night adult Bible study is slowly growing and challenging. The majority of the congregation is growing and becoming more constant with their attendance. Our church ahs been under a lot of construction from a new roof and paint job for the church and parsonage. Also our fellowship hall is almost complete with a new kitchen and coed bathroom. Our motto this year is “God will build this church one family at a time.” VICTORY – Victory is trusting in God’s guidance; that He will provide the right man for our pulpit. We continue to have a strong mission program. VBS was another strong program. God continued to financially provide for us during increased financial responsibilities for the parsonage repairs. Psalm 25:4,5 “Lord, tell me your ways. Show me how to live. Guide me in your truth, and teach me, my God, my Savior. I trust you all day long.” SUTERSVILLE – “And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” Ephesians 2:22 In 2006 we welcomed 5 new members, 2 baptisms and 16 youth in our youth program. We also opened our doors to the community through our “Pumpkinfest” celebration. We have been studying God’s Word and trying to truly deepen our personal relationships with Christ. We are reminded through the inspired words of Paul that we are part of one body and called to a common hope in Christ. We strive to live a life worthy of this call. ZION, GRATZTOWN – We have been a busy church. Totally cleaning and repainting the outside of the church and landscaping to go with the new sign put up last year. We have still more planting to do but as we were working, many people from the town and passersby commented on how great the church looked it gave us a chance to minister and invite them inside. We also had a community family picnic and invited the community. What a great time we had with music and food. Another is planned for this year. GLENWOOD – Some new faces, improved worship services, balanced diet of Word in Worship, OT (Proverbs and Life of King David) NT (Mark & Luke). Establishing adult Bible study Wednesday nights counseling with children’s program, The Force. Averaging 15 adults and 20 kids. Studied the DaVinci Code. Our people (young & old) set some significant goals memorizing Scriptures and Books of the Bible. Reading through Scripture in 2007. 16% total revenue given to missions. Improved communications. Quarterly calendar postcards. New phone tree service. CARNEGIE – God continues to richly bless us. While continuing our outreach, we gained one new member. Our Kid’s Club and VBS are extremely well attended, as are our Wednesday night Bible Study and Prayer meetings. Our local mission work continues as in previous years and we’ve added an additional project this year. Our members provided a complete meal and saw to the physical needs of many of our homeless in the city, while Pastor Dan attended to their spiritual needs. We hope to make this mission an on-going part of our outreach. Our goal is to bring others to our Lord. NEW HOPE, HOUTZDALE – New Hope Christian Fellowship continues to praise the Lord for opportunities to meet the real needs of real people. Highlights of the year include hosting a mission team from the Door of Hope Community Church who conducted a VBS program and assisted with outreach at the annual Houtzdale Days celebration. In August we held our second annual “Back to School Bash” which attracted over 250 visitors. In December we fed 25 families through our first ever Family Feast Ministry. We rejoice that 3 made first time professions of faith in Jesus Christ. All glory and praise are given to Him. FAITH COMMUNITY, STRONGSVILLE – For three years the teaching and guidance of Pastor Bob Gill and Susie has blessed Faith Community Church. They continually encourage our little flock to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a congregation we have experienced the richness of Spirit-led teaching and the cleansing effect of deep prayer that has brought a growing maturity in the youngest all the way to the most mature of our saints. The future of our spiritual heritage is in our young people who are a special love of both Pastor Bob and Susie. They sacrificially give of themselves as they nurture a Christ-like growth in these special young souls! ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says The Lord of Hosts. BEAVER FALLS – We extol and exalt the Lord for His goodness to us this past year. Our attendance at the worship services has remained stable. Our choir faithfully presents a ministry of music that has been greatly appreciated. We continue to contribute 5% of our monthly income to various mission projects. We have received three members into our fellowship; participated in “Operation Christmas Child;” sent food and gifts to the City Rescue Mission for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Lord has been gracious in healing Pastor Watkins after being hospitalized with a heart problem. Rev. Merle Wilson continues 15th year as a volunteer chaplain at the Beaver Medical Center. FROST ROAD, STREETSBORO – There is a new positive attitude within our church family as we remember those ministries/events of the past year and prepare for a new year of ministry. From our Pioneer Clubs, Youth Group, Men’s Prayer Breakfasts, Women’s Ministries, Adult Bible Studies, Photo Scavenger Hunt, VBS, to the Fall Family Fun Fest, the congregation has worked together to get our Church recognized by the community. We are striving to become a committed congregation, prayerfully participating in the ministry, working toward renewal and revival. As we are faithful, we trust God to provide. God is good, all the time. Yea, God! (100 words) GLEN RICHEY – We thank the Lord for His continued blessings. We had 1 new member added and 2 went home to be with the Lord. Attendance is growing. Men’s prayer breakfast started once a month. We continue with our community calendar and Christmas card delivery. Average attendance of 35 for youth group. Sent 40 boxes to Operation Christmas Child. Ladies’ Aid continues with sunshine boxes and award cards. We have a small food bank and continue our Harvest Home Baskets at Thanksgiving. Had an Easter Cantata last year. Return to Index at the Top of This Page WESTERN DISTRICT: LEADMINE – One of God’s favorite country church congregations, in Leadmine, Wisconsin, greets you in the Spirit of Christ. And that Spirit is alive and well, as a pearl of great price. We regret the reality of serious illnesses among some of our more seasoned members, and the parting of a dear friend, Malcolm French, our pianist. But God is with us every day and continues to minister through us. Our traditional outreaches such as our Easter Sunrise Service for all is well attended and appreciated. Support for missions is strong, especially for our local Hispanic church; Tree of Life; and PM Mission projects. We pray that we will continue to be a light on the hill drawing whomever God leads our way to this humble sanctuary. NEW DIGGINGS – We serve a great God! He continues to bless us as we remain faithful to Him. The congregation at New Diggings has grown closer together and strengthened their spiritual relationships with the Lord. We have studied topics such as grace, mercy, love and a series on prayer. We have received answers to our prayers and we continue to see God working in our lives. The youth group attendance has grown to about 20 young people. The New Diggings PM Church is alive and well and living in anticipation of great things! PLEASANT VIEW – When the future of rural churches seems anything but optimistic, Pleasant View is being blessed with activity. Our pastor was ordained in 2006 at the annual Conference meeting. He has instituted a new format for Children’s Church by gearing his sermons to being object lessons with easier points to remember. He also emphasized visiting the elderly by taking the Pioneer Club to nursing homes. Our church led an effort to supply newborn babies in need (in Milwaukee) with home-made quilts and knit sweaters. Over 75 quilts were delivered by our church ladies and volunteers in our community. This ministry recently expanded to include projects for our local nursing home also. We participated in supporting 2 families as part of a county-wide “Christmas Blessings Project.” We were able to reach out to 2 families in Darlington and make an impact on their lives. Lastly, a committee was formed to plan future physical needs, including storage space, playgrounds, and our unoccupied parsonage. STANDART – The Lord’s hand is still very strong in our little country church. Though we are a small church and small in members we continue to do His will. Our support of 3 different missionaries had gladdened the hearts of many. It is our prayer that our church be allowed to continue if it is His will. May God Bless Us All. WESTVIEW – We have had a good year. Wednesday nights we have been studying “Shattering Your Strongholds.” The Dunnhaurs gave a concert. VBS was in the evenings this year; so had more workers from our church; with 30-some kids in attendance. We now have a handicap bathroom on the main floor. BIG PATCH – We are thankful to the Lord for His provisions, for a Bible preaching, caring pastor, and for our faithful members. Attendance remained the same, with various visitors throughout the year. Our people are involved with Precious Moments, thrift shop and meals at home. Highlights included the Christmas Eve program and Loyalty day in October, and Holiday Cantatas with Westview church. Mission giving is strong – giving to the Darlington Hispanic Church, District Mission Project, and individual missionaries. STREATOR – Greetings from Streator. Jim Walker has been with us for over a year now, he has been a real blessing. Our attendance has remained steady. We once again held kids Club with an average attendance of 20. VBS was attended by 35-40 children and all the preparations were done by the ladies of our church, meeting once a week for 1 hour, it was a great time, enjoyed by all. We had 2 baby dedications this past year. We are a church family working together and God has blessed us. BRIDGE COMMUNITY, PORTAGE – The Bridge gives glory to God for all His blessings and working here. We continue to see growth in stewardship, discipleship and leadership. We praise the Lord for 2 confessions of faith and are excited about upcoming baptisms. We look forward to a long and wonderful ministry in Portage and the expansion of God’s Kingdom. DARLINGTON IGLESIA HISPANIA EVANGELICA – We thank God for His faithfulness. Although our report shows a decrease in membership, caused by people leaving the community, our numbers for attendance have been consistent. We have reached into the community in many ways, celebrating holidays and opening it to the entire Hispanic Community. Gifts for new babies and assisting at times of need. Pastor is an active visible part of the community. Always ready to serve. Return to Index at the Top of This Page EASTERN DISTRICT: MATTHEWS MEMORIAL – It has been a good year for Matthews Memorial. The Stable Coffeehouse is still going strong and is a huge success. We continue to strive to use it as an outreach tool. We have started a Saturday night service called the Underground. It is a service that is geared towards people who may have a bad taste in their mouths about church or who may have never stepped foot into a church. The church held a big fundraiser for Ashlynn, a two-year-old with cancer. We raised around $1200 for her and her family and it was a successful outreach. LAWRENCE STREET – Our outreach efforts for 2005 include: Weekly Youth Group, Teen retreats, Weekly Literacy Center, Food Pantry, Quilting, VBS, Scrapbooking, Missionary Society Food & Craft Fair for Missionaries, Red Cross Blood Drives and Sunday-School-sponsored support of an orphanage in Haiti. We began to add praise music to our worship experience each Sunday morning in addition to our Senior and Youth choirs. We report 4 conversions this year. CUMBERLAND – Our church will be celebrating its 120th Anniversary this coming year. Our congregation is no longer made up of people who are within walking distance of the church. Our congregation consists of people from a diverse religious heritage, ethnic differences, various social and economic layers, and different walks of life – and yet we enjoy a common salvation and form a close-knit body. As a people and pastor we walk by faith focusing our attention on Jesus Christ as the Author and Finisher of our faith. We have approximately 17-20 young people and this year assumed the responsibility of taking on a part-time youth director to work with the Sr./Jr. High young people. We have an active Sunday School and Junior Church program. We continue to support the missions program of the denomination. There is a good Bible Study that is hel every Wednesday afternoon. The children enjoyed the DVBS program which was conducted in June. NEW HOPE – We thank the Lord for His grace and mercy, which He gives in abundance! It has been a challenging year for our church, financially. But we continue to be faithful to our pledge to give 10% of our income to missions. Some of our outreach opportunities have come through our summer movie nights, and our monthly game nights. Our Sunday school was re-established after being closed for 2 years. We continue to seek God’s guidance and direction for our church. GREYSTONE – Greetings from Greystone. Since our pastor retired last year we have been under the care of the district. We struggled at first, but through much fervent prayer and perseverance, we’ve turned things around. With services of a PM local preacher and an ordained pastor from a local bible School, and help from some talented members of our congregation, our spiritual needs are being met. Four of our long-time members died, but our weekly attendance holds steady. We had a Beautiful Christmas Eve service with 125 in attendance. We now have a coffee-tea-fellowship hour before Sunday’s service and it is also well attended. We still have our food pantry which helps local families in need, in cooperation with another local church. God is surely in our midst. NEW BEDFORD SOUTH – The Lord has blessed us as we survived another year. God called home two of our active members who were the leaders of our Church Suppers. Unfortunately, we are now unable to carry this task without them. We miss the fellowship that was provided with our church members and outsiders who enjoyed our cooking. We did, however, celebrate our church’s 115th Anniversary in Nov ember. We gathered at a local restaurant and enjoyed a Family Style dinner. Rev. Larry Swartz, Rev. Connie Correia, Lois Lackie, Rev. David Schaffer, Rev. William Turner and Henry Hicks were able to join us. We are so thankful to them as they fill our pulpit on their designated Sundays. We remembered all those who faithfully attended and worked so hard for our church over all its years of existence. LUZ Y ESPERANZA (Light and Hope) PAWTUCKET – Due to immigration issues and lack of jobs, we have lost thirteen members but have gained fifteen new members. The Pawtucket Fire Department found some discrepancies, stating that we were not up to code. To help us work through this issue and other issues we have declared an aggressive praying program: 1. On Sundays the deacons pray half an hour before the worship service. 2. The deaconesses pray once a month. 3. We prayer every day from 5am to 8am. 4. On Fridays we have prayer vigils. 5. Parents pray the first Sunday of the month for their families. 6. Tuesdays are prayer nights – since prayer is the key to a surviving church traditional programs of education, evangelism, outreach ministries, children’ club, finances for the church, couples club, youth, etc. We have 20 member studying a systematic course call SEAN (Seminary Extension to All Nations). Thanks to God for always supporting us. EVANGELICAL OF LAWRENCE – We thank the Lord because He has guided us through 2006. We had many difficult times, but the Lord was glorified and we had the victory. We are continuously working with cells with an average attendance of 100 people every Tuesday, gathering in 10 homes. We celebrated two activities during the year, supported by the ministry “the clinic” with free services of health, in which we provided medical attention. In addition we offered free clothes and food to the 300 or so people at each event. They also received the salvation message. During the month of July we celebrated “The Treasure Island” at VBS, with an attendance of 94 children. 21 of them accepted Christ as their Savior. During the year 2 sisters passed away and 3 families moved to another state. We thank God because we received 10 brothers in the church communion and 25 accepted Christ as their Savior. LOWELL MISSION – We praise the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His love and mercy. On July 10 we will be celebrating two years of starting the Hispanic mission at Lawrence Street in Lowell. Because of Pastor Dave and his congregation’s vision and God’s will to ask for someone Spanish-speaking to start a group to reach the Hispanic community in Lowell. In the time that we have been working here 10 people have accepted God as the Lord and Savior. We have accepted 11 people as members and have had 3 baptisms. There are 7 more preparing to become members. In November we celebrated with a lot of joy our first big evangelistic service with the support of a few churches and there were around 130 in attendance. We are thankful to God that right now there is an average of 28 in attendance and some Sundays there are up to 40. Right now besides the Sunday service, we have prayer meetings on Tuesday and Bible studies on Fridays in the church. To God is the glory! Return to Index at the Top of This Page SOUTHERN DISTRICT: NEW RIVER – Praise God! He continues to build His church here in Florida! Our average attendance surpassed the 200 mark this past year. Due to this growth we were able to increase our missions giving and purchase a new church van. We also added Brian Hussey to our staff as a part-time Youth Director. We continue collecting shoes for Buckner Shoes outreach and shoeboxes for Samaritan’s Purse. We were blessed to honor 156 church volunteers at our First Annual Volunteer Honors Banquet. KATHLEEN EVANGELICAL CHAPEL – Average attendance is up to about 90 people and we have had 9 conversions. Our newly established youth group, “Teens with a Purpose,” has seen an increase from 4 teens to an average of about 17 to 20 teenagers per week and the teens account for 8 of the 9 conversions. Our children’s group activities see about 15 kids per week and growing. Through our local missions giving we have been able to sustain our Spanish mission implemented by Pastor Dave and we have seen a steady increase there. Praise God for His faithfulness. We are very pleased to be able to give a positive report in spite of the fact that Kathleen has gone through a difficult time of losing a Pastor and a friend. LA GRAN COMISION METHODISTA PRIMITIVA, MARION OAKS – We praise the Lord for all He has done with us this blessed year. We had 36 conversions, 9 baptisms. Every month we have had 2 day revival. The Lord has allowed us to reach out to the community and then some through the radio ministry. We have also been able to visit many homes and hospitals. Throughout this past year we celebrated the church’s anniversary and the radio ministry anniversary. We have enjoyed banquets and fellowship. The youth have enjoyed outings, picnics and plays. The church has been able to support the IMB and other missions. Our community is growing and we expect to grow along with it. Many thanks to Rev. Fred Perkins for all his counseling throughout the past year. God bless you all.
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