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BEYOND THE GREEN DOORS
The newsletter of the Peterborough United Methodist Church
43 Concord Street, Peterborough, NH
October 2021
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
Events:
Sunday Worship streaming on YouTube or in-person Sun 10a http://bit.ly/pumcYouTube
and posted online http://bit.ly/pumcworshipvideo
Daily Devotional Bible Study Sun-Wed 7a, Thu 6:30a http://bit.ly/revcardfb
Tue-Thu 9-12 Office Hours
Oct 3 World Communion Sunday
Oct 12 6:30p Admin Council meeting
Oct 26 Newsletter submissions due
Oct 31 Rev Card’s last day
Stay Involved:
Digital Welcome Card bit.ly/pumcwelcomecard
Bulletins bit.ly/pumcbulletin
Children’s Bulletins bit.ly/pumckidsbulletin
Offering bit.ly/pumcoffering
Online Giving bit.ly/pumconlinegiving
Facebook bit.ly/pumcfacebook
YouTube bit.ly/pumcyoutube
Instagram bit.ly/pumcinsta
LinkedIn bit.ly/pumclinkedin
DISGUISED BLESSINGS
Genesis 32:24-26 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”
My mother grew up in a home without material wealth. Her clothes were the ones wealthy people no longer wanted or needed—and her food came from an agency known as “Aide for Dependent Children.” Her father had died when she was three, and her mother, my grandmother, was a single mom with two children. My grandmother also cared for my great-grandmother, who was blind, and when you look at the facts of my mom’s life—they could seem depressing. Yet my mother did not see these things as impediments. In fact, she would always tell us her life was full of blessings in disguise. My brother and sisters and I had a lot of fun with this concept. When some horror would hit—the first things we would say to each other is “okay, where is ‘Mom’s blessing in disguise?’” We pretty much ridiculed my mom’s most precious belief and taunted her, as kids will.
But when I read about Jacob’s struggle with the messenger of God, my mother’s words are much more meaningful to me. You see this symbolic story of Jacob can reflect our own struggles with the unwanted parts of our life. Like Jacob, we struggle with experiences—loss of a loved one, loss of a relationship, loss of physical health to name a few—and we get wounded in the process. Our memories of these experiences leave scars on our souls. Often, we do not know what to do with these memories. Jacob, in his wisdom, addresses the being with whom he is wrestling by saying, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” Which can be translated: “Please give me some meaning, some hope, some wisdom from this.” We learn that Jacob goes away limping, but wiser than he was before the struggle. I now see that my mother’s attitude was her demanding a blessing. When she took an old, previously worn, hand-me-down dress and added a lace collar she had salvaged, she was saying: “I will transform this ordinary cast-off into a blessing. When I wear it, it will become a joyful sight.”
Even after my mother could afford to buy new clothes, she continued to transform every outfit. She would take the sleeves off one blouse and patiently sew them onto another. She had an eye for beauty.
Now my sisters and brother and I talk with respect about demanding a blessing from our daily struggles. I would like to ask us to explore something we struggle with in our life. I would like to challenge us to consider demanding a blessing from it. Yes, I did say demand. For I truly believe God wants us to seek new insights and claim God’s blessings. I know there are things in all our lives that we wish had never happened, (for example the pandemic.) But I also think, when we examine painful experiences prayerfully, when we allow ourselves to wrestle with them in God’s light, we can let go of the memory and the misery and begin to see that who we are is part and parcel of what we have endured. The disguised blessings in our life can transform us when we continue to struggle with them and claim their meanings. Where in your life is there an untapped blessing from an event you may have tucked away in the recesses of you mind?
Blessings,
Kathleene
CHURCH FAMILY CELEBRATIONS
Birthdays:
Gladys Bugler 10/1
Jennie Molloy 10/4
Vi Banks 10/14
Gabby Cote 10/14
Tammy Munroe 10/15
Emma Munroe 10/19
Sue Norton-Poplin 10/25
Martha Simmons 10/28
Membership Anniversaries:
Craig Descoteaux 10/4
Susan Campbell-Halley 10/7
James Poplin 10/21
CONTINUING COVID PROTOCOLS
As the Covid pandemic continues, the Reopening Committee meets periodically to address the protocols that we’ve put in place so that we can continue to worship in person. The weather is changing so we will not be able to open the windows quite as widely as we have been during the summer. We’ll also be turning on the heat in the sanctuary before the worship service. During the service the heat will be turned off so that recirculated air will not be blowing. We will continue to wear masks at all times in the building and maintain appropriate distancing. We thank you for your cooperation and encourage all to get vaccinated and stay safe!
FLOWERS FOR THE ALTAR
Do you have an anniversary? Perhaps you would like to remember a loved one. The worship committee would like to remind all parishioners that everyone is invited to provide flowers for the altar at any time.
If you would like to provide flowers for any Sunday please contact Amy Clason-Gilmet or Susan Lindquist.
PUMC BOOK GROUP NEWS
The first meeting of the PUMC Book Group met to yak about all the summer reading that we did and to set a calendar for the 2021/2022 year. The group decided to meet the third Tuesday of each month at 1:30 PM via ZOOM until this Covid-Delta Drama has spent itself and we can safely meet in person.
The group is open to anyone who would like to share a reading discussion in an easy-going circle of friends. If you would like to join, please just talk to Rev. Kathleene, Susan Lindquist, Carol Owen, or Ann Hampson and they will get you into the email loop for Zoom invites, updated book info, etc.
The group also decided to read Adam Hamilton’s Words of Life for the January read. Many of our church friends may have picked up the book in preparation for a book study this fall. As it was cancelled, the group thought it a good idea to provide a venue for reading and discussing it. So … if you’re interested in getting in on that discussion, please let Rev Kathleene know and the group will get you linked up with any pre-discussion teasers. Stay tuned on that book group meeting in December for more details! Books are still available at the church! Just grab one and read!
The NEXT read for October’s book discussion will be The Survivor: A Novel Based on a True Holocaust Survivor Story by Marcel Möring. The book was originally published in 2011, so is readily available through on line sources, interlibrary loan, and on Kindle and the like. While this book is about a young man’s deliverance by strangers during the German occupation of Poland, it is also about the group dynamics of people in hiding and under stress, and about how one man handles life after being freed from the danger of the German Holocaust. It has come to us through Ann Hampson’s recommendation.
SO! The next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 19th @ 1:30 PM. Let someone know if you’d like a Zoom invite in your email box! Invite a person in your ‘pod’ to read the book with you and have them join the Zoom with you! The more the merrier!
PUMC QUILTERS – TIME TO STITCH?
Last year, the PUMC Quilters worked up a gorgeous quilt that is still in need of auctioning.
Quilters! Please let me know what we can do to get this quilt into a cozy home by Christmas! Online auction? Mission gift? What?
In the meantime, is there interest in starting a new project? I have tons of ideas for easy blocks that we could be working up in preparation for a nice new quilt to have for future auctioning, gifting, donating, etc! Let’s talk! Keep calm and keep sewing!
Susan Lindquist
WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY
On October 3, 2021, we will celebrate World Communion Sunday. Please mark your calendars to celebrate this Special Sunday. We look forward to this celebration each year when we participate in holy communion together and share our gifts to support racial-ethnic students and trainees in their quest to become leaders who embody the mission of The United Methodist Church. Your gifts provide scholarships for ethnic students and trainees from the U.S. and around the world. Thank you.
Checks can be made to the church with “WCS” in the memo line, or give online: UMC.org/SSGive or mail checks
Also communion cups are available in the fellowship hall for those who would like to participate at home.
Everyone is invited to contribute to the newsletter! Send in your photos, thank yous, birthdays, events, testimonials, poems, letters, printable artwork, prayer submissions…
Please submit all materials for the next newsletter (November) to our editors by the LAST TUESDAY October 26. This is the newsletter that will be released Sunday October 31 and cover until Sunday December 5. Send to Melissa French at 603-924-4294 or email info@peterboroughumc.org, with the subject “Newsletter submission.” Thanks!
Want to subscribe? You can email or call the office (above) to get a print copy of the newsletter, or visit http://bit.ly/subscribepumc to get it in your email.
PETERBOROUGH UMC COMMUNICATIONS
In addition to “Beyond the Green Doors,” Peterborough UMC offers the following ways you can keep in touch.
We are on the web: https://www.PeterboroughUMC.org
We are on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pumcnh/
This newsletter was compiled by Melissa French. Any concerns with content can be addressed with Reverend Card.