May 11th starting at 9 a.m. is a Rise Against Hunger event at Sylva United Methodist Church. Rise Against Hunger is an international hunger relief organization that distributes food and life-changing aide to the world's most vulnerable, mobilizing the necessary resources to end hunger by 2030. It was started as Stop Hunger Now in 1998 by a United Methodist minister. We'll be trying to pack 10,000 meals which if we have 30 to 40 volunteers should take about two hours. More on Rise Against Hunger - https://www.riseagainsthunger.org The Sylva Rotary Club along with Rotary Clubs from Highlands and Haywood County along with church groups will be participating. It is open to volunteers age 5 and up.
Feeding the Hungry and Thirsty Project
The Have Mercy Challenge’s “Feeding the Hungry and Thirsty” team has decided to adopt the Jackson County School of Alternatives (formerly known as “The Hub”). Our group learned about the need from Brooke Dills, who is a teacher there. Brooke shared with us that the students there are hungry.
Our group will supply snacks for the kids there (about 125 of them). We need a steady supply of individually wrapped snacks and drinks to provide for them. Examples: packs of crackers, granola bars, small bottles of water, Little Debbie snack cakes, etc.
Tonya Lloyd is the team leader and is asking you to pick up an extra snack or two when at the grocery store. There is a container in the Loving Kindness room that you can put those items into. Brooke Dills has offered to take the items to school as needed.
Contact Tonya Lloyd for more info:
586-5917 (h), 226-9663 (c)
Adopt a Widow Project
The Have Mercy Challenge Widows Team has decided to "adopt" widows and widowers and do special things for them throughout the year. We have already had several people sign up to "adopt" at least 2 people. Because we have 37 widows and 5 widowers connected with our congregation, we are in need of other people who would be interested in helping. We sure don't want to leave anyone out!
Our group is already starting to reach out to their "adopted" friends and will continue to do so throughout the year. We've suggested things like taking them to lunch, sending cards, phone calls, visits, etc. We felt a short term project would not be as beneficial as one that is on-going.
Cheryl Beck is the team leader and has a list of names of people who haven't yet been adopted. Please contact her at 828-421-3820 if you are interested in being a part of this project.
MISSIONS NIGHT -- APRIL 10TH
Come to the Wednesday night supper and stay for a special evening that addresses the Mercy Challenge of ministering to the poorly clothed. Our GAs kick off the evening with an international fashion show. Although they will not be poorly clothed, they will remind us of the importance of culture and clothing. We'll hear a report from Charlie and Diane White about the clothing ministry they have been spearheading with poverty stricken counties in West Virginia. The evening will conclude with a hands-on missions project that will help bring warmth to the children receiving Christmas shoeboxes.
One more opportunity to minister: bring an item of clean, in good repair, clothing (or several items) for the Sylva Linings Resale Store. There will be a box for these items as you enter the MFC.
Thanks in advance for helping make our first quarterly Missions Night fun and informative!
Sylva FBC WMU
Compost Items
Empty Bowl Fundraiser at the Community Table
Service of Lament for Victims of Gun Violence
Every year thousands of people die due to gun violence in the United States. While few of these deaths make headlines, each represents a life mourned by others, a life of unmet possibilities, a life of a beloved child of God. As a community of faith, it is right that we should gather to remember the sacredness of those lives and to reflect on the loss they mean to us all. The downtown Sylva churches invite you to join us on Thursday, April 4 at 12:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Sylva for a brief service of lament, prayer, and hope.
A Note from John and Glenda Dills
Glenda and I wish to express our sincere gratitude to our Church Family during this season of loss. Your calls, cards, and financial support for Natalie and her girls are very much appreciated. We especially extend a hearty Thank You to those who were able to attend Matt’s funeral service. First Baptist Sylva was well represented!
The Have Mercy Challenge
The Have Mercy Challenge
“And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to have mercy and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).”
Both the prophet Zechariah and Jesus reveal God’s expectation that we have mercy on “the least of these.” In Zechariah 7:9-10 and Matthew 25:34-36, God directs his people to show mercy to the
hungry and thirsty, to the stranger, to the poorly clothed, to the
prisoner, to the widow, the orphan, the immigrant and the poor.
Who is God calling you to serve?
Prayerfully consider who are you willing to serve through a mission project in the coming weeks and months. Please feel free to print this page and submit it to the church office or in the offering plate on Sunday morning.
Circle below:
The Hungry and Thirsty
The Stranger
The Poorly Clothed
The Prisoner
The Widow
The Orphan
The Immigrant
The Poor
Name: _________________________
Email or Phone: ___________________________
Try a Morsel of Mercy-Infused Ministry, Won’t You?
When I was a child, I loathed shopping trips to the grocery store with my mother. She would linger too long at the produce. She would read each label in the canned food aisle. She would hem and haw, and I would do gymnastics on the grocery cart.
The one redeeming quality of these grocery trips, however, was the promise of getting samples from vendors set up at the end of the aisles. It was there that my mother and I were introduced to more exotic food items than we were accustomed to consuming. From fancy mustard to pasta salad, and from linguine with pesto sauce to fruit roll-ups, I lived for the moment when someone in an apron in front of the bread aisle would offer me a bite-sized morsel of tasty, goodness.
What’s more, the samples frequently succeeded in getting my mother to place a new product in the cart and to add a new meal to her repertoire.
The science behind samples is sound. When given the chance to try something new, the likelihood that someone will have a good experience with it goes up ten-fold than if a consumer simply relied on its attractive marketing. The basic premise of offering samples goes something like this:
“Our product is so rich and so extraordinary that if people just try it they will be hooked!”
Thus, free samples continue to reign supreme in our grocery stores. There are risk-free trials for cosmetics and health gadgets. There are 7-day free periods for apps on our devices and the first few chapters of the New York Times bestseller are available for free on a digital platform. Samples, put simply, work.
Giving people the chance to experience something new firsthand is a much better proposition than trying to convince them of the superiority of one’s product with words.
The ‘Have Mercy Challenge’ that we introduced in worship this past Sunday is trying to tap in to this phenomenon. That is, we want you to experience a morsel of mercy-infused ministry to whet your appetite for bigger mission projects in the future.
As you may recall, the ‘Have Mercy Challenge’ offers the chance for you to participate with others to provide mercy or loving kindness to the people groups mentioned in the Bible and explicitly referenced by Jesus.
In the Old Testament, Zechariah 7:8 states that God’s people should show mercy and kindness to one another, and to not harm the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, or the poor. In other words, the prophet of ancient Israel wanted God’s Holy Nation to care for the most vulnerable among them.
In the New Testament, Jesus states that when others provide care for the hungry and thirsty, those who are poorly clothed, the stranger, the sick, and the imprisoned, they are actually doing it for him. Care for the ‘least of these’ becomes the qualification for entering the Kingdom of Heaven.
The ‘Have Mercy Challenge,’ therefore, invites you and your family to identify but one of these people groups to which you would be willing to provide one act of mercy in the coming weeks and months. In response to this invitation, the vast majority of our congregation identified one of the people groups on the bulletin insert we provided and placed it on the communion table as an offering to God. In the weeks to come, teams will emerge from your willingness to serve, and each team will be directed to imagine a specific way that you can show mercy to that group of people, whether you selected the orphan, the prisoner, the sick, or the others that God specifically identifies.
We are providing this ministry opportunity as a sample blessing that we will experience when we seek to be obedient to God’s command that we love kindness. And we are so confident that this experience will change your life, and the lives of those you serve, that we are offering this opportunity free of charge!
Supplies are limited and time is running out, so act now!
No, this mercy-infused ministry is not a product on aisle 4, and it is certainly no gimmick. Just the same, feel the urgency that God’s words elicit and sign up to serve sooner rather than later.