Helping Our Homeless Neighbors

The Outreach Committee will be collecting items to assemble gift bags for the homeless starting August 29th to September 12th. The bags are meant to be kept in your car to give to our homeless neighbors we may encounter during the day.  The bags will contain the items listed below and a designated box will be available in the Narthex for donations.

Lunch Bags

Bottle Water

Band-Aids

Suncreen

Any individual size healthy snacks such as nuts, dried fruit, snack bars, fruit cups, or peanut butter and crackers

Small fun items such as a deck of cards, balls, or paperback books

Dog bones for four legged friends

Rev. Jeanne Devine’s office hours

Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to noon.  This means I will usually be available in the office during those hours.  I will also be in the office at other times, and will meet you by appointment at your request.  Many afternoons I will visit hospitals and homes.  My home telephone is 551-8144 and the answering machine is always on; if you need to contact me, feel free to call me at home.

Society of St. Andrew & Pepsi Refresh Project

The United Methodist Men are supporters of this charitable organization and ask for your help in helping them win $250,000 in the Pepsi Refresh Project. Pepsi is granting 1.3 million dollars each month to fund ideas that will refresh the world. SoSA’s approach to feeding the hungry will certainly refresh the world of those in need. You can help us feed the hungry by voting every day in September for the Society of St. Andrew in the Food & Shelter-$250,000 category. Today and every day throughout September go to SoSA’s website and click on VOTE TO FEED 9 MILLION HUNGRY AMERICAN’S for a direct link to SoSA’s listing on the Pepsi refresh site. Click on “VOTE FOR THIS IDEA” to cast your vote for SoSA – it’s that easy! The first time you’ll have to register then click the “VOTE FOR THIS IDEA” again; but after that you simply log-in and vote each day. You can vote for SoSA once a day from each email address you have. The “idea” that gets the most votes wins the money, so tell everyone you know to vote every day in September for SoSA to feed the hungry.

Austin District UMW Annual Meeting, September 18, Tarrytown UMC

UMM Men’s Breakfast – Saturday, August 28

UMW Southwest Texas Conference in Lockhart, TX October 1-2

The SWTC UMW will hold an annual meeting in Lockhart, October 1 and 2.  Harriett Jane Olson, Deputy General Secretary of Women’s Division, is the guest speaker.

Healthcare Discussion and Potluck Luncheon

Join the Peace with Justice Committee

of

Berkeley United Methodist Church

for

A discussion on Healthcare in Austin

Sunday, September 12^th

12 Noon in the CLC

2407 Berkeley Ave.

Austin, TX 78745

Do you have healthcare? Is our system equitable? Come and join us for a lively discussion!

Regina Rogoff, J.D., CEO of Peoples Community Clinic

will be the speaker.

Find out:

· How are they helping meet the need?

· What can we do to help?

Don’t forget it’s a potluck! Everyone bring a covered dish that would make your doctor proud! Please remember some of our members and visitors are on gluten-free and/or vegetarian diets, so let’s be all inclusive!

For info or questions please call the church office at 447-6633.

School Supply Drive

Berkeley is collecting school supplies and cash for our two adopted schools, Cunningham Elementary and Widen Elementary. Below are some of the most requested items. Please place in the box in the narthex by August 22nd. School starts August 23rd.

School Supplies Needed for Cunningham Elementary:

backpacks

spiral notebooks

composition notebooks

pencils

pencil sharpeners

pencil bags

plastic boxes for writing supplies

folders with pockets

facial tissues

anything on school lists

For Widen Elementary:

cash for folder purchase

Immigration Issues

Curious or concerned? Wonder about the church’s perspective? MARK YOUR CALENDARS and join us Saturday, August 21, 9:00 – 12:00 when Betty Armstrong will be at BUMC to present a program about Immigration as a Social Justice Issue. Betty is the Austin District UMW Mission Coordinator for Social Action. Men, women and youth are invited. Coffee and breakfast goodies will be available at 8:20 before the program begins at 9:00. If you need childcare for children under 12, please notify the church office or Susan Curtis (Curtis@io.com or 280-1313) by Wednesday, August 18th.

Disciple II Bible Study Coming this Fall

There will be a Disciple II Bible Study, Into the Word Into the World, being offered this fall for all interested participants. The orientation session will be held on Thursday September 2, 2010 and the first class will meet on Thursday, September 9, 2010. Disciple II is an in-depth bible study of Genesis – Exodus in the Old Testament and Luke-Acts in the New Testament. The study will last for 32 weeks involving nightly readings and a weekly meeting and will be facilitated by Junell Treece and Letha Peters.