Let's pray our way forward
Let the children come to me. Jesus
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Trail Ministry and Deerfield UMC to Partner with Parkway Elementary
We are getting ready to step up our efforts to partner with the school in our community at Deerfield UMC. The school we are going to partner with is Parkway Elementary. We are asking anyone who wants to volunteer to see Pastor Evelyn to get a volunteer application filled out and bring it back to her. They will be turned into the Central Office for a background check. A preliminary idea in our partnership with the school this year is to take one grade per month and do something for the teachers of that grade. If we start in September with showing some gratitude towards the three kindergarten teachers at Parkway, then the next month, we will be appreciating the first grade teachers, etc. There is a meeting coming up on Oct. 1 for anyone who wants to support our partnership with Parkway school at Faithbridge UMC in Blowing Rock at 6:30 that evening. For Trail participants, this would require a sacrifice of your regular meal and group time for this one organizational meeting. Please contact Pastor Evelyn if you want to work in some way to support the ministry of partnering with Parkway School.
Watauga Missional Network- Who are we?
The Watauga Missional Network was formed last fall when our Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church changed the structure of the districts from having 15 districts to 8 districts. Now we are in the Appalachian District and Rev. Lory Beth Huffman is our District Superintendent. In Watauga County, all the United Methodist pastors in Watauga are in the Watauga Missional Network. We have been meeting since last fall to discern one common focus on a mission project where we can make a significant difference in our community. After several months of meetings with our pastors and much prayer, we have been able to discern a common goal: to partner with an elementary school in our community to build relationships that will last. We want to have an impact on student achievement with students who are behind in math and reading. The pastors have started conversations with staff at the schools with principals and social workers to find out about the needs that are specific to their schools.
Watauga Missional Network: What are we doing?
This summer the Watauga Missional Network learned that there was grant money from the district that we could apply for, for start up money. The pastors came together around the common thread of poverty in Watauga County that has been part of our conversation many times over the last year. So we applied for a grant to do poverty training and got $750.00 from the district to do poverty training. Since our main goal is to work with schools in our community, we are going to the teachers first for providing this training because we believe that our teachers work face to face with poverty all over our county on a daily basis. After meeting with Dr. Fonseca, our superintendent of schools here in our county, we have his permission to go ahead with the poverty training for teachers and we are working with the school system to help make this possible.
Please make a note of the date of October 1. We are going to have our first meeting for pastors and lay people who are interested in working in the school in their community. The meeting is going to be hosted at Faithbridge UMC in Blowing Rock from 6:30 to 7:30pm. Child care is going to be provided. Our goal at this meeting is to share what churches are already doing to connect with the school in their community, and we anticipate representatives from the school system to be present to speak directly to the needs that the church can help address. Dr. Fonseca may be there to do this part, or a representative from his staff. Please come to the meeting on October 1 if you have a passion for connecting with the school in your community and want to learn what other churches are doing, hear from the schools, and try to make our work as efffective as possible. We will be addressing things to do and pitfalls to avoid. There is great work already going on in this connection in some places and not a very strong connection in other places. We want to learn from each other and support each other in this important work. This is a work meeting for the Watauga Missional Network and will include lay people.
For the poverty training piece that will be coming up soon, we have been in contact with Susan Pennock who is a trainer with communities in schools and does poverty training to mark some dates on her calendar. As soon as we get those cleared we will publish those dates and the location of the training.
Watauga Missional Network: What are we doing?
This summer the Watauga Missional Network learned that there was grant money from the district that we could apply for, for start up money. The pastors came together around the common thread of poverty in Watauga County that has been part of our conversation many times over the last year. So we applied for a grant to do poverty training and got $750.00 from the district to do poverty training. Since our main goal is to work with schools in our community, we are going to the teachers first for providing this training because we believe that our teachers work face to face with poverty all over our county on a daily basis. After meeting with Dr. Fonseca, our superintendent of schools here in our county, we have his permission to go ahead with the poverty training for teachers and we are working with the school system to help make this possible.
Please make a note of the date of October 1. We are going to have our first meeting for pastors and lay people who are interested in working in the school in their community. The meeting is going to be hosted at Faithbridge UMC in Blowing Rock from 6:30 to 7:30pm. Child care is going to be provided. Our goal at this meeting is to share what churches are already doing to connect with the school in their community, and we anticipate representatives from the school system to be present to speak directly to the needs that the church can help address. Dr. Fonseca may be there to do this part, or a representative from his staff. Please come to the meeting on October 1 if you have a passion for connecting with the school in your community and want to learn what other churches are doing, hear from the schools, and try to make our work as efffective as possible. We will be addressing things to do and pitfalls to avoid. There is great work already going on in this connection in some places and not a very strong connection in other places. We want to learn from each other and support each other in this important work. This is a work meeting for the Watauga Missional Network and will include lay people.
For the poverty training piece that will be coming up soon, we have been in contact with Susan Pennock who is a trainer with communities in schools and does poverty training to mark some dates on her calendar. As soon as we get those cleared we will publish those dates and the location of the training.
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