Merry Christmas from Deerfield UMC

    We hope that you have had a blessed season of Advent that is rapidly moving over to make way for Christmas. In reflecting on where I have seen the love of Christ unfolding at Deerfield UMC during this season, I am moved closer to Christ and to the kingdom of God by the generosity of the people here at Deerfield. It has been a tremendous time of giving. We give the Lord praise for the ways God has provided for our church financially over the course of this past year, even in the face of hard times, God has been faithful! In response to God's great love for us through his son Jesus Christ, our church has made intentional efforts to reach out to people in this season of Christmas who have great needs. Whether it be a health issue, or financial need, or a member who has recently gone through the loss of her home through a fire, God has moved on the hearts of the people here at Deerfield to respond, and my witness to their generosity is reason to give the Lord praise. What a powerful witness you are for Christ!
     Our church grieves with a member presently who has gone through the death of a 9 week old grandson this week, whose funeral will be Sunday afternoon. At the same time of entering into the depths of compassion of this great loss, I am waiting for the call of a baby boy about to be born, whose mother is in labor at this moment. At the opposite end of the spectrum of emotion, it reminds me of how limited we are to understand some things we face in life, and God's great capacity to hold both life and death in his hands, always. God has a way of being able to hold onto both life and death at the same time, and that capacity is beyond our reach and it is the holy work of God. In this season of Christmas, it is Christ being born, a great gift of new life to the world, that enables us to give witness to the one who can hold us all the way to death and through death to eternal life. May the one who came to save us, Jesus Christ our Lord, be at the center of your Christmas this year. To him be all praise, honor and glory, for he is truly our Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, The Word made flesh. Merry Christmas. Peace to you. In the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
  

Boone Gets It's first real snow today!

Well, the snow really started yesterday about 1:00pm, and the snow continued for most of the day today. As I was leaving a church member's home tonight from doing a pastoral visit, when I came to the end of their road, I slid about 10 feet on black ice before I could come to a stop at the stop sign. I was only a few miles from home, but a lot of curves and potential slick places with black ice. Pretty nervy, but a safe ride home anyway. Thank the Lord for the angels that ride with me.  As I was getting ready to pull into the garage at the parsonage, a skunk scampered past the doors of the garage. I was so grateful he didn't want to come in for a visit. But, he did head behind the house and under the storage shed, so maybe I'll get to see him again tomorrow when it's daylight. The scenery was beautiful today. At the high elevation of the visit this evening, there was about 4 inches of snow, it was about 2-3 inches here at the parsonage. It stuck to the grass and trees, but not on the road.  Just about a week ago, I was able to take a few days off work, and walked barefooted on the beach and enjoyed the unseasonably warm days. My body is rebelling with a stopped up head. Winter wonderland is here. Living in Boone does save some time in watching the weather reports. Now you can pretty much expect it to snow just any time, whether it is in the forcast or not. The schools here were delayed just 2 hours this morning, but I know snow days are ahead.
     The snow is here but it's still a really busy time for the church. Forty shoe boxes already delivered to Samaritan's Purse just starts the list.  Life in the church presses forward here rain or snow! Praise the Lord for the faithfulness of those who want to give all they have to give to serve for the good of the cause of Christ. We have had a lively crowd of Christmas helpers making wreaths each morning in the fellowship hall. At lunch time, volunteers bring food, and all the workers sit down and have the chance to share a meal. I have loved that part too. It is so wonderful as a pastor to be at the church and have a crowd of volunteers show up to work, glad to be there and full of joy. It is really encouraging! In the evenings, the United Methodist Men are selling the wreaths and Christmas trees. They offer to deliver trees in the immediate area, and for the folks who are going down the mountain, we tie the trees on top of the car, invite them to church, and wish them a Merry Christmas. It takes a lot of commitment to go cut Christmas trees in the snow, and more commitment to sell them when it is cold and windy outside. On Monday of this week, we decorated the church with Hanging of the Greens and brought in the lights and poinsettias, and now the sanctuary is ready for Advent. Come on to Deerfield, and join us for some special Christmas cheer. It's the love of Christ that moves us a little closer every day to Christmas and to Christ.

Deerfield UMC works hard in missions

Since Hurricane Irene blasted her way through the eastern part of NC, our church has been greatly involved in providing support to those who have suffered losses. The first wave of support from my family came the day of the hurricane when my husband and son headed into the storm to go give mutual aid to the area of Atlantic Beach. Our kids prayed that all who were working would come home safely and that same day, on Sunday, the first team returned home. Then we had a group of men who traveled to the Outer Banks to serve two small churches that had suffered great losses. Our team had to take a two hour ferry ride just to get to Rodanthe where they were to serve. It was a lot of hard work, but much was accomplished in tearing out the old, flood soaked materials in the church up to about 4 feet from the floor. It was a great loss for two elderly congregations. We thank the Lord for the opportunity to go and serve there. Two weeks later, the next team of men and women from Deerfield went to Swan Quarter to work doing relief work helping several families remove flood soaked items from homes, and serving several families who were going through times of great need due to the tremendous loss from the storm damage to their homes. Their trip was also a great success. When we take the time to make the effort to go on a mission trip, we go with such high hopes that we are really going to be the hands of Christ and make a huge difference in the lives of the people we are serving. Then God somehow will turn the table on our expectations, and we end up taking away more than we feel like we were able to give. That is at the heart of what it means to serve. You get more than you give when you serve. To be able to figure that out I truly believe is the key to learning how to be a happy Christian. We live in a society where people what everyone else to do something for them. But because of what Christ has done for us, our whole daily orientation is to serve others in his name. When we do serve in response to what Christ has done for us, there we find the key to joy in our daily living. God puts more joy in our bucket than our bucket can hold. Praise be to God for the opportunity to have health and strength to do something for somebody in his name today.

Welcome back to the ASU students!

     All summer the date of August 17 has been standing out in my mind. Why? It's freshmen move in day at Appalachian State University here in Boone, home of the mountaineers. Why would I be looking forward to this day? I anticipate it will be at least a hundred degrees, even in Boone on that day, and the town will be flooded with five times the normal amount of traffic, and campus will be full of lots of new students and new parents dropping off their kids for the first time. I look forward to this day because I have never seen such hospitality on freshmen move in day as I did last year here at ASU. Several folks from our church and I went over to the campus to help freshmen move their things into the dorm that day. What was so great, was the awesome hospitality of other students who had already moved in, or upper class men, who came to work for the whole day helping students haul in their things for the very first time. It was a time to share the love of Christ with service and talk to lots of young people and invite them to church.
     I share a picture today with you of the ASU football stadium as a hint of a great season to come. Fall is close at hand with cooler weather, and yes, the start of football season. Anticipation of a great new season is in the air and in the paper with record preseason sales! Best wishes to the leader of the team, DeAndre Presley, who is the quarterback for the ASU Football team. Having had the opportunity to meet with DeAndre, I know that he has great potential on the football field, and off the field as a strong leader and witness for Christ. Our church is literally in hearing distance of the football stadium. Living in the parsonage here at Deerfield, on game day, I can stand outside on my front porch and hear the band practicing before the game, just how awesome is that? I am looking forward to the return of the students, the arrival of new students and the opportunity to share the love of Christ with tons of young people that God has arranged to be right at our back door.
       In the mean time, we want to give the Lord praise for the opportunity to return the gift of hospitality to the First Presbyterian Church while they are rebuilding from a small fire a few weeks ago that delayed their being able to start worship in their new facility about a mile down the road from us. Deerfield is truly gifted in the area of hospitality, and in our time of need, we surely received it, and now we are more than glad to be able to pass it on to our neighbors. To any new ASU student coming to Boone in the next couple of weeks, please forward this article to them and tell them, there is a United Methodist Congregation praying for them already and looking for the opportunity to serve them while they are living here in Boone. When it comes to making you feel at home, Deerfield is on the ball!  The phone number to Deerfield UMC is 828-264-7130. Call us for more information about our services and upcoming Bible studies.

Deerfield UMC has welcomed BBQ Guests

     Dr. Jim Goff from Deerfield UMC has an interesting family connection to the John Boy and Billy radio show. He found out that his third cousin is Carl the Cook who does the Grilling Sauce for John Boy and Billy. Jim's brother, Bunky, plays the banjo for the jingles on the radio and Hound is the jingle writer, musician and singer. They have an interesting way of promoting NC BBQ, and their style is called the gospel according to BBQ. So last night, the Hastings from our church, invited this whole crowd of guests who were to be on the local AM radio show this morning to come over for a meal and to make some music. From a BBQ loving United Methodist, country preacher, this was literally a night of "hog heaven."
     I went over to the radio show to share a book with them this morning after their broadcast with Dr. Jim Goff and Jim Hastings on their weekly radio show, and made a couple of pictures to share with you. We have invited them to come back to Deerfield UMC to cook some BBQ and make some music, and maybe we can have a BBQ revival. For the community of Boone, we can look for BBQ to fill our stomachs and Jesus Christ to fill our hearts. The door of hospitality continues to open wide for the gospel. In that short conversation after their show at the radio station this morning, John Roten from WATA invited me to come and preach for the call to worship for the rest of the week, and I accepted. So BBQ may have been the appetizer, but the good news of Jesus Christ is our everyday main course meal, and for that, we give the Lord praise. Thanks be to God for new friends, for open doors, good food and the love of Christ that continues to bind people together from all walks of life. Jesus sets a feast for us in heaven, and daily patiently waits for us to come to the table and feast with him. I hope your day is so good, you can say you are in "hog heaven" by whatever door of friendship that opens up to you to share a good word for Jesus Christ.