Deerfield UMC starts 12 step ministry

Rev. Evelyn Lemons, with the help of two other women from Deerfield UMC,  is leading a new 12 step ministry at the Hospitality House for those who are working a 12 step addiction recovery program and would like spiritual support. Our group meets at the Hospitality House. We have been meeting for about 7 weeks now, and we would like to thank the church for their support and for Hospitality House allowing our church to come there to provide a service to the residents there. God is working to change people's lives with the power of the Holy Spirit still giving us the daily strength and encouragement to fight the battle with sin and with the help of Christ, live in victory. We believe Jesus Christ is still changing lives and we celebrate every request for help that comes to the foot of the cross. Jesus Christ is still the name above every name that we lift up on high! We have provided Life Recovery Bibles to 7 people who have requested a Bible. If you want to put your hand on the heart beat of where God is working, pray tonight for those in Boone NC who are homeless. It was 5 degrees on my front porch this morning. Our shelter will be filled to overflowing tonight. The Hospitality House is doing such a great work in our community. We praise the Lord for them. Imagine from the view point of one adult who lives at the Hospitality House and wants to go to church on Sunday what it must have felt like when two church vans pulled up this past Sunday to take children to church, but the adults were left behind. We have a very sweet volunteer from our church who made two trips back and forth to bring people to church on Sunday. I am so grateful this person did get to come to church! There is still room on our pew for people who want to worship with us. Praise the Lord for people in this community who have such compassion for people who have some kind of disadvantage or struggle, and want to make a difference in their lives. Deerfield UMC, I am so proud of the ways you keep on looking for ways to love people and make a difference for the name sake of Jesus Christ. This past Sunday from Isaiah 62 we focused on the passion with which Isaiah prayed for Jerusalem. Our challenge is to bring that same kind of passion to the Lord when it comes to praying for the holy work of the church. Christ does want to use us for the holy work of salvation, and mold us and shape us to be a holy people. We all stand in need of a savior. Thanks be to God, Jesus Christ wants a relationship with everyone of us.

Watauga Missional Network

Like each new District in the Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church, Watauga County has a new Missional Network too.
One of our assignments by our District Superintendent Rev. Lory Beth Huffman is to address an area of mission and unite our efforts as churches in the county to make a significant impact on an area of need. Our first meeting is at Deerfield UMC at 10am for the Watauga County United Methodist pastors. The days of going to district meetings once a month are gone. Our district now is huge and too spread out over too many miles to make that possible. One of the goals for the meeting tomorrow is to look at the ways we communicate with each other as pastors and make sure we have the best practices possible in our communications to be effective with our time. We plan to make time when we gather to share prayer concerns and pray for one another and the churches we serve, and tomorrow we will really spend some time trying to narrow our focus on what area of mission could our churches in Watauga County address together from our own location to make a significant impact on the issue.
Currently, I am the pastor of Deerfield UMC in Boone, and I am in my third year of service here, my 20th year as a full time pastor. Last summer I started into a doctoral program at Bethel University in St. Paul MN in Educational Leadership. That work has helped me make ties out in the community in the school system here in Watauga County. Please go to the website that I am building and using for class for more information on the Missional Network. On the website, you will find a powerpoint presentation on how to improve literacy in Watauga County that I did for a class project in December of 2012. We look forward to how the Lord will bring our churches together for mission and guide us as we make important decisions for the kingdom. Here is the website: www.faithliftingstories.com

Wrapping up 2012

I just looked on my blog to see when I posted last. When I got back from my first class in MN! Life has been pretty busy since then. Two more classes done online, serving the church full time, charge conference done, Christmas done, and the start up of a new ministry. About 5 weeks ago, we started a 12 step recovery program at the Hospitality House in Boone for people who are working an addiction recovery program. I am leading this new ministry with the help of two other women. It has been great ministry. Looking forward to meeting with our area pastors to get started with our new Missional Network here in  Watauga County early in January. We welcome Rev. Lory Beth Huffman as the new DS to the new Appalachian District. Our church has continued to work closely with the Wesley Foundation at ASU and Rev. Brad Ferrington continues to do awesome ministry with young people there. Our UM Men had their annual Christmas tree sale and it was a success. Lot's of work has been done to raise money for our missions in our community through the bazaar and Christmas tree sale. One sad note for Boone NC this year has been marked with the loss of life of several young people who are already greatly missed.  One tragedy after another has left our town hurting. Right before Christmas, we have grieved the loss of a teacher only 43 years old at Watauga High School that died with pneumonia. As a church, and as a community, we have worked hard to lean on the Lord and on each other during times of great loss. We have the hope of Christ within us, that the coming year will be better. One of the happiest times for our church over Christmas, was the Marvelous Magical Mondays Christmas program with the kids from our church leading in worship. We pray for those who are hurting in this Christmas season. Back at home in Stokes County, two United Methodist Churches from Rockingham County have suffered with the loss of a fire. Mt. Zion UMC in Stokesdale and Gideon Grove Church in Belews Creek. Having been through a fire at our church and parsonage in 2010, we are sure sorry for your loss and will pray for the church and community to pull together and help each other in this time of loss from the fire. Out of all the loss that our church has faced since that time, the Lord has done incredible work to help us love each other more, become more sensitive to the needs of the community around us, and the rebuilding within spiritually surely points to the redemptive work of a living Savior, Jesus Christ among us. We praise the Lord for helping us keep our eye on the heavenly prize before us, even when times have been tough. We thank the Lord for our salvation, and for giving us the charge to be the hands and feet of Christ to our community. Blessed are the feet of the one who comes to bring the good news! We will continue to serve a living Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord!

It's Back to School time!

     When there is a slight chill in the air in early August, it has meant one thing to me for nearly 40 years; it's time to go back to school. This year, it really does mean back to school time for me as well. I have started on a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Bethel University in Minnesota. Most of the degree work will be online.  This summer I did my first residency in St. Paul, Minnesota to start the degree program.  Going back to live in a dorm room after 30 years of being out of a dorm room was quite an adjustment. The academic challenge of thinking about leading for the future of the church has been an area of interest to me for a number of years, so now I am officially pursuing another degree.  At night when I come in from a day of work with the church, and sometimes late in the evening after meetings, I still have homework. Going back to school has brought with it a lot of challenges.  Two nights ago as I sat down at the kitchen table under the brightest lights in the house to work, I still could not see the words clearly.  So the great search for the strongest pair of reading glasses in the house began. I had to lay aside my real glasses, and put on the stronger reading glasses to start on my homework.  My reality, I need new glasses in order to be able to read at night when my eyes are already tired. Yesterday, I went to the eye doctor to order new, stronger glasses that she had already prescribed. She told me I could try to get by with my old prescription as long as I could.  I figured out that if I have had to go buy a stronger pair of reading glasses from CVS just to be able to read to do my homework, I probably do need the new prescription.  Education is expensive.
     Spiritually, going back to school at the age of 47 to get another degree has been a life journey. I have always loved to learn, but I have not been at the place in my life to be able to start a degree for some time. One of the big spiritual questions I have had to address is why do I want to do this? Is it worth the money and the sacrifice it will cost me?  My faith based answer to those questions was not quick to come in the discernment process, but the answer did come. Peace came with the answer: do the degree because you can, even if you don't know where it will lead, God will take care of the future.  I have had to decide on my world view of life, and decide am I at a place of winding down, or winding up.  My choice is to wind up and to get all the education I can to make a difference for Christ in my community.  Somehow God has given my the understanding that lives deep inside of me that I can still make a difference. Borrowing a few words from Jeremiah Chapter 29, I believe we would call that a future with hope, and living into God's plans for us.
     So whatever the cool chill in the air of an early August morning may mean to you, for many it means going back to school. Our future is filled with possibility and with hope, new friends, new technology and stepping into whatever may be the plans God has in store for each of us. I am excited that God's plan for every person is to give us a future with hope, made possible through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Glad to have a new Mrs. Lemons in the family!

    Several months ago when our son Joey asked Katie Gordon to marry him, I had no idea that becoming a mother in law was going to be so much fun. Over the last couple of weeks as we prepared for the wedding, it was a joyful time and a sad time all wrapped together. Jeff practiced the piano at every chance so the house was filled with music. It was a joy to get to have the honor to officiate at their wedding in June, and at the same time it was a little sad to know he is moving out of the house and starting a new household of his own. So Joey and Katie set their minds to the task of preparing for a small family wedding. It was a beautiful summer day. So a small family wedding we did have at Davis Chapel, Stokes County NC. It is a small church located near the Dan River in Walnut Cove that started in 1793 when a traveling Methodist preacher, married a local girl with the last name of Davis. These two worked together to help form the first Methodist congregation there. The first building burned and was rebuilt in 1882 which was the building that we used for the wedding. The church now belongs to a historical association in the community as there has not been a congregation that worshiped there since the 1970's.
    A number of years ago there was another traveling United Methodist preacher that married a local Stokes County native. But this time, it was me that was the traveling preacher, and it was the father of the groom that I married. Because of the same practice of the United Methodist Church sending out preachers to itinerate, I connected with the history of the founding pastor of Davis Chapel where Joey and Katie were married.  I married a Stokes County native, and from there we have done our life, our faith and our family together. We celebrated our 8 year anniversary the day of Joey and Katie's wedding rehearsal. My personal story of moving to this community is directly linked with being a United Methodist pastor. Little did I know the day I had the honor to receive Joey into membership at Delta United Methodist Church that life would turn out the way it has.  I remember the day he was baptized in the Dan River, about a mile from the location of the wedding, all these years later. Faith in Christ to follow God's call on my life to be a pastor brought me to the Lemons family years ago as their pastor, and with God's help my role expanded to wife and mother. Christ brought us together as a family. Now the Lord has grown our family by sending us a new daughter. I feel so blessed.
   Standing in front of my son and brand new daughter on the happiest day of their life, was one of the hardest things I have ever done and at the same time, one of the happiest days of my life. To be wife, mother, pastor and think and feel in all those roles at the same time is crazy making. What a tremendous day! The love I feel towards my new daughter in law is beyond what I thought it would be, or imagined it could be. This is a marvelous time for our family, and it is uplifting to my heart to be able to honor Christ by sharing with you our good news. I have a Naomi for a mother in law and we share a tremendous love. Ruby Lemons is a fantastic mother in law. We just canned 77 quarts of beans together so you know that's a lot of love. On Katie's wedding day, I told her I hope I can love her like Naomi loved Ruth. I wish you could have seen the look of love in her eyes. It was precious time and I won't forget it. We give the Lord praise for a new daughter! We are so happy! Congratulations Joey and Katie as you start your life as husband and wife!