Breaking Expectations

This month's reading is about Jesus and the woman at the well.  Strict, long standing rules dictated no contact between Jews and Samarians stemming from a dispute about where to worship. Jewish men were not to begin conversations with women they did not know.  Jewish teachers did not have public conversations with any woman.  

All of those expectations were broken when Jesus started the conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well.  She is surprised and asks why he would speak to her. 

Moved by Gratitude

The unnamed woman has the courage and tenacity to continue engaging Jesus in conversation.  After a while, she realized what he is offering her, the living water of the Spirit.  She then goes to the townspeople, inviting them to "come and see,"  even showing her doubt by stating "he cannot be the Messiah, can he?"

In her gratitude to Jesus for truly seeing her, speaking to her, recognizing her as a child of God who deserved to be spoken to with compassion, she is moved to such exuberant Joy that she invites the others to come and see him. She runs back to town to share the word of abundant life and grace. 

World Thank Offering

For more than 135 years Methodist women have given to the World Thank Offering through United Methodist Women and their predecessor organizations.  The World Thank Offering is an opportunity for individuals to respond to God's abundant grace.  When we share our gifts and they are combined with the gifts of others, our contributions make possible the support of National Mission Institutions and international projects that help women, children and youth.  

The maps of the mission projects are in the March-April 2020 issue of response magazine or at unitedmethodistwomen.org/maps/mission-maps.

If your unit is not having a Thank Offering this year, and you still want to participate, you can donate online.  Go to unitedmethodistwomen.org, go to "Donate" from the menu.  Click on "Direct my gift to" and select "World Thank Offering" from the drop-down menu.

Book of the Month

At a time when all forms of instruction need people to be Teaching Outside the Box this book on doing so for religious instruction might help with many aspects of life right now.

Here is the description from one of the website of one of the book distributors:   

Tired of resorting to gimmicks and games to spice up your same-old way of teaching the Bible to teenagers? Rather than tweaking the way you teach, get out of the box and discover fresh approaches for helping youth experience the implications of the gospel. 

In Teaching Outside the Box, Andrew Zirschky invites you on a journey with Jeremy Bevins, a fictional youth worker who discovers five unique approaches to teaching scripture with help from a crusty octogenarian, Seymour Mathetai. Weaving Jeremy's story and his own insights as narrator, Zirschky provides vivid explanations and examples of each teaching style: instructional, community of faith, interpretive, liberation, and contemplative. 

With an emphasis on how the work of the Holy Spirit and the role of the teacher are conceived differently in each approach, Teaching Outside the Box provides both theory and curricula that will change the way you use the Bible in the faith formation of adolescents.

News about a UMW member known to many

Olive Ann Becker
Feb. 3, 1924 - Oct. 6, 2020
Olive Ann Becker passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by her loved ones Oct. 6, 2020. She was born Olive Ann Roberts Feb. 3, 1924 in Aberdeen, S.D., to parents, Albert David Roberts and Amy Grace Lambert Roberts.
She married Howard Becker Sept. 14, 1946. They both attended the University of Washington in Seattle. Olive Ann worked as secretary for the Navy Department and the Alaska Steamship Co.
Olive Ann was preceded in death by her husband, Howard Becker; and her parents. She is survived by her daughters, Sheryl Becker and Linda Barkley; her granddaughters, Amy Determan and Olivia Determan, and numerous nieces and nephews.
Cremation has taken place. No in-person memorial service will be held. A Virtual Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be available to watch at 1 p.m., Nov. 7, 2020, on the YouTube channel for the Tigard United Methodist Church.
Please visit Springer & Son www.springerandson.com for a complete obituary.
Please sign the online guest book at www.oregonlive.com/obits
Published in The Oregonian from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, 2020.

New Catalog Mentioned at the Conference Meeting

This section is for those who attended the Conference meeting on Zoom and were wondering about the new book list that was mentioned for the reading program.

The 2021-2022 Reading Catalog was released early for those who want to be prepared for September 2021 when it is supposed to begin.  Due to many stating that the catalog was for 2020-2022 National level has said that we may begin using it early.  The original plan was for the 2019-2020 book list to be the one that spans 2 years.  We were to combine the 2019-2020 and the 2020-2021 years to reach our reading levels. This also extended the prior years' books for an extra year.

When I have the time, I will update the library reading lists with all of the books, including the new 2021-2022 selections.

Date Reminders

CALENDAR 2020 - these are tentative and subject to change as circumstances change.

These are the dates from the Conference Calendar:

2021 PNW UMW Conference Calendar

• January 16, 2021 Winter Conf. UMW Exec Meeting Zoom  9 a.m. – 12 noon
• January 28-30, 2021 Conf. UMW Leadership Dev. Days Zoom
• January 30, 2021 Spokane Legislative Conference Zoom 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
• February 11, 2021 WA Interfaith Advocacy Day Zoom
• February 23-24, 2021 Idaho Legislative Event Boise FUMC Boise, Idaho
• March 18-19, 2021 Spring Conf. UMW Exec Meeting Lazy F Retreat Center Ellensburg, WA
• March 19-21, 2021 Spring Spiritual Day Apart Lazy F Retreat Center Ellensburg, WA 
• June 10-13, 2021 UMC Annual Conference TBD
• July 28-29, 2021 Summer Conf. UMW Exec Meeting Selah UMC, WA (?)
• July 29-August 1, 2021 Mission u Wesley UMC, Yakima, WA
• September 2021 Puget Sound Missional District TBD Annual Meeting
• September 2021 Crest to Coast Missional District TBD
• Annual Meeting
• September 18, 2021 Inland Missional District Annual Mtg. TBD
• September 18, 2021 Seven Rivers Missional District Chelan, WA   Annual Meeting
• September 2021 SeaTac Missional District TBD
• Annual Meeting
• October 14-15, 2021 Fall Conf. UMW Exec Meeting TBD
• October 15-16, 2021 Conf. UMW Annual Meeting TBD
• May 20-22, 2022 Assembly Orlando, FL
• 2024 Western Jurisdiction Quadrennial Mtg. TBD

If you have any other information that you want me to put here, please let me know by calling (360) 609-0503 or emailing me at lmilner2016@gmail.com .

Keep working on your "knit together" project, whatever you (or your group) chose to work on.

Gratitude Journals have been found to help improve both mental and physical wellbeing.  This would be a good time to start one if you haven't done so before.  

Also, to help with food shortages, a reverse advent calendar can be done for both months (November and December).  For this you put a non-perishable food item into a container each day.  At the end of the month (or when you want to bring it for a food drive) you can be done or start over.