Garage Sale Time!

The Satanta United Methodist Church’s 21^st Time Class Wants your Stuff

• 21^stTime Garage Sale will be Saturday, June 9
• Save items now to donate later
• Drop off items at Community Building beginning June 2 or call Ryan Burrows to arrange for item pick-up
• No item too large or too small  
•  Proceeds to benefit efforts of 21^st Time to alleviate poverty in Satanta

A Back-to-School Day of Service?

Idea taken from Garden City’s Bible Christian Church 

(http://www.gctelegram.com/news/day-of-service-4-16-12)

(First day of school for USD 507 is August 16, 2012)

Potential date for event

Saturday, August 4

Some ideas for the event

Back-to-School photos

o   Studio 113 (Danelle Groth)

Children’s haircuts

o   SCCC Cosmetology?

o   Vanity Salon? 

Child dental screenings and fluoride treatment

o   United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries

Screenings with Russell Child Development Center

o   Stephanie Frank

Children’s clothing

o   By donation

o   School lost-and-found

Children’s books

o   First Book

School supply campaign

o   Kits for Kidz

SUMC Sunday School and DISCO youth programs

o   Trena Slater

Snacks or light meal/Activities for kids

o   Outreach

A Quote from Newark Mayor Cory Booker

This sums up the message of unChristian in a way that tells us how to reach young outsiders who have a negative view of Christianity.

"Don’t speak to me about your religion; first show it to me in how you treat other people. Don’t tell me how much you love your God; show me in how much you love all God’s children. Don’t preach to me your passion for your faith; teach me through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I’m not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as I am in how you choose to live and give."

Reminder: The 21st Time will provide food for DISCO Wednesday, April 25.

Please get your items to the church by 5:30 p.m. We plan to feed around 40.

Doug and Kelly: lasagna
Ryan and Karen: bread
Brent and Leanne: corn
Blake and Nicole: salad
Chris and Cathy: cheesecake
Lynn and Tiffany: paper goods

Remember, if you'd like to charge items for this meal, you may do so at Satanta Grocery. Kelly mentioned buying items for the lasagna at Sam's. Brent can re-imburse her if that's the direction she decided to go.

Thank you all for supporting our youth!

Ryan's Synopsis of David Kinnaman's unChristian

The Book unChristian by David Kinnaman was the result of the author's three-year study of what young Americans think about Christianity. The results of the research indicate that 40% of 16-29 year-olds are individuals who look at Christianity "from the outside in." Kinnaman found that 38% of these young "outsiders" claim to have a "bad impression of present-day Christianity." These young outsiders are not unfamiliar with Christianity or Christians. In fact, 84% say that they personally know at least one committed Christian; yet, just 15% of those who reported knowing a Christian indicated that those Christians they knew lived lives significantly different from the norm.

It is certainly true that there are remarkable Christians who, transformed by their faith, serve their communities and change the lives of people around them. Yet, when Kinnaman surveyed Christians, just 1/5 identified serving the poor as a primary concern of the Christian faith, and one-quarter admitted that they serve God out of "a sense of guilt and obligation rather than joy and gratitude." Outsiders see little connection between the church and the outside world. This must change. After all, a large building with little connection to the streets is essentially empty.

To change the attitudes of outsiders, we must change our own attitudes. Christ calls his followers to be active missionaries to the culture.We could begin by waging a different type of Culture War--one that attacks poverty, crime, addiction, and pain. Rather than being known for what we're against, we must step in and work toward solutions for the problems we see. As Michelangelo said, "Critique by creating." Christians must be defined by our service and sacrifice, by lives that exude humility and grace.

What steps could be taken to help change the negative perceptions that too many young people hold about Christianity? Kinnaman offers the following advice:

• Give without strings, unconditionally, no bait and switches.
  
• Give without concern about whether you will be recognized, rewarded, or repaid.
  
• Be a voice for the voiceless.
  
• Create a church without walls

People's attitudes drive their actions. If we don't change the attitudes of outsiders toward Christianity by seeking to re-vitalize our own Christian beliefs, we risk losing an entire generation.

This book could be a powerful text for another study within our class on Sunday mornings. A DVD and guides are available. Want a bit more? Check out this video.

Remember This for Easter Egg Hunt 2013

Leanne and Ryan went to Garden and got most of what will be needed for three grand-prize baskets at Wal-mart on clearance. These items were placed in the storage room off the kitchen at church on top of the bins of Easter eggs.

Easter Egg Hunt Notes

It certainly was nice not to have to fill 1,500 Easter eggs this year. Target does not have the abundance of filled-eggs this year that we were able to purchase on clearance last year. Neither does Wal-mart. However, there are several companies who sell these eggs. One of them is called N.E.T. Eggs and employs disabled workers to fill the eggs. They offer cases of 1,000 filled eggs (either candy or small toys) for $120. (That's 12 cents each if you're math-impaired. We paid between 5 and 8 cents for the eggs we used this year.) We could place 2,000 eggs for $240, assuming the Chamber would be willing to go that much. We could then donate the grand prize baskets.

We also need to remember to break the school-age grouping a little differently next year: K-1 and 2-4 might work better. The number of older children was very low.

Kitz for Kids

Everyone agrees that Kits for Kidz is a great idea!

Ryan has ordered samples of the three kits that we're thinking of using for our elementary students. If these seem satisfactory, we will discuss with our elementary teachers whether or not they would be comfortable adopting the list from the kits as their classroom supply lists for the coming school year. Leanne will act as liaison between our class and the elementary school as we move forward with this concept.

Should things fall into place, we'd like to offer these kits free of charge to families in need and at cost to other families. These supplies could then be labeled and delivered directly to the teachers of the students who received the kits!

Assessment Rewards Update

The chart below reflects our discussion from April 1. By asking FOKS to cover the $150 that we normally give to the PK-2 teachers for rewards for their students, we could offer four prizes per class, except in the HS where the pool pass prize runs $25. Leanne will discuss this possibility with FOKS.

Keep in mind that CW = carnival wristbands at $20 each; PSC = Pizza Shack Certificates at $10.

The give-a-way date has been tentatively set for May 11, but should there be a teacher in-service that day, we will use May 10 as an alternative. The only issue with May 10 is that the carnival workers don't arrive for Satanta Day until the afternoon of May 10, so it may be necessary to create carnival wristband gift certificates. Ryan has communicated this plan with both principals.

Class	Prize	Prize	Cost
3rd	2 CW	2 PSC	$60
4th	2 CW	2 PSC	$60
5th	2 CW	2 PSC	$60
6th	2 CW	2 PSC	$60
7th	2 CW	2 PSC	$60
8th	2 CW	2 PSC	$60
10th	2 El Indio	2 Acosta’s	$40
11th	2 Corner Bucks	1 Pool pass	$45
			$445