June 5, 2005

Rev. Slaybaugh Recognized During Service

Retired pastor Charles Slaybaugh was recognized for his many years service at the June 5 morning worship service and given a new pastoral stole.

May, 2005

Call for Memorial Gift Program Ideas

Definition: A memorial gift is something given to the church to preserve or commemorate the memory of someone or an event.

The Endowment committee is seeking your suggestions and ideas for Memorial Gifts the church needs to carry out its ministry to our congregation and the community that are not normally provided for in the church budget. The Committee wants to publish a list of suggested memorial gifts that we can circulate among our congregation so that, when events arise and the Spirit moves them, members may designate a gift (money or things) from the suggested list. We think this will be helpful to those wishing to designate a fits in memory of a loved one or a special event in their family life.

Therefore, we are seeking your ideas and suggestions on those things that you feel the church needs to carry out its ministry or that would enhance our programs or facilities. Some examples to stimulate your thinking include: an LCD video projector or electrically powered ceiling-mounted movie screen for the audio visual system; new paraments; new offering plates; a musical instrument for the music program; or a stained glass window.

Please talk this over with your committee or work group members and submit your suggestions by placing them in the Endowment Committee distribution box or send them to me at wlspeer@adelphia.net. Thanks for your help.

Larry Speer, Endowment Committee Chair

Welcome to our new Pastor,
Rev. Jay Zimmerman!

July, 2004

Pastor Jay began his ministry with Gettysburg United Methodist Church on July 1st, 2004. Here he shows the children a 'wicket' and explains how it is used to measure horses as part of his Children's Message on Sunday, July 11, 2004. Read more about Pastor Jay on the Leadership page (or click here).

Welcome to our new minister,
Rev. Joyce Treas!

Pastor Joyce Treas joined the Gettysburg United Methodist Church as our new minister this Sunday. Her sermon was titled "The Call," wherein she described the moving story of her call to the ministry. During the Children's Message, she described the various churches she has belonged to or served, using puff-blocks and joining them together symbolically with a block labled "God's Love." She also served Communion to the congregation.

After graduating from Williamsport High School, Paster Treas worked for Avco Lycoming Airplane Company (in the office of their service department), the Williamsport Sun Gazette, Scaife's Valley Press Print Shop, and the City of Williamsport (as Office Manager of the Williamsport Recreation Commission).

Pastor Treas was quite active while attending Third St. Among the positions she held were: Sunday School teacher, Chair of Commission on Education, UMW President, Lay Member to Annual Conference, Lay Speaker, Bible School Director, and Bible Study leader. In 1994 she graduated from Lycoming College, and in 1997 from Drew Theological School in Madison, NJ.

Pastor Treas served charges in Lock Haven and Unityville before her current appointment at First United Methodist Church in Mansfield. While in Mansfield, she has served as cluster leader, pastor's mentor, chair of the Protestant Campus Ministry, Chair of the Mercy Kasemberia Scholarship Fund, participated in the local ministerium, and taught at Leadership University. She spent three years as the Dean of the Academy for Professional Growth (AcProGro) which put together seminars to teach pastors and laity. She was secretary of the Wellsboro District Program committee. She is also a member of Chi Rho, the Annual Conference Pastor's Choir.

In a recent e-mail, Pastor Treas remarked, "I love music, reading and doing craft work. People have always been important to me and I love to interact with them. ... We are excited about our new journey in ministry."

NB: A special note of thanks from the web-maintainer to Pastor Treas for the above information!

Lithuanian Svente!
April 29, 2001
5:00 P.M. - 7:30 P.M.

The Methodist Church (picture on bulletin board in hallway) located in Kaunas was closed for 50 years by the Soviet Union. During this time it was used as a military warehouse, a cinema, and a Sports Club. The church was reopened in 1995. It is this church that is giving us the opportunity to help the elderly through a program called Home Health Care For The Elderly. The church members have no money and need us to provide funds for medical supplies and medications to make it work. They need our support.

A great evening of family fun was enjoyed by all who attended.

New Campbell's Products List Available

A new list of Campbell's product labels was included in the Sunday bulletins today. The list can be seen (and printed out!) by clicking here. These labels are used by the Neighborhood Center in Harrisburg toward a new van. A basket is on the table beside the literature rack for label donations. Thanks for your generous support in the past. Let's get a new van for the Neighborhood Center!

All Church Birthday Party and Talent Show Another Success

The Annual All Church Birthday Party and Talent Show, held this evening in the Fellowship Hall. A 'covered dish' dinner, with wonderful food of all kinds, began the evening, with the guests sitting by birth month at beautifully decorated tables (with a specific theme for each birth month). After eating until we could eat no more, the crowd enjoyed the talents of many chuch members, including readings, songs, stories, stand up comedy, 'kareoke' sing-along (including a 'biker' on a push scooter!), and piano solos. Special "Thanks" go to the organizers and decoration commitee; another wonderful evening.

GUMC Gets E-Mail

The Gettysburg United Methodist Church not only has a web presense, but now is connected to the World Wide Web as well. You can write to gumc@onemain.com (or just click on it!) to send a message to the Church. Be sure to make it clear who the message is for; our secretary, Connie Thompson, will be checking for message daily, and will make sure the message gets to the appropriate person.

Weekly Vision Joins Website

By request of several church members, The Weekly Vision is now a part of the GUMC website just click on the Weekly Vision button on the left. It will be updated as quickly as quickly possible after church on Sundays. I will try to find a way to 'archive' old Visions as well.

GUMC Gets A Website!

Our nascent website is up and running! Eventually, much of what you might want to know about the Gettysburg United Methodist Church should be here. Eventually, even pictures!

The site, as it is now, is just a 'skeleton' of what it will be. At this point, you will see a 'home' page announcing our vital information (worship hours, phone number, address), a 'programs' page, listing just a few of our programs (with no further information at this point), a 'leadership' page (which only lists the people in our church bulletin at this point, not nearly all the leadership), and a history page (where I copied the history of our church as presented in our 'church family book' from a few years ago). New pages will be added soon.

Obviously, we have a long way to go before our webpage is everything it can and will be. Getting content for webpages is the biggest challenge most sites face. And we need your help. What should be included on our web page? What would you like to see there? How can we best present ourselves to the rest of the world?

For the present, Bob Keefer will be updating our webpage. There is even a menu choice at the left to 'click' to send him a message about the web page. Eventually, the church's computer will be ready to take over the webpage upkeep.

There are other possibilities for the website that we will be exploring, including a church e-mail list. These will be announced on the web page as they become available.

Thanks in advance for any ideas you have to share with us about the web page. Please send them along as soon as possible.