We will celebrate our next “Fifth Sunday” on Sunday, January 29. On that day, after worship, please join us in Q-Hall for what will be a “true” potluck dinner. The church will provide drinks, plates, napkins, and silverware for everyone. We ask that you bring enough food for your family, as well as a little extra to provide for our visitors and unexpected guests.

Several years ago, I had the privilege of participating in a project with Bishop Felton May. Bishop May led us in a process of creating and clarifying our vision, defining our mission and setting goals and objectives. He then led us in identifying all the things that could keep us from reaching our goals and objectives. We realized the things that could keep us from reaching our goals and objectives would also keep us from completing our mission and realizing our vision.

I think Bishop May used a wonderful model for problem-solving and obtaining goals and objectives. But it’s not the only model. There are many others. One is called asset-based congregational/community development. In this model, as opposed to looking at deficits and problems, the focus is on identifying assets in the church and the community and how they can work together to build the capacity necessary to grow the church and improve the community.

I believe God’s vision for the world God created is found in Isaiah 65:17-25:

“Pay close attention now: I’m creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I’m creating: … I’ll create… my people as pure delight. I’ll… take delight in my people: No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish; No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime; One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal — anything less will seem like a cheat. They’ll build houses and move in. They’ll plant fields and eat what they grow. No more building a house that some outsider takes over, No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates, For my people will be as long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work. They won’t work and have nothing come of it, they won’t have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed. Before they call out, I’ll answer. Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard. Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough, but snakes — they’ll get a diet of dirt! Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain,” says God. (Eugene Peterson’s The Message)

Jesus expressed his role in fulfilling God’s vision in Luke 4:16-21:

He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s year to act!” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.” (The Message)

Jesus gave those of us who follow Him our mission in Matthew 28:18-20:

Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” (The Message)

The Church Council has blessed our doing some Community Asset Assessment as a way of our getting our feet wet with this idea and all that asset-focus activity can mean for us. I am excited! We will be sure and keep you up to date as the process moves forward!

On another note — get ready for Fat Tuesday and Lent!!!

Souper Bowl of Caring — According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the number of Americans living in poverty is the highest it has been in 52 years. One in seven households in our nation are food insecure, which affects more than 16 million children. On February 5, game day, the youth of Asbury will participate in the Souper Bowl of Caring.

The Souper Bowl of Caring is youth across the nation working to fight hunger and poverty in their own communities around the time of the Super Bowl football game. Asbury has donated over $900 in the past two years to Haiti Medical Mission of Memphis. This year we have decided to help our own neighborhood and donate all the funds this year to Asbury Food Pantry. The youth will be in church at the end of service taking donations for Souper Bowl of Caring that day! In addition, feel free to bring canned goods at any time before, on, and after game day!

If you would like to make a contribution before then, please note “Souper Bowl of Caring” on your checks and offering envelopes. We can and will make a difference in our own backyard this year in 2012!!!

Third Annual Sweethearts’ Luncheon — On February 12, after worship, the youth of Asbury will hold their Third Annual Sweethearts’ Luncheon in Q-Hall. The price of the dinner is $7.00 per adult, with children 10 and under $4.00. Check upcoming Sunday bulletins for more details. All funds will go to assist our youth for mission activities during spring and summer.

St. Johns Soup Kitchen — The Asbury youth are scheduled to provide meals for the St. John’s UMC Soup Kitchen on five different Saturdays this year, from March to August:

• March 17
• April 21
• May 19
• July 21
• August 18

If any of the organizations in the church would like to sponsor a Saturday at the Soup Kitchen, please contact Rhonda Branch. We will need volunteers to make these dates a success.

Due to the youth’s upcoming “Sweethearts’ Luncheon”, we will take a break from our monthly Fellowship Dinner in February. Make plans to join us when we resume our regular schedule in March.

Friends, this is a “State of the Pantry” report.

Unless one is facing joblessness, the thought of poverty and lack of food is a subject we might just read about and dismiss. But, in the Food Pantry we see women with babies fleeing from abusive husbands with nothing but the clothes on their backs, or people unable to pay utility bills, buy gasoline, or buy enough food for their families. There are so many folks coming to the pantry that it is almost impossible to keep a decent inventory of food on hand. When deliveries are received from the Food Bank or by purchases we make personally, it is dispensed almost as soon as we put it on the shelves.

In December alone, we served 48 families: 67 children and 65 adults, averaging 10 families of four every Thursday that we were open. Ours is known as an “emergency pantry” according to Food Bank guidelines, and we try to give a family just enough nourishing food for four days: canned vegetables, fruit, meat, juice, and cereal. If we are lucky, we might have fresh eggs and bread. That’s a lot of food going out the door.

So that you understand, restaurants and grocery stores that once supported the Food Bank are now being more cost-efficient in how they buy for their own businesses, leaving little overstock to donate to the Food Bank. The ripple effect is that charitable food pantries are no longer receiving the quantities on which they once relied at ridiculously low charges. We received a generous balance of funds from the Angel Food ministry in November, which has given us a nice cushion, but it will not last long when considering a $300.00 grocery purchase at Aldi’s or Sam’s might last only two weeks.

While we are eliminating some nonessential items like Bisquick and syrup to stretch our money, one of the most important items we should stock, but cannot afford to buy, is dry milk, which costs about $5.00 a box. Therefore, I am very concerned that Asbury will not be able to sustain this ministry much longer. Some of our members donate money designated for the pantry. For those who don’t , I would like to encourage everyone to buy a little extra every week for the pantry.

In January, let’s concentrate on cans of BEEF STEW, CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS, SPAGHETTI SAUCE, and PASTA. There is also a need for CAN OPENERS, new or used. Our members of the Great Depression era understand the urgency. Our younger members, I fear, are beginning to learn. Blessings,

— Floy Pike

Our Flower Calendar has been posted for 2012, but is still nearly empty! If you would like to remember a loved one with flowers in the chancel area or in the narthex, please sign up on the calendar or call the church office to check for available dates. We can now provide smaller arrangements for around $30.00 for those who prefer to spend less.