Banner Newsletter | July/August, 2022
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community meals are reasons to celebrate. Our support for missions is a<br />
reason to celebrate. Our care for one another is a reason to celebrate. Sharing<br />
in worship that is inspiring, uplifting, and challenging is a reason to celebrate.<br />
Watching our youth grow in their faith is reason to celebrate. Seeing children<br />
running and playing at church, feeling safe and loved is reason to celebrate. So<br />
many reasons to celebrate!<br />
This summer my goal is to slow down, to notice the beauty all around me, to<br />
embrace the little, as well as the large moments, to celebrate this truly incredible<br />
gift of life.<br />
My hope and prayer for each of you is that you will take the time this summer to<br />
slow down, breathe, soak in the beauty that is all around you, celebrate the big<br />
but also the ordinary moments with those you love.<br />
Have a blessed and joy filled summer!<br />
Pr. Wendy<br />
MISSIONS | BUMC Good Neighbor Team Launches<br />
Imagine coming to a new country where you do not read or speak the language, are not<br />
familiar with the customs and one in which you do not have any family or friends nearby<br />
to explain things or help you . . . BUMC is working with World Relief and has formed a<br />
Good Neighbor Team (GNT) to provide assistance to the Mulakhail family, refugees from<br />
Afghanistan that arrived in the U.S. in late December 2021. Walajan and Uzma have seven<br />
children and are expecting another in December.<br />
HEBREWS 13:1-2 Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for<br />
thereby some have entertained angels unawares.<br />
GNT Members (Gwen Bennett, George Gill, Tim (Team Leader) and Silvia Grabacki,<br />
Julia Hooper, Nancy Middleton, Liz Penick, Mike Rapp and Sydney Whitley) have begun<br />
building trust and a relationship with the family. Currently our GNT has begun providing<br />
transportation for the family to medical appointments, taking the family grocery shopping<br />
and helping them with household tasks like learning how to adjust and operate a lawnmower.<br />
We make ourselves available to them as often as needed, using smiles, charades and tools like<br />
Google Translate to help understand each other; their native tongue is Pashto which uses the<br />
Arabic alphabet.<br />
Our journey has just begun. As we become better acquainted with the Mulakhail family, we<br />
will share with our BUMC friends and family what they need and how our congregation might<br />
care for them. We ask for your prayers, may the family feel loved, supported, secure and may<br />
the Good Neighbor Team have wisdom, patience and vision for how best to care for these<br />
precious refugees who are living and navigating in unchartered territory.<br />
If you are interested in joining the Good Neighbor Team, anyone on the team will be happy to<br />
share information on the process (background check, training etc.) and we can add you to a<br />
list to be contacted to receive more information.<br />
PRAYER TEAM: We have a very active Prayer Team ministry here at FUMC. They<br />
believe strongly in the power of prayer and meet on a regular basis to pray for<br />
those in congregation and community that have requested prayer. If you have a<br />
prayer request that you would like included please contact either Marcia Buchs,<br />
mkbuchs@sbcglobal.net, or Pr. Wendy, wwitt@barringtonumc.com.<br />
Thank you.<br />
PRAYER REQUESTS at BUMC We believe in the power of prayer and have a<br />
dedicated prayer team committed to praying your requests. If you have a<br />
prayer request, please contact the church office, (847) 836-5540, Paula Gordon<br />
(pgordon@barringtonumc.com), or Julia Hooper (2juliahooper@gmail.com). Please<br />
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also indicate if you would like your request to be printed in the Sunday bulletin.<br />
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