Happenings at Paxton Methodist

November 12, 2018 - Sunday at Paxton was Gideon Sunday as well as Veterans Day. We had as our guest Gideon speaker Cliff Hickman from Henderson. We really appreciated the update on the work of the Gideons. We budget money each year for their work and many past members of this church were Gideons. 

I am typing and filling in the reports for the upcoming Charge Conference. Pastor Matt is going to fill in for Pastor Karen at the conference. I completed the Trustees Report and the Finance Committee Report and will need to get signatures. Next Sunday we will have a brief Church Conference to approve all the reports, pastor’s salary, apportionments, and budget. 

We had the largest Sunday School since I have been pastor at Paxton.  Our numbers were swelled by the extended Hutto family. It was so nice to see all of them. I know their Sunday was very busy helping Joy and Gene prepare for the Veterans Day Program in Center. Fannie had us really thinking as several wondered why this story of deceit is such an important story in the Jewish Testament. Jacob and his mother Rebekah were determined to steal Isaac’s blessing of his favorite son Esau. It does seem that Jehovah had his hand on the scale in support of Jacob. The scripture and lesson certainly had plenty of “food for thought.”

Cliff Hickman from Gideon International did a nice job giving some history of the organization and how money is raised and spent to get Bibles into the hands of those who want them. Cliff has spoken once before at Paxton, but this Sunday he had a “Paxton full house.” We really appreciate him coming from Henderson, and we had a nice collection for the Gideons.  

During the month of November we are collecting rice and beans for Community Christian Services.  This Thursday there will be a flu shot clinic at the Joaquin Senior Center from 10:00-11:00. This past week Pastor Matt, Jo, Hilda, Minnie, and I met at Focused Care for our program of music and fellowship. It was great to see everyone there. Matt read scripture and spoke. Jo spoke about veterans and Veterans’ Day, saying she was filling in for Fannie, who would have had a patriotic message. Minnie played and Hilda led and we sounded pretty good—with help from Jo!  I shared some things that I am thankful for this season. We even sneaked in some Christmas songs.

This afternoon, Sue and I joined many folks, including a good group from Paxton, at the Veterans’ program at the historical courthouse. There was a standing-room-only crowd. Larry was the MC of the program and did a great job. He mentioned that they have been working on this 100-year celebration of the end of WWI for about eighteen months. I know that Gene, Joy, Larry, Theresa, and Carolyn have done a lot of creative work, which you could really tell driving up to the courthouse. The cascading river of poppies came down from a courthouse second story window, and all the “planted” poppies made a dramatic scene. The printed program was so nice with pictures of all the Shelby County WWI veterans. The music was great. The presentations and the history spoken of really made for a moving tribute to our veterans. And, as we were leaving we saw the replica of the courthouse that Gene had been working on. For such a small church, we have a lot of talent!

“Whoever you are, in whatever faith you were born, whatever creed you profess; if you come to this house to find God you are welcome here.” Paxton United Methodist Church is an inviting church that takes to heart the idea of “Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds.” Sunday School starts at 9:30 and Worship begins at 10:00. Our email address is paxtonumc@yahoo.com. If you would like the weekly email newsletter about Paxton Methodist you can send me your email address to the Paxton email address and I will add you to the list. God’s Speed.