SHOUT in Daytona Beach newspaper
SHOUT is helping get Community UMC in Daytona Beach, Fla., (pictured above) up to code this week.
The SHOUT high school mission trip’s work helping a church in Dayton Beach, Fla., get back up to code has caught the attention of the Daytona Beach News-Journal, which published an article today about the group’s efforts.
With the exception of making youth director Sean Garner a reverend – something he’s already getting a hard time about – the article does a great job of capturing why a group of 50-plus youth would travel all the way from Pennsylvania in July to lend a helping hand.
“We’re doing something outrageous for God,” 16-year-old Sarah Parkins was quoted saying in the article. “We’re spreading the word. We’re kind of doing something for nothing. Our youth pastor said that’s not really common around here.”
Click HERE to read the rest of the article. Check out more photos of the youth in action in sunny Florida on the SHOUT Facebook page at facebook.com/shouthempfield.
Romaine Stively Davidson turns 100
Our church’s oldest charter member, Romaine Stively Davidson, turned 100 yesterday. Romaine was a member of the Silver Spring charge and became a charter member of Hempfield UMC when Silver Spring and Centerville Evangelical United Brethren churches merged. She began her long career as worship leader pianist at Silver Spring in the late 1920s and continued playing for worship until the merger in 1962. She can be seen on occasion worshiping with us at the 10 a.m. service.
To help celebrate her 100th birthday yesterday, several members of the congregation gave her a surprise card shower. Thank you to everyone who took the time to send her birthday wishes. The Lancaster newspaper also ran a feature on Romaine.
Click HERE to read it.
Friends, indeed
From the Letters to the Editor section in the Sunday News on Sept. 5, 2010:
Friends, indeed
My wife was recently in Lancaster General (4 East) where she was looked after by a group of people, mostly young ladies, who were competent, energetic, enthusiastic, caring and smiling — in short, wonderful. Where on earth do we find these people?On her return home, she has been showered with cards and wishes not only from friends, but from people we hardly know. Friends, neighbors and Hempfield United Methodist Church members are delivering meals for three straight weeks.
Usually the phrases “what a country” and “only in America” are used negatively or with heavy irony. Not this time.
-John Bates, Lancaster
In the News: Building Hope
Our local paper highlighted our upcoming trip to Africa and the ongoing mission we have with missionary Julie Campbell and Hope UMC in Wachara, Kenya, in an article in the Faith & Values section on Saturday.
Correspondent Joan Kern did a wonderful job of capturing the heart of what this trip and this budding relationship is all about.
Click HERE to read the article.
Cook-Off and Magic Show press
The Hempfield Merchandiser as always has given us some great press for two exciting events we have going on in the coming weeks – the July 31 Hog Heaven BBQ Cook-Off and Aug. 6 Magic Show.
Check out your copy of the Merchandiser to see the article or click HERE to see the online version.
Roadside signs
Our Burma Shave-style roadside signs advertising Boycott Xmas got the attention of another Sunday News columnist, Peggy Schmidt:
Caught up in the frenzy of Christmas, I was brought up short one day while driving past Hempfield United Methodist Church, where there is posted a series of signs, much like the Burma Shave signs of old, that offers this holiday advice: “Love More. Give More. Buy Less.”
Give more? Buy less? How do we do that? Do we forgo the kids’ new Wii game and make ourselves more available to others? Will we be comfortable armed with fewer gifts and offering, instead, our time and talents? Pondering those roadside signs, I see them as words of wisdom, especially because the two final posters suggest we “Worship Wholly” and keep Christ in Christmas.
But material matters have interfered with that mindset. So now, for the next few days, I will try to love more, give more, buy less, worship wholly and, most important, keep Christ in Christmas — abandoning chaos for simple joy.
Wouldn’t you like to join me?
Click HERE to read the full article.
A culture gone crazy
Sunday News columnist Gil Smart references our Boycott Xmas campaign in his column today entitled “Confessions of a techno-Luddite.”
On Marietta Pike at Stony Battery Road is Hempfield United Methodist Church, where a big sign out on the lawn calls for a boycott of Christmas. The idea, according to the church Web site, is that the real reason for the season is lost amidst the materialistic frenzy; and the suggestion is to spend less and free your resources for the things that truly matter.
It’s got to be a tough sell for a suburban congregation, in a society that has collectively decided that digital cable is what really matters.
But somehow I think the people who devised the “boycott Christmas” campaign would understand exactly what I’m talking about when I say it’s too bad the old VCR died, that it did the job just fine.
Some things matter. Other things, no matter how much money we may spend on them, just don’t.
A midsummer night dreamer
When she hasn’t been on the MPR stage for Kidstuf, our very own Rachael Herman has been preparing for her lead role in Hempfield High School’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” She and the other leads of the Shakespeare with a twist play were in the local Merchandiser last week. You can read the article HERE.
Making homelessness his business
In case you missed it, reporter Bernard Harris featured HUMC member Tom Clingan in an article on homelessness in the the local paper on Oct. 17. Tom, a former business executive, is the director of homelessness and affordable housing for United Way of Lancaster County.
“In the business world, you focus on success, and in your second career you focus on significance,” Clingan said, referring to a quote he has heard several times.
You can read the rest HERE.
WWII Hero James Young Finds Book at Hempfield UMC Yard Sale That Has Photo of Him in Battle
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfGV6K6YGcI&feature=player_embedded]
James Young spent the past Saturday afternoon doing exactly what he didn’t want to do, wandering around a church’s yard sale while his wife found bargains.
But in the end it was he who found something better, a glimpse into his past and a chance to remember fallen comrades.
Stanley Bender, left, James Young, center, and Arthur Dignan in battle.
While flipping through some old war books at Hempfield’s Yard Sale, one book opened to a double-page spread photo of a World War II Pacific battle scene. In the picture was himself helping an injured buddy.
“I couldn’t believe it, the 87-year-old veteran from Elizabethtown told Larry Alexander of the Intel. “I just opened the book, and there it was. I have a smaller version of it but never saw it this big before.”
The battle was on the small island of Peleliu and cost the Marines more than 6,000 casualties, including 1,121 killed, for an island that, it turned out, had little strategic value. The island is only five miles square and is about 2,000 miles due south of Japan east of the Philippines.
Here’s an excerpt of Alexander’s profile in the Intel this past Friday:
The photo was taken Sept. 15, 1944, not long after Young landed in the first wave on the heavily defended island. Young was a corporal with the mortar platoon of H Company, Second Battalion, First Regiment, First Marine Division.
He and another marine were the first to jump out of their amphibious tractor (amtrac), a landing craft with tank treads specially designed to get the marines over an off-shore coral reef.
Hitting the beach, Young jumped out to the right, his friend jumped to the left. A Japanese shell exploded and his friend was decapitated.
“I didn’t see that happen, and I’m glad,” he said.
Wading through the surf, Young said, “There was just one marine ahead of me. They landed 18,000 marines on that island, but I saw just one guy in front of me.”
A Japanese shell burst between them and both fell into the surf. When he got up, Young did not see the other man.
Young dragged him to shore and saw the man’s right buttock had been severely torn open. Having no choice, he left the man lying there and moved on.
“We had orders,” he said. “We were not to bother with the wounded but had to keep going. I left him there for a (medical) corpsman to tend.”
The invasion bogged down at the water’s edge, as the marines came under intense fire from Japanese mortars, rifles and machine guns, the latter hidden in caves in a nearby rocky hill. The men took shelter on the beach, which consisted of jagged coral.
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