(Message below from Save BadgerCare Coalition)

Send a message to Wisconsin leaders today – Protect & Save BadgerCare!

Wisconsin’s Medicaid deficit is now expected to be $322 million less than was anticipated a few months ago, and the state has just received a $24 million federal bonus for BadgerCare’s success. Those developments enable the state to protect BadgerCare, while also lifting the cap on the Family Care program.

Please join us in fighting to preserve BadgerCare and to oppose changes that would adversely affect children, people with disabilities, and adults, and would result in thousands of families becoming uninsured.

Add your name to our new Save BadgerCare Coalition petition being sent to Governor Walker, DHS Secretary Smith and Joint Finance Committee Co-Chairs – Senator Darling and Representative Vos.

http://www.change.org/petitions/save-badgercare-2

Thank you!

Thank you for supporting BadgerCare and Medicaid. Be sure to forward this email to others letting them know that MEDICAID MATTERS! For more information and to join the Save BadgerCare Coalition, visit: www.savebadgercare.org.

What is Charge Conference?

The charge conference is the basic governing body of each United Methodist local church and is composed of all members of the church council. All members of the charge conference must be members of the local church. The charge conference must meet at least once per year. The charge conference directs the work of the church and gives general oversight to the church council, reviews and evaluates the mission and ministry of the church, sets salaries for the pastor and staff, elects the members of the church council, and recommends candidates for ordained ministry.  - LINK

What is Church Conference?

The convening of the Charge Conference as a meeting in which all members of a local United Methodist church are invited to attend and are extended the privilege of vote. A Church Conference is called to have broad participation of the members of the congregation. The Church Conference may be authorized by the district superintendent. – LINK

 

Dear Friends,

Advent begins November 27th and lasts up until December 25th, Christmas day.

Here are five things you could do to come closer to the heart of God during this Advent season.

• If start you the day with a cup of coffee at home or at the cafe, could make reading The Upper Room devotional part of your routine.  Copies are in the narthex.  You can also read it on-line by going to “www.upperroom.org/devotional“.  Following Jesus means knowing what he said and what he did.  Reading The Upper Room daily is one way to learn this.

• Others learn best by doing. If you’re one of those people, then take a walk in nature.  Exercise your dog.  Drive your car.  Do your dishes.  Ride your bike.  And while you do these things talk to God. Sing to God.  Tell God your worries. Cry to God.  All this can happen as you do these other tasks.  But you need to commit to doing it.

• Join a small group or Bible study.  Make a commitment. Be willing to be held accountable to others.  We can often find God in community, by listening to and sharing with one another.  You will help someone else grow in their journey by being part of a group too.  There are options for an Advent Bible study, LGBTrinity, Missions, Living Your Strengths (a seven week course in going deeper into how to live the strengths God has given you), Centering Prayer, monthly potlucks and more.  Call the church office at 257-4591 to learn more.

• Learn to just rest in God’s presence.  This kind of prayer is called Christian meditation or contemplative prayer.  Centering prayer is a contemporary re-visioning of this ancient Christian prayer practice.  Learning about Centering Prayer is one of the small group options on the sign up sheet in the narthex.  Or you can read about centering prayer.  A good place to start is with “Sacred Breath: 40 Days of Centering Prayer” by J. David Muyskens published by Upper Room Books.

• Write in a journal daily (or on your computer) and list five things you are grateful for.  Every day prayer a prayer of gratitude to God.  As Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you it will be enough.” Keep track each day of when and where you felt God at work that day.

Through the faith practice of daily devotions, we will not only find God.  But when we come near to God’s heart, we also discover who and what we are meant to be.

Have a blessed Advent season!

Love in Christ,

Pastor Marianne

Trinity Church welcomes Christopher Tabisz, a graduate student in German at UW Madison, as our new Youth Worker. Chris grew up a Presbyterian in Maryland and graduated from the University of Maryland in 2010. He has experience counseling at the Concordia summer language camp and did campus ministry at the University of Maryland. Chris is fluent in German, French, Spanish and Dutch and was a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in Schonebeck, Germany last year.

Chris will begin teaching a Sunday School class for 6th – 10th graders starting on November 13th. He will teach on Dec. 11th, January 15th and February 12 and other dates to be announced. Chris will also plan and lead a monthly outing for the youth. Watch the web site and bulletin for details about the first outing which will be scheduled in December. — Please join me in welcoming Chris Tabisz to Trinity UMC on November 13th. – Pastor Marianne

United Methodist pastors get four weeks of vacation a year. You may wonder, “If Pastor Marianne just got here three and a half months ago, why is she taking vacation now?” I am going to India with my life’s partner Jim, and we’re traveling now in order to avoid the monsoon rains. We are celebrating the many gifts God has given us through our 26 years together!

Why India? In the 1970′s Satish Gyan, a Methodist Church of India pastor, came as a missionary to Wisconsin. Jim got to know Satish that year and then was part of a young adult group Satish led to India. Satish (now retired) will be our tour guide as we travel to Dehli, Kanpur (for a family wedding), Benares, and Dehradun. We will also spend time with Satish’s brother who serves a Methodist congregation in the foothills of the Himalayas.

We will fly out of O’Hare the evening of October 23rd and return Thursday, November 10th. God willing, I will be with you all at the Fall Dinner on November 11th. In the meantime, you’ll be in the capable hands of Mark Saltzman and Bob Jones (who are available for pastoral care) and Sara in the office (who will handle all other questions). I will be holding you all in my prayers, and ask that you do the same for me!

Hello from Jaimie…
My name is Jaime Borotz and I will be the new Sunday school teacher at Trinity United Methodist Church. I am a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying Elementary Education and Spanish. I have experience teaching kindergarten through middle school students in a variety of educational settings. I have a lot of experience working with children and youth for both Sunday school and Confirmation classes.

One of my passions is art. I worked at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts as an art teacher for elementary school students and I still love to paint and sculpt. In addition to art, I am passionate about Spanish. I taught English and studied abroad in Guatemala. I am really looking forward to being a part of your community and to meeting all of you.

Blessings,
Jaime Borotz

If you haven’t gotten a copy of the book, please sign the sheet in the narthex (or call the church office) and we’ll get you a copy ($14 free will offering).  Watch for more information how we can be “living our strengths” in the time ahead.

If you follow Jesus sooner or later you’re going to go on a mission trip too. To be on a mission means to be sent. Jesus was sent by God on a mission. It was to show people what God was like. When we follow Jesus sooner or later we’re sent out on a mission too. You mission might be to tell our friends or other family members that God is real. Or your mission might be to show kindness to someone at school this week who is feeling down. Your mission might be to create beauty for other people through music, art or dance. When you’re older, your mission might be to go to another city, or even another country to share in the lives of strangers from a different culture. No matter where you go, the message will be the same: God loves you, you matter to God and you matter to me, and even when life is tough it can get better with God’s help.

The three of us are going on a mission to the Horicon and Juneau United Methodist churches. Their pastor Ray Field asked us to come and we said ‘sure!’ And we’ll be back at Trinity in a couple of weeks to tell you all about it.
Winnie wants to know if you can spot him in the picture below. He’s been a friend of Marianne’s for a long time (since she was about 10). Now that Winnie is old he can’t see very well, his ear is torn but he is still trying to tell people about God’s love. Young or old or in between, we’re all sent out to share God’s love in every way we can!

Love from your friends,

Winnie, Carlos and Ellie

Can you guess who that is in the picture?  Yup, it’s me, dressed up in my toddler finery.  There’s a bumper sticker on my car that reads “Change is inevitable.  Growth is optional.”  Our bodies keep growing and changing.  We have no choice about that.  What we do have a choice about is whether we keep on growing in love for God and neighbor.  Jesus said that is the most important thing in life.  And John Wesley believed we could get to a point where love (for God and neighbor) was our sole desire.

Growing in love for God and neighbor is our worship theme this summer. On July 31 we’ll explore what it means to love God our Intimate Partner.  (You might want to check out the Song of Solomon in the Hebrew scripture before Sunday.)   In the meantime, think about how you’ve changed over the years.   I know you’ve changed a a lot since you were one and a half too!

What might we look like years from now if we are even more completely dominated by  our desire to love God and neighbor? The change may even be remarkable!

Love in Christ,

Pastor Marianne

As one way of us getting to know each other, this summer in worship I’m focusing on “the basics.” Jesus said there are two really important things in life: to love God and love our neighbor. To show what this means in everyday life, I’m highlighting a different image of God each Sunday in July — God as friend (July 17), God as mother (July 24) and God as intimate partner (July 31). In August the sermons will be on loving our neighbor by being welcoming (August 7), doing what you can (August 14), forgiving debts (August 21) and speaking the truth (August 28th).

Teresa of Avila said “do whatever stirs up love.” As you do whatever it is that ‘stirs up more love’ for God and your neighbors, know that I am (by God’s grace) joining you in doing the same.

Love in Christ,

Pastor Marianne

(Photo: glaad.org)