A Letter From Rebecca Voss!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ at Wausau First UMC, I am really excited to meet all of you in a few short months! However, my eagerness is feeling dampened as this pandemic causes necessary changes to the ways we relate to each other. I trust we are all praying together to make and follow the best decisions possible to navigate the uncertainties, difficulties, and dangers we face both now and likely at least another year to one degree or another. That said, when the pandemic is past, I’ll gladly give safe hugs to anyone who would like one.
God has created each of you as individuals and together as a congregation with great love, care, and purpose. During this time of both pastoral and societal transition we have a perfect opportunity to look and listen more closely to one another. My first priority is to get to know each of you. I want to hear your stories of when and how your faith has been tested and/or strengthened. Your pains, gains, triumphs, tragedies, histories, and hopes are all very precious gifts I would be honored for you to share with me.
Sharing your stories of faith is a gift to build connection not only with me as your pastor, but also does wonders to build deeper and stronger connections with others in the church. Some of you may feel safer sharing more vulnerable parts of your life with me individually, and I welcome those personal conversations. However, our primary strategy for getting to know each other in the first few months will be by gathering in small groups. We’ll need to be patient and flexible to know whether it is possible to gather in person or safer via Zoom.
I am asking leaders at Wausau First to help organize all members and active friends into small groups of 7-9 people (including youth/children). If you have a small group of people in mind, please let Bonnie Goertz know.
Hopefully our initial small group “ get to know you ” gatherings will continue as long lasting and life-strengthening small group ministries that will be a source of stability, growth, and joy, particularly when we can’t gather safely as a larger worshipping community. Another way you can help is by letting me know what topics or questions you feel are most helpful for our congregation to explore together in my first sermon series.
Feel free to connect with me at
PastorRebeccaVoss@gmail.com, my cell number (920) 360-7396, or Facebook Messenger. I look forward to growing deeply together in faith, hope, and love in Christ!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Rebecca
Helen and Leonard Pivet Scholarship
Since the Helen and Leonard Pivet Scholarship was created in 2006, the Wisconsin United Methodist Foundation has done well with scholarship funds. This winter, the Pivet Scholarship Committee made the decision, supported by the Ministries Council and Investments Team, to increase scholarship amounts from $1000 for each of two semesters ($2000 per year of school) to double that amount.
This increase will take effect in fall of 2020 for both our 2020 Pivet Scholar and those scholars in their 2nd, 3rd and 4th years of receiving funds.
Congratulations to our 2020 Pivet Scholar
Karli Johnson
The Helen and Leonard Pivet Scholarship Committee has chosen this year’s recipient and invites you to join them in congratulating Karli Johnson. Karli has been attending UW-Stevens Point where she is working to-ward a degree in Instrumental Music Education with a Suzuki emphasis with an English as a Second Language minor. She has been servicing as Event Coordinator of the American String Teacher Association, is a member of the professional music fraternity Delta Omicron and is maintaining a 3.5 GPA.
This scholarship will help Karli to further her study of music within the university and in Suzuki pedagogy and her study of culture and the music within cultures.
Do You Know of any Graduates?
We would like to recognize the 2020 graduates. Could you please help us by letting us know who is graduating this spring?
We may not be able to honor them on Sunday morning for a while but we would like to recognize them!
Please contact Joan at the church office.
Random Thoughts
by Mike Zahn May 2020
Practical Divinity
What makes Methodism unique? I have been taking courses in order to become a Certified Lay Speaker. As a result, I have learned a lot about Wesleyan and Methodist practices and traditions. Over the next few months, I am going to focus on some of these. Having been a United Methodist for over 20 years you’d think I would know something about our denomination, but that is not the case. One distinctive element of Methodism is “practical divinity,” or faith and love put into practice.
John and Charles Wesley, besides seeking to build their own relationships with God, also put their faith into action by regularly visiting those in prison and physically helping poor people. They believed that, through faith, the Holy Spirit leads us to produce the fruit of good works.
Methodists have a long history of seeking a balance between right beliefs and right practices, between personal holiness and social holiness, between faith and works-- practical divinity.
Some denominations or“non-denominations” do not seem to strive for that balance as Methodists do. There is a belief out there that the church exists strictly to focus on faith, on our spiritual salvation. Good works are something you can do on your own time, but that is not the purpose of church. I don’t agree with that. This quote from the Bible is what I believe, and what I think Methodists live by:
My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. What if one of you said,“Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity. James 2:14-17
Highway Cleanup
On Earth Day, April 22, Maggie had willing workers eager to get outdoors and work—even with 42° temperatures and a wind chill.
Thank you, Maggie! And, Betsy, James, our other Boy Scouts, Stan & Alice, Beth & John, Wes, Bonnie, and Jayneann.
sabbath?
Pandemic
What if you thought of it

as the Jews consider the Sabbathщ۬
the most sacred of times?

Cease from travel.

Cease from buying and selling.

Give up, just for now,

on trying to make the world

different than it is.

Sing. Pray. Touch only those

to whom you commit your life.

Center down.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.

Know that we are connected

in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)

Know that our lives

are in one another’s hands.

(Surely, that has come clear.)

Do not reach out your hands.

Reach out your heart.

Reach out your words.

Reach out all the tendrils

of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love--

for better or for worse,

in sickness and in health,

so long as we all shall live.
Lynn Ungar 3/11/20, lynnungar.com
Jubilate Handbells at 2510
First Church's Facebook Page
Please take a look at our church Facebook page! We currently have a meal train up for the Hornbys with opportunities to help with a meal. Some of our other activities are listed there as well.
If you have something you would like to put on the FB page, let Jen Johnson know. She will make all attempts to post it. Her number is 715-470-2527
Pine Lake United Methodist Camp
