Good Earth Times May 27, 2020

If you are graduating this year, we would love to honor you. This year more than ever!! Our hearts are with you all as you are having to sacrifice your senior trips and final days of school, final dances & maybe even walking at graduation. We want to honor the seniors from high school & college that are members & active participants of the St John community, as well as the children & grandchildren.

Since our services are all online right, we have the fantastic opportunity this year to create Senior Videos to honor your journey. Please fill out the form to create your bio HERE. Email your photos & video clips to dprather@stjohnumc.org.

We plan on premiering all grad videos by July 12 and will host a Graduation Celebration Sunday on July 19. More details to come!

One of the ways we worship God is our offering to God’s work through our financial gifts and our gifts of service. Our financial gifts support what God is doing at St John make ministry possible every day of the year. In this season of rapid change, our church is providing ministry in new ways each day by offering: online prayer support & small groups, counseling via phone and video, worship services, youth and children’s ministry activities kids can do from home, and more. We are continuing to facilitate Sunday school & small group ministry gatherings, support our local food ministry, and meet the needs of our church family and our community in any ways we can. All these things require financial resources. I encourage you to take a moment right now and make a gift to support ministry at St John UMC —you can easily make a one-time or recurring gift by:  

• You can use the text to give option above.
• Give online through our website at stjohnumc.org/give.
• Mail a check to the church office at 3921 Murray Hills Dr, Chattanooga TN 37416.

It is time to take your spiritual gifts inventory. Each part will take you about 15 minutes, so 45 minutes in total. That is one of the best parts of the 3 segments, because you don't have to do them all at one time. You will have to complete all 3 parts before your score is sent back to you.

Please set aside a time when you can pray over these questions and not rush through it. We are praying for you as we await your responses.

PART I

PART II

PART III

Go to our St John community page to subscribe to this list and get daily reminders to pray for your church family. Subscribing also allows you to add GLORY sightings when a prayer is answered!

If you would like to submit a prayer request, please join our church's community page and add it to the list in the far right column.

Or you can email pray@stjohnumc.org. These requests go directly to the prayer team and you can state if you would like your request forwarded to the pastors or to the public prayer list.

Are you craving connection while you are self isolating? We hope to launch this new community of small groups on June 7. You can be a part of community in one of these groups if you are not in a current Sunday school class. You can be part of a group if you are in a current Sunday school class. You can be in a connect group if you have worshipped with us at our Murray Hills building or have just worshipped with us online. You can be part of a connect group even if you have never worshipped with us at all.

The purpose of these groups will be to fellowship, study, discuss, pray, and generally, just do life together. They will be multi-age mixed groups so you can get to know the wonderful depth and breadth of people that make up the St John family.

These groups will initially be all virtual. As it is safe to do so, some groups may choose to meet in homes, restaurants, cofffeeshops, or other places, and others may remain virtual fellowship groups.

Look for more information and how to sign up in the upcoming bulletin and newsletter.

If you miss coming by the church and chatting with the office staff, you can now book a chat session with us! So far, you can chat with Carl or DeAnna, but we will be adding more soon. You will need to have a computer, tablet, or smart phone with a camera & mic if you want to see our faces. If you don't, let us know when you sign up & we can do a phone call instead. Book a chat with us by clicking HERE.

UMCOR is calling for flood buckets to build back up their depleted stores from the flooding in VA and tornadoes in TN, AL, and GA. They are asking now to be ready for the predictions of a very active hurricane season this year. We have already had one tropical system bring significant rain to the eastern US. If you would to fill a bucket, you can find out how on UMCOR's website. You can drop off your filled bucket to the church. We will be posting times that you can drop off your buckets, or if you have a key fob, you can place your bucket in the connector lobby in front of the welcome desk.

If you would rather just give monetarily, you can give to UMCOR through their website or mail a check to Project Crossroads, 136 Snider Branch Road, Marion, VA 24354 (make checks to "Project Crossroads" with "disaster supplies in the memo line)

5th Sunday Holston Home Sunday is May 31. We welcome your special offering for Holston Home. Mail your marked check or drop it off at the church office.

Annual Conference Offering – Holston Annual Conference at Lake Junaluska has been cancelled due to Covid-19 but we are still encouraged to participate in the annual offering. Once again, this year’s offering will go toward the opioid crisis in Holston Conference. Mail your marked check or drop it off at the church office.

Virtual Annual Conference will be held on June 27.

I am loving the virtual travel and tours that are available. Since it is unlikely that the Prather family will take any kind of vacation this summer, I have been grieving the chance to have some scenery change. (Especially as Google photos is reminding me of our first trip to Disney World with Bonnie that was this same week in 2018!)

This summer I am planning a new destination for us every week. During the quarantine so far, Bonnie and I have taken a ride on It's a Small World at all 5 Disney parks.

Set Sail on “it’s a small world” Virtual Boat Ride #DisneyMagicMoments

We have visited the flamingos, meerkats, and lion cubs at the Cincinnati Zoo. We even had story time with Fiona the baby hippo!

https://www.facebook.com/pg/cincinnatizoo/videos/?ref=page_internal

This summer we are looking forward to visiting the MoMA, the Smithsonian, the Louvre, the Great Wall of China, Easter Island and yes, even - outer space!

https://www.weareteachers.com/best-virtual-field-trips/