Market Poinsettias

  Though there was not a Market this year the Market

Ladies set out to sell poinsettias with the proceeds going to area charities. In addition to the checks presented below, the Volunteer Center of Morgan County, PACT, and the United Methodist Disaster Warehouse each received a check in the amount of $1,432.67.

Kathy Littrell presenting the check to Committee on Church Cooperation for $1,432.66.

Patti Stutts presenting Matthew Richards from Tennessee Valley Outreach with a check for $1,432.66.                

  Kathy Littrell presenting the check to Neighborhood Christian Center for $1,432.67.


Thank you to our Volunteers

Thank you to all who helped decorate the church for Christmas on Sunday. There was a great turnout. It was a lot of fun! 


Fall Festival

-Alicia Mullican, Director of Children’s Ministry

  Wow! Is all I can say about the Fall Festival. Our church family showed up and showed out for the kids at CUMC. We had 26 cars open and decorate their trunks for Trunk or Treat! So much candy was passed out by the wonderful families that participated. We also had 12 pots of chili entered in the chili cook-off. Thanks to our amazing judges Ashley Sickles, Carlton McMasters and Ben Adams for sampling all the chili and picking a winner. Suzanne Woller was the 1st place chili cook off winner. Shout out to Brian Bouchillon, Jim Greene, Ben Adams and Stacy Mullican for grilling up some tasty hamburgers and hot dogs. Special thanks to Wim Marchant and his kitchen team for all of their help preparing and serving a great meal.

  A special thanks to all of the youth who helped with the games in the gym. The cake walk was a huge success and we had so many treats that our table was overflowing. Thanks to everyone who sent in items and to Ashley Sickles, Quay Lively and David Lively for setting up and working the cake walk.  I would say that the Fall Festival was an overwhelming success. The fun and fellowship had by everyone made my heart happy. Thanks again to our amazing church family for showing the kids what we are able to do when we work together.

  Now it’s time to get ready for our Christmas play! Hope you can join us on December 11th for our show.

 

Blood Drive a Success!

-Lori Reed
  

Thanks to all who came out and donated to the Red Cross blood drive in memory of Courtney McCollum. There was a lot of support for the McCollum family and the Red Cross as there is a desperate need for blood donations. A pint of blood could save up to three lives! There were 23 donors, 19 units collected, 7 of which were first time donors, which potentially saves 57 lives! 

 


Blessing of the Backpacks

-Alicia Mullican, Director of Children’s Ministry

WOW! CUMC certainly showed up and showed out for our Blessing of the Backpacks. We had almost 500 cards of encouragement turned in for our students!  With that we were able to bless all of our students with 5 cards each. I have had so many parents reach out and say how wonderful these cards were for their children. The words of love and encouragement that each of you turned in have truly been a blessing to so many children. It just goes to show that when we work together we can achieve so much more! Thank you all so much for helping me with this huge project. I am looking forward to working together on so many more fun projects with our entire church family.
Love and blessings!


Ministry Fair

  The Ministry Fair at Central was a huge success. Thank you to all the leaders who decorated a table and shared their gifts with us. Also, thank you to our church members who volunteered to be a part of a ministry. Thank you again for your dedication and

commitment to Central.

Blessings, Joan Addison, Ashley Sickles, Carlyn Wyers

 


Building Update

The pitched shingled roof is complete and looking great! The replacement of the flat roof over the gym has been approved by the Trustees and Finance and will start within the next 6 weeks.

The new air conditioning unit in the sanctuary has been installed by Helms Air and the electric hookup was done by Perry Electric. After the flat roof is complete the Trustees will look at forming a committee to work on the cosmetic fixes inside the building from previous water damage. 

 

Palm Sunday Celebration – such a great day at CUMC!!

-Debbie Looney, Children’s Director

WOW!  That was my takeaway from Palm Sunday- from beginning to end!! 

The Sanctuary was wonderfully full for our service and what a great way to start it off with the palm procession with the children and youth!  The message from Miriam was great as always – we are blessed to have her!  Then the fellowship hall was full for the potluck and why not with all that delicious food!!! The Easter Bunny stopped by and was met with great enthusiasm from young and old! I mean what’s not to like when the Easter Bunny comes by!  Then the youth took over and hid over 1300 eggs for our annual Easter Egg hunt. WOW! that’s a lot of eggs!  As soon as they were hid – we started our hunt! The weather was perfect and with the street shut down we enjoyed a safe and fun hunt and lots and lots of laughs and fellowship!  It was a perfect way to start Holy Week!

 


The Sages Valentines Luncheon

-Tina Wofford, Sages Coordinator

Our Sages Valentines Luncheon went great. We served served over 72 people. Wow! A lot of people were involved. They included: Debbie Looney, Susan Thompson/Dream Weavers, Joan Addison, Kathy Littrell, Wim Marchant, Tim McCollum, Curtis Wofford, Tara Stone, Stacey Layton, Robin Limbaugh, Melinda Woller, Suzanne Woller, Quay Lively, Jamie Hicks, Melissa Penley, April Botto, Charlotte Gregory, Mary Beth McCollum, David and Rosie Kross/ youth, children/ making Valentines! As you can see, there are so many that love our Sages. I am so thankful for our church family!

 

 

 

 

 

 


Happy Birthday Jesus!

-Ashley Sickles, Family Ministry

Wow!! We had the best Happy Birthday Jesus party ever! We enjoyed a wonderful meal together, had a blast playing games, and contributed 85 stuffed shoeboxes for local children in need. These types of events remind us we are family, a church family, brothers and sisters in Christ. From youngest to oldest, we are all important to Jesus, and should be just as important to one another. We sure can grow closer by taking the time to fellowship together as a church. So thank you, everyone, for accepting the invitation and spending time with your church family! I’d also like to mention, the party and fun could not have been put together without members’ willingness to serve and help. Absolutely everyone I asked said yes, and some volunteered to help before I could even ask them! Events like these take a team, and I want to give a big shout out to this birthday party team:

Wim Marchant

Elizabeth English

Mary Jo Landreth

Debbie Looney

Bruce and Vivian Pylant

Susan Thompson

Miriam Smith

Kristen Bentley

Kirk Sanders

Quay Lively

John and Beth Adams

Jennie-Marie McMasters

Bill, Garrison, and Nile Sickles

Alicia Mullican

  And many others I noticed lending a helping hand at clean up after it was over! Thank you all so much! Last, above all the parties and presents, I do hope everyone kept in mind the real reason for the Christmas season, the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.


 

 

 

 

-Patti Stutts

 

The 2021 Market@Central by the Numbers!
Infinitely, too-many-to-name, Volunteers
558 Yummy Casseroles and Baked Goods frozen
263 Beautiful Poinsettias purchased
183 Excited-to-be-Here Luncheon guests attending
  28 Winning Silent Auction Bids placed

   6 Gracious Local Charities honored
    1 Blessed, Beautiful, Gift-from-God Day!  The Market, as we so lovingly call it, is in the books for 2021! On Wednesday, Nov 17, the CUMC Fellowship Hall was alive with the chatter of family groups and clusters of friends catching up. 
Susan warmed the atmosphere with lovely soft music. Her message of welcome and thanks to our agencies was amazing. Her prayer spoke the Thanksgiving we all were feeling!
  The Luncheon meal, prepared by Sara Alice Godwin and her amazing 

helpers, was beautiful and lovingly served. So much attention to detail brought rave reviews from all.
  The Baked goods showed the tremendous efforts of Debbie Phillips and a skilled set of confection-loving women of outstanding ability.
Pat Smithson and Stacy Layton’s efforts combined for the Sweet Potatoes and also the Poppy Seed Chicken, with help from Kathy Taylor. These popular favorites were amazing. In case you are wondering, 160 lbs of sweet potatoes and 98 lbs of chicken were the beginnings of this massive undertaking. In her spare time, Pat Smithson made lemon rolls, Mexican Lasagna, and Charleston Sausage Grits.

  Tara Stone is the only member of the group who still gets someone off to high school each day and has 2 in college. Her talents are amazing. She lovingly made all of the pecan cheese balls. She also organized the group who made our new edition this year: the Incredible Delicious Mac and Cheese! And she still found time to paint the much-sought-after Three Peony painting in the silent auction!

  Robin Limbaugh made more-than-planned delicious cornbread dressing, after a counting error showed we were short. I wish I had a picture of her face when we discovered the error. In addition, Robin continued her longstanding role as organizer of the Sausage Ball crew. Result: 78 dozen yummy bite-size snacks! With Tara’s help, Robin found the proper pan for her Americanized Lasagna, a longtime market favorite! It truly takes a tremendous effort bolstered by prayer to produce these results!
And finally, the Silent Auction…. Kathy Littrell gave her delightful descriptions to beautiful and unique items. I am sure some Christmas gifts were among them. All items were from Decatur merchants and craftsmen. We should all be thankful that we live in a special community!
 Thank you to Everyone who contributed to this Mighty effort for Missions! You have blessed our congregation and our community!

 

 

The Market at Central has personally delivered checks for $2,000 each to the Committee on Church Cooperation, Neighborhood Christian Center, PACT, Tennessee Valley Outreach, UM
Disaster Warehouse, and the Volunteer Center of Morgan County! 

 

 


Loaves and Fishes Ministry

 -Wim Marchant

I would like to thank all who supported the Wednesday Night Café this last half of 2021. I know it has been difficult for individuals and families to plan to participate in events with the flu, viruses and other sickness in the community. Hopefully 2022 will be a better year for everyone as we continue to have our Wednesday Night Cafés and other events at the church. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to help make sure Wednesday Night Café was enjoyed in 2021. There is a 40 member team of volunteers that help make Wednesday Night Café a success at Central. Fifteen of these are needed each Wednesday night to have things run smoothly. The more volunteers we have the fewer times each month the same volunteer is asked to work. If you feel led to volunteer, for an hour or two or more with the Wednesday Night Café, please contact Wim Marchant. I would like to thank all members for their volunteer service. The teams to ensure that Wednesday Might Café works, include the Laundry Team, the Drinks Team, the Salad Team, the Money Team, the Serving Team, the Dessert Team, the Hobart Team, the Clean Up Team and the On-Call volunteers that get short notice when one of our regular volunteers can’t help. I would like to thank everyone who makes an effort to come to the Wednesday Night Café and our volunteers. If you have any suggestions, please let Wim Marchant know, (marchant@bellsouth.net) or 205-266-4642. 


Children’s Sunday

After almost 2 years of the children not being able to sing in ‘big’ church we decided it was time to celebrate our CUMC kids and what a special service and celebration we had Sunday Morning Sept 26th.

The children led almost every part of the service! They read the scripture, led the congregation in the special creed and  prayers and the benediction! Miriam presented Bibles to Riley Pike and John Steven Howell. And the children even presented the special music for the day! It was a full day and I hope you were able to see this service in person or online and be blessed by it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CUMC Picnic & Fishing

If our special children’s service was not enough of a blessing on Sept 26th – we were also blessed with a Glorious fall day to have our picnic and fishing day! And what a fun day it was! The farm was beautiful and everyone loved being outside and being with church family in a way we haven’t been able to in a long time!  Many people enjoyed walking all around the pond and to the chapel and just enjoying the day.

And the fishing competition was so much fun to watch! Fish were weighed and measured and counted, sticks were caught, some even caught each other! But no one was hurt and fun was had by all! If you missed out on this day maybe you can join us the next time we have our traditional CUMC picnic!


 

Lots of fun at Wednesday Nite Cafe

Lise Greene and David Bentley fill their salad bowls.

Jeff Brown working the Hobart machine.

 

George and Sara Alice Godwin, Lynn and Jerry Thrasher. Dale Howard (with his back to the camera)

Photos courtesy of Doug Shoemaker

Backpack Ministry

-Melissa Penley

A huge thank you to Ginny Pylant and Apryl Botto and their volunteers for another successful year of CUMC Backpacks Ministry for needy children to have food to eat on the weekends during the school year. They shopped, packed, and delivered weekly, and I am so thankful for them. Our church supports 82 children from a total of 3 schools, and this ministry would not be possible without regular donations from our church family. Please contact Melissa Penley, Ginny Pylant, or Apryl Botto if you are interested in helping with the Backpacks Ministry for the next school year. Our church has supported this ministry for 12 years, and the students of Decatur City Schools thank you!

 

 

 

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