It Takes Partners!

The more I explore God's purpose for my life, the more ridiculous I find that the North American church attempts to live in a secluded world. The church has become more of a sales organization within the last 30 years. Instead of modeling itself around the missional purpose of God, it has structured itself as though it has a product to sell, and that in order to be successful, it has to sell that product to the most people it can. That marketplace mentality has, therefore, resulted in the church isolating itself, trying to do it all by itself, as if in competition with each other for marketplace share.

I believe in order for the church to reclaim its role as proclaiming the gospel of Christ, it has to join forces with strategic partners, combining visions and resources so as to be most effective.

If you have been reading my posts, you no doubt ask yourself, "How does this tiny, country church think it can accomplish what it wants to do in Uganda?" If we attempted to do this alone, we would fail. But when we team up with strategic partners, then God will be faithful.

Our partners include other churches (St. James UMC, who is coordinating travel logistics) and nongrovernmental organizations (NGO) like Sasakawa Global 2000 and the Carter Center.

Our newest partner is Rotary International, a global network of community volunteers. As a Rotary member myself in Bowling Green, I learned of another Rotarian in Minnesota, George Oyeho, and of his project to build a health clinic in Kenya. I contacted George to inquire about his project, and learned that he himself is working with another Rotarian from Colorado, Carol Caper, whose club has recently initiated an agricultural program in Kenya very similar to what we are hoping to accomplish in Uganda.

As God so perfectly orchestrates things, both George & Carol will be in Kenya the same dates that we will be in Uganda, so Steph & I will travel one day over to their location (about 2 hours east of Katosi) and tour their project.

Through this new partnership, a world of guidance, experience and funding sources has opened up to us! GOD IS GOOD!!!

We may be growing rice!

I've been in contact with Emmanuel Kayaayo, who is the Uganda Program Coordinator for Sasakawa Global 2000, a NGO who is launching agricultural development programs in the country to work towards hunger and poverty eradication. They have built a rice mill in Nakisunga, a town about 10 miles from Katosi. This mill gives local farmers the ability to bring their raw rice and have it refined and packaged for sale on the open market.

The great thing about this mill is that is is positioned just about halfway between Katosi and Kampala, which means that if we initiate rice production in Katosi and provide the means of transportation, the farmers can develop a crop which will generate an income high enough not only to support themselves, but provide for their families health & education needs.

We will be meeting with Emmanuel (what a great name!) in May when we travel to Katosi to speak with local farmers and begin promoting the production of a rice variety called NERICA (New Rice for Africa), a variety which has been developed for the growing conditions in Africa. Check out this link for more information -
Keep posted for more developments!

Grace & Peace

December Newsletter

Greetings sisters & brothers, and my deep apologies for such an overdue message!

I suppose that it is this time of year, when we pause (hopefully!) long enough from our hectic schedules to reflect upon the birth of the Christ child, and what that historic event means for us, that causes me to want to reach out to you all with the good news of Sugar Grove.

What a miraculous year we have undergone! God’s presence has certainly been felt as we have submitted our wills to His and attempted to obey His direction for our lives. We have been blessed with the return of families like the Shelton’s, an increase in the number of youth who are bringing a renewed sense of energy and excitement, new births and baptisms, new members joining our ranks, and an increased focus on serving our community.

When I came to Sugar Grove, I made the public statement that I didn’t have time to mess around with someplace that wanted to “play” church; I wanted to be somewhere that is serious about being the church. My gosh – you have really taken me at my word!

I have to make a confession to you – before I came to Sugar Grove, I was becoming dissatisfied with the church. The modern church had, over the last 10-15 years, resorted to playing to the consumerist desires of the populace. Building bigger buildings, making worship a theatrical event, implementing the latest “programs”, and delivering a “me”-centric type of message, all designed to give people a great show on Sunday morning and then send them home until next week. We call this type of church “attractional”, which means they build their purpose around attracting more and larger number of members.

If you are familiar with this type of church, then you have heard the name Willow Creek. One of the country’s largest mega-churches, Willow Creek conducted a survey of their members in 2007 and learned a startling fact. Despite their size (average weekly attendance of 23,000), a large majority considered themselves spiritually “stalled” or “dissatisfied” with the role of the church in their spiritual growth, and huge portions of these groups were considering leaving because of it (Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2008).

What this tells me is that it takes more than large buildings, numerous programs and entertainment to develop true disciples of Christ. It takes sacrifice, discipline, and yes, even pain, to fully become the disciple God created us to be. We have to be intentional about being “missional” instead of “attractional” if we want to be true followers of Christ.

Because of this, we will be seriously reviewing all of our programs and ministries in 2009 and bringing each of them into alignment with the following objectives:
• We will focus more on the message of Gospels than on the Epistles. The
purpose of the Gospels was to reveal God’s Kingdom here on earth during our
lifetimes and our roles in seeing that “the blind receive sight and the lame
walk. Those who have leprosy are cleansed. The dead are raised and the good
news of the Lord is proclaimed.” The Epistles, on the other hand, dealt with
life after death.
• We will advance the gospel by demonstration and not simply proclamation.
• Our goal of evangelism will be to grow “the” church rather than just “our” church.
• We will partner with other local churches, regardless of denomination, as the essential means of accomplishing our mission.

For some of our current programs, this will result in a radical shift in the way we “do” church. For other programs, it will merely be an extension of what we are already doing.

Two examples of missional work that we entered into in 2008 will continue to be keys to our spiritual development in 2009. In continuing with our desire to eliminate hunger in the world, we will focus heavily on our Angel Food Ministry and our partnership with Katosi UMC in Uganda.

Each month, Sugar Grove supplies food packages to area families through the Angel Food Ministry. This wonderful ministry is a God-send during these tough economic times, and allows families to stretch their food budgets. The food is all first-rate quality food. No second hands or dented overstock. And there are no income restrictions or purchase limitations. A $30 food box contains enough nutritional food to feed a family of four for 3 weeks. This ministry affords us the opportunity to combat hunger in our local community. If you know of a family that would benefit from this assistance, or wish to participate yourself, please contact Stella Oliver or Virgina Duff.

Our developing partnership with Katosi UMC in Africa will give us an opportunity to combat hunger on a global scale. Stephanie & I will be traveling to Uganda in the spring of 2009 to personally meet with the pastor and his community to see firsthand what their situation is. We will also be meeting with local authorities and representatives from international aid organizations to begin laying the groundwork for an agricultural training program, which will teach local farmers advanced farming techniques and sustainable crop production. This program will eventually generate a livelihood for the community of Katosi, which in turn will bring greater educational opportunities, improved health care and better living conditions. This is how a small country church from Butler County will “give sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed and the good news to the poor”! Our trip in May will be the first of many trips for members of Sugar Grove to go on.

God-sized dreams to be sure, but Sugar Grove is definitely a God-sized church! Come experience the transformation, won’t you? Also be sure to check out our blog at www.sugargrovemethodist.blogspot.com!

Have a very Merry Christ-mas!

Kevin

Important dates!
Sunday, December 21st – Youth Christmas Play “Mr. Wilson Finds Christmas” 6 pm
Wednesday, December 24th – Christmas Eve Candlelight Service – 7 pm

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Dear Friends in Christ,

We are posting this blog to announce a wonderful opportunity God has asked Stephanie and I to embark on. In May of 2009, we will be traveling to Uganda to visit the community of Katosi and begin developing long-range plans on how our two churches can serve God together. Taking the Gospel to another culture to people less fortunate than us is exciting to think about. To work with them, to worship with them, to play with them, and to share the Bible with them is part of our goal.

Katosi is a small village about 2 hours southeast of the capital city Kampala. You can move the map image above around until you see "Kampala". The "C" marks the location of Katosi. The map image starts out on the center of Uganda - moving the map up will show you where Kampala and Katosi are.

Our plans are to serve in this mission from May 26th until June 8th. Stephanie & I will be immersing ourselves in the culture of these people, living and working and worshipping with them for almost two weeks. While our immediate objective is to teach Bible school lessons and share worship services with the local church, our ultimate goal is to strengthen the community through the development of a sustainable agricultural program which will train local farmers and transform communities with poor nutritional standards into thriving centers of crop production, market goods, and family income.

Our involvement with Katosi first came about last year when the Bowling Green UMC District of churches agreed to "partner" with East African churches in Uganda. Sugar Grove was partnered with Katosi. To be very blunt, my initial reaction was probably less than Christian! My thoughts were, "Oh, here we go again! Being asked to give money to someone else". But as I began to pray, and God once again invaded my heart, I realized that He Himself had been orchestrating this connection.

Our "committment" to be a partner church was to be purely financial. The agreement was to simply give $1,500 a year. But my heart was telling me that our committment to be Katosi's partner had to be much more. So I began emailing the church, through their DS John Kiviiri, and began learning about these people. I learned that their pastor, Jimmy Tendo, is a giant of a man with God's heart, but weak legs. His only means of transportation is a bicycle which he must peddle using his hands. I began feeling God telling me that we had to do much more than send over a few hundred dollars a year.

When we travel there this spring, it will be a "scouting" trip to determine what their needs are and the best, and most sustainable, way that we can help them. Initial conversations have revealed that their means of commerce has dramatically suffered over the years. They used to survive on fishing (they are on the shores of Lake Victoria), but years of pollution have caused the government to ban eating fish caught there, so they are trying to switch to farming. My dream is that we will be able to explore purchasing land from the government and set up commercial farms, bringing experienced farmers from home and around the world who will come and teach the people of Katosi how to develop an economic commerce from large-scale farming.

It's simply not enough to be satisfied with the usual mission trip stuff - building a church, teaching Bible lessons, etc. While these are all good and may need to be pursued, our objective is to help our brothers and sisters in Christ develop sustainable lifestyles, which will benefit them economically so that they can improve their education, health and social systems. Yes, we would like to build them a new church, but when we do so, we want to incorporate things like a school, a library, computer labs, health clinics, etc. And our hearts are telling us this will all begin with our first trip in May!

Yes, we have big dreams. But they are God-sized dreams, and God-sized dreams do become real through the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We will just be the messengers - God will bring the change!

Would you be kind enough to help with our financial need for this trip? Your gift of $25, $50, or even $100 would make it possible for us to encourage other Christians in Uganda. If more money comes in than is needed for our travel costs, it will be donated to the church in Katosi. You can make out a check to Sugar Grove UMC and send it back to us. Be sure to designate “Uganda Mission Trip” on the memo part of the check. Sugar Grove UMC is recognized by the IRS as an official religious organization so your donation is fully tax-deductible and you will receive a receipt for your generosity.

God has been so faithful to us in our plans for this trip. It’s very apparent to us that He will use us in His Kingdom in this way. Please join us in praying not only for our financial need, but for the mission trip itself. Continue to check out our blog at www.sugargrovemethodist.blogspot.com where we will post updates and specific things you can pray for. Pray for us to have an eternal impact! Thanks in advance!

Grace & Peace,

Kevin & Stephanie Mays
816 Mooreland Drive
Bowling Green, KY 42103

Pray for Congo & Rwanda

The horrible genocide of Rwanda in 1994 threatens to reoccur with the recent insurgence of the Tutsi rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda, and his troops.

Oddly enough, the countries of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are posed to assist the Nkunda rebels if Angola sends troops to fight them. The civil unrest between these countries could lead to a genocide more horrific than before.

Please call out for all Christians to seek the kind of peace that only God can establish in these areas.

Sugar Grove is closing their doors . . .

On Sunday, October 12th, Sugar Grove UMC is taking their faith into the streets and will be serving the community instead of holding its normal worship service.

Members of the congregation will gather at Pavilion #1 of the Charles Black Park in downtown Morgantown to serve a free bean soup lunch to the public. They will also be going door-to-door in the community to collect nonperishable food for donation to the Morgantown Mission food pantry. The key event, however, will be offering food assistance through their partnership with Angel Food Ministries. The community will be able to purchase $60 worth of top-quality food for only $30. Each order will feed a family of 4 for about a week, or a single senior citizen for a month.

The youth groups will be raising awareness of hunger in Butler County through a 600-cross display. Each cross represents a child in Butler County who suffers from hunger.

Come by and join us as we put our faith into action and attach the issue of hunger in our community!

Sugar Grove partners with Angel Food Ministries

Sugar Grove UMC, in its mission to combat hunger in our community, has partnered with Angel Food Ministries to offer food assistance. Angel Food Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to providing grocery relief and financial support to communities throughout the United States.

Angel Food is available in a quantity that can fit into a medium-sized box at $30 per unit. Each month's menu is different than the previous month and consists of both fresh and frozen items with an average retail value of approximately $60. Comparison shopping has been done across the country in various communities using a wide range of retail grocery stores and has resulted in the same food items costing from between $42 and $78.

Generally, one unit of food assists in feeding a family of four for about one week or a single senior citizen for almost a month. The food is all the same high quality one could purchase at a grocery store. There are no second-hand items, no damaged or out-dated goods, no dented cans without labels, no day-old breads and no produce that is almost too ripe.

Also offered are specialty boxes such as steaks, chicken and pork. Many participants in this bonus program appreciate the expanded choices. Additionally, there is no limit to the number of units or bonus foods an individual can receive, and there are no applications to complete or qualifications to which participants must adhere. Angel Food Ministries also participates in the U.S. Food Stamp program, using the Off-Line Food Stamp Voucher system.

Sugar Grove will have its first order-taking day on Sunday, October 12th, from 11 am until 2 pm, at the Chalres Black Park in downtown Morgantown. Sugar Grove is forgoing its usual Sunday worship celebration and instead will be combating hunger - in otherwords, we will be putting our faith into action!

Sugar Grove challenges other Bowling Green District UM churches to a "food race"!

More and more people in our communities are suffering the consequences of rising food costs, and are having to sacrifice food in order to to pay for other necessities such as utilities, medicine, housing and transportation. Food pantries are running low on supplies and find themselves unable to meet the increasing demand.

During the month of October, Sugar Grove is challenging our sister churches in the Bowling Green District to collect non-perishable food for area food pantries. Those churches willing to accept the challenge are instructed to collect as much food as possible during the month, and the church which collects the most pounds of food per member will receive a plaque recognizing them as winner. This plaque will be a traveling award, in hopes that our District will make this an annual event every October (to coincide with Hunger Awareness Month).

Contact Kevin Mays at 270-303-0761 or kevin.mays@insightbb.com. The idea for this challenge came from a story in the Interpreter Magazine (http://www.interpretermagazine.org/interior.asp?ptid=43&mid=12955)

City of Russellville goes green!

Kudos goes out to the City of Russellville for their progressive actions towards environmental stewardship. They purchased 10 rain barrels which they will be positioning throughout the city to collect and conserve rainwater runoff. In addition, they are planning renovations to a local building to become their new fire station, incorporating solar panels and rooftop garden designs. Plus they are working cooperatively with the Sierra Club in designing rain gardens for the local schools. If only more cities were as progressive as Russellville in incorporating sustainability in their downtown redevelopment!

Pictured is Pastor Kevin (left) with Mayor Gene Zick of Russellville as he takes delivery of 10 rain barrels from Sugar Grove UMC Youth.

Our prayers are with the Oliver family

Our prayers go out to the Oliver family, who are very good friends of the church. William David Oliver, 57, of Morgantown died June 10, 2008, at his residence.

The Butler County native was a disabled veteran, a Christian and a Vietnam War Army veteran. He was a son of the late Ray Beech Oliver and Letha Belle Tuck Oliver. He was preceded in death by three brothers, Earl Carlon Oliver, Howard Lee Oliver and Ernest Wayne Oliver; and three sisters, Barbara, Doris and Mae Oliver.

Funeral is at 2 p.m. Friday at Smith Funeral Home, with burial in Githens Cemetery. Visitation is from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. today and begins at 8 a.m. Friday at the funeral home.Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to Githens Cemetery, c/o Stella Oliver, 1856 Sugar Grove Road, Morgantown, KY 42261 or you may receive and leave your donation envelopes at Smith Funeral Home.

Survivors include two sons, Jeff Oliver of Richmond, Va., and Jason Oliver of Crestview, Fla.; four grandchildren, Nicholas and Madison Oliver of Crestview and Levi and Evy Oliver of Richmond; a brother, James Oliver and his wife, Wilma Jean, of Sugar Grove; five sisters, Jean Milby and her husband, Forest, of Louisville, Wanda Beller of Morgantown and Sue Sharer and her husband, Robert, Linda Brooks and her husband, Tommy, and Phyllis Borders, all of Bowling Green; a sister-in-law, Stella Oliver of Morgantown; two aunts, Bertha Tuck of Bowling Green and Wilma Tuck of Kalamazoo, Mich.; and several nieces and nephews.

Rain Barrels

The Sugar Grove UMC Youth are selling rain barrels for $50. Proceeds will help support the creation of a new community food bank at their church for low-income Butler County residents. A portion of the proceeds are a tax-deductible contribution.

Each barrel comes with spigot, runoff tube and screened intake strainer. Barrel color and style may vary depending on supply.

Besides helping the environment, an obvious reason for harvesting rainwater is to save money. Depending on the size of your house and the amount of rainfall in your area, you can collect a substantial amount of water with this simple system. This extra water can have a significant impact on your water bill. Remember last summer’s drought? Rainwater can help to improve the health of your gardens, lawns, and trees. Rain is a naturally soft water and devoid of minerals, chlorine, fluoride, and other chemicals. For this reason, plants respond very well to rainwater.

If interested, please contact Kevin Mays at 303-0761 or kevin.mays@insightbb.com.


"Live simply so that others may simply live"

The Youth Shall Lead Us!

Our youth have planted a garden, the purpose of which is to grow food for our new food pantry to feed the poor in Butler County. This stemmed from conversations and studies on developing a greater Kingdom-view of the world, versus the “it’s all about me” view that is all too more prevalent in the world. And as the overall body at Sugar Grove has been developing, we have been led to find a way in which we can more effectively reach out into the community.

This garden idea has so many implications and possibilities. This year’s “pilot” is to try our hand at gardening in the Keriakes community space, but our longer-range goal is to have several garden plots in the field across the street from our church. We would give some free plots to our community so that they may have access to grow their own garden, and Sugar Grove would plant some plots with the intent to distribute what we grow to the needy through our new food pantry.

Our children, through the skillful guidance of my wife, are learning about God and His desire to see us care for His creation. They get to help grow fun things like watermelons and pumpkins and play in the dirt. The older youth and I are doing the bulk of the gardening work, but they have also been tasked with coming up with a distribution system for the food pantry: who qualifies, how we will distribute the food, what else we will distribute, etc. They get to write the business plan for this new venture.

Some of our older members will be teaching classes on how to can and preserve fruits and vegetables, so they will be contributing to this by helping teach others how to lengthen the lifespan of fresh food.

This program has the potential to include and involve every age level in our church, and that’s what has me so excited. Something that doesn’t isolate or exclude any one age group and also benefits the underserved can only be in harmony with God’s will.

The changes in our body have amazed me, as we’ve focused on our role as Christians in caring for the environment. Because of our youth leading the way with the garden, I decided to do a sermon series on Creation Care. I worried how this message may be perceived, but was floored when one of our older members took it upon herself to buy real plates and glasses so that we could stop using Styrofoam plates and cups in our fellowship meals. She considers washing the dishes as her ministry, every bit as serving as Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. Another member has started saving the plastic bottles that she used to simply throw away and now brings them to the church for recycling. We’ve cut down on the size of our bulletin to a single, double-sided piece of recycled paper, and we serve fair trade coffee purchased from our Equal Exchange partnership through UMCOR.

The Sugar Grove youth group have also started making and selling rain barrels in order to generate funding for the food pantry. After last year’s drought, it became evident just how limited our natural resources are and our recent Creation Care sermon series raised awareness as to how we can make simple changes in our lifestyle that will greatly benefit this earth. Collecting the rainfall from our roofs and using the water in our garden is an easy way to help conserve and better use water. I’m even using one as my podium!

Another initiative involving our Youth is our new “Park & Ride” carpooling ministry, where we coordinate commuter groups of people who live in Butler County and drive to Bowling Green for work. A round trip commute costs about $250 in gas every month (and will be more if gas prices continue to climb!), plus spews unnecessary carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions into our environment. We match up carpoolers and invite them to leave their cars in our parking lot, where we give them free coffee on Tuesdays and will even wash their car for them while they are at work. An added bonus for single moms is that we will change their oil as well.

Sugar Grove has decided that God is Green, and that as followers of Christ, we should be also!