Christmas Poinsettias Available Now!

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If you would like to place a poinsettia in the sanctuary for Christmas in honor or memory of an individual, orders are now being accepted. 8 inch red Poinsettia’s will be ordered from Personal Touch Florist and the cost is $20.00 each. Ruth Sizemore and her helpers will also be making bow’s for the poinsettia’s. If you would like to order a poinsettia please submit your order by Nov. 9th with the payment to the church office. You can download the form by clicking here.

UMW News – October 2016

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October is fast approaching and will be a very busy month for our UMW.  October 11 is our regular meeting day.  Linda Burnette has our program and we will also install officers for the upcoming year On October 22 we will travel to Jordan’s Chapel for Wytheville District UMW Fall Annual Meeting.  Let me know if you’d like to join us for that trip!  Due to elections in November our UMW meeting has been changed to November 1.

We are getting things ready for the Angel Tree project since Christmas is just around the corner.  More on that will be coming soon.

Mark your calendar for our UMW Sunday on Oct. 16th and plan to bring your favorite dish for our covered dish meal following the 11:00 service.  We will provide meat, bread, and drinks.  I’m sure you will want to hear our new district superintendent, Rev. Kim Goddard and to have the opportunity to meet her.

State of the Church – 2016

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2016 has been an interesting year again we have lost many members, and members’ family to death.  So our membership and average attendance continues to decline.  However in spite of this trend, we remain in good shape financially.  We are facing the fact that the cost of maintenance and necessary repairs, some of which should have been done in the past, on our building will continue to raise, and take a large portion of our resources.  So far we have been able to pay these costs with interest earnings; however we may have to spend principle for future needs.

Things we continue to do well; our music department adds so much to our worship; our United Methodist Women remain a vital and strong unit; our Missions Committee again this year donated to each of the thirty-eight Holston Conference Projects under the four categories-International Advance (5), U.S. Advance (11), UMCOR (5), and Conference Advance (17).  We also participated in the Annual Conference Hands-On Mission Project, Charge for Children Offering, and had a good response for the Cleaning Buckets after the flood in West Virginia.  All of this is in addition to our Health and Welfare Assistance Program each Tuesday that makes a real difference to those in need.  Our congregation as a whole also supports the “Angel Tree” program, the Christmas Shoe Drive, Back Pack Buddies in Galax, and Grayson County.  We also contributed to the Tri-Area Pregnancy Resource Center’s “Baby Bottle” campaign.  Each of these programs has an impact on our local community.   We also pay our Conference Tithes and District asking’s each year.

We also reach out to our community by allowing the use of our building by the following groups: Mountain Top School, Alcoholics’ Anonymous, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts.

Perhaps our greatest success continues to be our Kids’ Junction Ministry.  This provides diapers, formula, baby food, school supplies, and clothing for children’s sizes 0 to 8.  These items are not covered by SNAP benefits so they greatly help those families in need.  In preparation for the opening of this school year, our congregation provided fifty-nine back packs filled with needed school supplies.  Way to go!

As the words of a song from my youth said; “The times are a-changing.”  We at First Galax United Methodist Church earnestly seek to know what God’s will for us is in these changing times.  Please join us in this endeavor.

Richard