Our Vision: "To Humbly Serve God through Loving and Caring for Others"

Worship at MZUMC
In addition to our online worship service, starting tomorrow September 27th we are excited to begin our Tailgate Service. Everyone is invited to join us in the church parking lot for worship at 10 am. Click here access the worship lineup; print and bring with your or access it on your smart phone during the service.

This Sunday's pre-recorded worship service can be found here.

*So you don't miss any uploads, be sure to subscribe to our page and turn on notifications.
Sunday September 27, 2020
Prayer Concerns
Dorris Benson
Virginia Ethington
Tracie Gamblin
Joel Gerberich
Jack Kohl
Mitchell Oleson
Peterman Family
Ernestine Small 
Jeff Snyder
Jackson Weber and Family

*Please call the church with any prayer requests or pastoral care needs
News and Opportunities to Serve













Memorial Garden Bricks

We will once again be placing an order for memorial bricks to be installed in our Memory Garden. Celebrate the life of a cherished loved one with these lasers engraved 4” x 8” bricks. The cost of each brick will be $30.00 payable to the church. 

Click here for the order form. For any additional questions, please contact Gary Pennington at 412-580-0629 or by email at GRKJPENNINGTON@GMAIL.COM.

College Care Packages

This has been a weird year for college students, now more than ever we want to show this group of our church family that we at MZUMC are thinking about them, praying for them, and supporting them. This year instead of sending the traditional college care packages we will be sending a gift card with a note of encouragement. If you would like to help with the cost of this outreach, please write "College Care Packages" on the memo line of your check If you have a college student, this includes certificate programs, community college, or the more traditional college student, please send their name and the address where we can mail their card to the office at office@mzumc.org by October 14th.

Pen Pal Program

Calling all kids, youth, and adults! We are partnering with Heritage Crossing, a nursing home close to the church, to start a pen pal program. Everyone who wants to be involved will be paired up with a resident to exchange letters with one another. During this time, the residents have had to be very isolated for health reasons but this has led to a feeling of disconnection and severe loneliness. If you would like to be involved in this program all you have to do is email the office and let us know that you would like to be involved. 

Acme CashBack

The Acme CashBack program has begun! Please keep your receipts dated August 6 or later; and either drop them off at the church or mail them into us. Last year we earned the church over $375 for the discretionary fund!

"Seat Covers"

Open M needs diapers for families. Diapers are one of those things that people in poverty cannot buy with food stamps. Talking with Julie Carmeal from Open M, she said their "diaper" contact fell through and that they are in short supply. Often parents leave their kids in diapers longer than they should because they are in short supply themselves which causes the child to cry and raises the anxiety, let alone the health issue for the child! The East Ohio Conference used to do "Seat Cover" drives to gather diapers for local food pantries. That hasn't happened for a whole lot of years now but it was a cute way to promote and gather resources! Julie mentioned they take open packs too because they will always open them and put them in their own bags of 20 diapers before sending them out. So we will be collecting diapers to get to our friends at Open M! 


Children's Ministry
Contact: Cyndi Liming limingcmboa@icloud.com
Check out the Children's Ministry Website for updates here
 
Sunday School and Children's Church lessons can be found on the church's YouTube Page. Each week Cyndi will be recording new and interactive lessons that your child can listen to from home!
Student Ministry
Contact: Jennifer Dyer mzumcstudent@gmail.com








This week we are excited to celebrate the confirmation of 5 of our youth who will be confirmed during our first "Tailgate worship" service this Sunday at 10:00 am. Those who will be confirmed are: Jayce Collins, Sydney Firca, Aiden Rench, Lexi Saris, and Ty Spurlock

Fall youth group

This year our youth will meet in four groups based on gender and age group. Below are the leaders and initial meeting times for each group. All meetings will take place at the church. Middle school is grades 6-8 and high school is grades 9-12. 

  • Middle School Girls: Oct 4th 11:15 am-12:30 pm
  • Middle School Boys: Bill Liming and Brian Hummer - Oct 11th 11:00 am-12:00 pm
  • High School Girls: Jennifer Dyer and Sarah Port - Oct 11th 11:00 am-12:00 pm
  • High School Boys: Jim McCargar and Matt Cern - Oct 11th 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Preschool
Contact: Sharon Paige spaige@mzumc.org
This week in Preschool we will be having a “Blast” with the letter “B” enjoying a teddy bear picnic together, creating bubble prints, counting beans, sorting butterflies and learning about polar bears and bats. Our mission project this month is filling and decorating 24 mini Animal Critter boxes to give to the residents of Heritage Crossings. We are just “WILD” about teaching our children about having a “Serving Heart”.

As Montrose Zion Christian Preschool continues to welcome children back to school, we have worked very hard doing everything we can to ensure the safety of the children, staff, and families in this Ministry.  Based on ODJFS rules and recommendations, there are lots of changes in our new Health and Safety Policies and Procedures including mask wearing for both teachers and students, new lobby drop-off with temperature checks and individual sensory buckets and school supply art material bins for each child. We continue to be prepared to help these parents and their child feel comfortable and safe in our program every single day!! We only have a few opening left in each of our small classes. Email Sharon Paige at spaige@mzumc.org if you would like to schedule a tour.  



Music Ministry
Contact: Joe Leaman joeleaman@me.com
Music

Anyone who is interested in providing Special Music during the special music time on Sunday mornings, please contact Music Director, Joe Leaman via email: joeleaman@me.com.
Update from Joel Gerberich
The Jesus Film
As I sit down to write this, Dan and I have just returned from showing the Jesus film last night. While my movie night experiences are usually fairly restful, showing the Jesus film leaves me feeling more like I just got no sleep at a youth group lock-in. I'm glad for this cup of coffee. Anyway, the Jesus film; we had resolved that we would take the video to a compound about 45 minutes away, so when our escort (friend) did not show up, we were dependent on our couple month old memory to navigate the bush to his place. The sun was setting behind some clouds when we got in, so we immediately found a place to set up. We tried to delay the video in hopes that our friend would show, but as the crowd grew impatient and the stars filled the sky, we went for it. The opening creation scene is wonder-ous as the galaxies form below the star filled sky. It was a packed "house" and although the audio was a bit sub-par compared to the obnoxious bugs humming in the trees above, it was awesome to see people engaged with this two hour long film. After a rough night of sleep on a plastic mat with a visit from a couple goats in the early morning, I enjoyed the sunrise while the women milked the cows. We checked the hyena traps then sat around until "brunch" was served around 11am. At some point in talking with Simon Lokualong, the father of our friend, we started talking about God. He shared a bit about the challenges of life here (both past and present) before we got to talking about the new creation, a fully redeemed world. We talked about creation, Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel before skipping ahead to Jesus. He shared that "he had not heard God's word before but he was learning". It was a greatly encouraging conversation! Please pray for us as we use the Jesus film to share the Gospel among the Laarim. If you want to check out the film, click here. And, continue to pray for language learning as it is critical for ministry here. Additionally, as I shared in my previous prayer requests, we shared the Jesus film at Chief Angelo's compound about four weeks ago (read more here).

Discovery Bible Study (DBS)
Since showing the Jesus film at Chief Angelo's house, we began a DBS which uses 25 Bible stories from Genesis to Revelation to share the story of the scriptures. This past Tuesday, I shared the story of Cain and Abel, and I am grateful for the time we continue to share with Angelo and his family. I am constantly learning but find this to be one of the sweetest and most challenging parts of the week. This time usually includes some worship, prayer, and the story with some follow up "conversation", which is more like review. The group is fairly inconsistent, but there is one dude who seems to be engaging pretty well, Lokwanang Lokwar (a different Lokwanang than previously mentioned). Pray that he would be receptive to the word and want to follow Jesus. Additionally, this past week, a few guys stopped in for the DBS and while one seemed pretty apathetic, another asked, "where is Paradise?" and "where is God?" which led to some good conversation. God seemed to really press thoughts about eternity on me when I arrived out here, so I trust that he was preparing me for discussions like this. It was also during this DBS that I was reminded by the Holy Spirit of the mystery of salvation, namely the work of God to draw and the choice of man to come (see John 6:35, 44). We plan to begin a DBS at Chief Joseph's compound next week as well.

Please continue to pray for the work here, for myself and the team as well as the Laarim people. While these movie nights can leave me a bit wiped out and weeks here leave me grateful for Sabbath rest, I know the work here is worthy.

I'll leave you with the words of Paul to Timothy, words I sometimes read as if given to me by a mentor:

"Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory."


Other Prayer Requests:
- For 4 of our friends (David, Love, Melissa, and Tessa) from Torit who are here for this week to get a taste of ministry; pray that God would move their hearts for the Laarim as they will all move to a new ministry location next year
- For the people of Loricia, Bubite, Marco's compound, and others as the Jesus film is shared there
- My brother and sister in law just had a baby; pray for Katherine Rachael


















The view from my seat around a small fire as the Jesus Film plays




















Contact Information
565 N. Cleveland-Massillon Road, Akron, OH 44333
(330)665-9817
  
Rev. Dr. Bill Liming x202
Pastor
 
Katie Constantine
Office Manager
 
Jennifer Dyer x204
Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries
 
Sharon Paige x205
Preschool Director
  
Cyndi Liming x206
Children's Ministry Director
 
Joe Leaman x207
Music Ministry Director