The Weekly Courier

April 24, 2025

"We seek to connect people to God, each other, and the wider community and to welcome and affirm all people"

Prepare Your Heart...

This Sunday, before you hear Kim lead our Song Team in singing "Hungry" by Kathryn Scott, check out this special bilingual performance by Deborah Hong.

Click on the picture --> 

This Week's Calls to Action!

• Check out the local Interfaith Earth Day Celebration next week
• Sign up to walk or pledge to give to the Thurston County Hunger Walk
• Grab a book from the office for the new Book Study group starting on May 18
• Pick up your new copy of the May-June Upper Room devotional

For more information about all of these events and opportunities, read on below...

Interfaith Earth Day Celebration

Join us for a free and family-friendly day of service and interfaith sharing focused on regenerative agriculture! Activities will include hands-on service to care for

the land, interfaith sharing over a meal (soup & bread provided), and special guest Earth Feather Sovereign, local Indigenous activist and advocate.

Sunday, April 27, 2025, 12pm - 2pm at the Lincoln Garden @ Lincoln Elementary School.

Please register at https://bit.ly/2025Earthday. RSVP encouraged. Help us ensure we have

enough food to go around! This event is Sponsored by: Interfaith Works, Restoring Earth Connection, Green Faith Alliance of Olympia

Affinity Nights Is On Break

There are NO Affinity Nights this Wednesday, 4/30 (we've taken TWO weeks off to give our wonderful staff members an Easter break). Join us again next week (5/7) for our normal 6pm potluck and 7pm activity hour.

Kaleidoscope Kids will also be resume alongside Affinity Nights activities—providing food and fellowship options for all ages. Childcare is available for those who need it during dinner/activity time.

Thurston County Hunger Walk 2025!

Join us on May 4th at 3 PM at Huntamer Park (618 Woodland Square Loop SE) for our annual hunger-relief fundraiser! Formerly called the CROP Walk, this Walk and celebration supports both the Thurston County Food Bank and The Community Kitchen.

Your participation helps provide warm meals to those in encampments, shelters, and other locations, while also ensuring that individuals and families facing food insecurity can access food at the food bank's pantries and satellites. As community needs grow, both organizations are providing more food than ever before. Join us in making a difference—donate today! Give online at the Thurston Hunger Walk 2025 99 Pledges website or mail a check (The First Methodist Church of Olympia already has a team started so be sure to note your team name in the memo for credit.)

Make checks payable to: Thurston Hunger Walk Mail to: Thurston County Food Bank, P.O. Box 11549, Olympia, WA 98508. Questions? Email AmandaM@tcfb.org.

May-June Upper Rooms

May-June issues of the Upper Room are ready for pick-up for $1.00!

You may get yours on a Sunday morning, before or after worship. Or swing by the church Monday-Thursday, 10am-2pm.

Come Join a Choir

Our Common Ground Choir meets on Thursdays @6:45pm in the Gathering Place.

And the Jeffords Memorial Handbell Choir 

meets on Wednesdays @5:30 in the Choir Room. Please come join us!

New Book Study Group (w/ Erica Parsons)

CRINGE. You know the feeling. It comes out of nowhere when you hear a phrase or a song that is familiar and not in a pleasant way. The cringe comes first followed by a wave of memories—some good, a lot bad—and all the feelings and thoughts start swirling around in your mind and body. You're suddenly transported back to your childhood church experiences and the panic sets in—how do I get out? And then you take a deep breath, open your eyes and see that you are safe, you are welcome, you are seen, you are loved. You are an adult now and you've left your childhood church experiences behind you.

But every now and again those old fears come up to the surface and another layer of faith deconstruction happens. Yet something still feels like it's missing. Like you've opened an old wound that just won't heal. You've tried to fill the space with all kinds of things over the years, but your soul is longing for something... something familiar and yet new. Is it even possible, you wonder, to experience a relationship with the divine? To know the spiritual parts of ourselves? To find rest for our souls? If you've been wandering in the wilderness of deconstruction for a while, you may have felt alone, in the dark, aimless. You've heard reconstruction is possible but you have no idea where to start... or even if you want to.

Dear one, you are not alone.

Once a month for an hour, let us gather and share what we know, what we are questioning, our resources and knowledge, our griefs and our joys, our hopes and our worries. We have a book or two that we'll read along the way, to guide our paths. Though deconstruction of your faith may have happened alone, reconstruction can happen together. Please consider joining me on the 3rd Sunday of the month (starting May 18th) from 9-10am in Room 221. If you would like to purchase the books we'll be reading together (starting with Searching For Sunday by Rachel Held Evans) please inquire with the church office by April 23rd. I'm so looking forward to sitting with you, hearing your stories, and reading together!

Scam Alert!

We have seen an increase in phishing emails being sent out impersonating Pastor Heather. Often, the emails start by asking for some kind of favor. If you reply, the email author will eventually ask for money or gift cards. When receiving an email from First Olympia UMC, always double check the address. 

Our emails come from an @fumcoly address. Also, please verify the request with a staff member BEFORE sending money or purchasing fit cards. We will not approach you for monetary donations in this manner. No request from a staff member will ever be so urgent that it can't wait for a personal verification (phone call, in-person conversation, etc...)

FUMCO Gleaners

On Maundy Thursday, our FUMCO Gleaners planted more than 1,000 cabbage starts at the Food Bank Garden in West Olympia! Gleaners will next work on Thursday, 5/13. 

For more information or how to get involved, contact Rob Harper (rbh25@comcast.net). 

Can You Donate Snacks?

We are in need of healthy, low/no-sugar, individually packaged snacks for our kiddos during the church service. If you are able to help, please bring your donations to the church office.

Thank you so much! — Miss Brittney & Toni Miklich

Life of the Church

On Sunday, we had a beautiful Easter service with a FULL sanctuary. Thank you for helping us celebrate that Christ is truly risen indeed!

And, after worship, we had our ribbon-cutting ceremony for the OFFICIAL opening of our new Free Little Pantry. We hope this neighborhood resource will be used by both those in need of self-safe food items and those seeking to give back to our community with practical donations. Check it out!

You can find more photos from this event (and many more) on our Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCOLY.

We Remember...

Jim Woods, husband of Velma Woods, who passed on 4/8. There will be no service.

Our Welcoming Statement

First United Methodist Church of Olympia welcomes people of all ages, all abilities,

all sexual orientations and gender identities, all nationalities and ethnicities,

the poor and the rich, single people and the many forms of family.

See our Church Calendar.

Visit our webpage!

Watch our latest worship service

Read the latest Joys & Concerns

Like us on Facebook!

Follow us on Instagram!

Contact us ...

by phone: 360-943-2661 by email: fumco@fumcoly.org

OFFICE HOURS: Sunday 9am-noon | Monday-Thursday 10am-2pm

The Weekly Courier editor: Lauren Fontanilla