UCM Ministry Connections-April 2019

 

United Campus Ministry Connections – April 2019 When We Claimed this as a Year of Growth…Little Did We Know! When we kicked off our fundraising campaign for 2019 during the November Giving Tuesday, we named it the UCM Year of Growth Campaign. The name established our goal for financial support growth in 2019. What we did not expect is the Year of Growth in our Programming.  When you set a goal, it can blossom in unexpected ways! YEAR OF GROWTH: Since kicking of our financial campaign at the end of November, we have: added fourteen new sustaining monthly donors for a total of twenty-two monthly donors have 100% Board Members Giving seen congregations and their members increase their giving in wonderful ways We have also: seen a 30% increase in student participation in our regular programming, without dramatically increasing our expenses. added new programming to answer student requests for more opportunities for engagement met new students every single week, who keep coming back observed our students inviting and engaging students in incredible ways received excited and engaged feedback from more incoming freshman than ever before.  They are ready to find us the first week on campus! You are invited to join us in this Year of Growth!  This is a thriving ministry filled with students who are engaging, equipping and empowering each other for many years of growth ahead! Jack and Allie attended SHYQ to share about UCM with Arkansas Presbytery Youth Two of our Lilly Leadership Interns traveled with Kristi to Senior High Youthquake at Ferncliff on March 30 to share with the students about UCM and campus ministry. April 1 Was a Busy Day at UCM! We started April with a day full of visitors. Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center came to share about staff opportunities, several pastors and youth leaders from the area joined us and Phil Butin and Jane Webb joined Monday Lunch and our board meeting to connect with us as our Committee on Ministry liaisons to our search. Stop by for Monday lunch and experience the energy and fun, too! 11:30am to 1:00pm is best! UCM GAME NIGHT Leslie and Ted Belden hosted UCM students for dinner and game night on April 5. It was a fabulous night of food, fellowship and a huge and very competitive game of Name That Person. We had a lot of fun and welcomed some new friends as well as got to know each other better. Bike-a-Thon 2019 is April 27 Join us for our third annual ride between 9am and Noon on the 27th! We will have a 14-mile ride from Lake Springdale and a 7-mile ride from Veteran’s Park at Lake Fayetteville, ending with a Taco Bar Party at UCM! Support a student rider. Support your pastor: Dennis Ritchie, Ronnie Prevost, Becky Purcell and Phil Butin are riding so far! Encourage others to ride. Let us know you are joining us! Allie with members of First Presbyterian Church, Prairie Grove, during a work-day clean-up. Lilly Intern Spotlight – Allie Allie is a first year student from Frisco, Texas. She learned about UCM by attending the annual senior high retreat for Grace Presbytery, SHYC. Luke and Katie traveled there last year to share about the opportunity.  This year Allie and another first year student from Grace Presbytery, Jack, returned with Luke and Katie to share about UCM. This connection helped Allie make her college choice to attend the U of A and she walked on campus ready to get connected to UCM as soon as possible. By the end of her first semester, she applied for a Lilly Leadership Initiative internship, jumping in with both feet! Welcoming the Opportunity: Allie was excited for this internship because she was ready to get involved with a church family in NWA! She trusted that God was at work and would send her exactly where she needed to be. Allie’s mentor in the internship is Becky Purcell, the pastor of First Presbyterian, Prairie Grove.  Becky has expressed her excitement for the opportunity to work with Allie because mentoring a college student in following Christ, especially in a small church, feels like essential ministry to Becky.  She says: “In our life’s journey, we literally cannot follow Jesus unless we are in some way part of the body–in some way part of a community of faith.” Highlights: So far, Allie has enjoyed getting the opportunity to interact with a new group of people. This internship provides her with the chance to get to know the congregation of First Presbyterian, Prairie Grove, in so many different ways- from meeting with members individually, to going out to Sunday afternoon lunches, all the way to doing yard work with the Wednesday night Bible study group. Becky shared that having Allie present in worship, fellowship and service activities have all been highlights. In these, she shared her confidence and her perseverance (finding a rural cabin despite faulty GPS directions!) and her natural curiosity to learn about others. Looking Forward: Moving forward, Allie looks forward to getting to know members better, and for more one-on-one pastoral care meetings with some of them. Becky shared that for Presbyterians today the most concrete and common expression of this community is the small church. Becky said: “And small church ministry is so FUN.  And like family!  I hope to help students like Allie realize that ministry in a small church whether as a deacon or a mission facilitator or an educator or a pastor is joyful work.” Do you Shop on Amazon? There is a really simple way to leverage your Amazon purchases for UCM. Just by going in through AmazonSmile Foundation(a charity side of Amazon), UCM can get .5% of your purchase. Connect your account to AmazonSmile!!! https://smile.amazon.com/ch/71-0707657  It will say we are “Arkansas Presbyterian and Disciples Ministry Board” and it says we are based in Hot Springs.  This is all due to where and how our tax exempt status is filed.  This is us! We received our first dividend check in March for $20.  Every little bit adds up!  Bike-a-thon 2018

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