What a beautiful Holy Week and Easter! Thank you to all who worked and served to create meaningful worship and gathering opportunities this past week.

It is true that Jesus came to empower God's people to do God's work. As we look ahead to the events and busyness of Spring, let us not forget that we are a resurrection people. We are a people called to show up and live like death cannot hold us, live like death is not the end, live like there is so much more life available to us and the world than we can see with our eyes, but is found in our very souls.

Being a follower of Jesus is more than showing up to church and occasionally volunteering, it's a way of showing up every day in your life. Jesus showed us that his redeeming work was in the daily interactions. Resurrection was a result of the redeeming work.

Let us live into that redeeming work and let us rise together.

Faithful Hospitality is ongoing! Please remember that our building will be extra busy over the next couple of months. If you have questions or need to reserve space in the church building for an activity, please reach out to the church office.

Volunteers still needed. Sign up here.

April

27 Tom & Lynn Ihlenfeldt, Blake Butenhoff

May

4 Carol McCarty & Kristen Herkenhoff

11 Phill & Linda Gill, Steve & Sandra Burrowes

Below is the most updated draft of this program year's Coffee Hour Schedule. There are some new names on the list, if you are a new member or regular attender, check to see if you have been added. If you would like to be included, but don't see your name, please reach out to the church office and we would love to add you to the schedule.

Coffee Hour servers bring treats to share and set up and clean up the coffee time with lemonade and coffee between Sunday School and Worship (Sept-May) and after worship (June-Aug.) Wherever possible, people are assigned to their birthday month.

Volunteers are urgently needed to prepare and serve Wed School Dinners! This is a practical and fun way to serve our community and support faith formation and music programs by providing a meal before programs begin on Wednesday evenings. .

Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084CADAD29A5F5C16-50979841-wednesday#/

We love all the ways that individuals and families provide financial support to Fairmount. Thank you! However, we have a couple of requests to help our volunteer-led financial processes run smoothly and to assure your gifts are credited according to your wishes:

1. If you are making a donation against your pledge by check, it's helpful if you indicate the intended pledge fund on the memo line of your check, such as “Operating”, “Building” or "$x Operating and $y Building". Our counters do not have access to your confidential pledge information and so cannot otherwise verify your intentions.

2. If your pledges or other donations are made from your IRA (a “Qualified Charitable Distribution”), or from a Donor Advised Fund (“DAF”) please verify that the financial institution’s mailing adequately identifies you as donor and specifies your intentions for the gift. Critically, there have been instances where such checks do not identify the donor and where the institution cannot reveal that information. Given how difficult those orphaned checks are to resolve, we would appreciate if QCD and DAF givers would provide the office with the name of their financial institution and any automated schedule that may have been established, so we can make those connections if needed.

The Finance Team thanks you!

Mark Your Calendars:

• Join the Annual Fairmount North Shore Fall Hiking Weekend- Save the dates of September 26-28 to join other Fairmount folks for a fall weekend of hiking and fellowship in Grand Marais. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Aspen Lodge in Grand Marais under Fairmount Avenue Hiking Group. There are also Airbnbs, cabins, campgrounds, and other lodging available in the area. The weekend will provide opportunities to explore nature and/or shops, hike (or relax), gather with others from our group, and a Sunday service on the shore. Please join us for an intergenerational weekend on the beautiful shore of Lake Superior!

A Joyful Welcoming Community

• Wed School Dinner- Help Needed! Volunteers are needed to prepare, serve, and clean up for Wednesday School Dinners. This is an important and fun way to be community. Sign up for a time that would work for you.
• Faithful Hospitality Volunteers Needed! Fairmount Avenue UMC is providing sleeping space for families experiencing homelessness as asylum seekers, specifically families with children, who have come through our southern US border. Volunteer Training will be held on February 18 and February 20 at 6:00pm each night. Volunteers are encouraged to attend one session. Sign up to volunteer here.

Igniting Hearts and Mind

• Followers Youth Activities - For all 6-12th grade youth. Join activities throughout the winter! For more information, contact Cindy, Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries, at 763/321-8077 or email cindy@faumc.net.

• Y.A.M. Activities - For all young adults (ages 18-30). Join in activities throughout the winter! Come often. Come as you! For more information, contact Cindy, Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries, at 763/321-8077 or cindy@faumc.net.

For God's Work

• Faithful Hospitality Volunteers Needed! Fairmount Avenue UMC is providing sleeping space for families experiencing homelessness as asylum seekers, specifically families with children, who have come through our southern US border. Volunteer Training will be held on February 18 and February 20 at 6:00pm each night. Volunteers are encouraged to attend one session. Sign up to volunteer here!
• Worship Volunteers Needed! We need volunteers to assist as ushers, greeters, liturgists, and to serve on the Worship Committee. Volunteering is flexible to your schedule. Contact the church office if you think you can help by emailing admin@faumc.net.
  

• First Fruits - We’re so grateful to all who have recently signed up to volunteer. If you are interested in delivering food donations to Keystone Community Services after our monthly donations, please contact the church office or click here: Help Collect and Deliver First Fruit Donations to Keystone

• Adopt-A-Drain– Sign up to Help! We are looking for volunteers to clean the storm drains near the church: 3 at the corner of Fairmount and Saratoga and 2 on Fairmount just east of Snelling. Volunteers are asked to pick up and clear trash, leaves, snow and debris to allow water to drain. Please go to Fairmount Ave UMC: Adopt a Drain Signup to sign up for a month. If you have any questions, please contact Nita at nitahanson@gmail.com.

• Help Serve a Meal at Provincial House - Project Home is looking for volunteers to serve meals as a part of its weekend meal teams at 1880 Randolph Avenue. There are four shifts available every weekend on Saturday and Sunday for lunch and dinner. This opportunity is great for groups of 3-6 people. Currently the way it works is for one person to sign up for the shift and then bring another 2-5 others with them to help. The link for more information and to sign up: https://tinyurl.com/PHMealTeams2023

Worship Resources for Online Worship:

• Be sure to follow Fairmount Avenue United Methodist Church on Facebook.
• Subscribe to Fairmount Avenue UMC's YouTube Channel. We will be using YouTube to offer other creative learning experiences as well as publishing our weekly worship.

In the process of updating church technology, we have switched to Google Calendar as the church's digital calendar platform. The link to the updated calendar is included below, and can also be found linked under "Calendar" on the church website. Any questions or concerns about this transition may be directed to the church office.

Giving online is easy through our PayPal Giving Fund page. Click the image on the left to check it out!

"A joyful, welcoming community; igniting hearts and minds for God's work."

Email: pastorshawna@faumc.net
Website: www.faumc.net
Location: 1523 Fairmount Avenue, Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: 651.699.1335
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fairmount-Avenue-United-Methodist-Church-133875616634215/