Banner Newsletter | July/August, 2022

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community meals are reasons to celebrate. Our support for missions is a
reason to celebrate. Our care for one another is a reason to celebrate. Sharing
in worship that is inspiring, uplifting, and challenging is a reason to celebrate.
Watching our youth grow in their faith is reason to celebrate. Seeing children
running and playing at church, feeling safe and loved is reason to celebrate. So
many reasons to celebrate!
This summer my goal is to slow down, to notice the beauty all around me, to
embrace the little, as well as the large moments, to celebrate this truly incredible
gift of life.
My hope and prayer for each of you is that you will take the time this summer to
slow down, breathe, soak in the beauty that is all around you, celebrate the big
but also the ordinary moments with those you love.
Have a blessed and joy filled summer!
Pr. Wendy
MISSIONS | BUMC Good Neighbor Team Launches
Imagine coming to a new country where you do not read or speak the language, are not
familiar with the customs and one in which you do not have any family or friends nearby
to explain things or help you . . . BUMC is working with World Relief and has formed a
Good Neighbor Team (GNT) to provide assistance to the Mulakhail family, refugees from
Afghanistan that arrived in the U.S. in late December 2021. Walajan and Uzma have seven
children and are expecting another in December.
HEBREWS 13:1-2 Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for
thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
GNT Members (Gwen Bennett, George Gill, Tim (Team Leader) and Silvia Grabacki,
Julia Hooper, Nancy Middleton, Liz Penick, Mike Rapp and Sydney Whitley) have begun
building trust and a relationship with the family. Currently our GNT has begun providing
transportation for the family to medical appointments, taking the family grocery shopping
and helping them with household tasks like learning how to adjust and operate a lawnmower.
We make ourselves available to them as often as needed, using smiles, charades and tools like
Google Translate to help understand each other; their native tongue is Pashto which uses the
Arabic alphabet.
Our journey has just begun. As we become better acquainted with the Mulakhail family, we
will share with our BUMC friends and family what they need and how our congregation might
care for them. We ask for your prayers, may the family feel loved, supported, secure and may
the Good Neighbor Team have wisdom, patience and vision for how best to care for these
precious refugees who are living and navigating in unchartered territory.
If you are interested in joining the Good Neighbor Team, anyone on the team will be happy to
share information on the process (background check, training etc.) and we can add you to a
list to be contacted to receive more information.
PRAYER TEAM: We have a very active Prayer Team ministry here at FUMC. They
believe strongly in the power of prayer and meet on a regular basis to pray for
those in congregation and community that have requested prayer. If you have a
prayer request that you would like included please contact either Marcia Buchs,
mkbuchs@sbcglobal.net, or Pr. Wendy, wwitt@barringtonumc.com.
Thank you.
PRAYER REQUESTS at BUMC We believe in the power of prayer and have a
dedicated prayer team committed to praying your requests. If you have a
prayer request, please contact the church office, (847) 836-5540, Paula Gordon
(pgordon@barringtonumc.com), or Julia Hooper (2juliahooper@gmail.com). Please
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also indicate if you would like your request to be printed in the Sunday bulletin.
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