Happy Anniversary Believers!

The Believers Class is officially one year old! We had our first class on April 22, 2010 and we celebrated our one year anniversary on Sunday, May 8, 2011. It is hard to believe that it has already been one year and we have accomplished so much. We had a wonderful breakfast that morning and had everything from donuts, fruit, sweet rolls, muffins, cupcakes, breakfast casserole and much more. Everything was delicious and we enjoyed visiting with each other and then watched a slide show that Amy Parker worked very hard to create. We also looked and admired our class scrapbook that Dawn Fizer spent countless hours creating. We are so thankful for Amy and Dawn for helping make our anniversary party so memorable. Thanks to our entire class for a wonderful year and we are looking forward to many more to come!

Lighthouse Social

On Saturday, February 19th we had a family social event at the Lighthouse.  There was plenty for the kids to do and they were able to literally “run wild” in the gym.  They played with hoola hoops, basket balls, footballs, etc.  There was so much to do and it was a great way to get the kids worn out for a good nights sleep.  The Dads enjoyed getting to brush up on their basketball skills too!  We had pizza delivered and also had chips, goldfish crackers, grapes, cookies, brownies and much more.  The food was great and everyone had a great time being together with our families.  We had about 15 families attend the event, so you can see we had a full house!  Thanks to the church for letting us use the Lighthouse, we had a great time and will definitely be back again for another social!  Enjoy the pictures below, thanks to Margaret Powell!

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Happy New Year!

The Believers had a very busy Christmas season! We completed a lesson series based off the book Christmas From the Backside. This lesson series took a look from a different perspective a the Christmas story. We also participated in several outreach projects including: providing gifts for a mother and her son through the Babies First program, providing a monetary donation to assist with purchasing gifts for local children through the Vestavia School System, and also adopted five children from our church's Angel Tree. Margaret Powell, Margo Price and Heather Creel spent an afternoon shopping for the Angel Tree children and were able to purchase items they needed in addition to wish list items. Our class really enjoyed reaching out to those in need and will continue to do so throughout the year.

We also celebrated and had our first annual Tacky Christmas Party at the Reed's home. Everyone dressed in their tackiest Christmas attire and looked incredible! There were prizes for several categories for the tackiest. It was a great time and we enjoyed visiting and ate BBQ and of course lots of yummy desserts. Thank you to the Reed's for so graciously opening their home to our group!

Tacky Christmas Party

Mark your calendars for the upcoming Christmas Party!  Please make your check payable to Heather Hurt for $20 per couple.  We will have the food catered from Costas.  See the invitation for other details below:

Girls Night Out

This past Tuesday, November 16th, we had a Girls Night Out at the Melting Pot.  It was lots of fun and had a crowd of 9 that attended.  For most of us it was the first time we had been to this restaurant and even the first time to have fondue.  It was fun getting to try the different courses.  It started off with an appetizer with different cheeses and you could dip bread, granny smith apples or vegetables.  The next course was the salad (no fondue for this course).  Next there was the main course… raw chicken, shrimp, steak and tortellini.  You actually had to cook your meat by dipping it into the vegetable stock for at least 2 minutes.  It was very interesting, but was very good.  The last course was everyone’s' favorite – dessert!  We had one pot that had snickers sauce, one with peanut butter and chocolate and a third with just plain milk chocolate.  There were rice crispy treats, cheesecake, marshmallows, brownies, strawberries, bananas, etc. to dip into the yummy goodness.  Everyone said that they would be up for just skipping the entree next time and getting all desserts, they were that good!  There was a great time had by all and we are already looking forward to our next one.  Thanks to Heather Hurt and Dawn Fizer for planning this for our group.  Keep checking back for more updates on our next event. 

Tablescapes Luncheon

The Believers Class hosted two tables at the Tablescapes Luncheon on Tuesday, October 5th.  One of the tables was decorated like Shabby Chic and the other was Candy Land.  Jenny Ballentine headed up the decorations for these two tables and they were so very cute and creative!  We had lots of class members help decorate as well.  Heather Hurt also decorated a table on her own.  All of the tables looked phenomenal as you can see from the pictures.  All of the class members (Heather Hurt, Melodie Mallette, Amy Parker, Margaret Powell, Margo Price, Jenny Ballentine, Dawn Fizer, Tracey Barker, and Mindy Reed) that attended the luncheon absolutely loved the speaker and had a blast.  I know everyone is already looking forward to next year.  Enjoy the pictures!

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Upcoming Outreach Opportunities

• Kairos Prison Ministry - Cookies needed!  The Kairos ministry team (led by Mike Harris, Tom Watson, Rocky Alling and Butch Williams) will be going to the Donaldson Correctional Facility the weekend of October 21st.  The program provides the structure and materials for inmates to form Prayer & Share groups while they are still in prison; thus equipping the men with a strong foundation for when they are released from prison.  Our class can make a difference by baking cookies for the participants.  The team typically takes between 400 - 500 dozen cookies.  If you are interested in helping, please drop the baked cookies off to the church office by noon on October 21st.

• Angel Tree Project - This program is to help children living in less than ideal situations feel loved and cared for at Christmas time.  If our class would like to participant, we just need to determine how many children we can help.  We then choose the Angels from the trees at church and buy them gifts.  Each Angel lists specific gift requests made by the child in need.  The trees should be up by November 14 and the gifts are due on December 12th.  **A great suggestion made in class is that a group of those interested could get together and buy the gifts one Sunday after church.  I think this would be a lot of fun and the group could all go to lunch together before shopping.  If you are also interested in packing and sorting the gifts on the 12th, please contact Margaret Flowers at mflowers@vhumc.org.

• Church of the Reconciler - Deliver and Serve Meals to the Birmingham downtown homeless population.  Our church provides this great ministry the first Sunday of every month.  Our class volunteered this past summer and those that participated thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  The ministry team is trying to fill their calendar for 2011, and it would be great if our class could help again!  We would be responsible for payment of the meal (approximately $350), picking up the prepared food from our church kitchen, and delivering/serving it at the Church of the Reconciler.

Please let Heather Creel know if you are interested in participating in any of the opportunities above or if you have any questions.  Thanks to Heather for organizing and providing us with the information for how we can help others inside our congregation and out in the community!