Greetings and best wishes for good health and much happiness this year!

As I begin my new year as the Primrose UMW president, I realize how blessed I am to be part of this great Mission Team and I cannot wait to get to know the officers and members better. "Thank you" to Minnie Beth White for being a wonderful president and I look forward to her help and guidance in this coming year. "Thank you" also to other officers of the UMW this past year and the terrific job you have all done.

I was raised Roman Catholic, and although my father's family is Methodist, I was not familiar with the Methodist ways. My family and I have been going to Primrose United Methodist Church now for almost two years and I joined the United Methodist Women when we first started with Primrose. I read the Purpose of the United Methodist Women, which is to be an organized unit of United Methodist Women. We shall be a community of women whose purpose is to know God and to experience freedom as whole persons through Jesus Christ; to develop a creative, supportive fellowship; and to expand concepts of mission through participation in the global ministries of the United Methodist Church.

Since the election of officers, I have really been doing a lot of reading on the United Methodist Women and thinking to myself, "what can we do as a mission and how can we help." What if we did "The Twelve Months of Ingathering"? Wouldn't it be fun to collect a certain item each month? And, as we are collecting items (like toothbrushes, rubber gloves, etc) we can know that we are helping someone who needs our helping hand. Let's see how we as women of the church can lead all people in helping others. I know we can do it by the grace and power of God. I have seen it!

Wow! It is August already. Where did the summer go? I wanted to remind the ladies that Summer is a perfect time to catch up on our reading program. What better way to relax than to sit at the beach/lake/pool or just somewhere cool with a book from the reading program. It would be a great way to log some points. Remember Plan 1 is only 4 books per year. If anyone is interested in the book list or needs a reading form, they will be on the bulletin board in the hallway by Ella's office.

It is funny, I though I was the only one excited to see August come, but I have seen so many parents smiling more lately. Could this be because school will begin very soon? I feel like the office supply store commercial that comes on with me singing and skipping down the school supply aisle, while the kids behind me have frowns on their faces.

So this brings me into our UMW mission for August. Our August mission is back to school supplies

As we just had our quarterly UMW meeting on June 6, I wanted to remind the ladies out there about the UMW. As you remember, the UMW is an organization dedicated to fulfiling the spiritual fellowship and service-oriented needs of Christian women. We manage to accomplish this through many different groups in our organization. We have several committees and several fund-raising events that are held throughout the year, although all of this is NOT our main reason for being United Methodist Women. We also work on several missions that connect us to our local community, district and national conferences. We also have the opportunity to pledge individual pledges that go to the World Mission program of the United Methodist Church. You are not required to be a United Methodist to be a member of our United Methodist Women. Membership is open to any woman who indicates her desire to belong and to participate in the global mission of the Church through United Methodist Women (¶255.4 Article 4; Book of Discipline 2000). So I would like to invite all of you to our next luncheon, which is August 22 at 11:40 (right after worship, which starts at 10:30).
Our monthly mission for July is School Kits.

Each School Kit shall contain:

• 1 pair blunt scissors (rounded tips)
• 3 pads (or loose leaf) of 8½ X 11 inch ruled paper
• 1 30-centimeter ruler
• 1 hand-held pencil sharpener
• 6 unsharpened pencils with erasers
• 1 eraser (2½ inches)
• 1 box of 24 crayons (only 24 per box)

Upcoming events for July include:
July 29-August 1 = Arkansas Conference School of Christian Mission will be held at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. When you attend you will study the Epistles of John. There will be workshops entitled "The Beauty and Courage of Sudan: Why a Dream of Peace is Possible" and "Joy to the World: Mission in the Age of Global Christianity."

"Thank you" to my church family for helping me with my many questions about UMW and what to do. I think I e-mail Angel Pike just about every week with "what to do?" questions. She just keeps on smiling at me.

Wouldn't it be great to make prayer shawls? I would like to hear what you think. Just address an e-mail to Malinda at primroseprays@primroseumc.org