The kids are getting ready for music Sunday. They love to sing, and we love, listening to them! Article by Joyce L. Wiedrich 12/04/2025 We hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving. Now we are into the advent season. Where has the year gone? Our service this past week started with Donna Johnston talking to us about Yates County Christmas. The distribution is December 2-4 at the Benton fire Hall. Distribution includes helping a family when they shop for hats, gloves, socks, underwear, an outfit, books, toys, a coat, and blanket or quilt. Last year 278 families including 657 kids in Yates county were served. What a wonderful mission that our church is proud to be part of. Pastor Jeannine asked the children if they ever had trouble thinking of what to pray for. She told them a good way to remember was to put their hands together with their thumbs toward them. The thumb is to pray for people who are close to us. The pointer finger is to pray for teachers and parents. The long finger is to pray for our leaders. The ring finger is to pray for those sick or need, and the pinky finger (not to be forgotten) is to pray for yourself. God wants us to pray. He may sometimes trip us to get our attention! Our church has an active prayer chain. We make phone calls to all our prayer warriors. Pastor Jeannine feels praying is one of the most important things we can do as it does change things. The scripture was from Colossians 1: 11-20. In this passage, Paul was in prison-society he prayed and had faith with a positive outlook even when he was in a bad situation. We should pray in the knowledge of God, even when we don’t know the outcome. We need to continue our faith that God sent his son to us. Come join us in our faith based church at 9 AM Sunday service!

We have an active prayer shawl ministry started years ago by Nancy Wilmott. Our congregation prays over these beautiful shawls, and then they are given to the person they were chosen for. Today two ladies mentioned friends that are in need of prayer and chose a prayer shawl especially for them. Hopefully these prayer shawls will give them strength and show the love of those who are caring and praying for them. Article by Joyce L. Wiedrich 11/27/2025 Pastor Jeannine started the service today telling the children about Abraham Lincoln. She gave the children all a penny, and asked them who was on the penny… (concurrently the last penny was minted this week in the United States although there are still millions in circulation). Abraham Lincoln was president during a difficult time in our history. He felt he could not fail because of the assistance of a divine being. Pastor Jeannine asked the children how they would spend $100,000 if they had it. She showed them a picture of her favorite candy bar. Some of the kids said they would buy chicken nuggets, others said they would buy slime. One child said that he would help others. God gave his son to us to help us and show us the way. The scripture this week was from Luke 21: 5-19. It to be a rather dark passage, discussing the destruction of a temple and foreboding the end of times. The positive thought in the passage tells that not a hair and your head will perish if you stand firm in your faith. We have hope in Christ. Pastor Jeannine told the story of the movie, Poseidon Adventure. The ship overturned, and the only way out was going up to the bottom of the ship, and the back to the front. The Pastor on board gave instructions and those that listened and followed were saved from disaster. The world can be a scary place, but in faith we can tackle it. Monday Bible studies at 3 PM will be on the topic of experiencing Christmas. Everyone is free to join. Don't forget to bring your mittens, hats, and scarves for the mitten tree! Feel free to join in on ringing the bells for Yates County Christmas from 9a-4pm in front of Tops supermarket Wednesday, November 26. This is the day that Bluff Point United Methodist Church joins in this mission every year, raising money for distribution at Yates County Christmas. Music Sunday is coming soon! Everyone has been practicing for the Gala musical event on November 30 at church at 9 AM. Bring your family to enjoy this special service. As you can see our church is thriving. There have been recent rumors circulating again that our church is closing. This certainly is not the case. We are an active, loving church. We thrive in coming together to worship and to support the larger community. We offer Sunday school and nursery to our younger members, and are happy to have several young families among us. We welcome visitors. Come join us Sundays at 9:00 am.

A salute to our veterans on Veterans Day Sunday. Remembering those who weren’t in church today and also those that will celebrate in heaven. Thank you for your service. Article by Joyce L. Wiedrich 11/20/2025 Thank you, Laurie Prinzivalli for a wonderful Veterans Day service. Laurie reminded the children of what a veteran is, a person that has served our country in one of the United States services, including the Navy, Coast Guard, Marines, Air Force, Army, and more recently, the Space Force. Joyce Wiedrich and Dana Schillinger brought the Christian and American flag forward is the rest of the veterans in Church followed them. The music for this Sunday was all patriotic, as was the choir anthem. Laurie discussed about the Christian and the American flags. The American flag is a symbol of freedom. We can go where we want to go. We can live where we want to live. We can dream our dreams and say what we want to say. Veterans gave us freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, the right to vote and freedom of religion. The Christian flag gave us freedom in Christ, freedom from hate, freedom from regret, and freedom from bitterness. The scripture from 2 Timothy 2: 3-4 told us how Paul was a veteran Christian. He passed the torch to Timothy. Laurie reviewed a series of E words. A soldier needs to enlist, a soldier needs to endure and engage. We may not all choose to be in the military, but we can all serve in God‘s army and follow Jesus. Music Sunday is coming up on November 30. Please invite your neighbors and family to join us. Chris Wyant put a bag for collection of plastic caps on the back table. A crazy cap lady from Penn Yan is collecting plastic caps, which can be recycled and used to make benches. Please bring your collections in so they may help make a bench! A correction on the recent BPUMC newsletter. The Christmas Eve service on December 24 will be at 7 PM! Thank you for all that signed up to ring the bells the day before Thanksgiving at Tops market. There are still opportunities to join your fellow church members in this activity, which is one of our missions! Don’t forget to bring your mittens, hat, and scarves for the mitten tree. These will also be distributed at Yates County Christmas. Come join us at service at 9 AM on Sunday!

Christie Mosch lights a candle in honor of those we have lost on All Saint’s Sunday. Article by Joyce L. Wiedrich 11/13/2025 This past Sunday, we had a beautiful service. Pastor Jeannine started out showing the children a tub of raw cookie dough. She asked the kids what was missing and they all said chocolate chips. She had one of the children stir in the chocolate chips telling them we can love better with God with us as the cookies are better with chocolate chips in them! Pastor Jeannine told us to think about those who have made a difference in our life. The service was about love. This is why Jesus came to earth. Love makes us human and gives us faith and hope. She told us to be open to others who love us, especially those who have passed on they have given their all to us. We have a sign up sheets going around for people to help with nursery, Sunday school, and snacks after church. We also have a sign up for helping with ringing the bells in front of Tops supermarket the day before Thanksgiving, starting at 9am. This is one of our missions, and it’s the major fundraiser for Yates County Christmas, which annually, distributes gift cards, clothing, books, games, and other items to children and families who might otherwise not have a Christmas. This project was started many years ago by Floyd Tillman. The children have started practicing as their part of singing in our fifth Sunday celebration, which will be on November 30! They are all really excited about this! We hope many of you and the community will come out for our fifth Sunday all-music service, with our choirs and other musical talents. Thank you, Marilyn Sands and Christie Mosch for tasty treats after church!

Today was a baptism Sunday at our BPUMC church. 10 people both adults and children were baptized into the family of Christ. What a special occasion for us to witness and participate in this event Article by Joyce L. Wiedrich 11/06/2025 Pastor Jeannine showed a photo book of her children growing up. The book was full of important memories to her and her family. She wanted to show the children how kids are important to God and God loves us all. What an important day in our Church. We had 10 people baptized today , including both adults and children, with 1 being a reaffirmation of their baptism. The scripture was from Matthew 3: 13-17. John was in nomad, and ate berries and locusts. Despite some of his habits, he did love the Lord. He baptized people for the Lord. Sinless Jesus asked John to baptize him. God also spoke at this time, and the clouds opened up. By this affirmation and love for Christ, the spirit of God descended. God said, This is my son, my beloved, of whom I am well pleased. What an important moment in our church to bring all of these people into our church family! We celebrated after church with a beautiful cake. Each of the people baptized also received a candle to relight next year at this time as an affirmation of their baptism. October was also Pastor appreciation month Pastor Jeannine received a card and gift from the congregation. We so appreciate her being our pastor and leading us in the way of the Lord. Michele Covert read a poem that was written Blanche Fingar, celebrating Pastor Jeannine. We look forward to seeing you at church on Sunday at 9 AM. Visitors always welcome.

Char shows off a stained-glass window that Chris Wyant helped the kids make in Sunday School Article by Joyce L. Wiedrich 10/23/2025 Jeff Stempien brought bags of wooden blocks and explain to the kids that you need to build blocks with God‘s help. You will fall down without grace. We can’t survive without God’s help. The kids were able to get the towers quite high! Last week’s lesson from Grady Bray was about Miriam. She was one of 11 prophets. There were also two faults prophets, which is an issue then and for us today. Prophets represent and give testimony to God. Todays lesson was on Jeremiah, a profit to the ages. Jeremiah became a prophet as a very young man. He was a messenger for God for 40 years. God had talked to Jeremiah- before you were conceived. I knew you. God called Jeremiah to be a prophet. He was unsure, but God reassured him. Jewish tradition told that people can not be leaders and teachers until they are 30 years of age. Jesus also started teaching at age 30. This is one reason that Jeremiah was so reluctant, as at the time he was called he was very young. Thank you, Grady for your inspiring and knowledgeable message. What is God‘s plan for you? Do you look at the Holy Spirit and how it works through your life? Grady Bray told it when he was a young man he wanted to be a fighter pilot. He signed up, but never heard back. He later found that his application was stuck in a file drawer when the person that had interviewed him changed positions. God found for him a different path and another plan for his life! See you Sunday!

We had a room full of pink to support breast cancer awareness month this past Sunday! Article by Joyce L. Wiedrich 10/23/2025 This Sunday Grady Bray was our guest speaker. He told us of the importance of Miriam and women in the early Jewish church. They told people of God’s promises and his expectations it was interesting to see. Is the church transitioned that for quite a time women lost their importance and preaching and sharing God’s word Thank you Grady for a very informative sermon The scripture reading today was John 1: 5-7. The children followed this theme in Sunday school as they learned the different aspects of prayer and they were able to construct some prayers together at the end of our session. They also painted pumpkins! Jeff Stempien gave the children’s sermon. It was based on books that he enjoyed reading to his children and grandchildren. He even brought an Elmo to perform for us 13 of us recently worked to complete our mission of road cleanup on 54 a. This is one of our church missions that we perform twice a year. Participants included Michele Covert, Christie Mosch, Stacy and Chris Wyant, Becki Whitford with Merik and Meridyn, Joyce Wiedirch, Jerry Warren, Trish DeMontfort, Jean Murdock, and, Sarah Stackhouse. Thanks to all who have helped to keep our roads clean. See you in church on Sunday.

So nice to have the kids help today in our Sunday service! They so enjoy participating in church and we all love them! Article by Joyce L. Wiedrich 10/16/2025 Pastor Jeannine lugged a heavy backpack across the sanctuary. She had been hiking and the weight of her backpack was exhausting. She asked the kids if they often went hiking with a heavy backpack with too much stuff to carry. She opened the backpack and showed she had a stuffed animal, a Bible, iPad cover and many other items. She decided she needed the Bible and some of the important things but that she had really overpacked. She made the backpack much lighter. We need to carry what’s in our heart and what is important to us and not all of the stuff. Our scripture was read by Charlotte Tones, from John 2: 1-11. The scripture is about Jesus‘s first miracle when he turned water into wine at a wedding after the participants ran out of wine. Mary had faith to ask Jesus to do this. Do you have faith to ask Jesus, and put your needs into Jesus‘s hands? Pastor Jeannine also suggested when we speak to others to use the word "and" instead of the word "but". For example, I love Jesus and want to share it with others. While speaking to others the word "but" can be deflating. Don’t forget to return your pledge for next year to church. Stewardship month is an important time for church leaders to plan for the next year. We have several in our congregation who are healing and in the need of prayer. Don’t forget to send out cards and check on those that are currently homebound.

Shirl Burnham set up a lovely photo display on the altar, thanking our farms and our farmers for all they do in this rural community. Article by Joyce L. Wiedrich 10/09/2025 Pastor Jeannine started out the service talking to the kids. She asked the kids how many of them had an alarm clock. Sometimes this is to wake us up to go to school or even to church on Sunday. Jesus always calls us to wake up and follow him, and listen to his teachings! Pastor Jeannine spoke to the adults about being a neighbor. This was based on the scripture of Luke 16: 19-31. The rich man in the scripture lived behind a wall of indifference. He was not mean to Lazarus, but just ignored him. Lazarus was poor, and he had many sores on his body. When he died, he was comforted in heaven. The rich man was self absorbed in life- he did not care for his neighborly brother who was in need. Pastor Jeannine and her husband Phil have a shared driveway with their neighbor. Fortunately they have a wonderful neighbor and handle the driveway situation without any issue. Pastor went on to share with us that anyone can be our neighbor, they don’t have to live next to us. Anyone we can encounter is a neighbor whom we can help. People need to know that someone cares and we can be giving to share the love of Christ. One of our missions is through the Adopt-a-Highway program is to pick up litter on a two mile section of 54-A near our church twice a year. Our next opportunity will be on Wednesday October 8, at 10 AM. Please join us at church and make our mission an easy one! It usually takes about an hour to accomplish our goal! Happy fall!!! Where did summer go? The leaves are turning and showing us the beauty of the season.