Make plans to join us on Wednesday evenings at Duluth First United Methodist Church for activities for everyone:

• Wednesday Night Dinners:  5 to 6:30 p.m. in Hinton Hall, 2nd floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center;
• Book Bunch for kids (ages 3 – 4):  6:15 to 6:30 p.m. in the Louise McDaniel Memorial Library, 2nd floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION;
  
• DuluthKids (ages Kindergarten through 5th grade): 5:45 to 7 p.m. in the Children’s (C and D wings) classrooms. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION;
  
• Youth Bible Study (grades 6 – 12): 6 to 7 p.m., room F149, 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION;
• Parent Connection Group: 6 to 7 p.m., room F207, 2nd floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION;
• “The History and Archaeology of the Bible” Class for Adults: 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in room F145, located on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION;
  
• Happy Sacks: 6 to 6:30 p.m., room F152, 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION;
• Yarn Art Ministry: 6 to 7 p.m., room F205, 2nd floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION;
• Handbell Ensemble rehearsals: 6 to 7 p.m., in the Sanctuary. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION;
• Chancel Choir rehearsals: 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Don Lee Music Suite. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
  

The Wednesday Night Food Drives at Duluth First UMC for the Hands of Christ Duluth Co-op are our weekly mission project, combined with the many Wednesday evening activities offered at the church.

Students in the 6th through 12th grades are invited to join us on Sunday nights for Sunday Night Gatherings from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”), located on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. Sunday Night Gatherings include great dinners, fun games, amazing worship, inspirational and relevant messages and life-changing small groups.

Our schedule for the month of November is:

• Sunday, November 9th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”);
• Sunday, November 16th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”);
• Sunday, November 23rd: Friendsgiving at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”);
• Sunday, November 30th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”).

Please click on YOUTH MINISTRY for more information.

Questions? Please contact Rev. Min Lee, Director of Youth Ministries, by e-mail at mlee@duluthumc.org.

Do you participate in Sunday School, Small Groups, or Fellowship Groups at Duluth First UMC? Please let us know more about them and what other types of studies you would like to participate in! Don’t participate in any groups? Let us know a topic or type of group you would be interested in participating in.

Please take a moment to fill out the survey by clicking on ADULT SMALL GROUP SURVEY. Print outs of the survey can be found on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. If you have any questions, please contact Rev. Dr. AnnaKate Rawles, Associate Pastor, by e-mail at arawles@duluthumc.org.

Have you ever had a topic that you simply wanted to talk about with others at church but there doesn’t seem to be a class or group to focus on that one thing? Then Simply Something is just the place to be. Join Rev. Dr. AnnaKate Rawles and Rev. Dr. C. Kay Fuino on Tuesday mornings from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in room F145, located on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center, for Simply Something, a weekly discussion place to bring up all things theological, biblical, social, Methodist, or simply on your mind about life in today’s world.

Each week at Simply Something will begin with prayer and a short devotion, followed by discussion about a variety of topics chosen by the group. Join us with your list of topics to plan for our future time together. Bring your coffee, tea or water, and your open mind to learn from each other.

For more information, please contact Rev. Dr. AnnaKate Rawles, Associate Pastor, by e-mail at arawles@duluthumc.org or 770-476-3776, ext. 128.

An American Red Cross Blood Drive will be held at Duluth First UMC on Wednesday, November 12th, from 3 to 7 p.m. in the Dorothy L. Rainey Fellowship Hall. To schedule an appointment to make a blood donation:

• Click on BLOOD DRIVE ONLINE REGISTRATION;
• Call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767);
• Contact Tracy Brinker by e-mail at tbrinker@duluthumc.org, or call 770-476-3776, ext. 112.
• Last, but not least, be a “walk-in” on Blood Drive Day.
  

Free A1C testing, a test commonly used to screen for diabetes and pre-diabetes, will be offered to those who donate blood. Each donor will receive a $10 e-gift card to a merchant of choice and will automatically be entered for a chance to win one of three $5,000 gift cards. Please go to RedCrossBlood.org/Harvest for more details.

Our Food Ministry staff, along with our amazing Dinner Belles and Beaus volunteers, prepare excellent meals at very reasonable prices. Enjoy fellowship around the table with family and friends.

The menu for Wednesday, November 12th, is hamburgers on buns, French fries, baked beans, cole slaw, and dessert. For the kids – the same.

Dinner service hours are 5 to 6:30 p.m., with to-go boxes available from 6 to 6:30 p.m.

The prices for Wednesday Night Dinners are:

• $10.00 for adults (including seniors and from 11 years up);
• $7.00 for children 10 years and younger;
• $30.00 for family meals (nuclear family members only – husband, wife, their children under 18 years);
• $7.00 for salad bar only, which includes the salad bar, a choice of baked potato or sweet potato, dessert and a drink.

Credit/debit card payments, as well as cash and checks, are accepted.

Bundle Up for Buffalo, our annual fundraiser to assist the Senaca Street UMC in Buffalo, NY with their winter heating costs, is on Saturday, November 15^th, and Sunday, November 16^th. If you like to bake, sew, paint, or craft, this is the chance to offer up your creativity for a very worthy cause. The rest of us get to admire your work and do some Christmas shopping!

Please bring the sale items donations to the Dorothy L. Rainey Fellowship Hall on Friday, November 14^th, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. You will be assigned a spot to display your creations, and please bring a small tablecloth if you like. Expect the sale items be crowded together, as our sale has grown in the past years.

Bundle Up for Buffalo begins at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 15^th, and closes at 2:00 p.m.  It will open on Sunday after the 8:15 a.m. service has ended, will be closed during both 11:00 a.m. services, and will re-open at noon and finish by 1:00. We ask you to please take any of your unsold items home with you, as there is no place to store them at the church once the sale is over, or share them with Sherry Ferguson who has a wonderful place for them at her school.

All proceeds go to Seneca Street UMC in Buffalo, to assist with their winter heating costs. There is a great need for the heat to be kept on in part of the church where 65+ children arrive after school every day. Heat is on from October to April (and often May) in that part of our country. The afterschool program provides them with a healthy snack, warm greetings, and volunteers to help them with their homework until their moms get home from work.

Pastor Dee Finch, Pastor Brian Rotach and Cheryl Bird will be coming from Buffalo. If you would like one of them to speak to your Sunday School on November 16th, please make your request as soon as possible.  You can also join the Forum Sunday School class that day where one of them will be scheduled. For more information, please contact Beth Intondi at 404-408-1657.

In all worship services on Sunday, November 16th, we will consecrate our estimates of giving for 2026. Please fill out an Estimate of Giving card, available in the pews/seats, and bring it with you on November 16th. Or you can make your estimate online by clicking ESTIMATE OF GIVING 2026. You can turn it in early if you’d like. Acknowledgement cards, as well as Estimate of Giving cards, will be available on November 16th as we bring our estimates to the altar.
 
Please see the GROW ONE STEP chart and consider growing one step, as many of us are doing. On November 16th we will celebrate together as we grow one step each year toward the tithe.

Two weeks are remaining in this year’s Operation Christmas Child, our annual participation in Samaritans Purse’s mission for God’s children around the world. As we did last year, there will be physical shoeboxes available to be completed by you as well as the online option to complete shoeboxes. Empty shoeboxes are available in the Narthex, the Veterans Memorial Gathering Room, outside Hinton Hall, and outside of room F145 on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. Completed shoeboxes are to be returned by Sunday, November 16th, and can be returned to these same locations.

The cost of the Build On-Line Shoebox option is $30, and these shoeboxes are delivered to certain locations with special custom and cultural needs. This year we have increased the goal and expanded the timeframe, and are currently at 14% of this year’s goal of 80 online shoeboxes. The DFUMC Goal Page is active and you can complete an online shoebox by:

• Using specific instructions, prepared for using the online process, which are available at the shoebox distribution locations around the church.
• Clicking on OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD ONLINE SHOEBOX.
  

Online shoeboxes are delivered to certain locations with special customs and cultural needs. Take-home instructions for online shoeboxes can also be found at the Operation Christmas Child tables. This year we hope to fill 80 online shoeboxes. The deadline to complete online shoeboxes is Friday, December 19th.

Operation Christmas Child is a worthwhile and fun project for our Sunday School classes, Women’s Circles, Youth Group, and families with their children to undertake. Let’s try to better Duluth First UMC’s total of 160 boxes we packed last year! For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Charlie Doerlich by e-mail at chaz3d@gmail.com or call 678-662-2115.

The Duluth First UMC Library Book Club will meet on Monday, November 17th, to discuss A Forever Christmas by our own Missy Tippens, wife of Senior Pastor Terry Tippens. Missy will lead the discussion of A Forever Christmas beginning at 10 a.m. in room F145, located on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center.

Missy’s novels have been nominated for the Booksellers Best, Holt Medallion, American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, Maggie Award, Beacon Contest, RT Reviewer’s Choice Award, and the Romance Writers of America RITA® Award.

In A Forever Christmas, a love-inspired romance, Sarah Radcliffe’s quiet Christmas back in her hometown will be lost if she agrees to direct the church’s Christmas pageant. But when she meets two little boys determined to gain their father’s attention, Sarah agrees to help. Then she discovers that the dad in question is Gregory Jones, the man she loved and lost. The single dad is working himself to the bone to give his boys the Christmas of their dreams, when all they want is some family time. Time that includes a new mommy. If Sarah can learn to open her heart, she may receive the most wonderful present of all—a family of her own.

If you have any questions, please contact Rev. Dr. AnnaKate Rawles by e-mail at arawles@duluthumc.org or call 770-476-3776, ext. 128.

Our Food Ministry staff, along with our amazing Dinner Belles and Beaus volunteers, prepare excellent meals at very reasonable prices. Enjoy fellowship around the table with family and friends.

The menu for Wednesday, November 19th, is chicken pot pie with a biscuit crust topping, baked apples, green beans, biscuits, and dessert. For the kids – chicken tenders and French fries.

Dinner service hours are 5 to 6:30 p.m., with to-go boxes available from 6 to 6:30 p.m.

The prices for Wednesday Night Dinners are:

• $10.00 for adults (including seniors and from 11 years up);
• $7.00 for children 10 years and younger;
• $30.00 for family meals (nuclear family members only – husband, wife, their children under 18 years);
• $7.00 for salad bar only, which includes the salad bar, a choice of baked potato or sweet potato, dessert and a drink.

Credit/debit card payments, as well as cash and checks, are accepted.

Holiday celebrations take on a different meaning when you are grieving. Are you in need of finding a way to survive the holidays? Do you wonder how to celebrate when your loved one is gone?

Join the Grief Share Support Group on Wednesday, November 19th, for a special “Surviving the Holidays” class from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in rooms F154/155, located on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. This class may be beneficial in helping you plan a holiday schedule that is best for you during the holiday season.

For additional information, please contact Brenda Bridges at 770-313-6002, Sue French at 404-434-8001, or call the church office at 770-476-3776.

The competition is fierce and the stakes are high as the Children’s Ministry takes on the Youth Ministry to see who can collect the most diapers for A Beacon of Hope, a local ministry that provides holistic, life-affirming, integrated sexual health care that fosters knowledge and hope, transforming the lives of women and their families for generations, using scripture and medical accuracy as their cornerstones.

The diaper collection competition will go through Wednesday, November 19th. For every package of diapers you bring in, please cover a “poop” emoji with a red diaper (Children’s Ministry) or a blue diaper (Youth Ministry) on the Diaper Drive bulletin board located in the Atrium. The team who collects the most diapers gets to pie the other team in the face!

For additional information about A Beacon of Hope, please visit their website at www.friendsofbeacon.com. Thank you for your support!

The Hugs for Soldiers Ministry is collecting care package donations for soldiers serving overseas. Take part in Christmas for a Soldier 2025, our 22nd Christmas for supporting our troops. Please help us spread some holiday joy to troops who can’t be home during the holidays by donating the following items.

Christmas Cards: Deployed service members would love to receive a handcrafted or signed card from you with holiday wishes.  Do not seal your cards in envelopes; we do not need envelopes.  All cards are mixed and re-boxed into larger boxes so that your cards are received at various military bases. PLEASE…NO GLITTER on cards! Glitter will come off during the two-week shipping overseas.

Snack Items:

• Individual packets of hot chocolate, apple cider, assorted flavors of tea bags individually wrapped;
• Instant Ramen Noodle Soup 3 oz. packets;
• Microwave popcorn;
• Holiday candy (this is a great time to ship chocolate);
• Cereal/granola/energy bars, Trail mix, nuts, sunflower seeds, fruit snacks;
• Slim Jims, beef jerky.

Other Items:

• Handmade holiday ornaments. Use your creativity and skills to make ornaments! From painted wood ornaments to beaded wreaths and everything in between, your ornaments can be anything you like. PLEASE NOTE: No glitter, no breakable ornaments, nothing dangerously sharp and nothing made out of food/candy.
• A new pair of socks.

The deadline for donations is Friday, November 21st. Donation boxes will be located inside the back entrance to the Sheldon Family Life Center and on the stage in Dorothy L. Rainey Fellowship Hall.

Monetary donations are also appreciated to help purchase items not received and for postage.  Checks are made payable to Duluth First UMC with Hugs for Soldiers written in the memo section, or go to the ONLINE GIVING page on the church’s website – www.duluthumc.org – click on MISCELLANEOUS GIFT and specify “Support Our Troops/Hugs for Soldiers.”

For further information, contact Angie Doerlich by e-mail at hugsforsoldiers@gmail.com or call 404-316-8183. For additional information about the Hugs for Soldiers Ministry, please visit their website at www.hugsforsoldiers.org.

Make plans to join us for Hope for the Holidays - A Candle Lighting Service of Remembrance, on Monday, November 24th, with services at noon and 7 p.m. in the Sanctuary. Join us for a program of reflection followed by candle lighting in memory of your loved one(s). The 7:00 p.m. service will be streamed live on the Duluth First UMC Worship page on YouTube.com. Childcare in Childcare Corner will be available for both services.

We are asking people to send in names of loved ones that they would like to be read aloud during candle lighting. Please send the name(s) by e-mail to Tracy Brinker at tbrinker@duluthumc.org by Friday, November 22nd. Please put “Service of Remembrance Names” in the subject line of your e-mail.

We understand the holiday season may be a challenge for individuals and families who have lost someone special. Duluth First UMC has established a meaningful time for people to come together…to reflect, to remember and to honor those lives that have meant so much.

The Worship Committee invites you to join with them on Saturday, November 29th, at 9:00 a.m. in the Dorothy L. Rainey Fellowship Hall and in Hinton Hall as they come together to prepare the church’s Advent and Christmas decorations and decorate for the holiday season.

The stars will once again adorn the front lawn of the church during the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany seasons. The stars will go up on the front lawn on Saturday, November 29th, at 10 a.m. If you would like to help install them, please simply show up to help!

Dear members of Duluth First UMC,

My name is James Dykes and I am working on completing my Eagle Scout project. My project at Duluth First UMC consists of building new benches and tables for the church community.

I have been a member of Boy Scouts since 2016 and have been working to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. If you would like to support me in my Eagle Scout project, please click on JAMES DYKES' EAGLE PROJECT. Thank you for your participation and support.

James Dykes,
Eagle Scout candidate