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 June is:

• Sunday, June 8th: No Sunday Night Gathering (returning from the Gainesville Aid Project);
• Sunday, June 15th: No Sunday Night Gathering (Father’s Day);
• Sunday, June 22nd: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”);
• Sunday, June 29th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”).
  

Our schedule for the month of July is:

• Sunday, July 6th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”);
• Sunday, July 13th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”);
• Sunday, July 20th: Gwinnett Stripers Baseball game at 1:05 p.m. at Coolray Field. Please be on the lookout for more information;
• Sunday, July 27th: 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.

Over the past five years, it has been a joy for our congregation to be a part of the Summer Reading Camp at Seneca Street UMC in Buffalo, NY, by packing backpacks here in Duluth with school supplies for the children in Buffalo. The backpacks are then shipped to Buffalo from Duluth and distributed to the children at the end of the two-week Summer Reading Camp for use in their upcoming school year.

This year we will have a new approach to our Backpacks for Buffalo ministry. A portion of the backpacks will be processed as we have done for the last five years, while for the remainder of the backpacks we will buy and collect the school supplies and have a “Backpack Packing Party” - open to all ages - where we will come together and fill backpacks with the collected school supplies.

Here is how it will work:

• Backpacks for Kindergarten - Grade 8:  Instead of selecting a backpack, you will select one or more school supplies cards and will buy the school supplies listed on the card, turning the supplies in by Sunday, July 6th, to be stored. A “Backpack Packing Party” for all ages will be held on Sunday, July 13th (time to be determined ) in Hinton Hall where we will come together and fill the backpacks with the collected school supplies.
• Backpacks for Grades 9 - 12:  As done in the past, you will select a backpack which will include the school supplies list and a note on the return process. You will shop for the school supplies and return the completed backpack by Sunday, July 13th.

We believe this new approach will offer a greater number of our members to participate in the Backpacks for Buffalo ministry.

The collection of the school supplies for Kindergarten - Grade 8 will start on Sunday, June 15th, and end on Sunday, July 6th. The backpacks for Grades 9 - 12 will be available beginning on Sunday, June 22nd, and need to be returned by Sunday, July 13th.  The “Backpack Packing Party” for all ages for the Kindergarten - Grade 8 backpacks will be held on Sunday, July 13th, in Hinton Hall (time to be determined). Additional information about Backpacks for Buffalo will be presented during the Missions Moment at all three worship services on June 8th. Thank you for your continued support of this important Backpacks for Buffalo ministry!

Vacation Bible School Decorating Day for next week’s “True North: Trusting Jesus in a Wild World” VBS is Saturday, June 14th starting at 9:00 a.m. – please meet in the Dorothy L. Rainey Fellowship Hall. It’s time to build our “True North: Trusting Jesus in a Wild World” wild north adventure setting throughout the church, and volunteers are needed to help!

No sign-up is required – just show up when you can for as long as you can, ready to help create an exciting environment around the theme of Trusting Jesus in a Wild World. If you have questions, please contact Bryan Taylor by e-mail at bryantaylor44@gmail.com.

Register now for True North: Trusting Jesus in a Wild World, the 2025 Vacation Bible School (VBS) at Duluth First United Methodist Church. Registration is underway and True North VBS will be held Monday, June 16th, through Friday, June 20th. Vacation Bible School, held from 9 a.m. to noon each day, is for kids going into pre-Kindergarten (age 4 as of September 1st) through rising 4th graders. The cost is $30 per child with a maximum of $70 per family. Each day participants will participate in Bible story time, sing songs, play games, make crafts, and eat snacks.

In addition to registering participants, we are also registering adult and youth volunteers. We especially need shepherds. These are adult volunteers who are in charge of a group of 6-10 kids. Shepherds do not need to prepare anything in advance. They lead their group to the various activities where other volunteers are in charge. If you would like to help but are only available one or two days that week, you can put your available dates on your registration, as substitute shepherds are often needed. Also, childcare in Childcare Corner is available for the children of volunteers if you have a child who is not old enough to be a participant.

All Vacation Bible School participant registration forms, as well as volunteer forms, are available online by clicking on vbspro.events/p/005420.

For any of you who enjoy crafting, decorating and have creative ideas, we would love to have you join us! Decorating plans are already underway and if you would like to be involved with this fun project, please contact Leslie Yokeley by e-mail at lyokeley@duluthumc.org.

The planning team for the True North: Trusting Jesus in a Wild World Vacation Bible School (VBS) needs your help! Please consider making a donation of items on our Amazon Wish List. The Wish List items include items needed for crafts, as well as some snacks items. You can go to the wish list by clicking on VBS 2025 WISH LIST. Thank you for your support of True North: Trusting Jesus in a Wild World Vacation Bible School!

Reverend Beth Brown Shugart will be retiring at the end of June. A retirement reception in her honor will be held on Sunday, June 22nd, in the Dorothy L. Rainey Fellowship Hall immediately following the 11:00 a.m. worship services that day.  Please plan to stop by to thank Beth for her 11 years in ministry with our congregation. A love offering will be taken. You can give by:

• Check made payable to Duluth First UMC with Rev. Beth Brown Shugart Love Offering in the memo section;
• Online by going to ONLINE GIVING page of the church’s website. Select Miscellaneous Gift and enter “Rev. Beth Brown Shugart Love Offering” in the “Donation Made To” box.

Our congregation is blessed with tremendous facilities which assist the church in the mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ.  On any day of the week you can witness the church in action with activities such as worship, Youth Ministry, Children’s Ministry, Christian Beginnings Preschool & Kindergarten, Bible studies, other small group studies for a variety of ages and interests, community meetings, meals being served, counseling, outreach ministries, and much more. Our challenge as the caretakers of this space is to maintain these facilities so as to enable these many missions a place to continue for years to come.

The needed repairs and upgrades to the buildings are financed through the Long-Term Facilities Maintenance Fund. Like our own homes, there are various parts of the structures that have a finite life span. As a reminder, the church campus is over 90,000 square feet, which is roughly the footprint of 35 typical houses. The systems that need repair or replacement can be the heating and air conditioning complex, roofs, parking areas, lighting, sound systems, video equipment and much more.  In recent years the church has been able to replace the chillers (to provide cool air) and the boilers (to provide warm air) in the Sheldon Family Life Center and is replacing the controls that manage the heating and air conditioning in the entire facility, at a total cost of $360,000, which has exhausted our Long-Term Facilities Maintenance Fund. In 2021 the church conducted a facility study that detailed we would need to spend 3 million dollars in the next 10 years on our buildings. We are blessed as a church to have begun this process, but we need everyone’s help to continue to meet our facility’s capital needs when they arise.

Please consider making a gift to our now empty Long-Term Facilities Maintenance Fund to help provide for these needs and enable Duluth First United Methodist Church to continue the mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ.  If you would like to make an online gift (one-time or recurring), please click on LONG-TERM FACILITIES MAINTENANCE. Thank you for your generosity!

Robert Gates,
Duluth First United Methodist Church Trustee Chairman

The Book Club invites you to read The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, and then to join  them on Monday, August 11th, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in room F145, located on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center for a discussion of the book. Amy Burk will lead the discussion.

In The Alice Network, an enthralling novel from New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and `an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

“Both funny and heartbreaking, this epic journey of two courageous women is an unforgettable tale of little-known wartime glory and sacrifice. Quinn knocks it out of the park with this spectacular book!”—Stephanie Dray, New York Times bestselling author of America’s First Daughter.

On Sunday, March 30th, Duluth First United Methodist Church celebrated the commissioning of its two newest Stephen Ministers, Sally Southerland and Randy Yokeley. Stephen Ministers are committed Christian people who express God’s care through their lives to others. They receive 50 hours of initial training in important caring ministry skills and concepts; are commissioned as Stephen Ministers after completing their initial training; visit another person regularly and dependably and offer Christian support and care; participate in regular support and supervision under the guidance of trained Stephen Leaders; are committed to preserving the confidential nature of the caring relationship; serve for at least two years; receive continuing education and skill building throughout their years of service.

For more information or to request the support and care of a Stephen Minister, contact Rev. Dr. C. Kay Fuino by e-mail at ckfuino@duluthumc.org or call Stephen Leader Ann Fleming at 678-644-9108.

Stop by the church’s Louise McDaniel Memorial Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center, and check out one of our many new titles for your Spring reading. New titles include:

• The Women by Kristin Hannah (New York Times Bestseller Adult Fiction);
• The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home by Heath Hardage Lee (Companion Book to The Women Adult Fiction);
• The Enneagram Guide to Waking Up: Find Your Path, Face Your Shadow, Discover Your True Self by Beatrice Chestnut (Adult Non-Fiction);
• The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (Juvenile Fiction);
• Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss (Kid Fiction).
  

If the church is open, the library is open! You can also go online an access the library’s online catalog by going to https://dfum.scoolaid.net/bin/home#0. If you have any questions, please contact the library’s volunteers by e-mail at library@duluthumc.org.

How does God’s “small, still voice” break through the noise, busyness, chaos, and overstimulation filling our daily lives? With so many digital media “mining” the attention of our congregation, especially our children and youth, it can be difficult to compete.

So at Glisson Camp & Retreat Center in the forests surrounding Cane Creek Falls near Dahlonega, GA we don’t. Instead, we offer people a peaceful place and a “creative dislocation”, during which the distractions found elsewhere don’t exist. (That's right – cell phone-free!) Then we combine the absence of distraction with the safety and belonging created by our small group camping model, and we find our summer campers have a quieter mind that’s much less guarded, and more available to the presence of God’s Spirit.

That’s why for 100 years folks have said you can feel God’s presence at Camp Glisson like nowhere else. Your family of camp and retreat ministries is your partner in helping children, youth, and young adults hear God’s small, still voice. Each summer we hire and train an outstanding, committed staff of young adults who want nothing less than for the campers they guide to experience God’s love and to discover and remember that they are gifted and called by God.

When campers spend a week immersed in God's creation...practicing Christian community and servant leadership together...amazing things happen.  Since 1925, this place has become holy ground as thousands have had their faith strengthened through God’s presence there in creation and Christian community. Camp Glisson is part of the North Georgia Camp & Retreat Ministries of the United Methodist Church’s North Georgia Conference.

Camp ministry isn't just fun – it’s transformational:

"My daughter came home a new person. She experienced Christ in a very real, tangible way in addition to having loads of fun. When she told me of her experiences and all she learned as well as the friends she made and the fun she had, I had tears in my eyes. This experience was everything I could have hoped for her and more." 2024 Camp Glisson Parent

There are many spots still available for joining in on the faith-forming fun at Camp Glisson this summer – opportunities for growth and transformation for the kids in your church and your neighborhood. Several years ago one UM congregation recruited neighborhood kids to come to Camp Glisson, partnering with us to pay their way, and helping them get to camp. It was a transformative experience for everybody!

You’ll also want to know about the following financial resources that are available so that kids can access camp more easily:

• The Campership Fund: Camp Glisson works hard not to turn campers away because families can’t afford the cost of camp. Due to the of the generosity of Camp Glisson donors, financial help is available to families who are unable to pay any or all of the camp fee.
• The First Camper Fund: For many, summer camp was never a part of their family tradition. Some of those families experienced additional structural barriers to participating in camp. As a way of lowering one barrier for families trying summer camp for the first time, Camp Glisson is working with North Georgia Conference partners to help underwrite camp fees for new campers.
• The PK Fund: New this year! Thanks to a generous donation from a retired clergy member, Camp Glisson has limited funds available to assist young clergy families, for whom the cost of camp makes attending impossible, with half the cost of a camp week.

Click on SUMMER 2025 to see Camp Glisson's Summer 2025 schedule. Registration is open to everyone. For questions or additional information, To see the schedule and/or register, please go to https://glisson.org.