YOU Are Invited to the UMW Luncheon

The United Methodist Women will travel to Rachel's Tea Room in Belleville for a luncheon on Thursday, August 9.  The carpool will leave Troy United Methodist Church at 11:15 a.m.  ALL ladies are invited to attend.

Contact Sue Hansel at (618) 667-9359

Faithful Fitness with Beth Miramonti Wants YOU!

What is Faithful Fitness?
Faithful Fitness is about taking care of our whole bodies. It’s about creating the very best House in which we can best accommodate Jesus Christ, our most Honored Guest. It is a place where we can gather and share ideas, goals, challenges and successes. Where we pray for and encourage one another.

What motivated you to start the Faithful Fitness group?
I had been working out at home to a program on TV called Faithful Workouts http://www.faithfulworkouts.com/. Sharon Wood and I attended a fitness class at First Baptist Church in Maryville last year and enjoyed it so much we wanted to do something similar at our church. Having NO fitness training background, I offered to facilitate a group if people were willing to gather and work out together to a video. I won the Best of Faithful Workouts video (our very first training video) in an online contest, and Faithful Fitness was born. 

What areas have you seen improve or expand and in what areas are you still looking for that growth? What are some future plans? 
We began getting together in Jan 2012 on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for a 32 minute video led workout. My original intention was to incorporate prayer, devotion and share time into that hour we’d scheduled to gather. Honestly, timing and schedules have cut that time together to only video time, but some of the newer videos we are using incorporate prayer and devotion into the practice. Aside from the workout time at the church I also formed a Facebook Group called Faithful Fitness Friends. There we can check in daily on each other, share praises and goals. I often post devotions, humorous quotes and pictures to motivate and encourage. Several of us recently completed a 4 week Holy Yoga instructional course with Jill Fisk. There are close to thirty people currently involved in a 30 day Plank Challenge, and about 10 of us are signed up as a team called Fit & Faithful for the St. Louis Color Run coming up August 18th.  

What are the age limitations and expected fitness levels of people in the Faithful Fitness group? Do you have to be a member of TUMC to join? 
Faithful Fitness is for everyone over 12 who is interested in getting or staying physically fit. We have several types of exercise and many options to accommodate all ages and stages.  Some of the new videos we are looking at actually show you a chair option if getting to the floor or back up is a problem. Many of the routines can be "boosted" to accommodate the fittest of the bunch. The exercise bands we use allow a person to decide just how much resistance they want to use for each move. Our " TUMC regulars" include Becky Rushing, Debbie Rakers and Rebecca Ellis. One of my most Faithful Fitness Friends, is Stacey Anderson, a good friend from high school who isn't a member of the church, but is still a major part of our group.  Our daughters have joined when in town, and the workouts give those young 20-somethings a challenge as well. It's all about what you put into it. We will take you wherever you are and work from there. 

Is childcare provided for the workout times?  
A nursery is provided in the evenings and would be available upon request in the mornings. Adrian is currently running a kids fitness group that coincides with our workout time for the 3-12 yr olds. 

What is the current meeting schedule for workouts? 
We are currently meeting at 5 am on Mondays and Wednesdays and "walking" ourselves fit with Leslie Sansone's video's on loan to us from Ruth Alysworth. Originally I had named this Spiritual Stretching with a yoga/pilates focus, but we found these videos and REALLY liked them. Of the ladies who are participating, some need to head to work after so we get a brisk 2-3 mile walk in by 6am. We meet at 7am on Saturday mornings for HOLY YOGA and are using the level 1 DVD included in Brooke Boone's book, Exercise for the Christian Body and Soul, which takes about an hour. And finally, on Tuesday evening at 7 we are currently offering a 32 min Faithful Workout, total body workout. 

Tell us more about the 30 day Plank Challenge. 
The 30-Day Plank Challenge is just something I found online and wanted to do, but wanted to have the accountability to stick to it. The plank pose is one of the best workouts to strengthen your core that has one in push up position or on your forearms and keeping your back straight (like a plank) and holding that position as long as you can. This 30-Day challenge is supposed to get you up to holding that pose for 5 minutes by the end of the month. I posted it on the Faithful Fitness facebook page to see who else would be interested in joining and received quite a bit of feedback. Not only are women from my group doing it, but they are recruiting their husbands, kids, and neighbors to do it with them.

"Get Your Plank On" T shirts available now. Limited quantities for most sizes- $10 each.  All proceeds go to Faithful Fitness videos and equipment!!! Get yours while they last! 

Class times and challenges are scheduled to change in August so contact me, Beth at faithfulfitnessTUMC@gmail.com or Adrian at  Adrian@troyumc.org at Troy United Methodist Church for more information. Come join us; you will be glad you did!

Meet Woman of Faith Author Rhonda Tibbs

RUBY:  Describe what your faith means to you. 

Tibbs:  I was baptized by my own choice when I was ten years old in a little creek by a Baptist country preacher, and the moment I was raised from submersion the world appeared brighter, as if I had stepped into a clearer, more colorful dimension. I am a child of God, and I am loved.

RUBY:  Tell a favorite Bible verse, and why it is your favorite.
Tibbs:  Isaiah 40:31: 

“- but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” At the darkest time in my life, when I was physically and emotionally exhausted, this passage gave me the hope I needed. I was reminded I didn’t have to struggle alone and took my troubles to God who lifted me and gave me the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other and change my life. (As a writer, I particularly love the phrase: “They will soar on wings like eagles.”)

RUBY:  Which woman in the Bible do you most admire, and why? 

Tibbs:   Luke 10:39 Mary who decided to sit among the men and listen to Jesus teach, rather than work in the kitchen with her sister Martha. For a woman of that day to go against tradition and join a group of men in order to sit at the feet of Jesus so she might listen to his teachings inspires me. Given the customs of that time, she was undoubtedly welcomed by few of those men (if any) except Jesus.

RUBY:  Tell the title of a hymn or Christian song which means the most to you, and why. 

Tibbs:  “How Great Thou Art” As the goose bumps raise on my skin, the passion of the lyrics and swelling music make me feel like bowing my head, lifting my hands to heaven, crying and laughing all at once.

RUBY:  Does your spirituality play a part in your writing? 

Tibbs:  Yes. 

RUBY:  How so? 

Tibbs:  When I sat down to write my first two novels, I believed I was creating a spiritual journey for the main characters, in that they were processing the burdens laid on them by circumstances beyond their control when they were just children. Only in looking back at my writing did I understand I was chronicling my own emotional journey, my passage from broken to healing and then whole. Once I realized what I had done, I added a scene to my first novel, Angel’s Blues, where a secondary character points out the role that others had played in God’s plan. In my second book, Song of the Snowman, I struggled for weeks with different endings that never felt right. Finally, one day I sat down and started over again, and the ending flowed so easily I believe it was a gift.

RUBY:  What would you like your readers to take with them from your writing?

Tibbs:   I would wish for the reader to close the book feeling satisfied that they just read a good story.

RUBY:  Tell us about your novels.
Tibbs:  My first two novels, Angel’s Blues and Song of the Snowman are connected. Angel’s Blues chronicles the struggle of Michael O’Mara to overcome a childhood of serious abuse. Song of the Snowman is about Michael’s son Brian, whose history is not so different from his father’s. Both of these books are highly emotional, but ultimately healing journeys of boys growing into men learning to embrace their own strengths and allow God to fully heal them.  My third novel, Purdie Magee, is more lighthearted, but still a journey of self-discovery as Purdie sheds the dysfunction of her birth family, falls in love, and begins a brand new life.     

RUBY:  How may we contact you in order to make a further connection?  

Tibbs:
roo2020@att.net

Facebook: Rhonda D. Tibbs

Twitter: @RTibbs

Spiritual Gifts Discovery Class- Session 1

Tonnie Schalk Holding Her Network Textbook

Feeling uncertain of your purpose?  Looking for a clearer path of how you can serve the Lord?  Then, the Spiritual Discovery Class at Troy United Methodist Church led by Deb Inman, Director of Lay Ministry, is looking for you.  The summer, three-session course began this morning complete with a breakfast of fluffy scrambled eggs, sausage patties, half-dollar pancakes, and a fresh fruit salad allowing time for class participants to pray together and become acquainted.  Instead of the usual, "Tell us about yourself," the ice-breaker this morning comprised each participant explaining how he/she met his/her spouse- entertaining, nostalgic, and insightful.  Not to forget, if taking part in the complimentary childcare, the kiddos were fed, too, by the qualified nursery staff.
Network Participant's Guide:  The Right People, in the Right Places, for the Right Reasons, at the Right Time is the text used for the course.  In this first session, the theme of "Imagine a Church . . " where each individual makes a "unique contribution . . . [for] a kingdom difference for eternity"  (19).   With Bible verses as references, participants learned the why and how of serving.  In addition, the theme "The Purpose of Gifts" was covered in this initial session.  Here, the terms of dependence, independence, and God's calling us to be interdependent were defined and discussed in both small and large groups allowing more connections amongst class participants.  Finally, as a class, twenty-three Spiritual Gifts were defined and their contributions to the church discussed.  With a closing prayer, we were sent on our way with our homework assignment thrilled with the day's discoveries and what our spiritual future may hold.

Courtney Winkler