Our young adults made the journey atop Poo Poo Point, while engaging in meaningful conversation about social and spiritual ideas to help healing and growth.
Will we join theReconciling Ministries Network?
By Lynne Onishi, photos by Aiden Lew and Kai Yamamoto
October Recap
Our October was certainly a busy one. Along with the return of beloved community events like the Benefit Bazaar and Harvest Festival, the Blaine young adults also cheered on the OL Reign at Lumen Field and hiked many miles at Poo Poo Point!
The Reconciling Ministries Team also had a busy month preparing for the upcoming vote. We hosted a Gender and Faith Workshop over Zoom on October 24, where we talked about binaries, sex and gender and what it might look like for Christians to love our neighbors. We also encouraged folks to register to vote on November 5. All those who completed a registration form have been sent a mail-in style paper ballot. Ballots must be returned to the church by November 5 (must arrive in the mail by November 4).
Blaine Memorial’s Young adults checked out the OL Reign at Lumen Field to help nurture its fellowship with fun and soccer.
Reconciling Ministries Vote – Important Information!
Since June 2022, the Reconciling Ministries Team has been leading the congregation in study and discernment about what it means to be an open and affirming church. One of the most important ways we can align ourselves with justice and reconciliation is to affiliate with the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN), an organization of United Methodist congregations committed to the full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in The United Methodist Church. After over a year of questioning, learning, and discussing, it’s time to take our vote – will we join the Network?
Affiliation with RMN requires that at least 75% of our congregation votes to adopt a Reconciling statement. We will be voting on this statement of reconciliation on Sunday, November 5:
“We celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community equally shared and shepherded by all. We welcome and affirm people of every gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, who are also of every age, race, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, level of education, and family structure, and of every economic, immigration, marital and social status, and so much more. We acknowledge that we live in a world of profound social, economic and political inequities. As followers of Jesus, we commit ourselves to the pursuit of justice and pledge to stand in solidarity with all who are marginalized and oppressed.”
If you are planning to attend church on November 5, you may register and vote in person on that date. Ballots will be counted after worship on Sunday, November 5.
Kobe Yamamoto, Joshua Santos, and Edwin Santos hiked steep paths toward Poo Poo Point to get some blood flow and fresh air. If you are interested in joining our Young Adults, contact Lynne Onishi for more info!
The IH team and RM Task Force are always looking for new folks to join us. If you feel called to lend your voice to these important ministries, we invite you to join us at our next team zoom meeting. Please contact Lynne or any of the other team members for more information.
Our young folks and parents prepare peeled apples to make apple crisp as part of a hearty Thanksgiving meal for Kimball Elementary School families.
Thanksgivingand Giving Tree Ministries 2023
By Terri Adolfo with Rev. Mia MiKyung Park
We are partnering with Kimball Elementary School this year to provide Thanksgiving meals and Christmas gifts for underprivileged students and families. Kimball is anticipating a greater need from their student community this year due to the increased number of students experiencing homelessness. These students in need are part of the McKinney-Vento program (a national homeless assistance program for students and youth).
Thanksgiving Meal
Thanksgiving meals will mostly be store-bought, and we will gather to make apple crisps and mashed potatoes. Everyone is welcome, so please come join us to prepare food.
Apple Crisps & Mashed Potatoes
On Sunday (11/19) after Fellowship Hour, we will prepare apple crisps in the LAC Kitchen. On Monday (11/20) at 6:00PM, we will begin our evening together with a light dinner in the Social Hall. Afterwards, we will make mashed potatoes and bake apple crisps in the LAC Kitchen.
Terri Adolfo hangs Giving Tree gift tags for the Blaine Memorial community.
Giving Tree
The Giving Tree (Christmas Tree) will be in the Social Hall from November 12-26, dressed with gift tags. Please reach out to the Blaine Office to arrange tag pickups during Office Hours (Tuesday-Friday from 10:00AM-4:00PM) if you are not able to pick up after worship. Gift tags that are not taken by Sunday (11/26), will be collected and distributed to volunteer shoppers. If you are not able to take tags but would like to participate or help, we gratefully accept donations. Please return wrapped gifts with tags securely attached no later than Sunday (12/3).
Donations for the Thanksgiving Meal and the Giving Tree can be made through Blaine’s website, text/SMS, cash/check, and Realm. Please indicate your offering as “Special Donations/Other” and memo it as “Thanksgiving Meal” or “Giving Tree.”
Thank you for your ongoing generosity and support to help bless those in need in our community!
(L-R): Rev. Cruz Santos, Alma Santos, Rev. Karen, Rev. Mia, Rev. Jeney and Rev. Mark eat together on Pastor Appreciation Sunday and enjoy Chef Joshua’s Tortilla Soup. It went well with the onigiri. Thank you!
Gratitude & Stewardship: Together for Joy!
By the Rev. Karen Yokota Love
Pumpkin spice lattes, turkey and gratitude. The eleventh month is now upon us, drawing us closer to the end of 2023. It is a transition month, a month between autumn and winter, when the leaves get raked, and the crops have been harvested. We “fall back” from Daylight Savings Time and revert to Standard Time. It is Election Month and it’s a month of many community gatherings. Most of us prepare for rain, snow and winter storms. November is also a month that reminds us to be grateful which is so fundamental to our faith and Christian stewardship.
Joe, Lauren and Terri Adolfo decorate their vehicle with a Halloween-theme for the Trunk-or-Treat and are ready to receive children and give them candy.
I’m grateful for so much. I’m grateful for the recent Pastor’s Appreciation Lunch which was kindly dreamt up from Chef Joshua Santos. Thank you and thank you to Edwin Santos and the entire SPRC Team. What a wonderful celebration. I loved the homemade tortilla soup with onigiri! I’m also grateful for the Harvest Festival and the Trunk-or-Treat last month. Thank you to Susan Lee and Kim Furugori who came out to prepare such a wonderful event and did an abundant amount of preparation work. I also loved the costumes! What joy!
Office Assistant Yuki Sofronas, Rev. Karen and Rev. Mia celebrate at the Harvest Festival.
This month, we express our gratitude for our saints, the witnesses to the Gospel who challenged us to find our own path to holiness. We continue to be grateful for the lives of all who have gone before us to meet the Lord, especially those we know and hold dear … our Issei, Nisei and some Sansei. We thank our veterans who have offered their lives on our behalf. And of course, in the United States, there is Thanksgiving Day, a holiday that is all about gratitude.
The month of November is an ideal time of the year to focus our spiritual lives more intently on being grateful for the blessings of our God. I challenge you to:
Pray with gratitude.
Set aside some time for prayer each day. If you are new to the habit of daily prayer, find 10 minutes in your daily schedule. Pray as a family as well. And begin with a prayer of gratitude.
Put gratitude into action.
Do something at Blaine Memorial UMC or in your neighborhood to share your material blessings with those who might otherwise go hungry. Contribute to the Rainier Valley Food Bank or help deliver food to Tent City 3 or to the Kimball Elementary School families.
Make gratitude a habit.
Find ways to thank others for their generosity and kindness toward you every day. The late spiritual writer and theologian, Thomas Merton, once wrote that “to be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything.”
Let us use the month of November as an opportunity to grow in stewardship which, simply put, means living a life of gratitude. And as the psalmist encourages us to do: “O give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).
It’s for this reason that our journey begins with stewardship. Keeping this moment in mind, the theme for the 2024 Stewardship Campaign is Together for Joy.
Psalm 98 tells us to “Sing to God a new song, for God has done marvelous things. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy.” Staying together through the delights and struggles of life — being “together for joy” — has never been more important. And while change brings financial challenges in its wake, it also brings fresh opportunities to sing to God a new song, for God has done — and will do — marvelous things.
Stewardship is the generational cornerstone of the Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church community. Without fail, those who grasp and practice the depth and joy of faithful stewardship have almost always learned it, not from a book or seminar, but from our faithful mentors — our beloved Issei and Nisei — who’ve paved the way for us. Those who’ve followed them: the Sansei, Yonsei, Gosei, Asian American and a variety of multiracial families that are a part of the Blaine family must continue to uphold their legacy and pave the way for generations to come.
November 5: All Saints Day
We will kick off our stewardship campaign while we celebrate All Saints Day. We will light candles for those who have departed and honor those in our community who have passed during this last year.
November 12: New Music!
We will look at all the ways we have found “new songs” to sing over the last couple of years: hybrid worship, the creative ways in which our Choir adapts with change, ways of continuing to serve the community, serving the vulnerable and isolated, speaking out for justice through education and action and so much more! This is who we are, and who we’ll continue to be and become. The church was made for times such as these — not times of ease and tranquility, but times of difficulty and struggle.
November 19: Dedication and Thanksgiving Sunday
We will conclude our Stewardship series, Together for Joy, by looking ahead to what the church will do in the year ahead. I invite you to bring your commitment cards to church and we will bless and consecrate them on Sunday, November 19. This is why all of us, as a community, ask each other to share our treasure and invest in our mission as a church. Now more than ever, your generosity can and will make an enormous difference. In a time of injustice and struggle, we are a community of love and justice. We are and can continue to be a community of gathering, a community of song, of new songs and new ways of singing, new ways of being God’s church for God’s world, together for joy! What kind of new song are you visioning?
We are all a piece of that final tapestry for generations to come. When we give to others, we get back far more than what we originally gave. As you discern, please know our gratitude for your generosity, your faithfulness and your love. It’s your response to God’s gracious invitation that will make this next chapter our best one yet. Be the hope for generations to come!
Rev. Karen Yokota Love serves as the Senior Pastor of Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church.
Visit the Poinsettia page!
Orders are now open for Poinsettias on the Altar. Read more.
The Beacon is Now Available!
Read the latest issue of The Beacon newsletter, here!
Prelude Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether (Music: Harold Friedell, Words: Percy Dearmer) Kathy Onishi
Welcome of Grace and Greeting Rev. Mia MiKyung Park
*Opening Hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (UMH #110, verses 1,2) Eugene and Kathy Onishi
*Call to Worship Rev. Karen Yokota Love
*Hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (UMH #110, v.3-4) Eugene and Kathy Onishi
First Scripture Reading Matthew 23:1-12 (CEB, JLB) Kaylee Yokoyama and Tsutomu Nagoya
Children’s Message Rev. Mia MiKyung Park The children are dismissed to the Ed. Wing.
Special Music They Shall Soar Like Eagles Words and Music by Laura Manzo Eugene and Kathy Onishi, Leann Onishi, Lisa Hirayama, and Miriam Tong
Prayers of the People Rev. Karen Yokota Love
Second Scripture Reading Matthew 6:20-31 (CEB, JLB) Kaylee Yokoyama and Tsutomu Nagoya
Third Scripture Reading Hebrews 11:1-2 (NRSVUE) Kaylee Yokoyama and Tsutomu Nagoya
Sermon Gratitude for Our Saints Rev. Karen Yokota Love
Sermon Gratitude for Our Saints Rev. Karen Yokota Love
Hymn of Response For All the Saints (UMH #711, verses 1, 2, 4, 6) Eugene and Kathy Onishi
Holy Communionwith The Reading of Our Saints Rev. Karen Yokota Love, Rev. Mia MiKyung Park, Shig Nishida and Gail Nomura
Introduction to the Offering Rev. Mia MiKyung Park
Doxology Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow Kathy Onishi
Prayer of Dedication Rev. Mia MiKyung Park
Announcements Rev. Karen Yokota Love
Closing Song Hymn of Promise (UMH #707) Eugene and Kathy Onishi
Benediction Rev. Karen Yokota Love
Postlude One God and Father of Us All By P. Carlson, K. Matthews, J. Carraway Kathy Onishi
Zoom Breakout Room Rev. Dr. Jeney Park-Hearn
Reading of Our Saints on All Saints Day
From November 1, 2022 – October 31, 2023
Arthur Yorozu, September 26, 2022
Minoru Uchimura, October 19, 2022
Atsu Sato, November 7, 2022
Tak Chikamura, November 17, 2022
Kiyo Toda, November 26, 2022
Kevin Graham, February 10, 2023
George Kaminishi, February 14, 2023
Masa Hirano, February 25, 2023
Christine Yada, March 10, 2023
Bob Watanabe, March 14, 2023
Mary Maniwa, April 2023
Miyeko Mochizuki, April 9, 2023
June Sato, June 15, 2023
Connie Kobata, July 11, 2023
Shizue Watanabe, July 13, 2023
Tami Mitsui, July 13, 2023
Satoshi Yamamoto, July 17, 2023
Akemi Sanaye Kurushima, August 1, 2023
Sermon Questions
1. What saint in your life has had the greatest influence on your faith?
2. It is common to think about “saints” as holier-than-thou and as the rare few. By virtue of our baptism, we are all called toward being saints. Do you think of yourself as called to be a saint? Why or why not? What difference would it make if you thought of yourself as a saint?
3. What does it mean to be surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses?
Saturday, November 11, 2023: Semi-continuous: Psalm 78:1-7; Joshua 20:1-9; Matthew 24:1-14 Complementary: Psalm 70; Amos 4:6-13; Matthew 24:1-14
Announcements
All Saints Sunday • Today
On All Saints Day, United Methodists publicly remember and honor our loved ones who have passed away. We will say the names of Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church members who passed away from November 1, 2022 – October 31, 2023 and a bell will be rung to remember them.
Please bring pictures of your loved ones (relatives, friends, animal companions) to honor and celebrate their memory and your time with them. You are welcome to bring photos, artwork, trinkets, tokens, prose, and poetry to place on the altar in remembrance of your dearly departed. Please bring items that you feel comfortable leaving on the altar as we will remember our departed ones at our All Saints Worship Service.
Poinsettias on the Altar • Order now through December 17, 2023
Advent season is here and it is time to sign up for poinsettias for the altar. You may dedicate a poinsettia in celebration of a person or an event, in memory of a loved one or to honor God’s glory. Poinsettias may be taken home after our Christmas Eve services. Each plant is $12.00. The deadline for Poinsettia Orders will be Sunday, December 17, 2023.
College Application Zoom Meeting • Saturday, Nov. 11, 7pm
College application season is upon us so if you are a parent of a current college applicant, a parent of a prospective applicant or someone with questions about the process, please join us for a panel discussion! All are welcome to join our Zoom meeting on Saturday, November 11th at 7pm PST.
Our panel of parents and college students will be available to answer all your questions. We will begin with a brief presentation on a few key topics and then open the floor to questions. There are no trivial concerns so please bring all your questions, big or small.
If you plan on attending the event or just want to send in a question, scan the QR code and fill out the form! E-mail any concerns about the event itself, here. Absolutely everyone is welcome so if you know anyone who would benefit from this discussion, feel free to invite them to our event. We hope to see you all there!
Choir openings are available! Contact Eugene Onishi for more info!
Choir members needed! • Tues. at 7pm, Sun. at 9am, 11:45am
Join us as we bring musical messages to the Blaine family each week. If you sing, or if you would like to learn to sing, please come join! Whether you sing in public or just in the shower or are available “full-time” or “part-time,” all are welcome! Contact Eugene Onishi.
Wednesday Meditation & Prayer • Nov. 8 at 9am
The Wednesday Prayer group continues to meet each week. Our time together consists of a check-in question centering around United Methodist Founder John Wesley’s famous question, “How is it with your soul?” Our time together continues with a few readings from The Upper Room Magazine September/October edition. Finally, we end our time together with a pastoral prayer. We hope you can join us!
For more information, contact the church office for details!
This year’s All-Church Conference will be on Tuesday, November 14 at 7pm. This gathering holds great significance for our faith community as we come together to celebrate our ministries in 2023. Our District Superintendent, Rev. Derek Nakano will preside over the meeting. All are invited to hear about the state of our church and other important updates. More details to come!
Thanksgiving Meal Work Party • Sunday, Nov. 19 & Monday, Nov. 20
BYG is once again partnering with Kimball Elementary School to provide Thanksgiving meals for food-insecure families. We’ll gather on Sunday, November 19, after worship to prepare apple crisps together in the LAC kitchen. Additionally, on Monday evening at 6pm in the LAC kitchen, we’ll make mashed potatoes and bake apple crisps (a light dinner will be provided). We plan to deliver the meals to Kimball Elementary School on Tuesday, the 21st, in the morning. Please contact BYG Directors or Terri Adolfo for more details.
