After our worship service on Sunday 12/11/22, we held our annual “cookie walk.” We baked cookies and other goodies, packaged them into 1-pound bags, and ended up selling about 80 bags of cookies. People left church well fed both physically and spiritually, and our Scholarship fund was able to help more students.
Fellowship
A church is a fellowship. We share things in common and provide community and support. We share Christ in common. We inspire each other and “spur one another on towards good deeds.” (Hebrews 10:19-25). But we also show love to each other. The Apostle John reminds the Church that we need to love each other just like Christ loves us (1 John 4:11).
The cost of education is skyrocketing, along with the prices of everything else. Things might be tight with our Christmas shopping, but we don’t want to forget the students among us. The cost of a 2-year Associates degree is difficult for many families to afford. And the cost of the cost of a bachelor’s or advanced degree can be downright prohibitive.
Scholarships
PUMC wants to engage in “Fellowship” by sharing resources and showing love. For many years, we have organized a program of Student Loans and Scholarships. For details, check out This Page.
One of the scholarship funds is organized by our members of the United Methodist Woman (now named “United Women of Faith”). The United Women of Faith’s $500 scholarship is given to a woman who is a contributing member of Pitman UMC and who will be a full-time student at an accredited 2-or 4-year college or university.
How can we help these students?
Cookies
As it turns out, many in our church like to bake cookies. And, like any other group of people, folks at PUMC like to eat cookies too! So we baked and donated cookies, and then we packaged
assortments of them into a 1 LB bag. The bags were sold for $8.00 each, and about 80 people availed themselves of the opportunity to purchase these goodies after church. The result was that our United Women in Faith raised over $600 which will help fund our Scholarship Fund.
Coincidentally…. the scholarship award that’s given to one student is for $500. By baking, packaging, and buying cookies, PUMC raised enough money to help send one additional student to school this year.
Annual events like the Cookie Walk or Christmas Marketplace are “fun” and they’ve become part of our Christmas tradition. But beyond being something that we like to do each year, they’re also a means of helping others. Through mission projects like these, the women of PUMC has provided clean water, education, and love to the people around us. PUMC is using traditions to foster fellowship: a community in which we enjoy each other’s company and through which we show love to others.
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To learn more about the United Women of Faith, click this button: UMW
