It has never been easier to support the youth of LAUMC! Next time you’re browsing Amazon, consider adding a few items to your cart from our wishlist! Items will be shipped directly to LAUMC.
Show your support with JUST ONE CLICK!
Please note, these are considered in-kind donations and will not be reflected on your LAUMC Giving Statement.
California Wildfire – Your Help Is Needed!
The Disaster Response Team from our California-Nevada Conference has been hard at work providing assistance to those impacted by the recent fires. Trained Early Response Team (ERT) volunteers have been working with local pastors and their congregations to provide support. This includes meeting with people in the Local Assistance Centers to provide a listening presence as well as gift cards, hygiene kits, and buckets of materials for cleanup. You can read more about the response on the Conference News webpage. What can you do? Here are some suggestions:
Registration Open! Sign Up Today!!
We invite you to register for Compassion Week 2021! We will be working with several faith groups to encourage a big volunteer turnout, to help build a more compassionate and caring community. If you are interested in leading a project or supporting the Compassion Week planning effort, in any capacity large or small, please contact Yvonne Murray by email for more information or follow us on the Compassion Week website, Facebook (@CompassionWeekLosAltos), and Instagram (@CompassionWeekLA) for updates.
Sunday, May 30
Hello Graduating Seniors!
CONGRATULATIONS! What a fantastic accomplishment it is to graduate from High School or College! Your resilience and character have been on full display through this pandemic year and those traits will be of huge benefit in your next chapters of life!
Your LAUMC community is thrilled to join you in celebration and have dedicated our entire Worship on Sunday, May 30 to honor and laud you graduates!
To make this worship experience memorable, we are asking for your help.
Here’s what we would love from you:
A 2-minute (or less) video clip of you responding to one or all of the following questions:
Please film horizontally, and make sure the audio is clear.
Review the video before you send it in and please no music in the background.
Once you have your 2-minute clip please upload it to the link below and label your file with your last name (ex. marshall.mp4)
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me, Stina Marshall, and I will help get it sorted out!
Deadline for Submissions is Monday, May 24
Our amazing digital communications team will take all of your submissions and put together a meaningful tribute to all our graduates that will be a large part of Pastor Kathi’s sermon on Sunday, May 30th.
You can share this with your friends and family who you’d like to celebrate with by inviting them to laumc.org/live at 8:30 am, 10:00 am, and 5:00 pm on May 30th.
In addition, if you have any pictures from your last four years that are related to faith, God, serving, mission, LAUMC, etc. in any way, we would love for you to send those to us as well. We will be putting together a slide show for worship and would love to have every graduate represented!
Please submit all photos to the same link above by Monday, May 24.
Front Porch, the new church start in downtown Mountain View, has been meeting in the driveway of the Paul Avenue parsonage. This has been a wonderful way to meet neighbors and be visible in the community. As the weather turns, however, it is clear that the dinner church gatherings will need to move to an indoor space at the Mountain View campus beginning Sunday, November 3.
Each week the community gathers, and each person shares what they are grateful for and what lays heavy on their hearts, shares the stories of their lives, and finds where those stories intersect with the story of Jesus. If you know someone who isn’t comfortable in a traditional church setting but may be looking for the kind of connection, compassion, and courage we find in Christian community, send them to Front Porch.
All young adults who have been blessed by the ministry of OpenCircle are invited to join in a celebration on Sunday, November 3, 11:15am–12:15pm in Creekside. Come commemorate the seven years of transformational ministry with a slideshow, testimonies, and stories of the impact OpenCircle had on its members. Those gathered will bless the folks who are transitioning into different seasons of life and different ministry opportunities. Refreshments will be served. RSVP to Phil Pompei if you plan to attend.
Artists are invited to get out your paintbrushes, clay
, or other tools and create some new artwork to share with your church family. Arts Alive! Sunday, August 27, is the day we celebrate God’s great gift of creativity in our lives and in our congregation. If you are an artist in any medium, of any age, please consider sharing your original creations.
To sign up, email Jan Grady and include your name, phone number, email address, art medium (painting, sculpture, photography, etc.), and how many display panels you want or what length table you need. We have new Pro Panels to display our work on that are 30” wide and 6’ tall. Set-up time is the preceding day, Saturday, August 26, 10:00am–1:00pm in Creekside. There is a $10 participation fee payable at set-up; the fee is waived for artists ages 14 and under.
Please contact Arts Alive! coordinator Lisa Webb with questions.
Last month, members of our OpenCircle young adult group and other Los Altos UMC members worked together to improve the Habitat for Humanity veterans shelter in San Jose. A full day of work involved adding seismic strapping, furring shear walls, digging dry wells, and weed abatement. The 1920s-era buildings have been renovated in partnership with the city of San Jose to serve veterans who are disabled, homeless or facing addiction issues. A special dog bathing station is included for vets with pets. Each room has its own heating and cooling system. Habitat can still use your help. If you would like to help with this ongoing project through our All Faiths team, visit the Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley website and volunteer sign-up page for further details.
The LAUMC Staff-Parish Relations Committee is pleased to announce the upcoming appointment of Pastor Samantha (Sam) Lewis to the pastoral team. She will serve as our minister of young adults, and like Pastor Samuel Yun, she will be in ministry with our whole church in many ways beyond the OpenCircle young adult group.
Pastor Sam is originally from Fresno and is proud to say that she is a lifelong SF Giants fan, despite having lived, trained, and most recently worked in the southeast. Pastor Sam likes to say that her fierce passion for the Giants is only exceeded by her passion for Jesus! She has a B.A. from Huntingdon College in Alabama and a Master of Divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.
Pastor Sam was previously pastor at St. Luke United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and most recently associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Crestview, Florida. In addition to working across many dimensions of ministry—worship, congregational care, community outreach, and more—she also led young adult ministries and small groups as an intern at the Georgia Tech Wesley Foundation. In her free time, Pastor Sam enjoys playing stand-up bass, sometimes bass guitar, and enjoys fun ministry opportunities as “Reverend Slam” in the local roller derby league.
We are delighted for Pastor Sam to join the LAUMC community on July 1 and welcome her collaboration and leadership in our OpenCircle young adult ministry and broader church life.