Evergreen Outreach

By Editor | March 10, 2016 |

By Charlene M Jett
At the First United Methodist Church, Evergreen Outreach scored a big success! With Beulah Brown as our leader, David and Patricia Pence (SoftFire) as our entertainment and the Rev. Joe Lawson to providing us scripture and prayer, we celebrated spring in Ireland with a St. Patrick’s Day theme. It was the best party in town!

We missed Phyllis Rames, Jeannie and Wolfe Schlicht, and hope they are in God’s comfort and care.
Beulah warmed us up with a celebration and game of pretty cards she brought and shared with us. We sang our welcome and Outreach songs to a full house.
Rev. Lawson spoke to us about how Jesus loved to have the children come to Him, but the political and church leaders tried to shoo the children away from Him. Jesus rebuked the leaders, saying that the best way to get to know Jesus is as a simple child. When we have this child like faith, Jesus will adopt us into His family. He will show us love and kindness, joy and laughter.
With a beautifully decorated stage (green cloths covering the area with sparkles and clovers) SoftFire began its tour thru Celtic county.
They escorted us through Ireland with more than 200 slides to match their brass instrumental music.
They began with gorgeous white cliffs and brilliant green pasture of the Irish coast, as they played “Alive, Alive, Oh, Cockles and Muscles,” and broke out an amazing simple little Penny Whistle to amuse us with “The Wishy Washy Washer Woman!”
They played Irish dancing music and showed scenes of pretty skirted Irish dancers; if only we could dance like them!
They played a Celtic carol and showed a bagpipe marching parade, a quiet Irish fishing village and children dancing. They also showed wonderfully green pastures with sheep, trout streams and children fishing. A serious and very reverent song, “Be Thou my Vision,” was played on the penny pipe, clarinet and French horn.
The most humorous of all was the next number, “Who thru the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy Chowder.”
This was complemented by images of a fainting Mrs. Murphy, overalls in the bottom of a wash basin and Irish chowder dished out of the same pot. A most-ridiculous sight!
David and Patricia mellowed out everyone with an Irish Ballad, “I’ll take you Home Kathleen” and images of Blarney Castle and The Rose of Tralee, in which he showed rose-covered cottages, which were just beautiful.
A special surprise was shown with a video of Irish toe dancing, which showed amazing choreography of these very talented dancers.
A most-traditional Irish song was “My Wild Irish Rose,” which had everyone smiling and swaying to the tune.
SoftFire closed with a number from Dottie Rambo, “He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Need.” This version of a poignant song describes how God’s grace can capture our falling soul and that His most precious gift to us is the risen Christ.
While all the pretty scenes were being shown, the dedicated pinochle players of Kruenegel/Meador tied with Hobler/Locke. They are very dedicated, just as are Ruth Ann Scott, Mary Woolsey and all of the other volunteers.
We will continue with only holding EO meetings on the first Monday of each month. Hope to see everyone again on the first Monday in April – spring will be here!