Second Sunday after Christmas

Message from Pastor Mori 

Ravenswood Fellowship United Methodist Church The Weekly Newsletter    Message from Pastor Mori   Happy New Year!   Do you remember what your 2020 New Year's resolutions were? Or do you ever have New Year's resolutions?   For me, I had New Year's resolutions for 2020, but they were not completed and many of them were failures. For example, "Go to gym at least three times a week," was impossible due to the gym being closed. Or, "explore the Ravenswood neighborhood and find my favorite café," was also a difficult achievement during the pandemic. For my 2020 resolutions, I have had a good excuse for not getting them done: the pandemic. However, if I am honest, in years other than 2020, I would have to tell a very similar story. My New Year resolutions always only ever get about halfway done.    If you share this familiar experience with me, it is not only our story. According to a study from "YouGov," nearly 80% of respondents who made some New Year's resolutions for 2020 failed to achieve at least some of them. And they shared the reasons why. I want to share some of them so we can have a better shape for our achievement graph this year.    (Original resource from Psychology today.com, Maike Neuhaus, ph.D ," New Year's resolution 2021, 10 reasons we fail.)    We don't give behavior change enough credit.   "Changing our own behavior and building new habits is incredibly hard." Yes. This is why we have many professional behavior change managers; therefore, if you pick behavior change as a resolution, don't expect it all to work out. Also, we can ask God for guidance and help, asking God for strength in our prayer.    Put it in the first place. If you want to change something (In my case, NOT turning on YOUTUBE when I feel lonely- even though I have a lot thing of things to do) but you postpone it to some time in the future, it will usually not happen. It sometimes means that we actually don't want to change anything after all. Dr, Maike who is the article author explains the phenomenon called "cognitive dissonance," which is the moment we realize that our behavior is not in line with how we would like to actually be, and we feel uncomfortable. The solution of "putting it in the first place," means to do the most important thing first and tell yourself that you will do better in the new year. For instance, in my case, I switched my YOUTUBE time to a prayer time with the music. I put my prayer song playlist first and prayer time becomes my first choice during the day.    We over-rely on willpower.  Willpower is like our battery. It allows us to do our daily tasks. In my case, in the morning my willpower is high, but during the day, I lose it and, in the evening, it is pretty low. I found that throughout the day as I lose my willpower, I rely on my old habits. This is why we need to remember that we are disciples of Jesus Christ. Every morning we are receiving a present from God. God wants us to have a happy day and God also wants us to use our time to love our neighbors. As we remember who we are, we can keep our willpower going and be aware of the temptation of the old behavior that we would like to change.      As we start the new year of 2021, I hope all of our Ravenswood Fellowship family is happy and healthy and that we will encourage each other to succeed in our goals for the new year under God's grace and love.    Happy new year! Blessings   MORI        Give on PayPal Give on PayPal Community Info & Links   Jan 03 Sunday Worship  The Love Feast   The Love Feast has often been held on occasions when the celebration of the Lord's Supper would be inappropriate—where there is no one present authorized to administer the Sacrament when persons of different denominations are present who do not feel free to take Holy Communion together, when there is a desire for a service more informal and spontaneous than the communion ritual, or at a full meal or some other setting to which it would be difficult to adapt the Lord's Supper. Please prepare your own Love Feast elements (Bread and Cup)  Jan 03, 2021, After Sunday Worship  Virtual Coffee Hour  Please stay a little longer after the Sunday Worship  We will have a short virtual Coffee Hour!!   Church Office Hours   We will continue to follow Governor Pritzker's guidelines during the COVID 19 pandemic. Currently, the mandate is to stay at home as much as possible.  The office staff will continue to work remotely until this mandate is lifted.  We will follow the guidelines issued by the Governor as well as the Chicago CDC and provide an update when possible. Pastor Mori can be reached by email at rfumcpastormori@gmail.com or by leaving a voicemail at the church office at (773) 561-2610.   Pastor's off days Pastor Mori will take time off from January 7th through January 10th.  During this time, Rev. Gloria Grasse (RFUMC) and Rev. Matthew Krings. (Berry UMC) are available for emergency pastoral care.  Rev Gloria can be reached at glograsse@yahoo.com and Rev. Matthew can be reached at matthew@berryumc.org. Rev Cody Johnson will read Jan 10th Worship and he will give us the Sermon.    RFUMC Virtual Choir  (To listen, please click the Picture) By Music Director Jonathan Hannau UMW "Mission u" - (Jan. 23, 2021) 9:30am - 2pm. The NIC UMW hopes you will save the date for this virtual program (note new date) coming up in the new year titled "Faith and the Prison Pipeline: Understanding the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Human Relations Day - (Jan. 17)  On this Special Sunday, our gifts will extend a helping hand to those in crisis so they can overcome formidable obstacles. Inspire giving with the help of a Pastor and Leaders' Kit, which includes worship resources, devotional podcasts, videos, social media images, and more. Click here for more information.                                         Weekly Sermon Phone Service                                         If you do not have computer access or cannot access our Sunday worship service through a smart phone, we now have a sermon by phone service, which is available at any time!  The phone number is (773) 219-0861.  You can listen to a recent version of Pastor Mori'ss Sunday sermon and it's free!   Obachan's (Japanese Grandma) Daidokoro (Kitchen)  おばあちゃん の 台所 MISO SHIRU (Bean Curd Soup) 5C. *basic soup stock  1/2 C. white miso 1/2 cake tofu, cut into 1X1X1/2 inch pieces 1 stalk green onion, thinly sliced Heat soup stock to boiling. Add miso and tofu. Return to boiling. Remove from heat and add green onion. Serve immediately.  * Basic Soup Stock 5 C. water 1/2 C. katsuobushi 1/4 inch square kombu 1-1/2 tsp salt  1 tsp. soy source  Place kombu in water and bring to a boil. Remove the kombu and remove the scum which has formed. Add katsuobushi to the boiling water. After one minute, turn off the heat. Cover pot and add salt, soy sauce.  Glossary Katsuobushi - Dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna Kombu - A type of seaweed called tangle  After Covid-19 Updates.  Read about the Phases for Re-Opening here. Is that document too long? Read the summary version here.                                                                                                                                                        Links for Worship.  Join Zoom worship by going to this link at 10:30 AM on Sunday: https://zoom.us/j/806489040. Or call in at 1-312-626-6799 (Meeting ID: 806 489 040).  Let's boost our worship! Please sign-up for Worship Bible Reader. Advent and Christmas time scripture and sermon title is here and Bible reader Sign-Up here. Young People's Bible Study. Ages 12-18 are invited to join the Zoom discussion of Jesus stories at 9 AM on Sunday mornings. Join the Zoom call here (Meeting ID: 828 2305 3546, One-tap mobile+13126266799) Want prayer? During our Prayers of the People, we will read your prayer requests. Submit your prayer requests here. Download. Get your bulletin here. Having trouble? Try logging off and logging back on to Zoom during the video. Or simply log off and call in.  Missed last week? Check out the Facebook Live video on our page here.  Give on PayPal Our mailing address is: 4511 North Hermitage Ave. Chicago, IL 60640 Contact us at: ravfelumc@yahoo.com (773) 561-2610 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

This email was sent to ravfelumc.church@blogger.com why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences Ravenswood Fellowship UMC · 4511 N Hermitage Ave · Chicago, IL 60640-5303 · USA