March 2024

Another fun game night this past Wednesday as 20 youth filled our suite for card games, pool and a video game tournament

Marching into Spring

Gardens and lawns (plus more than a few weeds) are starting to wake up for the spring across Mississippi, while there's lots of life constantly unfolding in our youth ministry. In the past week alone we've worshipped with other UMCs in the area, fanned out to serve across the city, and filled the youth room for a raucous game night to break up the week's work.

Adults, we need your help to keep these wonderful, lifegiving events going. Our main need this semester is for dinner providers and volunteers for Engage, our weekly Bible study and fellowship time on Sunday nights. Click here to get signed up. Here are our remaining open dates and needs for Engage:

**This Sunday, March 3**: Dinner provider and volunteer
March 17: Volunteer to hang out with us as we eat out after Spring Break
March 24: Volunteer
April 7: Dinner provider and volunteer
April 14: Dinner provider and volunteer
April 21: Dinner provider and volunteer
May 5: Dinner provider and volunteer
May 12: Dinner provider and volunteer

The link above also includes more info about what how to help on Sunday nights or you can can contact me for more info. Though we love when you stick around, we know schedules and families don't always allow that so each need, volunteer and dinner provider can be signed up independent of each other. If you haven't joined us before or haven't in a long time, I promise our students don't need you to be cool or something that you're not; they just need you to be you and they love when adults show interest in their lives and faith!

-Geoff

Upcoming Events

Weekly Schedule
Sunday
9:30am: Sunday School
10:30am: Church-wide fellowship time in the Worship Center
10:45am: Church-wide worship
5:30pm: Engage
Wednesday
5:45pm: Dinner, followed by age group activities

Dates to Know

Adults, you make this possible! To help with spring semester weekly and special events click here.

March 1: Priority registration deadline for Waco--Click here to make a payment. Even if you can't do the full $100 right, contacting me directly or putting down what you can helps us get an accurate count sooner.

March 6: Beds for Kids, after Wednesday night dinner--Youth and Bridge students are headed down to the basement for a chance to serve. Please wear closed toed shoes.

March 17: Engage out to eat, 5:30pm--As usual, we'll regather from a midsemester school holiday by going out. Restaurant TBA.

March 22: Glow in the dark Easter egg hunt--We're back and glowier than ever after last year's fun.

April 7: Worship on the lawn & lunch fundraiser--We've got some cooking to do as we get ready for Waco! Youth families are asked to contribute a dessert.

April 28: PHUMC evening at the park--No Engage this night as our whole church family is invited to Liberty Park. Keep an eye out for the main PHUMC newsletter for more info.

May 5: Baccalaureate Sunday--Time to salute the seniors of 2024!

254 in 2024

This summer we're trading the 601 for the 254 to enjoy a week of service and formation with Mission Waco! They'll be hosting us while also arranging much of our activities, including helping in the mornings with their kids camp for working families in the neighborhood before doing physical service work with their program centers in the afternoons. Waco and its demographic similarities to the Jackson metro area, along with the loving expertise of Mission Waco and other voices we'll pull in, will afford our students an exciting opportunity to serve while also learning how to think about Christianity and need for the rest of their lives.

We'll depart from Parkway Hills on Saturday, June 22, in order to attend the church affiliated with Mission Waco on Sunday morning, and we will return either late on the 27th or on the 28th, pending a few final details about our departure after some final fun. Registration is $300 (make a payment here), which means that The Connection weekend last month and the 2024 summer trip combined will be less per student than the 2023 summer trip! Even with these savings, as always money should never be the reason someone misses out so please let us know how we can be there for you.

Speaking of money, we have two big efforts to announce. First, we have one more fundraiser to make sure we're totally set for Texas. On April 7 Parkway Hills will be holding our spring Outdoor Worship day, and afterward our youth will be serving lunch! In addition to volunteers to help us with the event itself, we're asking youth families to provide desserts to follow the hamburgers we'll be cooking. Second, we're excited to announce a new direct way for our community to come alongside our youth: we've established a youth trip scholarship fund to help students attend trips organized by our youth ministry. Starting this year, our annual Easter candles will go to benefit this fund. Interested individuals will also have the opportunity to give at any time throughout the year to make sure our families can send their teens to our fall retreat, winter spiritual formation weekends, the summer trip, and more.

Scholarship Opportunities

College is coming soon for several of our students, so we want to pass along some scholarship opportunities related to our shared Methodist connection. As always, please reach out to Geoff about recommendation needs. The links below will take you to info and application pages. Note: despite the similar names, these are separate entities each requiring its own application.

UM General Board of Higher Education & Ministry
- Variety of awards with different criteria
UM Higher Eduction Foundation
- preference given to students attending UM schools but other awards are possible
MS Methodist Foundation scholarship applications are now open! Newly added for the March newsletter.

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PO Box 1721
Madison, MS | 39130 US

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