bell

Cori Cossaboom Bell

Cori Cossaboom Bell has been the Director of Children’s Ministry and Child Care Coordinator at PPUMC since April of 2008. She is the daughter of a United Methodist elder and knows well the life of being called into church service. Being a PK (preacher’s kid) she lived a number of places before the family settled in Dallas where she graduated from Bryan Adams High School.

She earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Texas before entering into the hotel business for a number of years. She worked in hotels in Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, San Antonio, and Nashville before moving to Dallas and leaving to become a stay-at-home mom for a few years. During this time she began to concentrate on the call she felt to serve a church and entered Brite Divinity School at TCU in the fall of 2000.

She previously served as Singles Minister at University Park UMC, and as Children’s Minister at the United Methodist Church of the Disciple in DeSoto. Her life experience has enhanced her ministry because the hotel business is a lot like being in the church. Both are concerned primarily with service and meeting the needs of each individual. She was a single person who moved to new places without any friends present and knows how important church was in helping her settle in and become part of a group. She has been both a mother who worked outside the home full time and a stay-at-home mother and knows the challenges that each mother must face. The church she served in DeSoto was predominantly African American and it gave her and her family a new perspective on what it means to be a minority. Through all of her experiences God has been present to guide her and help her learn from each one.

She is married to Brian and is mother to Leah and Sam. She is very happy to be serving PPUMC.

Aging, Smaging

My recent birthday got me thinking about age and aging. On the one hand I have more aches and pains, I can’t do what I used to do (or at least not without paying for it mightily), and I have become invisible to young store clerks at the mall. I signed up for a company that does focus groups and somehow they had my age as younger than I am. They called several times (each one would have been well paid) but when they found out my true age they quit calling. I am too old for them to care about. And the real topper was an article I read on the internet about how advertisers view women according to their age. In my category, they said that my biggest discretionary spending was on prescription drugs! Seriously? I don’t even take any prescription drugs. I have a husband, teenagers, a full time job, and many volunteer activities. I have a very full life. And yet in their eyes I am only about prescription drugs. If that isn’t enough to get you all depressed before a birthday I don’t know what is.

So I approached this birthday with trepidation. According to all the “experts” out there I am officially old and irrelevant (unless you are a drug manufacturer – then I am golden). Why don’t I feel old and irrelevant? As I thought more about it I came up with a list of blessings about aging:

1. I will never be part of the popular crowd and what’s more I don’t care anymore. As I watch my teens in the middle of all the angst about being in the right crowd and being cool I can sit back and relax. I have my friends and if others don’t like me so what? I can live with that.

2. I have quit wishing for things I will never have (i.e. a blemish-free face, a size two body, skin that will tan) and have learned to be thankful for what I do have (a healthy body and a healthy mind).

3. I have stopped fantasizing about walking the red carpet on George Clooney’s arm. Now I live in a pretty fabulous reality. I have a wonderful husband and kids. I love being here at this church and I love what I do.

4. I have quit obsessing over the Kardashians making $40 million dollars for doing nothing more than showing up. Live and let live.

5. I am blessed to have a healthy 88 year old mother and all of my siblings still here. While we continue to fight like when we were kids it is a comfort to know that they are still present in my life.

6. I will never change the world but I am ok with changing just a little part of it.

7. I will never be a cowgirl or a ballerina but that is ok because I hate the smell of manure and would never be able to starve myself to get into a tutu.

8. I have been created and am still being created by God. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks I am because God and I know the reality. I am still changing and developing and working and learning. I am a child of God and as such I matter.

PPUMC aging beautifully There was an old commercial when I was young that said, “Now my hair’s gray. I like it that way.” And so I embrace my gray hair, my aches and pains, my hot flashes and know I am beautiful.

The glory of youths is their strength, but the beauty of the aged is their gray hair. Proverbs 20:29

And that’s good news!

Click here to read more post by Cori Bell

Sunday Worship Times 8:30 am ~ 9:15 am ~ 11:00 am Worship Information	Home \| Visitors Center \| What's Happening \| About Us \| Worship Music \| Children \| Youth \| Adults \| Support Your Church Congregational Care \| Community \| Wesleyan Academe		Dr. Bill La Barr, Senior Pastor 1615 West Airport Freeway Irving, Texas 75062 972 255-4185 Email
Copyright 2009-2012 - Plymouth Park United Methodist Church We serve all people in the following communities in and around Irving, TX: Grand Prairie, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Grand Prairie, Farmers Branch, Highland Park, University Park, Las Colinas, Valley Ranch, Coppell, Carrollton, Grapevine, Keller and Southlake! Plymouth Park United Methodist Church is proudly connected to The North Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church.