Milledgeville’s First United Methodist Church is forming a Mothers of Preschoolers, or MOPS, group that will begin meeting Thursday, Oct. 23, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the church’s 366 Log Cabin Road address in Milledgeville.

“MOPS is a fun, inspiring and encouraging group of moms of preschoolers that meet to eat, socialize without interruptions, do a craft with sharp scissors and recharge our batteries while our children are cared for in a living environment around the corner and out of ear shot,” FUMC member Dana Lowe joked in a recent press release issued to The Union-Recorder.

In January The Union-Recorder visited the first Milledgeville chapter of MOPS, which was meeting in Hardwick every second Tuesday.

“We’re in 29 countries, including more than 4,000 chapters in the United States,” local coordinator Mary Lynn Wooters said in January. “We’re about celebrating motherhood, meeting the needs of moms, and helping moms experience God’s love through different relationships and events.”

Each MOPS group must be chartered by a church, according to Grace Moore, a member of the FUMC steering committee for MOPS.

Moore was present at a sneak-peak of the church’s “Ministries and Missions” fair Wednesday evening and provided additional information on the attempt to create a chapter with the church.

“We’re just getting ours off the ground. We’ll be meeting at night, so if you work you will still be able to come,’ Moore said. “MOPS is an outreach program to the church. We have a preschool here, and there are a lot of younger children and families that are involved.”

The first meeting of MOPS at First United Methodist Church will be held Thursday, Oct. 23.

After the initial meeting, meetings will be held on the fourth Thursday of each month, with November and December meetings held on the third Thursdays due to the holidays, according to Lowe.

Childcare will be provided for children from birth to third grade.

MOPS is tentatively scheduled to meet at FUMC on Oct. 23, Nov. 20, Dec. 18, Jan. 22, 2009, Feb. 26, 2009, March 26, 2009 and April 23, 2009.

Mothers of Preschoolers is a national nonprofit organization that exists to “meet the needs of moms ... with different lifestyles who all share a similar desire to be the very best moms they can be,” according to the organization’s national Web site at www.MOPS.org.

For information on the FUMC chapter of MOPS, contact MOPS coordinators Misty Glover at (478) 288-2399 or Jamey Rivers at (478) 454-4143, or visit http://mopsfumc.blogspot.com.