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1 The Redeemerite Church of the Redeemer 7110 Missouri 9 Kansas City, MO December 2015 Volume 3, Issue 10 Christmass Schedule The Christmas Eve services will be at 6 pm and at 10:30 pm with carols beginning at 10pm. Christmass Day Morning Prayer service at 10:30 am. New Year's Eve Feast of the Holy Name 6 pm Inside this Issue Christmas Services Hospitality Open House Dinner Groups Year-Olds Outreach Nepal in a Nutshell Who is my Neighbor? Youth Group Salvation Army Recyclee Adult Formation Annual Meeting Hospitality 2016 Hospitality food and beverages allow visitors and new members to meet the church family. It also allows our church family to keep connected. It is provided by church members like you. Thank everyone on the committees this year. Now it s time to plan for Please see Mary Dwyer or Paula Grayson, or call/ them to volunteer. We ask thatt you be willing to provide something simple 3 or 4 times a year. Coffee and juice are provided. We especially need those willing to provide for the 8 a.m.. service. Thank you for your support of this ministry. New Leadership Needed We are looking for a new co-chair to help Paula Grayson with hospitality, please seee her if you are willing to assist. Thank you. Advent Devotion books are available on the table in the Narthex.

2 Redeemer Dinner Groups The new Redeemer Dinner Groups will be forming in December for the period January through June, If you are currently in a group and wish to remain in, you don t have to do anything. If you are not in a group and would like to be included, pleasee give me a call. The groups are lots of fun and a good way to become better acquainted with your fellow Redeemerites. Call Patti Clark Salvation Army Empty Salvation Army packing boxes and list are now available. The boxes should be returned to Redeemer no later than Sunday, December 6. Thanks in advance for your generosity. Please do not tape your box closed as we need to collect all of the food gift certificates/gift cards and bundle Outreach for December The Uplift Organization is a volunteer driven outreach program committed to feeding and clothing the Kansas City area's homeless. The organizationn is funded totally by the local donations of financial and material resources. Open House at Deacon Sherrill s Saturday, December 5 th from 4pm-8pmm 6418 N Revere, Kansas City, MO We began this tradition last year when Bret, Linda, and Sherrill wanted to honor their spousess with a celebration at Christmas time and to keep their memories alive. Ellie, Gwen and Carol wanted to join this year of remembrance, also. Hope we see you there as we rejoice and celebrate the season of Christmas and the many years we shared with our spouses. It is a joyous time of remembrance. Food will be provided and some libations. If you have a favorite drink, please feel free to bring it. Directions: Behind Wexford Place there is a row of townhomes and Sherrill's home is at the top of 64th Street Terrace. Depending on which direction you are coming from on 64th Street (45 Highway), you will turn north off 64th Street (45 Highway), on to Cosby Drive. (The License Bureau will be on the west corner and a bank on the east.) After turning on Cosby, take the first street west (64th St. Terrace -- Midwest Bank on the corner) and come up the hill until you seee a stop sign. If you look straightt ahead, there is a duplex and Sherrill's home is the left side of the duplex with 6418 painted on the curb. This open house is to be a celebration remembering our dear friend Jim Nathan, the spouses of Bret Davis, Linda Cookson, Deacon Sherrill, Gwen Pettes, Ellie Forbes, Carol Shifflett and all other who spouses who have gone before us. In addition to financial donation given by using the yellow outreach Calling All Twenty to Forty Year Old Redeemerites donation envelopes in the pews, we are collecting winter coats. If you Let's go for lunch together after the 10:30 worship service have any gently used winter coats on Sunday, December 6 th. We'll get to know each other and you want to remove form your home inventory, we would appreciate the brainstorm some activities for the winter. See Rev. Elisabeth. donation. Next Food Pantry Sunday December 6

3 Nepal in a Nutshell Thank you, Redeemerites, for your prayers and encouragement during my week in Nepal. My friend Lydia and I partnered with members of Hindustan Bible Institute (HBI Global) to provide a Grief and Trauma Care workshop for local Christian pastors and lay leaders. Our daily schedule Tuesday through Friday looked roughly like this: 5:00 Lydia and I prayed together and worked out the details of our plan for the day 7:45 Team breakfast of omelet, fried eggs with vegetables, & chai at the hotel 9:00-10:30 Worship music and devotional at the church that hosted the workshop 10:30 Tea break in the church courtyard 11:00-1:30 Workshop content (Lydia and I alternated presenting material and facilitating discussion while Lydia directed the art therapy activities) 1:30-2:30 Group lunch at a nearby restaurant (approximately 50 people), usually consisting of naan, rice, curry sauce, momos, bottled water, etc. 2:30-4:30 Additional workshop content 5:00-5:30 Team debrief 6:30-8:00 Team supper at a nearby restaurant 8:30 Exhaustion, connecting with family & friends through Facebook & What s App (The hotel had wifi!) The workshop went well, and pastors expressed gratitude for a conference that equipped them with practical skills different from those they typically learn at church planting workshops. Participants had opportunities to process some of their own grief and trauma in addition to honing their counseling skills. We certainly faced challenges: language barriers, time limitations, diversity in education among participants, cultural mistakes, and a significant earthquake tremor during our 3rd day which deeply frightened participants. But God sustained and redirected us throughout, and it was a joy and inspiration to catch glimpses of the participants life stories, particularly their faith and tenacity. Saturday is the Nepali day of worship, so I preached from II Corinthians 4 at a small church in the mountains outside of Kathmandu. Lydia shared her testimony as rooted in Proverbs 3:5-6. Afterward, 4 young girls in the church entertained us for several hours by taking us on a hike through the beautiful countryside, including across a terrifying suspension bridge, and taking us to one of their homes! This was one of our favorite adventures of the week. Sunday, our team traveled by Land Cruiser 3.5 hours into the Himalayan mountains (stunning!) to visit a tiny village where 2 young Nepali missionaries (biological brothers whom I met in India in 2013) have been providing earthquake disaster relief and rehabilitation, including now providing after-school tutoring for 50+ children. Some highlights from the week included the opportunity to work cooperatively and healingly across Christian denominational and cultural lines, the beauty of the landscape, and the delight of friendships nurtured between Lydia, I, and the HBI team members. As a special blessing, the travel time on both ends of the trip included opportunities to reconnect with friends at Virginia Theological Seminary, just outside of D.C., and also with a friend in Istanbul, Turkey. I thank God and you. My prayer is that God will receive glory and many Nepali people be blessed.

4 Who is My Neighbor? About two months ago, Fr. Joe and I agreed that it would be good to get to know our neighbors a little better. On three Wednesday afternoons, I and a member of the parish walked around the neighborhood immediately surrounding our church property and knocked on people s doors (Deacon Sherrill and I visited several of the businessess in the K-Mart strip mall). Our goals were to extend a sign of friendship and learn whatever we could about the people who live and work around us. We stopped at approximately 40 homes and made direct contact with about 12 family units. It was an informative, fun venture, and most people were surprisingly open to engaging with us. Here are some reflections from my neighborhood visitation partners On a recent afternoon, Rev. Sinclair asked if I would be able to accompany her on a tour of the neighborhood around Redeemer. I found the experience to be quite rewarding and enlightening. Discovered theree is a tremendous amount of diversity surrounding our home. We were warmly and respectively received at every home where someone was home. Clarence Matthews I wasn't anxious about the reception that you and I would receive when we knocked on the doors of the people in the neighborhood near Redeemer because we prepared ourselves with prayer before starting out, asking God to be with us and those we would meet and to react in a loving, caring way to those who may not want to talk to us for whatever reason. We had several positive interactions with our neighbors. One in particular stands out in my mind. The person who answered the door is a married woman with two sons, one still in high school and the other attending a local college. As we talked she told us about the fact that she and her husband are facing a stressful situation becausee the house they live in needs several major, costly repairs that they cannot afford to make. Without the repairs being made, the house cannot be sold so they're thinking of filing for bankruptcy and letting the house go back to the mortgage holder. It reminded me of the difficulties many hard-working, decent people face in their lives. I think it helped her to talk to us. My experience has been that people faced with difficult choices benefit from someone who's willing to listen and not judge them. While the problems don't go away, it provides clarity as to what to do when the challenges and stress can be verbalized to another. By listening, I believe we let her know we cared. We prayed with the woman, asking that she and her family be guided into making the best decision for them. David Grosse Recyclee Recycling Event at Redeemer. Do you have old computer equipment or other electronics that need to be recycled? Bring them to Redeemer, put them in the library downstairs by Sunday, December 6th. Go-Recyclers will come by to pick them up for recycling. Check them out at recyclers..com Adult Formation Join us on Wednesday evenings for Adult Formation. On December 2, Dr. Bill Stancil wraps up his series on 1 st century Corinth and 21 st century Kansas City. Next up with be two weeks by the Eicks on Advent as we move further into Advent. There will be no class on the 23 rd or 30 th. Return on Wednesday nights in the New Year for a celebration of Epiphany on January 6th followed by 4 weeks by Rev. Elisabeth on the subject of love.

5 Run for Vestry Our annual meeting is January 24th, At that time three new vestry members will be elected. Members are elected for a three-- year term. Three members go off each year, so three members are needed to take their place. This is an open call to the congregation to prayerfully consider being on the vestry. To qualify, you must have attended Redeemer for at least 12 months and be pledging to the church. If you feel this is a ministry that is right for you, you are invited to submit your name for next year s vestry. If you are running for the vestry, we are asking all candidates to answer the following three questions. A list of the candidates and their answerss to these questions will be compiled and available to the congregationn prior to voting at the annual meeting. The Three Questions: 1. Pleasee tell us about yourself and your time at Redeemer. How have you participated in the ministries of Redeemer? 2. Pleasee explain why you would like to serve on the Vestry. What types of talents, gifts or knowledge would you offer as a Vestry person? 3. As you look at the future of Redeemer, what are your hopes and desires for our church as you look into the next threee years? You can prepare your answers and submit them on paper (put in Kasi s Mailbox) or (redeemerkc@gmail.comm ). Please get your answers to Kasi no later than December 28th. Youth Group News Network Lock-in: 6 pm Friday, December 4 through 8 am Saturday, December 5 St. Paul' s On Friday night we'll head to the ice rink at Crown Center. The cost is $9 to skate (includes rink time and skates) plus any extra for the snack bar. After skating we'll head back to St. Paul's to play games, watch movies and bake/ /decorate cookies for shut ins. 11 East 40th Street, KCMO For more information contact Meredith at meredithseaton@gmail. com. Sign- up online at wemoyouth.com. Carpooling from Redeemer is available. Contact Joe Pierjok at Sunday, December 6pm Christmas Party Youth Nomadic Dinner Friday, January 22 nd. More information coming soon. Youth Group will be volunteering at Kansas City Community Kitchen possibly during winter break. Carpooling will be available. More details to come!