2014 For Members and Friends of St. Paul s UCC Fleetwood

Transcription

1 2014 For Members and Friends of St. Paul s UCC Fleetwood A Christmas Story Sarah was so excited. It was the last day of school before the Christmas break. Her family had been busy preparing for Christmas. Her mother had been buying groceries for the Christmas meal. Her father had finished decorating the outside. Her brother Billy was being his usual pesty self but with more enthusiasm. Sarah knew that the season of Christmas was here. It seems like the wait for Christmas is longer and longer each year, Sarah thought to herself. She heard her parents say time and time again how time flies. But this was not the case at Christmas. Christmas always takes its good ole time getting here, she thought, taking a deep breath and sighing to herself. As she walked home from school that day, she looked out over the pasture that bordered the long lane to the family s farm. The cows were lying lazily in the grass. chewing their cud and simply letting the day go by. Soon Rascal would be rounding them up for the evening milking. In the driveway sat a car she knew so well. It was Granddaddy and Grandma. The reason for their visit was unknown to Sarah but she was always glad when they came. She loved them so much and she knew they loved her too. As Sarah stepped into the house, the smell of freshly baked sugar cookies filled the air. Her mother had been baking all day long and had filled a lard can almost to the top with the golden cookies. The can would go into hiding until Sarah s mother could find the time to ice them. Sarah grinned to herself because she knew that she and Billy would eventually find the stash and enjoy the rewards of their scavenger hunt. Her grandfather smiled as Sarah gave him a huge hug and a kiss. The same treat was shared with her grandmother as well. You know, Carrie, that little girl is the spittin image of you; that apple didn t fall far from the tree, Granddaddy said. I know, Daddy, but kids grow up too fast these days. Sarah will soon be going to college and thinking about a family of her own. As Sarah walked by the breakfast table she saw something new sitting in the center. It was a round wreath of greens that looked like they came from the boxwood outside the front door. And embraced by the greens were four purple candles with a white, fatter candle nestled in the center. Sarah asked her mother what it was, and then she remembered; it was the Advent Wreath, just like the one in church. Hope, Peace, Love and Joy it all came back to her. And the center candle was the Christ candle. We are ready for Christmas now, Sarah said to her mother. I can t wait until they are all lit and the white candle is burning brightly! Neither can I, her mother said as she hugged her daughter, with a smile on her face and a tear in her eye. Merry Christmas, Pastor Pat

2 Zachary Gilmore 12/01 Kristopher Wink 12/01 Morgan Long 12/01 Maxwell Ruemmler 12/01 Joshua Mumma 12/02/ Brenda Boyer 12/02 Mikal Kohler 12/02 David Woods 12/02 Fay Leida 12/03 Janet Withers 12/03 Cindy Stump 12/03 Dylan Kramer 12/03 Jacob Kramer 12/03 Wendy Wink 12/03 Jane Folk 12/04 Shelley Brokhoff 12/04 Christine Markley 12/04 Mitchell Kibler 12/04 Joshua Bogacki 12/04 William Gehringer 12/05 Kathleen Barth 12/05 Donald Houck 12/05 Tom Bosch 12/05 Marissa Marz 12/05 Donald Zimmerman 12/06 Kenneth Ruhl 12/06 Sammi Snyder 12/06 Troy Collinge 12/07/ Megan Eberly 12/07 Robert Knoll 12/08 Dennis Boyer 12/08 Mary Jo Carabello 12/08 Kimberly Parfet 12/08 Linda Young 12/08 Bryan Essick 12/08 Tina Nasados 12/08 Glenn Weiss 12/08 Aidan Strohl 12/08 George Shollenberger 12/09 Barbara Quinn 12/09 Jan Walters 12/09 Diane Fretz 12/09 Christohper Kershner 12/09 Kathleen Herman 12/10 Casey Miller 12/10 Stephen Maurek 12/10 Andrew Schoellkopf 12/10 Elaine Hoch 12/12 Eileen Schuler 12/12 Susan Ludwig 12/12 Eric Levan 12/12 Carol Spotts 12/13/ Frank Levan 12/13 Kerry Kachel 12/13 Adam Frederick 12/13 Sandra Wildermuth 12/14 Lori Brightbill 12/14 Wendy Milyo 12/14 Lorin Smith 12/14 Anna Askman 12/15 Linda Schaeffer 12/15 Sandra Frederick 12/15 Amy Beetel 12/15 Zachary Dries 12/15 Charles Baer 12/16 Betty Schwab 12/16 Troy Grim 12/16 Jacob Pflum 12/16 Janice Weiss 12/17 Dale Geist 12/17 Jennifer Shick 12/17 Jacinda Stella 12/17 Warren Wanner 12/18 Cory Mason 12/18 Angela Miller 12/18 Emily Theodore 12/18 Alexander Scheffler 12/18 Jean Sloss 12/19 Chris Blickley 12/19 Julian Marz 12/19 Rachel Levan 12/19 Mackenzie Miller 12/19 David Herrold 12/20 Raymond Snyder 12/20 Michael Hechinger 12/20 Margaret Fryzol 12/20 Victor Pytleski 12/20 Amanda Schaeffer 12/20 Dakota Milyo 12/20 Andrea Batz 12/21 Tyler Bungo 12/21 Christoph Snyder 12/22 Paul Fretz 12/22 Justin Kachel 12/22 Bradley McAfee 12/22 Richard Fritz 12/23 Melissa Blickley 12/23 Joel Koch 12/24 Sherri Pieja 12/24 Tracy Reifsnyder 12/24 Amy Gross 12/24 Jeffrey Schutt 12/24 Kyle Schutt 12/24 Megan McGlinchey 12/24 Spencer Miller 12/24 Lester Hoch 12/25 James Wright 12/25 Sandra Levan 12/26 Tammy Miller 12/26 Jordan Jensen 12/26 William Quinn 12/27 Cathy Tongue 12/27 Marcy Klopp 12/27 Logan Mark 12/27 Connor Gruber 12/27 Emily Klopp 12/27 Maynard Hindenach 12/28 Keith Hallman 12/28 Tessa Pflum 12/28 Tammy Gore 12/29 Rhonda Bieber 12/29 Lindsay Becker 12/29 Matthew Bogacki 12/29 Klarissa Pierce 12/29 Jia Su Fulin Gore 12/29 Jacob Bungo 12/29 Jeffrey Kibler 12/30 Sophia Kerchner 12/30 Dominique Hoover 12/30 Geraldine Knoll 12/31 Lisa Weiser 12/31 Zachary Houp 12/31 Ali Wertz 12/31 If your birthday is not listed or is incorrect, please call the church office at so it can be recorded for future birthday lists.

3 December 7 8:55 a.m. Gail Noll, Lorraine Bingaman, Jim Ott, Chad Walter, Kerry Kachel, Chris Vojtasek, Ann Heinly, Hannah Hetrick 10:25 a.m. Pat Sausser, Malcolm Dreibelbis, Shawn McGlinchey, Melissa Ruemmler, Bob Wolf, Judy Fink, Sue Creswell, David Pierce December 14 8:55 a.m. Ken McDowell, Sharon Koller, Marcia Moll, Jim Goldman 10:25 a.m. Gail Noll, Lorraine Bingaman, Jim Ott, Chad Walter December 21 8:55 a.m. Kerry Kachel, Chris Vojtasek, Ann Heinly, Hannah Hetrick 10:25 a.m. Pat Sausser, Malcolm Dreibelbis, Shawn McGlinchey 6:00 p.m. Longest Night Service December 24 7:00 p.m. 8 Ushers 10:30 p.m. 12 Ushers December 28 8:55 a.m. - Bob Wolf, Judy Fink, Sue Creswell, David Pierce 10:25 a.m. Ken McDowell, Sharon Koller, Marcia Moll, Jim Goldman December 7 The Wentz Family December 14 Sharon Koller and Eileen Gilmore December 21 John Diehl and Dawn Stern Barbara Hoffman and Jen Mowry December 28 Leona and Jim Wright December 7 8:55 a.m. Dale Hollenbach 10:25 a.m. Jason Crockett December 14 8:55 a.m. Sandra Dugan 10:25 a.m. Mary Ann Hayes December 21 8:55 a.m. Joan Richards 10:25 a.m. Chad Walter December 28 8:55 a.m. Jim Ott 10:25 a.m. Jean Weidner December 7 8:55 a.m. Lydia Heffner and Nick Fry 10:25 a.m. Andrew Hagginbothom and McKenzie Barlet December 14 8:55 a.m. Camille Orth and Dakota Bryniarski 10:25 a.m. Riley Wentz and Alexandra Watkins December 21 8:55 a.m. Jenna Scott and Austin Scott 10:25 a.m. Zach Sell and Travis Pytleski 7:00 p.m. Kaili Gore and Tyler Mowry December 24 7:00 p.m.- Andrew Hagginbothom and Ian Snyder 11:00 p.m. Kevin Reinkemeyer and Kyle Reinkemeyer December 28 8:55 a.m. Sydney Plucker and Dakota Milyo 10:25 a.m. Meghan Delay and Zach Warren The deadline for news and information to be included in the January Tower Tymes is December 15 th. Thank you for your cooperation.

4 Nenyo Haborbor Child Support Partner Project With your support, St. Paul s UCC in conjunction with the Church of the Brethern, VA have provided the necessary funding for the dormitory project at Nenyo Haborbor, Ho, Ghana. The dormitory will afford up to 60 children a place to lay their heads and call home rather than the streets of the marketplace in Ho. The building is just one step to a successful program at Nenyo Haborbor. As one could imagine, housing up to 60 children will pose many challenges for the volunteers running the programs at the school / dormitory. One of those challenges will be ongoing financial support for these children. Food, clothing and schooling are a necessity for the success of this program. YOU CAN HELP! We are starting a Child Support Partner Project similar to other programs like Compassion, World Vision, Save the Children and others, but uniquely different. Different in that this project will afford St. Paul s Fleetwood and the Church of The Brethern members, their families and friends to further develop the CONNECTION that we have already established with Nenyo Haborbor Project in HO, Ghana. Best of all, you can be assured that 100% of your support dollars WILL go to the Nenyo Haborbor children! The way the program will work initially: We have initially acquired 46 of the children s photos and names with more to follow. You will be able to choose to be a Support Partner for one or more of these children, as a Support Partner, with your annual support, you will receive: 8 x 10 Framed Photo of the child you choose Information on how to write to, send pictures, small gifts / crafts to your child partner Future plans for providing you with a short bio of your partner child are in the works. We will also be working on ways for the children to respond to your correspondence, this will require patience, as you can imagine this will be a challenge for the folks who work with these children. The estimated cost to provide schooling for these children on an annual basis is 1300 Ghanaian cedes, at the current exchange rate, this equates to just over $ We will be setting up a table in the narthex with the children s photos and more information will be available. While this project is just beginning and in its sprout stage, we expect that as we move forward in the months ahead, it will develop and flourish into a true blessing not only for the children of Nenyo Haborbor, but also for the folks who chose to be a part of the program within our Churches. LOOK INTO THEIR EYES one can only imagine the things they have seen, heard and felt, at their young age Would you please consider being a support partner for one or more of these children for just $ annually? You could literally change the life of one of these children by making a connection with them, moral support, prayerful support for your partner and the entire program and financial support for the programs at Nenyo Haborbor. For more information please contact Pastor Patrick Morris, Jim Ott - Phone: / jott@ottgraphics.com

5 by December 31, Thank you. Poinsettias For Christmas Eve There are two ways to contribute to the Poinsettia display which will adorn our altar on Christmas Eve. You can give a $1 donation to contribute toward plants which will be given to the elderly and shut-ins or you can give $6.50 per plant, which allows you to keep the plant you buy. In either case, your donation can be in Memory of, in Honor of a loved one, or simply for your own enjoyment. You will find envelopes in the pews to place this tear-off in, mark Poinsettias and then place it in the offering basket. Names will be taken until December 14 th. A list containing sponsors will be available December 28 th in the bulletin. $1 donation: # $6.50 Purchase LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE Luminaries will surround the church property again on Christmas Eve. A donation of $1 will sponsor a candle in Memory or Honor of a loved one, or for your own enjoyment. You will find envelopes in the pews to place this tear-off in, mark luminaries and then place it in the offering basket. Names will be taken until December 8 th. A list containing sponsors will be in the bulletin December 29 th $1 donation per candle: # $ In Memory of Red White In Memory of: In Honor of In Honor of: For your own enjoyment **FINANCE** All contributions for the 2014 tax year must be in the church office or postmarked 2015 ENVELOPE PICKUP The 2015 envelope packets will be available for pickup beginning Sunday, December 7. The envelopes will be in the lounge near the coat room at the Green Street entrance to the church. Please take your packet as soon as possible and help by delivering packets to family and friends. After January 11, the remaining packets will be mailed to members. Thanks for your help.

6 Greetings from St. Paul s School November brought us celebrations for the Thanksgiving Holiday. We collected food boxes for the local families (Friends, Inc) in the area in need of food. We are all very thankful and blessed to have food, and the children really enjoyed helping others. What a great feeling for the children. We had a Thanksgiving mock Dinner feast on Tuesday November 25 th. We celebrated how thankful we are to live in such a great place and have food and shelter. We also celebrated that we have our school, the children and parents that are part of the wonderful life at St. Paul s UCC School. December will bring us a special visitor. There will be a visit from a certain man dressedd in red. The Christmas story will be shared with the children and parents/grandparents. December will bring us celebrations for the birth of Jesus. We are teaming up with the church and collect gifts for local families in need of love during the Christmas season. The children really understand the need to help others at this season of blessings. We are thrilled to see candy canes, Christmas trees, stockings, fireplaces, snowflakes, hot cocoa, bells, Christmas balls, ornaments and many other Christmas decorations completely and entirely created by yours truly the children. Thank you to the children of our school for decorating our church rooms with such brilliant colors and filling the rooms with Christmas excitement. We continue to have just a few spotss in some of our classes. If you know of anyone that has a 2 year-6 years old that is interested in a fun adventure, do not hesitate to give us a call at the school office ( ). We look forward to meeting you and your child. We look forward to having a fun and an exciting adventure with all the children in the journey of our children s futures. We wish all the School and Church families a very safe and joyous Christmas and a very Happy and Healthy New Year!!! Respectfully, Peggy Brown, School Director Our book group does not meet in December. At the meeting on January 27, 2015, we will discuss The Orchardist by Amanda Coplins. Closing The Gap: We usually have a deficit at this time of year but feel this year the deficit will not be eliminated by the end of the year due to its size. We are having a special campaign to Close The Gap. Envelopes can be found in the pews for donations. Contributions may be made in the offering plate, mailed to the church office, or dropped off at the church office. Please mark them Close The Gap. After every $5,000 collected a balloon will be colored in on the progress chart. Let s start off 2015 on a positive note!!! The Women' 's Guild and Phoebe Home thank you for your donations of bingo prizes and tissue boxes. We surpassed our goal of 155 tissue boxes and collected 184 boxes. Great Job! The residents really appreciate having their own box of soft tissues. A Simple Act of Caring One of the simplest acts of caring any one of us can do is to sign a Christmass card to be sent to a member of the US military. We have many cards in the narthex for you to sign. If you care to add a message, please do so. These cards will be sent along with filled Christmas stockings shipped by Keystone Soldier located in Shoemakersville. Cards can be accepted up to December 14 th.

7 Starting with the January Tower Tymes, the Senior Spotlight will be shifting its focus. Instead of interviewing senior members of our congregation, active members will be highlighted in the monthly column. Active member means any members who are integrally involved in our worship and church activities here at St. Paul s- from our youth, young adults, through and including our senior folks. If you feel a member should be interviewed, feel free to suggest that name to either, Dori Hoch, Lois Stilwell, or Roseanne Harner for consideration. Also, we could use a few more writers to augment our team of interviewer/writers. It is always interesting to learn more about members who we see on a Sunday morning. It is our goal to better acquaint our congregation with some of contributing members who make up our diverse and amazingly awesome church We welcome both your suggestions and our vibrant richly community. help. Our fabulous youth group served the meal at the shelter in November. Deb Reinert, Erin Goldman, Haley Krueger, Tyler Mowry, Max Ruemmler, Rachel Levan, Grace Hetrick, Justin Kachel, and Pastor John served a dinner of pot pie, green beans, rolls, and dessert. There were 35 men, 13 children, and 17 women. Thanks to the kitchen committee for the pot pie. Weis markets for the desserts and all the volunteers that helped. Thanks to Consistory for serving in the month of October. The family of Doris Hollenbach wishes to thank Revs. Morris and Kinney for the excellent service they conducted for her. Thank you to all the people who supported her family during the past weeks. A special thank you to the Brian Heydt and Douglas Steigerwalt families for supplying Dale with delicious meals. Dale, Karen and family and Kevin and family Mission News Helping Hands Our Helping Hands volunteers were busy again this past month. Lynda Shenk, our Helping Hands Volunteer Coordinator, thanks all those volunteers who so cheerfully provided our clients the following services. From October to early November there were: Calls- 9 Transports-6 s-9 Mission Committee Meets The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Mission Committee will be on Tuesday evening, Dec. 9 th at 7 pm in the lounge. If you are wondering what this committee does or are interested in the many ways we are currently carrying out mission heree at St. Paul s, you are encouraged to join the committee that evening. We welcome new faces and new ideas as together we seek to answer Christ s call to serve others both near and far. On Thursday, November 6th the Fleetwood Food Pantry anticipated on serving 125 families however over 142 families arrived at our door that evening! Our pantry shelves are now bare, o now more than ever, we are desperately in need of canned good items. Items used for holiday meals would also be greatly appreciated such as Stove Top stuffing, instant/boxed mashed potatoes, canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, cans of yams, cake mix boxes, etc. The holiday items that are donated to the cart will be used to fill the 150 holiday dinner boxes that will be distributed on Mon. November 24th from 3:30-6:00. Volunteers are needed at this distribution as well as, our regularly scheduled pantry date of Thursday, December 4th. The outpouring of help by the young volunteers at this last distribution was heart-warming. We had youth not only from our church, but also from Brandywine and Oley Valley School District helping to serve our families in need. Thank you to all of our dedicated, hard-working volunteers! We are still collecting turkeys for the Thanksgiving dinner distribution on November 24 th. We currently have two donated. If you would like to donate a frozen turkey, please contact Laura Walizer at walizerl@gmail.com or see Leona. All sizes would be greatly appreciated!

8 God s Gifts When so many good folks come together to pull off something as big as a Christmas Bazaar, thanks seems too small of a word to express our gratitude. Sure, we can write it bigger as in T H A N K S. And we can keep it general and express our appreciation to all the volunteers that put in the hours at home or at church... the bakers, cooks, sewers, donators of books, toys, foods and beverages, white elephant items, the organizers, and the set-up and tear-down workers. Or we can be specific and personalize our thanks with names of businesses and church members that contributed to The Silent Auction: Weis Markets, Boyer's Food Markets, Wegman's Supermarket, Quality Shoppe, Massimo's, Fiore's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant, Pour House Grill, Rocky's Pizza, Fleetwood Pizza, Unique Pretzels, Kornfeinds, Power Styling Salon, Shear Expressions Salon, Foose's Cookie Cutters, Jim Ott-Printing, Zimmerman's Florist, South Hill Designss Jewelry, Avon, Tupperware, Zerong She, Eileen Yeager, Chris Scheffler, Sandi Stern, Barb Moyer, Barb Hoffman, Michael Stern, Chris and Lesha Kershner, Dennis and Nancy Boyer, Janet Peters, Dee Eastland, Sandra J. Ott, Stephanie Powers, Mary Boone Martha Deturk, Erin Goldman, Rose Kurzweg, Jenn Mowry, Kermit Knerr, Jean Weidner, Joanne Sholedice. The Guild event brought in $5, , of which $5, will be gifted to the Close the Gap fund. AJ Laucks 2014 Sunday School Christmas Program Don t miss the Sunday School Christmas Program ***8:45 a.m.*** Sunday, December 21 st The Sunday school classes will be showing off all the gifts that God has given them including musical, artistic, theatrical, creative, and innovative talents. Be sure to come out and celebrate with us!

9 Thursday 12/4 Sunday 12/7 Friday 12/12 Fleetwood Food Pantry Mystery Dinner Babysitting Fundraiser 3pm-6pm pm Sunday Youth Fellowship 12/14 (Baking Christmas Cookies while we talk) Sunday 12/21 Wed 12/24 Christmas Caroling & Luminaries w/ Cookies & Hot Chocolate social time to follow Setting Up & Lighting Luminaries around the church TBD Sunday Christmas weekend 12/28 No Youth Fellowship Tonight SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7 The Second Sunday in Advent - Worship at 8:55 AM and 10:25 AM; Sunday School at 9:00 AM. Communion at both servicess SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14 The Third Sunday in Advent - Worship at 8:55 AM and 10:25 AM; Sunday School at 9:00 AM. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21 The Fourth Sunday in Advent. Worship at 8:45 AM Children s Christmas Program and 10:25 AM. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21 Longest Night Service at 7:00 PM WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24 Family Christmas Eve Service at 7:00 PM; Candlelight Service at 11 PM. Please note that this service will begin promptly at 11 PM and end right after midnight. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25 Christmas Day SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28 Installation of 2015 Consistory - Worship at 8:55 AM and 10:25 AM; Sunday School at 9:00 AM.

10 2014 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri 1 Prayer Shawl 7pm 2 Christmas Tea 7 pm 3 Choir 7pm 4 Food Pantry 3-6pm 5 Sat 6 7 Communion Worship 8:55 & 10:25 8 Consistory 7pm 9 Mission Committee 7pm 10 Choir 7pm Worship 8:55 & 10:25 15 Tower Tymes Deadline Choir 7pm Worship 8:45 Sunday School Program 10:25 Regular Service pm Family Service 7pm 10:30 p.m. Candlelight 28 Worship 8:55 & 10: Installation of 2015 Consistory Members

11 St. Paul s United Church of Christ Non-Profit 5 West Arch Street US Postage Paid Fleetwood, PA Reading PA Phone: Permit #83 Fax: churchoffice@stpaulsfleetwood.org Website: Our Staff Rev. Patrick W. Morris Rev. John Folk Rev. Dr. George Kinney Mrs. Linda Sue Speece Mrs. Sue Creswell Ms. Peggy Brown Mr. Thomas Agnew Pastor Associate Pastor Minister of Pastoral Care Church Secretary Bookkeeper School Director Sexton