GRACE NOTES December 2017 Grace United Methodist Church

Transcription

1 GRACE NOTES December 2017 Grace United Methodist Church 2950 Spruce Drive, Cheyenne, WY Church Office: (307) Rev. Laura Rainwater: December Calendar Dec. 3 - Communion Dec. 3 - UMM Breakfast 8:00 am Dec. 3 - Christmas Choir practice 9:00 am Dec. 3 - Christmas Choir sings at worship 10:30 am Dec. 3 - Froyo Faith TBD Dec. 9 - UMW Unit Meeting 2:00 pm Dec Sunrise Lions Christmas Party 6:30 pm Dec Finance 6:30 pm - CANCELLED Dec Christ s Coffee Shop 6:00 pm Dec Sanctuary Sunday 9:00 am Dec Froyo Faith TBD Dec Christine Circle 9:30 am Dec Ministry Council 6:30 pm Dec Christmas Eve morning worship/caroling Dec Christmas Eve services 7:00 pm Dec Christmas Day Dec Church Office closed thru 12/29 Dec Comea Dinner 5:30 pm Dec New Year s Eve service 10:15 am Weekly Activities Sundays Adult Sunday School 9 am Sunday School for All Ages 9 am Youth Sunday School 9 am Worship 10:15 am Monday - Thursday Office Hours 8:30 am - 12:30 pm Wednesday Handbells 5:15 pm Reverend Laura s Hours Office Hours: Mon. & Wed. 8:30 12:00 pm /Call/Text gumcpastor@outlook.com cell

2 From the Pastor Advent Journey Through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. CS Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia is a favorite collection of books written in the mid 20th century. Many grew up reading these books that are part fantasy, part Christian allegory. I, myself, didn t read these until I was in my late 30s. The stories are easily accessible to those of all ages yet have deep messages. During Advent and Christmas Eve, we will journey through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the first books of this saga. It was the first published (though The Magician s Nephew was written later as a sort of prologue) and the most famous. Feel free to read it yourself, or even watch one of the movies. Sunday services will focus on: December 3: A Lesson About Temptation (Chapters 1-4) December 10: A Lesson About Perseverance (Chapters 5-8) December 17: A Lesson about Hope (Chapters 9-12) Christmas Eve (5 pm): A Lesson About Salvation (Chapters 13-17) (We will have an abbreviated service on Christmas Eve at 10:15 am in order to go caroling) A free ebook is available: wardrobe/lewiscs-thelionthewitchandthewardrobe-00-h.html I invite you to join us in this Advent journey. May you reimagine the gracious love Our Lord offers to us as shared in this story. Grace and peace, Rev. Laura

3 Christmas Eve Services Rev. Laura Because Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, we will first come together at 10:15 am. We will have a short prayer service before heading out to sing Christmas carols in our neighborhood and for some of our homebound members. We will have snacks and warm drinks in Grace Hall when we return. Please sign up to help lead a caroling group (music will be provided and all voices will sing together) or stay in Grace Hall to prepare the refreshments. Invite your friends and neighbors to sing and share in some merry fun! We will gather again at 5:00 pm for Christmas Eve service in the sanctuary. A special gift and children s message will be just for the kids. Invite your friends and neighbors to worship with us on this Holy Night as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. New Year s Eve We will have our 10:15 am worship service on December 31 in Grace Hall. Bring a snack to share as we worship together to celebrate 2017 and welcome 2018!

4 Sunday School for All Sunday School for All meets every Sunday from 9:00-9:55 am. We enjoy one another through sharing our stories of God being in our life. Sometimes we have more questions and we choose to turn to the Bible and our experiences to grow in our life journeys. Every week is a special social time with God and one another. You are invited to join us anytime! Christ s Coffee Shop Come join in the chatter on the 3rd Friday of every month to celebrate together at Christ s Coffee Shop. The next meeting is Friday, December 15th, 6:00 pm in Grace Hall. For now, GIGGLES will also be meeting with Christ s Coffee Shop. Come as you are to share your stories with others and how your faith is growing. Food, song, open mic time, topical discussions, sharing, and love will always be part of the time together at Christ s Coffee Shop! Greeter s Meeting There will be a short Greeter Meeting on Sunday, December 10th in Grace Hall immediately following our worship service. Anyone else who would be interested in becoming a greeter is welcome to attend the meeting. Grace United Methodist Men Bobby Marcum It has been a rather quiet year for any significant projects. Our meeting attendance remains steady. We did sponsor a special breakfast with an invitation to the women of the church to attend. There was a good showing and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We are thinking about repeating it next year. We ve had several outside work and cleanup weekends and spruced up the appearance of our church area. We had the mower serviced and it is now in good working condition. Mowing is done by volunteers as needed. We also participated in other maintenance activities to keep our church looking sharp. Some members also attend COMEA meetings periodically and help service dinner the 4th Thursday of the month. This provides some exposure of our church to the community.

5 United Methodist Women Mary Lou Marcum The organized unit of United Methodist Women shall be a community of women whose Purpose is to know God and to experience freedom as whole persons through Jesus Christ; to develop a creative, supportive fellowship, and to expand concepts of missions through participation in the global ministries of the church. UMW Christmas Gathering The board members of the UMW will host the unit meeting on December 9th at 2:00 pm in Grace Hall. All women of the church are invited to attend. A sign up sheet is in the Narthex. A short business meeting to install new officers for 2018 will be held followed with a Christmas Celebration. Please bring a wrapped white elephant gift to exchange, a favorite ornament to add to the Tree of Diversity and cans of food for Needs. Christine Circle Christine Circle will not meet in December. Their next meeting is scheduled for January 16, 2018, at 9:30 am in Grace Hall with new officers. Martha Circle Martha Circle continues to collect motel/hotel toiletries for the homeless. Travel size toiletries may also be purchased and donated. Please place your donations in the blue bag in the Narthex. May this Christmas season be a time of blessings for all.

6 Tis the Season! Glenda Haley Lots of invitations this time of the year, just cause tis the season. Makes my head swirl just a bit too much, maybe yours too. So I chose to focus on making it a season to remember for some folks that don t get a lot of invitations. This year, Grace is adopting two groups of people that need the extra help. First is Arp Elementary kids. We have 15 to be adopted. The cards are on the Tis the Season tree in the Narthex. Please place your name next to the number on the sign up sheet to the left of the tree on the bulletin board. The gifts need to be returned to Glenda no later than December 13th. The second group is the families in the Extended Care part of Family Promise. This program is new and it follows the families once they are in their own housing. Family Promise is still helping them budget their money, providing parenting classes and being a support, much like a family would do. Here s the catch a lot of these families do not have families for their support. So imagine not having anyone to help you carry a piece of furniture to your apartment or knowing the only gifts your kids were getting is what you can provide on a single salary or a phone call from someone to give you encouragement. I have gotten to know these families and when they tell me they couldn t have done it without us, I know they mean they couldn t have done it without YOU! We have 3 families in this program. All employed, all standing on their own and all with kids under the age of 10 so let s be their supportive family this year. Once I get the parents wish lists, I will be making a new set of cards to be pulled off the giving tree. We will be giving the gifts to the parents so that they can put them under their own tree - both for the children and for the parents. If you would like to give a monetary donation to this project, please contact myself. I would be glad to buy something that is wanted/needed from their lists. This month, the collection focus will be Stocking Stuffers! Grace will provided the Stockings From Santa to hand out at the annual Family Promise Christmas Party on December 20th. We have lots of children under the age of 5 this year. Please place items small enough to fill a stocking in the collection box on the new Grace Giving Grace table. On Sanctuary Sunday, December 17th, we will be filling the stockings for the party. Again, monetary donations for the stuffers may be given to Glenda. And please join us for the stuffing party during Sanctuary Sunday. Tis the Season! May God bless you and yours!

7 Birthdays and Anniversaries Birthdays Verlyn Pollock Dec. 2 Grace Owen Dec. 3 Betty Bean Dec. 8 Linda Bogart Dec. 12 Wanda Denton Dec. 13 Juliana Nash Dec. 15 LuAnne Cook-Ludwick Dec. 19 Darlene Evans Dec. 20 Kay Horst Dec. 22 Peggy Warrick Dec. 24 Anniversaries Dec. 5 - Jeremy & Brandi Nash - 19 years Dec Dale & Janice Fisher - 8 years Dec Bob & Nancy Wade - 60 years!! Dec Roger & Melanie Mork - 16 years Grocery Cards Update As many of you know, Grace has been involved in the sale of grocery cards for many years. The way it is set up currently, it has been almost problem free. Cards are purchased from the store at a discounted price and then sold at face value, usually a 5% profit. While it is not a dynamic fund raiser for the church, it has been reliable, primarily the result of regular purchases from a small group of participants. Hover, this year Grace has purchased cards from Albertsons/Safeway which were compromised, making them unusable by the owners. The church worked with Albertsons/ Safeway (A/S) and cards were exchanged in a satisfactory way. Almost immediately, reports were received that some of the new cards were not working. Those cards are now being processed to correct the problems. In early November, it was announced in church that cards with problems would be accepted back through November 19th. The small group of people who bought the A/S cards and had problems were notified. We will continue working with the A/S office in Denver. However, after this current problem is resolved, A/S card sales will be discontinued at Grace for the foreseeable future. The sale of King Sooper cards has not been affected and can be continued to be used. We regret the inconvenience this has caused but it out of our control and there was nothing that could have been done to prevent this from happening. Any questions, please contact Mary Lou Marcum, Lila Hughes or Ruth Cussins.

8 Winter Study What Every Church Should Know about Poverty: Melissa Martin will be teaching a 6 week study from Sunday, January 14 through Sunday, February 18, The class will be from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm with a potluck dinner after each workshop. This cost is $18.00 per person which is the book fee. Faith communities are charged with aiding people in poverty but carrying out that mission can be challenging. Alleviating poverty and building sustainable lives starts with knowledge and awareness of the issues faced by people living in poverty. Exploring new ways a faith community can make positive impact in moving individuals and the community as a whole into economic sustainability. Topics will include: Hidden rules of class Family and relationship building Conflict resolution and violence Church participation Members of the faith community, ministers and church staff members will all benefit from a deepened understanding or the people they want to serve. Recycle Battery Project GUMC members collected 16 pounds of batteries that were taken to the transfer station for proper disposal. Feel free to collect used batteries at your place of work and bring them to the church. You can drop your used batteries in the drawers that are in the Narthex. Don t forget to tape the tops of the 9 volt batteries as they can be a fire hazard when stored with other batteries. They also take fire extinguishers that have expired. We do not have a drop off place for these but if you will let me know when you are bringing them, I can take them directly to my car. Questions call, Linda Bogart at or me at 50echolane@gmail.com.

9 Christmas Thoughts Dr. Michelle Aldrich As Christians, we anticipate the birth of the Christ child during advent. He came as a baby in human form and thus, needy and high maintenance as all babies are. As he matured, the Bible talks about Mary and Joseph losing him at the temple. As a parent. I have lost my children in a crowd but I can t imagine what parenting the Christ child must have been like. Did they wonder if they had misunderstood the angel that night long ago as the years went by and he seemed so normal? Did they ever wonder if they were dong the right things as parents? Did they find themselves treating him differently or saying things like you should have known better, after all you aren t only the oldest but you are God s son!? As a parent raising children who aren t the saviors of the world, it seems daunting at times I can t imagine! As a parent, I want to love my children unconditionally, have no regrets and always wanted to be a role model for them when they were younger. As God parents us now, I believe He love us unconditionally, has no regrets and tries to model for us through His Word and sends others to mentor us. May we be reminder each day of Advent which heralds His coming reminding us that He is the Savior of the World! He wants what is best for us just as we want what is best for our children regardless of their age. I believe that God takes pride in His children and probably carries pictures of each one of us on His smartphone. Enjoy this beautiful season and snuggle into His arms and feel His love and care as you seek rest and solace! Trustee Report Dan Moede Trustees recently voted via to approve purchase of 2 65 flat screen TVs for the Sanctuary. They also approved the installation of the TVs by High West Digital Solutions. High West anticipates installation on or around December 15th. Funding comes from this year s yard sale proceeds. At the November 1st Trustee meeting, Pam Pallak presented a proposed facilities use contract and informational flyer regarding the Church and Grace Hall usage.. Refinements are being made and will be presented to Trustees in December for approval. Spruce it Up Lawn Care was the successful bidder for snow removal of the parking lot this winter. Their contract is good through May, 2018.