The Trinity Trumpet. Upcoming Events. Message from the Giving Ministry. Join the Greening Party!

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1 The Trinity Trumpet Upcoming Events Sunday, December 9 - The Second Sunday of Advent Vicar Mary Preaching 9:00 AM - Eucharist with Cappella! 10:15 AM - The Sunday Mix & Pageant Rehearsal 11:15 AM - Eucharist with Salt Monday, December 10 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM - TCNSK 6:30 PM - Confirmation Class 7:30 PM - LIFT Women s Group Tuesday, December 11 9 AM - 2:00 PM - TCNSK with Chapel 7:00 PM Finance Committee 7:30 PM - PEAL Rehearsal Wednesday, December 12 9 AM - 2:00 PM - TCNSK with Chapel 12:00 PM - ROMEO s Lunch 12:30 PM - Juliet s Lunch 7:30 PM - SALT Rehearsal Thursday, December 13 9 AM - 11:30 AM - TCNSK with Early Dismissal 12 PM - Church Office Early Closure 12:00 PM - TCNSK Staff Christmas Luncheon 7:30 PM - CAPPELLA Rehearsal Friday, December 14 9 AM - 2:00 PM - TCNSK 6:30 PM - RSCM Rehearsal Saturday, December 15 10:00 AM - Pageant Dress Rehearsal Sunday, December 16 - The Third Sunday of Advent 10:00 AM - Trinity United Eucharist! 11:30 AM - My Fair Baby Christmas Pageant Message from the Giving Ministry Please remember to drop your 2019 Intention of Giving Cards in the box located in the church narthex. We ask each of you to pray and reflect on all of God s blessings in your lives. Supporting Trinity s base mission fund is one way to give back. It helps all within our church community, as well as many outside of our walls develop a closer relationship with God. Your contributions fund not only the physical plant and campus, but also the salaries of our church employees, our music programs and our educational programs. The congregation has made a commitment to support stronger youth programing including a new staff person for formation and youth and family programs. We will need everyone s financial support in order to make this a reality. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration and your continued support of Trinity! Join the Greening Party! December 23rd after 11:15 service, we will decorate the church for Christmas - projects and fun for all ages, and something to eat around 1pm. Sign up on the clipboard this week! See Nina Wason for details. Trinity s Clergy: The Reverend Stacey-Kyle Rea pastorskrea@gmail.com

2 Save the Date - December 23rd On Sunday, December 23rd, we will have a special coffee hour to thank Nina Wason as her tenure as Christian Education Director ends. Please plan to be present to thank her for her service to Trinity. TLC On Call Schedule If you are in need of pastoral care on either a Friday or Saturday (Pastor Skyle s days off), a member of TLC is always on call. Below you will find the on-call list for this month. December 7 & 8 Jennifer depaulis December 14 & 15 Sally Jeffries December 21 & 22 Jenny Anderson December 28 & 29 Lynn Chialastri Assistance Requested Our sister in Christ, Susan Spengler, is in need of assistance with transportation to medical appointments at a medical building next to Bryn Mawr hospital, usually on Tuesday mornings. If you are willing to be a driver either now or in the future, please reach out to Susan directly with your contact information. This need will be on-going for several months. Drive once or once in a while as per your availability. Her immediate need is for Tuesday, December 18. Drivers are also needed for some Tuesdays in January and February and beyond. Susan's cell phone number is Call or text. Thank you for keeping Susan and her family in your prayers and your willingness to help. Bread Sale Thank You A sincere "Thank You" to everyone who generously supported our Trinity Thanksgiving Bread Sale. Thank you to our bakers and the volunteers who prepared the "Homemade Soup Mix" and the "M and M Cookie Mix" jars. These new items sold well. Our Pipe Dreams Fund is growing and hopefully, we will be able to move ahead with restoring our Moeller Pipe Organ. This is a big project but by working together, we will succeed. Trinity's "Pipe Dreams" Committee

3 Reasons to be Thankful Psalm 107:1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. In the midst of all of our feasting, it is very easy to forget about the one we are celebrating. Sometimes we even forget to give thanks altogether. You might be thinking, Well, I don t have a lot to give thanks for this year. Maybe you are having financial trouble or health problems. Maybe there is a conflict in your family. But we need to put things into perspective. As someone wrote, if you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won t survive the week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million around the world. If you attend a church service without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer that 75 percent of this world. If you have money in the bank, some in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8 percent of the world s wealthy. There is a lot to give thanks for and the primary reason we were put on this earth as human beings is to glorify God and to give Him thanks. Count your blessings!! Advent at Trinity And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. As the tree of Hope is rooted in God s abiding love for each of us, so grows the tree of our church family, rooted in the past, rising to the future. To acknowledge Trinity s roots, our families and our heritage, please take a strip of burlap from the basket in the narthex, print your family s LAST name on the strip in marker, and return the completed strip to the basket. Watch the base expand through Advent, fortifying our foundation. Help Needed David Stone is looking for an addition to his counting team for the months of March & September If you are interested, please contact David Stone or the church office.

4 Cleaning Up From the Desk of Nina Wason Sometimes there really is great stuff to read on Facebook. I mean, after scrolling through advertisements, friend suggestions, political posts, and quizzes (which Hogwarts professor am I really?), I come to one of my favorite people I don t actually know, he goes by TC and he posts almost daily from the desk of the Bangor (Maine) Police Department. TC is an excellent writer and from what I can tell from 500 miles away, a wonderful human being. Bangor is one of Maine s mid-sized towns, and as such is not a hot bed of high crime, but it still manages to provide TC with endless you-can t-make-this-stuff up stories. And then there s his regular life, which was the focus of a recent post. The story starts when TC returns home one evening. His wife has been away on business for a while and he wants you to know he has kept up with vacuuming, dishes and laundry like a responsible adult in the meanwhile. But on this day, he walks in the door and notices that something smells a bit off. From past experience, I guess, he decides first to check certain drainage traps in the basement. Nothing nasty there, so back upstairs, where, having let loose his inner hound dog, he eventually tracks the offending odor to a basket on the kitchen counter where they keep root vegetables handy for cooking. Alas, a long -forgotten turnip has gone the way of all flesh, its last hurrah to decompose in a malodorous offering to the culinary gods. Now there s a kitchen caper I can relate to, though it usually involves tomatoes. But what I most love about this story is the way TC wraps it up: The take-away here is that sometimes the things that stink most in life are closer than they appear. Before you start blaming the drains in the basement, take a look in the basket right on the counter. Doesn t that sound like something you ve heard in the gospel? This week our readings take us through the prophet Malachi s words about how God s people will be cleansed with a soap that s more like bleach, refined with a fire that melts out impurities. Then they can make a pleasing offering to the Lord. And our man John proclaims and offers a baptism of repentance. That is how we prepare the way of the Lord: something like cleaning our spiritual house as we would for the arrival of a king. There are no end of messes out in the world to clean up, but today I keep coming back to TC s words of wisdom: sometimes the things that stink most in life are closer than they appear. Before you start blaming the drains in the basement, take a look in the basket right on the counter.

5 Laurie Heilman December 1 Sylvia Heilman December 1 Leslie Askonas December 2 Vivian McIntyre December 4 Elaine Gross December 5 Laurie Burns December 6 Brian Cole December 6 Dan Kenneson December 6 Dean King December 6 Dot Capoferri December 7 Tom Masucci December 10 Lynne Parker December 11 Brayden Avery December 12 Lucas Travetti December 12 Eric Kemner December 13 Susan Spengler December 13 Natalie Fulton December 14 Glenny Shadle December 14 Ann Dungan December 15 Dave Marberger December 16 Ryan Keenan December 18 Michael Mulligan December 18 Liz Della Paolera December 20 Jim Jetter December 21 John Emery December 25 Kathy Tirpak December 27 Deb Aschenbrand December 30 Christina Moyer December 30 Evelyn Augustine December 31 David Sassi December 31 Shaun & Lorena Carlson December 18 Church Council Contacts Ann Dungan, President rella1@comcast.net Marilou Doughty, Vice President mdoughty@montcopa.org Lynn Chialastri, Secretary lmchialastri@shannondell.com Mike Martorelli, Treasurer michael.martorelli@fairmountpartners.com Dan Ditzler dand@newtonassociates.com Craig Moyer reyom0825@comcast.net Rebecca Shadle rebwynn@gmail.com Jeremy Stansbeary stansbeary@gmail.com Matt Zuczek councilmanzuczek@gmail.com Jane Sweeney jsweeney@shannondell.com Nancy Klein msnancyklein@gmail.com Reese O Brien, Youth Representative reesepiecy4@gmail.com