Memorial Drive Christian Church. Merry Christmas from the staff of

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1 Rev. Matthew Hudman Senior Minister Rev. Carolyn Allen Associate Minister for Youth Rev. David Finklea Assistant Minister - Chain Reaction Ministries Marilyn Duncan Choir Director mduncan9397@gmail.com Deb Olsen-Busch Handbell Choir Director Phillip Durham Organist pdurham001@comcast.net Delmarie Gilbreath Organist Emeritus d.gilbreath@att.net Mirtha Robbins Custodian As this season of Advent continues, we still wait. As we wait, I hope your feelings of anticipation and expectation grow. I pray that our hope builds as we move towards Christmas. But I also hope we do not see Christmas as an end. The coming birth of Christ is not an end, but a beginning. Birth involves new life and in new life there is new possibility. In the coming birth of Christ, there is a new beginning for all of us. Appropriately enough, that is the program we will hear about during our congregational meeting on Sunday, December 17. New Beginnings. It is a program offered through the Hope Partnership of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The Jubilee Visioning Committee believes that the New Beginnings program will help the Committee and ultimately the entire congregation discern and discover the new life, new possibilities, and new beginning to which God calls this church. The Board approved participation in the New Beginnings program at its meeting on December 3. The congregation will be Merry Christmas from the staff of asked for its final approval on Sunday. If the program is approved, we will move into an intentional and focused season of discernment. The facilitators from Hope Partnership will provide structure and guidance, but the discernment will be ours. We will ask the questions, imagine the possibilities, and dream what comes next in our greater partnership with God. One of the key components of New Beginnings is that it involves the whole church. At the end, we will get out of this journey what we as a community put into it. Dick Rybacki, the chair of the Jubilee Visioning Committee, will provide more information on Sunday. If you would like to explore New Beginnings further, before or after Sunday's meeting, you can find the website at We are in a time of waiting, but we are moving swiftly into a time of hopeful new beginnings. I am so grateful to be on this journey with you. Peace, Matthew Memorial Drive Christian Church. Teri Villoutreix Church Secretary teriv@outlook.com Candy Kepper Preschool Director ckepper@mdcccp.org Church Office Monday-Thursday 9:00 am-4:30 pm

2 Merry Christmas to you all!! We are in the midst of the Advent Season asking and waiting for the Christ child to come into our hearts and stay there all year. Each week as the four Advent candles are lighted they represent important elements of our faith: hope, peace, joy, and love. Thanks to all who donated gifts to our selected family. Make time for many of the Christmas activities planned for our Church to enjoy together. Our Sanctuary is beautiful and ready. Enjoy cookies after church in December. Realize and appreciate the 6 dozen donut holes before church that disappear, and thank Heidi and Matthew who bring these each week. O Come Let Us Adore Him. In Christian Fellowship, Heidi Hudman and Maudeen Eccles General Fund Income vs Expense November YTD YTD Budget Pledged Income 30, , , Other Income 9, , , Expense 34, , , Balance 5, , Txfer From DF Final Balance 5, , General Fund Cash Assets & Debt Checking 44, Liabilities & Amortized Inc, Exp 18, Savings (Charles Schwab) 36, Capital Campaign 104, Undesignated Memorial Funds 238, Designated Funds 109, Total 553, Mortgage Balance 617, Capital Campaign Pledged 329, Received To Date 297, Other Income 136, Spent 329, Balance 104, Campaign ended May 31, 2017 Comments Our pledge income dropped slightly in November from October which is unusual. However we had a big bump in building income that more than made up for that and maintenance expenses were low so we had a good month financially. I expect December to have some major expenses (for example from Outreach) and our balance to drop. Still, it looks like we will end the year in the black. If you have any questions, please ask me at church or send an to treasurer.mdcc@gmail.com John E Lindley, Treasurer

3 I hope all are ready to meet on January 2 for Southern Gospel singing. We will meet at 1:00pm in the Fellowship Hall. Come one, come all for good old fashioned singing and fellowship. Hope to see you there. Any questions contact Elaine Cook. I hope everyone can come to Keenagers on January 4. We will have Rev. Matthew Hudman as our speaker. Come and bring a dish to share and hear what Matthew has to say to us. All are welcome. We will meet in the Fellowship Hall at 12:00pm for fellowship and enlightenment. If you have any questions contact Charlene Cardwell or Elaine Cook. Our book for January 10 is The Wizard of Oz. Sally Lindley will lead the discussion. We meet the second Wednesday of the month at 11:00am in the Parlor. Everyone in the church is invited to attend. We meet every Thursday, at 9:30am, in the church Parlor. We read scripture, participate in intercessory prayer for those who have asked for prayers, and we write cards to those for whom we pray. We would love to have you join us. Join us in as we continue the book, The Heart of Christianity, by Marcus Borg. Sunday, December 17 we will be looking at Chapter 3. We share leadership of the class. Join us on December 20 for an Advent Service in the Sanctuary, at 10:00am. Wednesday Bible study resumes on January 3, and meets each Wednesday, at 10:00am, in the Philippi Room (Library). Everyone is invited to join the discussion led by Rev. Matthew Hudman. To MDCC Fellowship Committee, A big thank you for everyone that helped with our December event! A special thank you to Jim Stones, Fred Ellis, Mirtha Robbins, Sally Lindley for being special angels!! All ladies of the church are invited to attend a luncheon and game day. Please bring a salad to share and play Chicken Foot Dominoes. (We will teach you the game if you haven t played yet.) Meet us in the Fellowship Hall the third Thursday of each month, January 18, at 10:00am. The Ladies Service Group enjoyed food and fellowship during our regular Christmas luncheon at Sue Sloan s as we reflected on outreach events of the past twelve months. We do not meet in January, but will return to Galilee on Tuesday, February 6 at 9:30am. We hope you have a blessed Christmas and a safe, happy, and healthy 2018! No meeting in December. Men of the church gather on the fourth Tuesday of each month, January 23, at 9:30am for breakfast, discussion, and some good strong coffee.

4 Teaching Haiti Contact: Mary and Ron Williams, The board of Teaching Haiti would like to thank all of you for your generous support this past year. As you know, we were able to witness 21 students graduate from our two-year computer school in October! Bertin Bail will continue to work with the school as we welcome the next class in January. Bertin thinks he can continue with the students paying a small amount to cover teacher expenses. We now have a new direction for Teaching Haiti to direct our energy. The mountain community of Les Palmes, which we were able to help feed after the hurricane there, needs our help with their water supply. The women walk two to three miles to the spring to carry five-gallon buckets of water back for drinking and cooking. This spring is running dry and will be dry in a few months because of the dry season. That means available water is six to eight miles away! All bathing and washing clothes has to be done this far away also. A typical wash day would mean walking six to eight miles carrying dirty clothes and a five-gallon bucket. Once at the water source, the clothes are hand washed and placed on rocks to be dried in the sun. This will take almost all day. This means someone has to bring the women some food to eat while they are there. Baths are taken and then the long walk home carrying clean clothes and a five-gallon bucket of water (weighing 40 pounds)!! Teaching Haiti would like to begin the ambitious task of drilling a well for Les Palmes! Research is being done now on how to do this and how much it will cost. We think it will be around $25,000! Our monetary funds will be used toward this goal. You will be hearing about this project as we find out more information. This is a true emergency when there is no water! I have a dream of a well for the people that is named after Memorial Drive Christian Church on the mountain of Les Palmes, Haiti! Chain Reaction Ministries Contact: Rev. David Finklea, Happy Eighth Anniversary! Eight years ago today, I answered a simple call by Dr. Tom Lyda for used bikes for a family under the loving care of Westside Homeless Partnership (WHP.) I sent out an to 40 of my friends downtown and in the neighborhood, and 12 bikes showed up on my doorstop. I fixed five of them and delivered to WHP on December 21, Then the magic happened. I got an unsolicited story about where two of the bikes went. Two adult MTBs went to a husband and wife in the care of WHP. They helped the wife get a job, but her shift started at 5:30am, she lived 4.5 miles away, and it took her 45 minutes either by bus (with two transfers), or walking (which is not a good thing to do at 4:30am in the morning). She was regularly late, and in danger of losing her job. The bike allowed her to be on time, and provide for her family. I sent that story back to the same 40 people, and 12 more bikes showed up. And it went on from there. Eight years later, we are blessed to have many ministry partners helping to address the social justice issue of transportation for low income families. We have four "spokes" now - Houston, Oklahoma City, Baton Rogue and Houston Heights, and to date, have put back in service over 7,000 bikes, recycled over 20,000 lbs of metal, taught high schoolers basic bicycle maintenance, and showed hundreds the inextricable link between their faith and the work they do daily. A special thank you to those that have been there from the beginning, including Dr. Tom Lyda, Rev. John Malget, Jeff Stones, Jay Barr, Mike Scott, my loving wife, Kristin Finklea, Jim Osbon, Chris Holmes, and a special thank you to my friend and mentor Clark Martinson for rekindling my love for cycling when I came to Houston and taught me dumpster diving behind Bicycle World and Fitness. Thank you all for your support, love, and prayers. Blessings! Rev. David Finklea (December 5, 2017) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Report for 2017 from Chain Reaction Ministries: Approximate number of bicycles distributed: 200 Number of organizations that received adult bikes: 10 Also served: Boys and Girls Club of Spring Branch, Hope House, and assorted incidental requests Special thanks to Fred Ellis, John and Camille Westbrook, David Van Bergen and Chuck Ball for their willingness to help deliver bikes and/or take the bicycle scrap for recycling and to Joyce Stones for secretarial work.

5 MOUNTAIN OF FOOD IS COMING!! Don t forget that January is Memorial Drive Christian Church s annual MOUNTAIN OF FOOD food drive for East Spring Branch Food Pantry!! Once again we are planning to cover the communion table in a MOUNTAIN OF FOOD. We will be taking donations of non-perishable foods each Sunday in January and stacking them around the table as we try to cover it in food. Toys! Toys!! Toys!!! Due to a generous donation from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 716, MDCC was able to to provide toys to our own youth who visited with Santa during our Christmas celebration Sunday. The abundance of toys also allowed MDCC to make a large donation to Memorial Assistance Ministries who were very grateful as they had a waiting list for Christmas toys that our donation went a long ways towards filling. And as if that wasn't enough, we were able to completely fill out the needs + more for the family we have adopted through Westside Homeless Prevention. I have been in contact with the mother and she told me they didn't even know if they were going to have presents for Christmas, so once again the congregation of MDCC has come forward in our always generous way to help others. THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!! To MDCC Members, Thank you for your participation in the East Spring Branch Food Pantry Thanksgiving Distribution, we surpassed all expectations with food donated and with guests that came to be fed. Thank you for helping with this. If you would like to get a glimpse of what it was like (Westivew was jammed with cars) you can get the highlights at our website: Again, thank you for partnering with us to feed the hungry, we are so thankful for you and those who helped and those who came. Blessings! Mary White, Director Community Joys and Concerns Our condolences to James Walker in the death of his mother, Mary Walker, who passed away on November 26. A memorial service was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Children s Choir meets each Sunday morning at 10:00am. YAC meets at 12:30pm, on Sundays. Thank you to all Children s Sunday School teachers, YAC teachers, and nursery workers for so many wonderful activities you have offered to our children in Thank you to all those who have sponsored children and youth mailboxes. We look forward to the coming year.

6 Community/Outreach Update Report from Memorial Asssistance Ministries Congregational Council Meeting - December 7, 2017 After an opening word and prayer, the meeting went on to elect a new board member, Bill Mearse. Reports included an early in the year hiring of a second attorney for Immigration Services due to changes in immigration policy. Since August, all attention has been on the impact of Hurricane Harvey. It was noted that all congregations responded to needs. The social upheaval and psychological issues that it created will continue to need to be addressed. A staff member is currently attending a seminar on trauma informed practice. It was noted that in this Christmas season, many who suffered losses during the flood are stating that they do not want gifts - they would rather do with less than experience significant loss again. On Saturday, December 9, 700 children came to MAM to pick up a bag of goodies that contains $50 worth of toys, etc. Teens were given $50 gift certificates, and family portraits were taken and mailed to the families. Citing the denim dog bone shaped dog toys that we have helped make as a way to work for MAM outside of the walls of the building, other projects will be generated as well for service groups to work on. Apparently 80 large and 60 small dog toys were made, and they all sold in 2 1/2 hours. Each pair of jeans that would normally sell for $6 at the shop is now making $40 by being repurposed! A full report from MAM will be coming out in February. Thanks to each of you who helped to decorate the church for the Advent season. We are very blessed to have such a beautiful Sanctuary in which to worship. Ministry Planning Team WORKSHOP on Saturday, January 13 at 10:00am in the Fellowship Hall (for all 2017 and 2018 Ministry Team Chairs and Staff) Elders meet Tuesday, January 9, at 7:00pm, in the Parlor Administrative Council meets Tuesday, January 16, at 7:00pm, in the Parlor

7 Monday, 1/1 New Year's Day office closed Tuesday, 1/2 MDCC-CP resumes Gospel Singers 1:00 PM Wednesday, 1/3 Wednesday Bible Study 10:00 AM Thursday, 1/4 Intercessory Prayer Group 9:30 AM Keenagers Luncheon 12:00 PM Friday, 1/5 Musicians' Party, at the 6:30 PM Cardwell s home Sunday, 1/7 Sunday School 9:45 AM Worship YAC (youth and children) 12:30 PM Day School Director Mtg 12:30 PM Tuesday, 1/9 Staff Meeting Day School Director Mtg 4:00 PM Elders' Meeting Wednesday, 1/10 Wednesday Bible Study 10:00 AM Shared Reflections Book Group Choir Rehearsal Thursday, 1/11 Intercessory Prayer Group 9:30 AM MAM Worknight 6:00 PM Saturday, 1/13 Ministry Planning Team 10:00 AM Workshop Sunday, 1/14 Sunday School 9:45 AM Choir Warm Up 10:30 AM Worship YAC (youth and children) 12:30 PM Tuesday, 1/16 Staff Meeting Admin Council Wednesday, 1/17 Wednesday Bible Study 10:00 AM Choir Rehearsal Thursday, 1/18 Intercessory Prayer Group 9:30 AM Prime Time Ladies 10:00 AM Friday, 1/19 Chi Rho Mid-Winter Rally until January 20 Saturday, 1/20 Chain Reaction Ministries 2:00 PM Workday Sunday, 1/21 Sunday School 9:45 AM Choir Warm Up 10:30 AM Worship YAC (youth and children) 12:30 PM Monday, 1/22 Newsletter deadline Tuesday, 1/23 Men's Fellowship 9:30 AM Staff Meeting MDCC-CP Open House Wednesday, 1/24 Wednesday Bible Study 10:00 AM Choir Rehearsal Thursday, 1/25 Newsletter Published Intercessory Prayer Group 9:30 AM Sunday, 1/28 Sunday School 9:45 AM Choir Warm Up 10:30 AM Worship YAC (youth and children) 12:30 PM Tuesday, 1/30 Staff LUNCH 11:30 AM Wednesday, 1/31 Wednesday Bible Study 10:00 AM Choir Rehearsal You are invited to go to cpadisciples.org to see all the upcoming information from Coastal Plains Area. See the youth and children's camp dates, registration forms, volunteer opportunities, and updates about area churches.

8 Did you know MDCC is on Facebook? Our church has an active Facebook page. If you are a Facebook user, please like our page, Memorial Drive Christian Church, and interact with our posts. We provide updates on upcoming events and post pictures from recent church events. See you on Facebook! If you are interested in giving an arrangement for Sunday morning, in honor or memory of a loved one, please contact the church office at for details.