3204 Skillman Street Dallas, TX 75206 St. Andrew s Presbyterian Church 3204 Skillman St. Dallas, TX 75206 PHONE: 214-821-9989 E-MAIL: standrews@airmail.net We re on the Web! See us at: standrewsdallas.org or, check us out on Facebook: St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Dallas St. Andrew s Vision Statement In an ever-changing world, St. Andrew s Presbyterian Church seeks to be a nurturing family of faith, welcoming all children of God with relevant and inspiring worship, prayer, music/song, fellowship, and education. We are committed to ministries that: encourage faithful discipleship and growth in faith reflect God s love and compassion in service to others extend hospitality of Christian inclusiveness celebrate diversity
St. Andrew s Presbyterian Church January Wednesdays Choir Rehearsal - 7 p.m. Sundays Children s Choir 9:30-9:50 a.m. Sunday, January 3 Communion Sunday No Sunday School 10:45 a.m. Worship 11:45 a.m. Fellowship Sunday, January 10 Session Meeting After worship Sunday, January 17 Congregational Meeting 9:30 a.m. in the Sanctuary We re on the Web! Monday, See January us at: 18 Martin standrewsdallas.org Luther King s Birthday Office Closed HAPPENINGS January 2016! The Reverend s Jazz A New Year Prayer for You Come, Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Risen Christ, Be with us today and always. Be our Light, our Guide, and our Comforter. Be our Strength, our Courage, and our Sanctifier. May this new year be a time Of deep spiritual growth for us, A time of welcoming Your graces and gifts, A time for forgiving freely And unconditionally, A time for growing In virtue and goodness. Come, Holy Spirit, Be with us today and always. Happy New Year!
Welcome to our church! Happy Anniversary! James and Donna Maddux January 21 st We are very pleased to have had Kim Nance, Daniel Torrez, Carol North, Dana Downs, Janet Fulton, Martha Alcantara, Jerry and Leota Cone, The Barrett family, Adam Wright, and John Campione visit with us during the month of December. We truly hope you found our services meaningful and our people friendly. Our goal as a church is to extend our hand of hospitality and Christian inclusiveness in hopes of sharing the Love and Peace of God within and around our community. January Birthday s! Cole Anderson 1/8 Trebor Finnegan 1/13 John McRae 1/15 Mark Cason - 1/15 Zack Torrez - 1/19 Charlotte Kleinfelder - 1/25 Happy Birthday from your St. Andrew s family and friends! Please keep our session and elders in prayer as they convene in the church library on Sunday, January 10 th after worship for their monthly meeting. Join us as we gather for our first 2016 Congregational Meeting. Sunday, January 17, @ 9:30 a.m. in the church sanctuary. We encourage everyone to attend. Happy Anniversary! Cole and Suzanne Anderson January 25 th May this anniversary become another happy memory to add to the special moments that God has given you to share! A BIG ST. ANDREW S WELCOME TO KENDA BRIGHT WITH PRESBYTERIAN CHILDREN S HOMES AND SERVICES! Greetings and Happy New Year! I d like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to the congregation. My name is Kenda Bright and I am the Child and Family Specialist with Presbyterian Children s Home and Services. I took over for Shavana in September 2015. I am so honored to be part of such a wonderful agency and so thankful to St. Andrew s for allowing me to have a work home in your church. I have known for a long time that I wanted to serve the Lord by helping people in some way, but I wasn t exactly sure how at first. I had an epiphany while I was sitting in chapel one day and I felt God speaking to me, leading me to social work. He used the speaker that day and I pray that He uses me daily in working with my clients. I graduated from Baylor with my Bachelor s in Social Work in December 2011 and I graduated with my Master s in Social Work in May 2013. (Sic em Bears!) I am a Licensed Master Social Worker and I absolutely love working with and serving children and families. I was born in Kansas and come from a big family with lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles, but I grew up in North Texas with my mom, dad, and brother. I have a 19 month old daughter named Alayah who is an absolute joy and a bright light in this world. Currently, we are a family of three four if you count our dog. If you ever find yourself at the church during the week, don t hesitate to stop by my office and say hello! I split my time between being in my office and in the field, but I would love to meet as many of you as I can! Everyone I have met so far has been so wonderful and I look forward to my future here.
SHARING THE LOVE OF CHRIST AT CHRISTMAS! Several St. Andrew s members have taken it upon themselves to serve as volunteer ESL teachers at Vickery Meadow Learning Center s ELM Campus located at East Dallas Christian Church on Peak Street. The relationships established between teachers and students there have been very meaningful. This year we became aware of the very real struggle of one ELM student, Grabriela Agapito. A single mother of 2 boys; ages 13 and 9, Grabriela works 2 jobs to provide the simple everyday needs of her children. Her main priority is to put food on the table and make sure rent and bills are paid. With money being extremely tight, Grabriela was unable to provide gifts for her family this year. Knowing that Christmas was near and that her children would most certainly be expecting gifts, she found herself with the difficult task of having to tell her boys that Christmas would not come with gifts for them this year. In the days after, emotions at home were high. The children were at first sad, then angry as they tried to understand why. Grabriela reached out to the program director at the ELM campus with her concerns. She was desperate and didn t know where to turn. The director assured her that everything would be okay. That she should put things in God s hands and try not to worry. Grabriela s name came up in a conversation between the director and a St. Andrew s volunteer teacher as they discussed Christmas giving. God was always in control. When we heard of Grabriela s situation we wanted to help. An announcement was made to the congregation at Sunday worship and everyone jumped on board to help! In less than a week the congregation provided gifts, meals and cash for Grabriela and her boys! How great it was for us as a church to have been presented with the opportunity to bless the Agapito family with God s love and charity during Christmas. Brenda Leischner (right) and VMLC/ ELM Campus Program Director, Leticia Bustamante (left), presented Grabriela (center) with gifts for her family. She was most grateful for our generosity and wanted to thank everyone for their gifts. She couldn t say thank you enough to the loving hearts at St. Andrew s.
The First Step Toward New Beginnings at St. Andrew s During the course of this past year, St. Andrew s put together a Day Care Task Force to investigate the possibility of owning and operating an onsite daycare as a first step towards building our connection with the surrounding community. Reverend Rob Leischner and the Session Elders voted to create the task force early in 2015, to be chaired by Zoltan Szentkiralyi, one of the Elders and also the Treasurer. A call was made for members for the task force, and the St. Andrew s members stepped up to the plate. Suzanne Anderson, Kirk Evans, Paula Cawthon, and James Maddux all volunteered to serve on the Day Care Task Force along with Zoltan. After considering the entire congregation s input that was documented in the New Beginnings process regarding St. Andrews future mission, the task force delved into researching the many details involved with starting, owning, and operating a daycare licensed by the state of Texas. The task force drew up a detailed plan for the required assets, licensing, regulatory, budgetary, and operational implications, and ultimately the Session approved the task force s recommendation that St. Andrew s could successfully embark upon the venture of owning and operating an onsite daycare. During the latter part of 2015, much effort went into communicating with St. Andrews daycare tenant Kid Kountry about the transition, and after much deliberation, a mutual agreement was established for the daycare operation to transition smoothly without any interruptions. After some debate, the task force and Session chose a new name for the daycare, St. Andrew s Presbyterian Children s Center. The Day Care Task Force is pleased to announce that as of the writing of this newsletter update (on New Year s Eve!) we now have our City of Dallas Certificate of Occupancy in hand, and we are ready to open our doors on Monday January 4, 2016 as the St. Andrew s Presbyterian Children s Center! There will be a townhall meeting soon to share details with the congregation about the transition. Praise the Lord!