Christmas Eve Services

With you on your journey Volume 38 Issue 26 December 17, 2014 This Sunday - December 21st! Children s Christmas Pageant - On December 21st at 9 am during First Word in the Cokesbury Center, the children will present A Play in a Manger. The children have been working very hard during #downtownsundays on this program, and you will be inspired by their version of the Christmas story! Over 25 children have been memorizing lines and practicing their songs, so please come and support these talented kids! Christmas Caroling at 3 pm Meet at the church at 3 pm on the 21st, and we ll break into groups! First Church will bring the Christmas Spirit to those that aren t able to be with us at Christmas! Please join us...it is always a meaningful part of the holiday! Christmas Eve Services 4 pm - Family Christmas Celebration in the Cokesbury Center On Christmas Night the Story Was Told is our interactive Christmas Eve service. Our 4 pm service offers you a chance to be a character in the story of Jesus birth. Everyone has a role, and together we re-tell the events of this marvelous night. This upbeat interactive worship service invites people of all ages to join in the celebration of Jesus birth. IN THIS ISSUE: NEWS College Brunch - December 21st at 10 am in the Fellowship Hall KIDS@FIRST Children s Christmas Pageant December 21st at 9 am YOUTH Sign up now New Year s Eve Lock -In MISSION & OUTREACH StewPot - December 23rd MISSION COVENANT Our promise is to be with you on your journey. Our purpose is to love God, love others, and change the world. Our mission is to be an inclusive downtown congregation that builds Christian community where people experience God s transforming grace. 6 & 11 pm - Traditional Candlelight Service in the Sanctuary We honor Christ s birth through the reading of scripture, the singing of carols, and the sharing of candlelight and communion. 723 Center Street Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 501.372.2256 www.fumclr.org firstunited methodistchurch DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK

UPCOMING EVENTS: December 21st - January 3rd For a complete listing of on-going, recurring weekly activities, please visit our online calendar at www.fumclr.org. Sunday, December 21st 9:00 am - Kid s Christmas Pageant (Cokesbury Center) 9:45 am - College Brunch (Fellowship Hall) 3:00 pm - Christmas Caroling (Meet at the Church) 4:00 pm - 9th & 10th Grade Basketball Practice (Gym) 7:30 pm - 11th & 12th Grade Basketball Practice (Gym) Tuesday, December 23rd 10:00 am - Student Ministry Team (Rm 243) 12:00 pm - StewPot (First Presbyterian) 5:30 pm - FANN Meeting (Fellowship Hall) Wednesday, December 24th 12:00 pm - Church Office Closes 4:00 pm - Family Celebration (Cokesbury Center) 6:00 pm - Candlelight Communion (Sanctuary) 11:00 pm - Candlelight Communion (Sanctuary) Thursday, December 25th Merry Christmas! Church Office Closed Friday, December 26th Church Office Closed Sunday, December 28th 11:00 am - One Worship Service (Sanctuary) 4:00 pm - 9th & 10th Grade Basketball Practice (Gym) 7:30 pm - 11th & 12th Grade Basketball Practice (Gym) Wednesday, December 31st 12:00 pm - Church Office Closes 6:00 pm - First Youth Winter Lock-In Thursday, January 1st Happy New Year Church Office Closed ATTENTION: One Worship Service Sunday, December 28th 11 am in the Sanctuary Let s finish the year strong! All contributions must be dated December 31st, 2014! Welcome Home Brunch All College Students are Invited! College students and college-aged young adults are invited to catch up with one another over brunch on Sunday, December 21st. We will meet in the Fellowship Hall around 10:00 am. For those not in this life stage, please feel free to stop by and say hello. For more information, please contact Austin Hubbard @ ahubbard@fumclr.org. Stewardship Update We are excited to report that as of Tuesday, December 16th, 202 families have responded with Gifts Estimates of $1,073,866. If you have not returned your Commitment Cards, please do so as soon as possible so that we can move forward with planning next year s ministries. Jim & Cindy Shenep, 2015 Stewardship Chairs Paying Christmas Forward - Advent at First Church This year at First United Methodist Church, we have celebrated the true spirit of the season by Paying Christmas Forward. First Church believes that Christmas is for everyone! To live this out, we ask that you bring gifts which Endure, Hope, Believe, Trust, and Treasure. For the final week, we ask that you bring copy paper and paper towels for Harmony Health Clinic. The mission of Harmony Health Clinic is to understand and serve the health and wellness needs of the medically uninsured and under-served who live in Central Arkansas. They provide access to quality medical care at no cost to these patients in a private, community-based clinic, staffed by volunteer professionals and marked by a unique atmosphere of caring, compassion, respect, dignity, and diversity. December 21st - Bring paper towels & copy paper for Harmony Health Clinic December 24th - Bring a monetary donation for Methodist Family Health CHURCH OFFICE HOLIDAY CLOSINGS December 24th - Closing at Noon December 25th & 26th - Closed December 31st - Closing at Noon January 1st - Closed

KIDS@FIRST December Sunday School Your child is invited each week at 9:45 am. Toddlers: Jesus is Born Preschool: Mary Hears the Good News, Baby Jesus, Shepherds and Wise Men Kindergarten: Showing the Way to Bethlehem, Meeting the Christ Child Grades 1-2: Celebrate His Birth, Announcing the Savior Grades 3-4: Journey to Bethlehem Grades 5-6: Tend the Sick YOUTH Caroling @ 3:00 pm this Sunday! This Sunday afternoon join us as we spread the joy of Christmas by caroling to some of our homebound First Church members! This will take the place of our regular Sunday night programming, so no Youth at 5:00. We will still have our basketball practices. Save the Dates... Dec. 21st- 9:00 am Children s Christmas Musical A Play in a Manger plus a special whisker faced visitor from the North Pole!(Please do not miss our last rehearsal: Saturday, Dec. 20th at 9:00 am.) Dec. 21st- 9:45 am Cookies & Milk with Santa Claus! Santa will visit Kids@First during the Sunday school hour to learn about the Baby Jesus. Our staff will escort children to visit and take a photo for you! Dec. 24th- 4:00 pm in the Cokesbury Center a special family Christmas Eve service is designed with your children in mind! Nursery care provided. Register Now- First Winter Lock-In This year s winter lock-in is set over New Year s Eve, and we are going to ring in the new year by setting as many records as we can over a 14 hour period with recordsetter.com. You can register online at fumclr.org/register. Ozark Mission Project Preschool Chapel Pastor Chris was our special chapel guest last week and taught our 95 worshippers about going to Bethlehem on The Donkey in a very fun way! December 17th was our last chapel for 2014 - we learned about the night baby Jesus was born! We will resume chapel at 9:00 am Wednesday, January 7th. Merry Christmas little ones! MISSION & OUTREACH StewPot- December 23! First Church serves lunch the fourth Tuesday of every month at StewPot in downtown Little Rock. StewPot is a ministry of First Presbyterian that provides 150 homeless, low-wage, and transient persons with a hot meal every weekday. For each rotation, we need 7 volunteers. Contact Anthony Falkowski to volunteer - afalkowski@fumclr.org. Though we are in the middle of the holiday season, I know many of you are already planning your schedules for next summer. One of the opportunities our youth have each summer is OMP. This week long mission trip has always been a popular event not only with our church, but also with many other UMCs around the state. We have reserved 5 spots for Sr. High (current 8-12) for the week of June 21-27 at the Hot Springs camp. We have also reserved 5 spots for the Sr. High camp in Jonesboro on July 12-18 and 5 spots at the middle school camp at Wayland Springs on the 12-16. We are asking that you register now for the week you would like to attend. We will reserve more spots if available when these fill up. If you are interested in attending a different week of OMP, contact Austin. There is a $50 deposit which will go toward your final payment. The total cost for the middle school camps is $215, and the cost of the high school camps is $250. As a fundraiser, $25 will be taken off of your camp fee for every new Kroger card link-up form you turn in. Limit 5 per registrant (that s $125 off!). Register online by going to fumclr.org/registrations.

FRIENDS & FAMILY Congratulations Congratulations to Jean Rolfs on the birth of her granddaughter, Louisa Alene Ochiltre, in Spokane, Washington. Congratulations to Heather and Brant Collins on the birth of their granddaughter, River Jaclynn. Congratulations to Jim & Felicia Brooks on the birth of their granddaughter, Calii Rose. Memorials & Honorariums In Honor of Sunday Van Drivers (Terry Rasco, Joe Roddy, David Elrod, Robert Jackson) by Mabel Harris Webb Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year! In Honor of the Hankins-Hull Family by John & Linda Fordyce In Honor of Karen Nelson & Robyn Pryor by Mary Ann Lee (Cuban Mission Project) In Honor of the FUMC Music Program & Alto Section of Ensemble (Cindy Shenep, Jeanne Schallhorn, Margie Lickert, Debbie Boyd, Donna Meeks, Delia Prather, Jeanie Burton, Georgia Bell, Marian Berry, Elaine Bultena, Jean Rolfs) by John & Debbie Boyd In Memory of Winston Faulkner by Jim Christian (Windows Fund) In Memory of Bill Bowen by Marcelline Smith, Jim Christian (Windows Fund), Jim & Ellen Yeary, Paul & Laurie Tinnell, Batson & Jane Harkey, Dwight & Teresa Stewart, Ron Robinson, George & Lynn O Connor, French & Martha Hill, Mary Ann Lee, Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP, Barbara Darragh, Remmel Dickinson, James & Marie Biggers, Mr. & Mrs. G. Robert Blanchard, Sr., Allein & Jean Beall, Irma Jewell, Delia Prather, Phil & Linda Deloney, Virginia Yeatman, Marian Goff, Stephen & Tricia Chaffin, Ann Barker, Mary Davis, Dorothy Robins, Laura & Nathan Falls, Jenny Adair In Memory of Jim Foster by Jim Christian (Windows Fund), Delia Prather, Dot Robbins In Memory of Louise Christian by Jim Christian (Windows Fund) In Memory of Larry Kelly by Mary Ann Lee, Irma Jewel (CDC Music) In Memory of Bill Eberle by Mary Davis

Cookies and Cards for Prisoners WE NEED MORE COOKIES! The UMW Sarah Circle is coordinating, Cookies and Cards for Prisoners. Our goal is to make 250 dozen cookies by Monday, December 22. Right now, we only have 135 dozen! The cookies will be delivered on Christmas morning, and we want each prisoner to receive 3 cookies. In addition, Betsy Hoffman has already made sufficient Christmas cards for the prisoners to receive a Christmas card and for them to send a Christmas card to their family. We need your help! Please e-mail Jean Rolfs at jcondogirl@ gmail.com with how many dozen cookies you will bring to the church. It s a fun family project and a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. You can deliver your cookies to the church anytime between now and Monday, December 22. Take them to the front office or to the kitchen --church staff will make sure they are carefully placed into the freezer. Try to bring them in shoe boxes or on extremely sturdy paper plates, so they remain unbroken while being stacked in the freezer. Thank you for participating! Sanctuary Flowers - Reserve Today! Providing sanctuary flowers is a beautiful way to celebrate loved ones. Not only do the flowers provide beauty on Sunday morning, they also provide a powerful ministry through the Flower Girls. On Monday morning the flowers are re-arranged into smaller vases and delivered to our hospitalized and homebound members and friends by the Flower Girls. In an effort to provide this opportunity to our entire church family, all dates in 2015 are currently open. If you would like to place flowers in honor or memory of loved ones on a specific date or occasion, call Kassandra Johnson in the church office at 372-2256 or send her an email, kjohnson@fumclr.org. Thank you for your Service! At the Altar Guild s Christmas meeting at Georgann Ozment s home Dec. 8, members thanked Paula Johnson for her two years of service as President of Altar Guild and welcomed incoming President Juanita Woodard. The Altar Guild s objective is to aid the pastors in creating more understanding by the congregation of worship and worship practices, such as the use of symbols, flowers, candles and caring for the altar. Members are also responsible for cleaning the chancel and its furnishings, caring for the vestments of the clergy, and supervising memorials and gifts for the altar. CUBA Volunteer In Mission Team FUMC members will lead the first ever Arkansas Cuba Volunteer in Mission construction team to Havana, January 1-12. Rev. Cooper, Steve Shults, Dr. Jerril Green and Nechi Fullerton will travel on religious visas with the 12 member team to build housing for the Methodist Seminary. For the past 15 years the Methodist Church has experienced a tremendous revival increasing annually 15% to over 50,000 members. There are more than 350 churches and over 700 Wesleyan house churches with a Methodist church in 92% of Cuban municipalities. To address the needs created by rapid church growth, the Evangelical Methodist Seminary was established and now more housing is needed. Mission teams help with construction, visit churches to establish relationships and take supplies as permitted. With limited access to printed material and Internet, the seminary has a database of curriculum to download making laptops, ipads, Kindles and USB drives essential. There is an urgent need for life saving prescription and non-prescription medicines that we will leave with a church physician. In addition to your prayers, please consider the church in Cuba when you are Christmas shopping. Bring the items or donations to the church office the first two Sundays in December so we can place orders and begin packing. Make checks to Cuba VIM. kitchen towels Omega 3 Vitamins A & C duct tape paint brushes money for tools New and Improved Online & Mobile Giving First Church is now offering new and improved online/mobile giving for members and friends. If you find this method would benefit you, please visit fumclr.org/give and Click to Give Online at Simple Give. Follow the simple steps to set up an account. You will be able to make a one-time gift, set up a recurring gift, and even make your yearly pledge online. We hope you will find this new method convenient! If you have any questions, please contact Paige Mann (pmann@fumclr.org or 501-372-2256 Ex. 209). A Big Thank You to All Caring Christmas Contributors! Thank you so much for your generosity! 48 families are going to have a very Merry Christmas thanks to your caring hearts!

firstunited methodistchurch LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS The First United Methodist In the First Place (USPS692-190) is published every other week for a total of 26 issues by the First United Methodist Church, 723 Center Street, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201-4317. Editor, Chris Cooper; Managing Editor, Lesley Andrews; Periodicals postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas. www. fumclr.org POSTMASTER: Send address changes to FUMC In The First Place, 723 Center Street, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201-4317 PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID LITTLE ROCK, AR Follow us! facebook.com/ The next issue of In the First Place will be published on Dec. 30th, 2014. Submission deadline is December 28th.