Connections Curtiss Cain, Pastor December 2017 Salem United Methodist Church PO Box 646: 202 East 9 TH Ave. Havana, Florida 32333 (850) 539-6634 salemchurchhavana@gmail.com salemumchavana.org Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. 3 Don t be selfish; don t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. - Philippians 2:1-4 Dear Salem UM Church Family, Tis the season to set expectations low. Yup, you read that right. It s a season when we can get so consumed with making sure the decorations are perfect, the tree is exact, and that the meals are just so. We pack our calendars with activities, parties and events, sometimes to the point that the season can get lost in the celebration of the season. I was listening to the radio recently and they were talking about how we can sometimes enter this sacred time of the year with a detailed vision of what the perfect would look like. We can have ideas of not just how things would look, but what people would do, how they would act; yet, when the children don t quite do as we hope, or this turns out to not be the year Uncle Joe s behavior is better, we can quickly end up stressed, depressed or even angry. More so, they also talked a little about when we put these expectations on people, when we expect them to show up or to bring something, but don t tell them, then get mad when they don t do it! What if we prepare well, yet still expect the little hiccups and problems? Would it mean we are able to get less upset, less embarrassed when the ham burns a bit and able to focus more on the fellowship? What if we kept it simple and didn t over pack our calendars? Would we find the other events packed with more meaningful worship and time together? I wonder if in so doing we would live more into that scripture don t try to impress others. Be humble? I wonder if in the simplicity of just celebrating our Savior s birth and that s it, we would find ourselves more readily agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose and in so doing, accidentally find that perfect we were looking for? May God look after your loved ones and our church family, Pastor Curtiss Cain Operation Child Operation Child Shoebox Ministry was so important to Ron and his vision was that Salem could double last years number of boxes and send 150 boxes this year. He talked about this project to his family and friends and asked for their support. They did not disappoint him! He was so very proud and thankful as his family brought filled shoe boxes to the house whether it was for his birthday, Father s Day or any time they came to visit. Salem s Men s Group that Ron loved so dearly continued to collect money in a paper-wrapped oatmeal box that he designed, built and carried to breakfast each Wednesday morning. When Ron could no longer go to breakfast, he passed the box to Earl Moon who continued collecting money. They raised $722 which bought a lot of toys and school supplies. Many donations were made in Ron s memory which helped with the shipping charges for the boxes. On November 12, the children, youth, family and friends gathered in the Fellowship Hall to pack boxes. What an amazing outpouring of love and support for Ron s dream! Pastor Curtiss took a picture to be included in the boxes. As you can see, Ron was there if only in spirit. Thanks to all who participated!! Salem sent a total of 229 boxes this year. It was a great tribute to a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, friend and servant of Lord Jesus Christ. Submitted by Beverly Crawford
News from the Nursery What an exciting time of year we are in. I hope Thanksgiving was filled with many Blessings and family all around. Sometimes we get caught up with every day responsibility and forget our true Blessings. I get caught up with everyday life but coming to church on Sunday mornings brings me around. When I enter the building, I remember I'm not alone on this journey and when I see all of your faces and the smiles on the children s faces; in that moment that is the hope and strength I need to get through a week. We need our church family more than ever and we need to look to our Father for our way and answers. We are coming up on with the children very excited with the lights, music, decorations gift giving, friends and family. The children are excited for the children s pageant!! This is a beautiful time for our them to shine and to show our church family God's love. The nursery is singing, dancing and growing in God's love. Our new curriculum is wonderful. The children love coming into the room and seeing the posters of Jesus love all around. Our posters have Bible verses on them which the children have learned and enjoy reading every Sunday. We do a craft that goes with the Bible verses. We had 5 children one Sunday and all I can say is Wow!! Our church was truly blessed and what a wonderful time we had. It's a blessing to see the children excited to be here, to sing songs, dance, color and make friends and help one another. Thank you for the trust and allowing me to grow with your children. This remember the true reason for the season. Remember to smile say a kind word to someone and be willing to give a hand to someone in need and remember God loves you! Don't forget to walk by the nursery and take a look at where our young people start their journey in the church. We're filled with music and open arms for lots of love. We would love to have your little one visit on Sunday to experience God's love. From all of us in the nursery we wish you a Merry and look forward to a full New Year with each of you! God bless, Lindy Family Ministry Fun For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6. What a wonderful month we have experienced. Our children and youth have been working hard preparing for our pageant. We have combined all age groups during Sunday school and used the time to rehearse. We are very excited to share our very own Salem UMC Story with the congregation, and welcome everyone to come out and celebrate with us through so many gifts and talented young people. During the month of November our youth have been meeting Sunday at 5:00 for a warm meal, fun game, and heartfelt lesson plans titled Thankful! We were blessed with new shirts for our youth, and have had many new young people visit and join our group here at Salem UMC!!!!! We are growing in so many ways! Malissa Collins is helping me put together a Whoville party for the youth. We plan on dressing up as Whoville characters, serving Whoville food, and showing a movie. We welcome one and all. Several showed up to pack shoeboxes for Operation Child, and our very own Pastor Curtis and his family blessed us all with hamburgers and hotdogs, and joined us for our lesson after the packing. A few of our youth joined together with several local churches and organizations and participated in packing and delivering Thanksgiving dinners to needy families. Our little ones have been pure joy as we have finished up our lessons about the Book of David, and Thanksgiving. Thank you to the wonderful teachers and volunteers who help with this ministry. If anyone feels lead to get involved, we have a place for you! Contact: Misty Floyd [(229)254-3807 or mommytoaprincess09@gmail.com]. Dress rehearsal for the program will begin the 12-08-2017@ 6:00p.m. Pizza will be provided. These children are true blessings, and I am so proud of each and every one of them, and honored to serve Christ here at Salem UMC. Thank you all for everything! We appreciate you! MISTY FLOYD -2-
Milk Jug Igloo Don t forget to continue bringing milk jugs for our milk jug igloo that we will be building at this year s Havana Winter Festival. Please make sure containers are clear, well rinsed and have lids when possible. Place them in the basket under the information table in the Fellowship Hall. We are also looking for people to come and help with our Fish for Stuffed Animals booth on December 9 th for the Havana Winter Festival. It is sure to bring lots of smiles to kids and adults. Capital Chordsmen Concert at Salem UMC Join us as our very own Steve Pennington s music group puts on a wonderful concert of classic music while taking us on a story adventure. The concert will be in the sanctuary at 6pm on December 10th. No tickets or reservations needed. The event is FREE and a love offering will be taken. Dec. 31 st Combined Have you ever felt like you don t know many people in the other service? Does it ever feel like we are two churches worshiping in the same space, instead of one? To combat this, we have decided to create a combined worship service whenever there is a 5 th Sunday in the month. On December 31 st we will be holding a single 10:00am worship service. Since the last was our Traditional version, this will be our Coffee House version, followed by an 11:00am potluck brunch. The following week we will go back to our original two services. We encourage you to come, sit with someone you may not know well, build new relationships, strengthen old ones. By reaching out, we can find ourselves closer in fellowship and worship as one congregation. JOIN US FOR THE HOLIDAYS Do you know anyone looking for a church family to connect with during the holidays? This is the perfect time of the year to invite friends, neighbors & family to experience the welcoming love and fellowship of Salem UMC, and don t forget to mark your own calendars for these great upcoming events! Community Sunday Dec. 3 rd 6:00pm All are welcome to join the community choir rehearsal at 4:00pm. Salem Igloo at Havana Parade Saturday Dec. 9 th Children & Youth Pageant Sunday Dec. 10 th 11:00am Capital Chordsmen Concert Sunday Dec. 10 th 6:00pm Salem Cantatas Sunday Dec. 17 th A of Song & Scripture at 8:45am Traditional Cantata at 11:00am Children & Youth Dr. Seuss Whoville- Theme Party Sunday Dec. 10 th 5pm Eve Candlelight Sunday Dec. 24 th 6:30pm 5 th Sunday Combined Worship (Coffee House Version) Sunday Dec. 31 th 10:00am, Potluck brunch to follow at 11:00am GoGreenBack This is an app anyone can download onto their phone. For $25 (with $20 of that going directly to our church) they have unlimited access to thousands of discounts and coupons all around the country. People can search any area to see what restaurants, hotels, retailers, spas, auto shops, etc. have coupons and it's just a click on their phone to use the coupon. The access link for the app is salem.cause.gogreenback.com. -3-
December Lectionary Reading December 3, 2017 Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37 December 10, 2017 Isaiah 40:1-11, Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 2 Peter 3:8-15a, Mark 1:1-8 December 17, 2017 Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, Psalm 126 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24. John 1:6-8, 19-28 December 24, 2017 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Luke 1:47-55 Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-38 December 31, 2017 Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Psalm 148 Galatians 4:4-7, Luke 2:22-40 December Birthdays Barbara Bailey 1 Danielle Henn 2 Will Barber 6 Mary Wood 7 Mary Bert 9 Crystal Jaede Mitchell 9 Herb Haughton 12 Amy Barrow 13 Alara Cain 14 Sam Cunningham 15 Karen Stansberry 16 Terri Norman 22 Steve Pennington 23 Wade Barber 25 Kimsey Helms 25 Jim Longhurst 26 Lynn Lovallo 26 Tom Scott 28 Kathy Hanbury 30 Our Faithful Giving Our 2017 Budget $204,000 Needs Through Nov $187,000 Giving Through Nov $189,738 Reading the Bible in a Year Daily Old Testament & New Testament Reading December 1 Ezekiel 40-41, 2 Peter 3 December 2 Ezekiel 42-44, 1 John 1 December 3 Ezekiel 45-46, 1 John 2 December 4 Ezekiel 47-48, 1 John 3 December 5 Daniel 1-2, 1 John 4 December 6 Daniel 3-4, 1 John 5 December 7 Daniel 5-7, 2 John 1 December 8 Daniel 8-10, 3 John 1 December 9 Daniel 11-12, Jude 1 December 10 Hosea 1-4, Revelation 1 December 11 Hosea 5-8, Revelation 2 December 12 Hosea 9-11, Revelation 3 December 13 Hosea 12-14, Revelation 4 December 14 Joel 1-3, Revelation 5 December 15 Amos 1-3, Revelation 6 December 16 Amos 4-6, Revelation 7 December 17 Amos 7-9, Revelation 8 December 18 Obadiah 1, Revelation 9 December 19 Jonah 1-4, Revelation 10 December 20 Micah 1-3, Revelation 11 December 21 Micah 4-5, Revelation 12 December 22 Micah 6-7, Revelation 13 December 23 Nahum 1-3, Revelation 14 December 24 Habakkuk 1-3, Revelation 15 December 25 Zephaniah 1-3, Revelation 16 December 26 Haggai 1-2, Revelation 17 December 27 Zechariah 1-4, Revelation 18 December 28 Zechariah 5-8, Revelation 19 December 29 Zechariah 9-12, Revelation 20 December 30 Zechariah 13-14, Revelation 21 December 31 Malachi 1-4, Revelation 22 AV Team Training On December 13 th at 6:00pm we will be hosting an Audio Video training event focused on the use of Power Point software and our sound system. Everyone interested in volunteering on our AV team or for those who just want to know more about Power Point are welcome. The event is FREE, but for preparation reasons please let Pastor know by December 10 th if you plan to attend. -4-
SUNDAY SCHEDULE 8:45am - Coffee House (Holy Communion Each Week) 9:50am - Sunday School 11:00am - Traditional 5:00pm No Youth Fellowship in December WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE 7:45am - Men s Morning Group (Country Kitchen Restaurant Next to Publix) 11:00am - Prayer Circle 12:00pm Subs & Scriptures @ Subway in Havana 7:00pm - Choir Rehearsal SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 3 11a: Holy Communion in Traditional 12p: Lunch Bunch 6p Community (Salem UM Church) 10 11a Children s Pageant 6p: Capital Chordsmen Concert 17 7:45a & 11a Cantatas 5p Whoville Party All Kids! 24 8:45a & 11a: Community Cares offering & Moses Baskets dedication 6p Salem Candlelight 31 10a Combined fellowship hall Children s Home offering No Hallelujah Night 4 5 No Moses Baskets 11 5:45p: UMW 7p Missions/ Outreach 12 7p: Church Council Special Meeting 18 19 No Moses Baskets 25 Day 1 New Year s Day 2:30p: QuickBooks Training 26 Salem United Methodist Church PO Box 646: 202 E 9th Ave. Havana, Florida 32333 (850) 539-6634 salemchurchhavana@gmail.com www.salemumchavana.org 6 7 1 13 6p: A.V. Team Follow-Up Training 20 1:30p: Worship Committee 8 14 15 16 2 9 21 22 23 1p-5p: Salem UMC helps at Greensboro Thrift Store 27 28 29 30 2 3 4 5 6-5-