Loving God, Serving Others
November 17, 2023
Almost Thanksgiving Greetings, Church!
Even with the cold, this is one of my favorite times of the year. Yes, dressing (stuffing) has a lot to do with it. Am I that shallow? Kind of. Stuffing plus turkey plus gravy hits my sweet spot. 🙂 Of course, there’s family to gather with, Friday morning wandering at Freddy’s for half-off socks and maybe a little football later on. Our family usually gets together for coffee sometime mid-morning on Black Friday. Plus, it’s a four-day weekend! What’s not to like?? I hope yours is great.
In my morning reading, I’m sauntering thru Mark’s Gospel. One take-away? Faith is really important to Jesus. The woman with the issue of blood, healed after all those years, had faith to know that if she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, she’d be healed. Jesus commended her for it. When Jesus couldn’t do very much in his hometown, it says, “He was amazed at their lack of faith.” (Mark 6:6). I hope Jesus never gets so amazed at me. The disciples had Jesus climb into their boat out on the lake, calming the strong wind, and they were completely amazed… because they had not understood about the multiplication of the loaves and fish (Mark 6:51-52). It seems as if they could have exercised faith by thinking like this: ‘Jesus obviously has command over the natural realm because he took a few fish & loaves and fed over 5000 people… so calming the strong wind out on the lake is no big deal.’ Instead, they were flabbergasted. Again, I hope I can look at what God has done in the past and apply it to my present situation. Lord, grow my faith and trust in you.
Thank you so much to those who stepped up and adopted kids in our district for weekend meals with Bite 2 Go. It’s all covered, thanks to you!
AND thanks to the whole church from Rick & Laurie, Rob & Deb, for the gift cards on Pastor Appreciation Sunday. You guys are too kind. You make us feel loved!
Coming Up…
We’re helping Thrive with the Christmas event for Ukrainian refugees on Dec 20 in the evening. We’d like to repeat the kid’s program for the 45 or so Ukrainian children who will be present. Can you help with guiding kids or providing a craft? Maybe you could bake three dozen treats for the refreshment time for kids and their parents after the parents come up from their Christmas concert. OR you can purchase a gift for one of the kids (we’ll have names and ages on a tree soon for you to pick). This is an opportunity to bless these refugees and to show them God’s love at Christmas. See me or Carmen if you can assist.
UGM’s Tree of Sharing is up in the fellowship hall. Grab an ornament and bless a UGM client with a gift card.
This Sunday…
SHOEBOXES are due this Sunday!! It’s the absolute latest to bring these so they begin their long journey to kids around the world…
Ace continues with Vickie’s series on the Fruit of the Spirit at 9, and kid’s Story Hour keeps on downstairs.
In the service, we’ll worship, pray, and look at the miracle Elisha encouraged for the widow and her two sons who were destitute.
And after the service, we’ll have our annual meeting. All are welcome to attend; only members will vote. The voting will consist of agreeing or not to the proposed budget and having Kurt receive a one year extension as elder. Reports will be handed out and there’ll be Q&A about the budget and anything else you’d like to know about C3.
See you Sunday?
Pastor Rob
_______________________________________________