A happy, snowy, winter-wonderland day to you, Church!
What a beautiful land of winter wonder we’ve got this week. Without any wind, all of the trees are still frosted with snow. It won’t last much longer, but we will enjoy it today while it’s here.
Here’s the news for the week:
Potluck and Communion This Sunday
Bring your favorite dish to pass on Sunday and we will enjoy visiting over lunch after worship. Additionally, we will celebrate communion this Sunday as part of our “love feast”– the ancient way that the first Christians celebrated the Lord’s Supper.
Christmas Eve Set for 7pm on the 24th
Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year, and Session decided that rather than have two services that day, we will skip our morning worship and gather in the evening instead– for a candlelight service filled with special music!
I had really hoped we’d be able to have our service in the sanctuary, but as renovation projects always do, ours is taking longer than expected and it won’t be ready in time.
This just means that our first Sunday back in the sanctuary is going to be that much more special!
Pledge Cards
Alright folks, the pledge cards are starting to trickle in. We’ve received 10 so far.
I increased my giving for next year. Do you think you might be able to also? This year I am projecting that we are going to be at around $50,000 in the hole, so any extra you have to contribute would be a major gift to the church.
The deficit will be especially high this year because of the renovation project. We are on budget– thanks be to God!– but all of the insurance money we received for the project came in the year 2022 (padding last year’s budget), and we are only now paying it out for the work to be done.
Anyone for Caroling?
Last year after coffee hour, a handful of us gathered around the piano to sing Christmas carols. I’m wondering if folks might want to go caroling outside this year. Is that something you’d be interested in doing? Perhaps the weekend of the 16th-17th? Or perhaps we could go to Maplewood and sing for the folks at the nursing home. What do you think? If this is something you’d be interested in, please email me back and we will get it organized!
Food for the Food Pantry
A big thanks to Crane for donating half of the non-perishable food donations they received last Sunday at their Candlelight Concert! This will help stock the shelves through to the New Year.
Sanctuary Update
I have big news to share today. The painting has been finished in the sanctuary! Nate LaFaver and his crew did an amazing job repairing the walls and ceiling, and then painting. We wanted to brighten up the space, so the side walls are white and the trusses are gold. And to pay homage to our history, we had the front and back wall painted in the same blue-green color that the sanctuary was painted back in the early 1900s. (*We happened to discover a drip of that paint on one of the pews when we were taking them out. It must have dripped when they were originally painting the ceiling that color, so we were able to match it exactly!)
The next step in the project is to remove all of the carpeting and refinish the floors. We’re going to do this part ourselves to save money. If you’d like to volunteer to help roll and carry out carpet, to pull nails out of the floorboards, help sand, and/or paint a new coat of varnish onto the floor please let me or Renee Stauffer know!
After that, we will re-install the pews that we saved, along with the upholstered chairs that will be arriving from the manufacturer’s in Florida. And then…. then we will celebrate!
Come, Jesus, come!
In faith,
Pastor Katrina