News & Notes 12/10/09
Dear St. John’s Church Family,
How did you do “surviving” the first significant snowfall of the season? Well, I hope. The church did okay - save for a leak or two in the narthex of the church. Those leaks are difficult to find with a flat roof over the “choir hallway!” God grant us patience and perseverance!
Did you pick up one or more stars from the “Angel Tree?” If you star(s) doesn’t have another date written on the front of it, it needs to be back (unwrapped, and with the actual star attached) at the church today!! Our Outreach Committee will be delivering them to the agencies that have asked for them. And thanks VERY much for your generosity and caring spirit!!
Sandy mentioned to me that we have not received a large number of poinsettia order forms back - to honor or memorialize friends or family members. It’s not that we have to receive any certain number each year, but she just wanted me to mention this in case there were folks who had just forgotten. If it would be important to you to place one or more of those plants in the church for December 20th and Christmas Eve, it would be good to have your order returned by this Sunday.
Let me mention one last time that I’m looking for folks (and trucks if you have them) who might be able to help Sheryl Wentworth move from Newmarket to Dover - this Saturday. We’ll be meeting at her Newmarket home at 9 AM (or meet in the church parking lot at 8:30 AM) to carpool) - and hope to have the move completed as soon as possible. Call the church office if you need directions to her “old” home.
Our Adult Choir, Brass Choir and Steve MacKenzie will present a concert at the Fox Run Mall this Sunday afternoon at 3 PM - in front of one of the Macy’s stores. We hope lots of St. John’s folks will come and listen - and be “plants” in the audience to applaud for us!! (How’s that for fishing for compliments?) Our goal is to make a witness to Christ, and to expose folks to the ministries of St. John’s Church. Hope to see you there.
Members of the Worship Committee are reminded that our regular monthly meeting will be next Monday - but that it’ll be an hour earlier than normal - at 6 PM. And let me also remind the Church Council members that we will meet this coming Monday as well - at 7 PM. And the big item on the Council’s agenda is to address the 2010 budget for our congregation. I know I mention this often, but all the meetings of the church (except Staff/Parish Relations and Lay Leadership) are open to anyone who would like to attend. So if you’d like to come to either the Worship Committee or the Church Council, please feel free to do so.
Our church will host the first “Blue Christmas/Longest Night” worship service on Monday, December 21st (the longest night of the year), at 7 PM. This is presented by the Christian faith communities of the Dover Area Religious Leaders Association. It’s “target audience” is folks who struggle emotionally with the contradictions that many feel between their own life situation and the “Ho, ho, ho” that is considered the “norm” for Christmas. Some of those folks have lost a loved one - or lost a job - or experience “seasonal affected disorder” - or don’t have the financial resources to make Christmas become all that the media/culture tells us it should be. This might be a meaningful service for you - or for someone you know. Please pass the word.
I think Ahna McCusker is heading out today for a national race that she qualified for several weeks ago. If I’m remembering correctly, she’s going to Nevada for this event!! That’s got to be an exciting event for this 9 y.o.! Go Ahna! Show ‘em what New Hampshire is made of!!
And this morning Diana Schuman was on “The Early Show” on CBS - a follow-up to the article they did on her and a group of other folks who had lost their jobs. And now that I say it was “The Early Show,” I’m not sure I’m correct because I couldn’t find the “article” on their website. She was also the topic of an article in today’s issue of “Foster’s.” Let’s pray that all this coverage will lead to a fulltime job soon! And let’s pray for ALL folks who are unemployed or underemployed!
Some of you have seen the Prayer Chain request for Claramae Hebert, but let me share with everyone a little of the details. She went on one of her bus company’s trips to New York City last weekend. And while there she took a tumble in the street and broke her left arm and damaged her left shoulder sufficiently that she needs to have it replaced. The surgery will take place next Tuesday - 10 days after the accident! Ouch! In the meantime, she’s getting by on Extra Strength Tylenol and her sheer will.
Everything went off nicely at last Saturday’s Mission Team Public Supper! The place looked great and the food was delicious. The team came together nicely to put on the event. At this point it looks like the net profit was $461. Many thank to those who supported the Mission Team’s efforts!
Finally let me share some “Creative Puns for Educated Minds”
*The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
*I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
*She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
That’s it for today. See you in church. Peace, Mark