News & Notes 12/22/2011
Christmas Greetings to you, my Friends,
I start this issue of “News & Notes” with sad news, but important news. This is part of an obituary that appeared in this morning’s edition of “Foster’s”:
A. Harvey Knepp died on December 21, at Riverside Rest Home at the age of 91. He was born December 2, 1920 near Curwensville, PA. Visitation is from 6-8pm, Thurs. December 22 at Wiggin-Purdy-McCooey-Dion Funeral Home 655 Central Ave. On Fri. December 23 visitation will be from 12-1pm and a Service at 1:00pm at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers please send donations to: DHS Alumni Association, c/o Sue Vitko, 186 Back Road Dover, NH 03820 or Riverside Activities Fund, 276 County Farm Road Dover, NH 03820.
Harvey and his late wife, Mary, were members of St. John’s since February of 1958!
Our “Holy Folders” will be at the church once again tomorrow - to prepare our January issue of “The Bell-Wether” for mailing! Such dedication - two days before Christmas!! Thanks folks!!
Plans for our three Christmas Eve services are complete - at 6:30, 9 & 11 PM - and the Carillon Concert at 8 PM. At 6:30 PM an angel returns to check up on “things” - to see how we’re doing following the arrival of the Christ, 2000 years ago. Rev. Earle C. will be leading our 9 PM service. And I’ll lead our 11 PM service which will conclude outdoors (weather permitting) in candlelight. At all three services we’ll celebrate the sacrament of Communion as a way of rejoicing over the gift to us of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. I sure hope you’ll think of someone to invite to church with you on Christmas Eve. What a wonderful time for our church to connect with the community - with those who don’t already have a church home!!
This is a rerun from a “Bell-Wether article - and from last week’s “News & Notes”: The offering that is received at any of the three Christmas Eve services - the loose plate offering as well as any gifts placed in “Christmas Offering” envelopes included in the last issue of “The Bell-Wether” - will be given to four local ministries that provide support year round for many of our neighbors in need. The money will be divided equally between the Counseling Center of the Dover-Rochester Area, the Dover SHARE Fund, the Dover Cooperative Ministries Food Pantry and the Somersworth Food Cupboard. This will NOT include gifts placed in “regular” offering envelopes on Christmas Eve or gifts placed in the “Christmas Offering” envelopes at any of the Sunday services. These monies will all undergird our day-to-day mission and ministry, and help us finish 2011 in as good a financial “condition” as possible.
Remember that we’ll have a single service on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day - both at 10:30 AM. On Christmas everyone is invited/encouraged to bring a gift that they received, for a “blessing of the gifts.” And let me lift up a reminder that Sunday School will not be offered on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day.
This next thing will be in the January issue of “The Bell-Wether,” but it’s probably something that needs to be shared more than once - to make sure folks remember:
As of January 1, 2012, St. John’s office hours will be changed to:
Monday - 9 AM until 4:30 PM
Tuesday to Friday - 9 AM until 2:30 PM
Our Office Manager, Sandy Dearborn, will be available during those hours (except 9 AM to noon on Monday). And an extra note: Sandy will be missing from the office for three to six weeks, beginning December 30th, as she will be having surgery. Please hold her in your prayers - for a successful, and uneventful surgery, and for a speedy and thorough healing.
I know it’s not the newest of information, but I happened to see this posted on the Conference Website - about our own Brenda Borchers. Check it out: http://www.neumc.org/news/detail/698
If our St. John’s April Mission Trip doesn’t fit your schedule, and you’d like to go to Louisiana, here’s another alternative:
Mary Ann and Skip Danforth, have a place for you, and about 30 other able and willing volunteers to spend the week of February 12-18, working in the Slidell-New Orleans area of Louisiana. We will be staying at The Epworth Project building located next to the Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Slidell. Check your schedule for the week in February, and begin now, to decide if you will be able to journey with us. We probably do not need to remind you that there is still plenty of work to be accomplished… and, without your help it will not get done. With your help and the help of others, we will continue the work which was begun right after Katrina hit, on August 29th, 2005. If you haven’t been back to Slidell/New Orleans for awhile, this is your opportunity to reconnect with the people who still need what we can share with them, six years later.
If you have any questions you need answered before signing up, please get in touch with Skip and Mary Ann by phone 508-430-0778 or email kitesky [at] comcast [dot] net.
Here are more of these questions that Donna B. gave me - questions that make your brain hurt:
How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up like every two hours?
If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
Why are you IN a movie, but you’re ON TV?
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They’re going to see you naked anyway.
Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
Makes you shake your head like the Aflac duck, doesn’t it? See you in church.
Peace, Mark