This week’s schedule: 

Monday          

• PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) meets in the fellowship hall at 7:00 p.m.  This is their Christmas party and we are all invited.

Tuesday                              

• Active Listeners meet in the church library at 10:00 a.m.
• The Edith Allen Circle of UMW meets at Mona Petersen’s home (4610 Windermere) for a potluck lunch and visiting at 11:30 a.m.  Please let Mona know if you plan to attend.
• Quilt & sew group meets at 1:00 p.m. in the southwest class room.  (This room still needs a name!)
• Children’s choir rehearses at 5:30 p.m. in the sanctuary.

Wednesday                       

• Choir rehearsal begins at 6:00 p.m. in the sanctuary.

Thursday                            

• The Leadership Team will meet at 7:00 p.m. in the church library.

Friday                                   

•  Newsletter articles due!

Saturday                             

• Choir will have their final rehearsal the Sunday’s cantata at 9:00 a.m. in the sanctuary.

Next Sunday will be a special one!  It is the last Sunday of Advent, we will hear from the children’s choir (I can hardly wait!) and the adult choir will present the cantata, “The Gift Goes On”.  The worship service will center around the two performances.  I know none of you will want to miss it!

A separate email has gone out to the Church Council, but just so everyone knows, the Council will be meeting a week from tonight.  We had determined last month that we would not need to meet in December but there is information to share from the Race to Reach Out!  As always, anyone involved in the life of this church is welcome and encouraged to attend the council meetings.

I do intend to publish a January newsletter.  If any of you would like to contribute an article, I must have it by this Friday, December 18^th.

You know the kind of day that starts out with things not going right and just continues that way?  Well, that’s how my morning was.  I’m hoping to get back on track this afternoon.  When I arrived at the office this morning Jerry had just relit the pilot light on the furnace that heats the offices.  He thought it better to work from home while the offices warmed up (it was 46 degrees in his office!) and I agreed.  I came back an hour or so later to learn that we didn’t have internet service, so I still couldn’t send this email or do much else.  Times like this remind us how dependent we are on the internet!  Thanks to Bob’s patience and diligence with our internet provider, we are back on line!

 Here is the schedule for the week

Tuesday                              

• Active Listeners meet in the church library at 10:00 am                         
• Children’s choir rehearses in the sanctuary at 5:30 pm

Wednesday                       

• Choir rehearsal at an earlier time at 6:00 pm

Thursday                            

•  United Methodist Men meet in the Scout room 7:00 pm            
• Women’s book group meets at Barbara & Niis’ home  at   7:00pm 

As Jerry reminded us in his email yesterday, there are still several tags remaining on the “giving tree” in the narthex.  Each tag is for one gift.  If you want to provide more than one gift you can take more that one tag.  Gifts should be brought to the church on or before December 20^th with the tag attached and gift wrapped, if possible.

Monday 

• Social Justice team meeting at the church at  6:00 pm

Tuesday           

• Active Listeners in the library at 10:00 am                                                                           
• Quilt & sew in the large class room at 1:00 pm                                                                
• Children’s Christmas Choir at church  5:30 pm

Wednesday      

• First Light study in the library at  10:00 am
• Choir practice in the sanctuary at 6:30 pm

Thursday          

• UMW will meet at the church at 10:30 am    Xmas bow making lesson & cookie exchange.  All ladies of tare welcome to attend.  For the cookie exchange, bring the number of cookyou would like to take home.  It’ll be a fun time!  A brief business meeting will  follow.  Bring a sack lunch.                                                         

Saturday          

• “Race to Reach Out”  The following is the information that came in the District Office
                                                                                                            
  Please join us on December 5 at Vancouver First United Methodist Church for The Race to Reach Out. This exciting seminar, designed and led by Doug Anderson of the Bishop Rueben Job Center for Leadership Development, assists pastors and lay teams to understand the unique and important ministry of hospitality and assimilation of newcomers, to help newcomers experience a life transforming encounter with Jesus Christ.As Lyle Schaller shared, “Systems produce what they are designed to produce.” So learn how to design an assimilation system that produces disciples, and not inactive members.
   
  Participants will learn practical skills, strategies, and models for the essential ministry of connecting people to the church and to Christ in the race to reach out! Bring a team of several persons because this ministry takes a dedicated, motivated team to do it well.
   
  Childcare will be provided for children Kindergarten age and younger. Childcare only available for requests made by Monday, November 30.  Please bring a labeled sack lunch for your child.For additional information and registration, please click here

 Choir director Robert Mumford announced yesterday that there will be children’s cantata during the worship service December 13^th.  This is for kids from pre-school age through elementary.  There will be rehearsals Tuesday s at 5:30 p.m.  If you have children/grandchildren/neighbors/friends – whatever – please encourage them to come.  It’s not a long-term commitment.  There is tomorrow, December 1^st and the following Tuesday and the next Sunday will be the performance.  It’s always great to have the children perform, especially at Christmas!  Special thanks to Robert for being willing to put this together.

Our great accompanist Phil has sent an invitation that I’ll pass along to you all.

 I’ll be singing in The Messiah this time.  There are two performances: 

            December 12th @ 7:30pm   (Saturday Night) 

            December 13th @ 3:00pm   (Sunday Afternoon) 

 This takes place @ The Longview Community Church.  There is a freewill offering.

The Community House item for December is canned green beans.  Large cans are preferable, but Community House will accept and be thankful for any size.

Learn how to design an assimilation system that produces disciples, and not inactive members. Participants will learn practical skills, strategies, and models for the essential ministry of connecting people to the church and to Christ in the race to reach out! Saturday, December 5, 2009 at Vancouver First UMC. 9:00 am  4:30 pm, $10 per person or $50 per congregation regardless of number attending. Ideal for Lay & Clergy, teams are encouraged. To register go to www.pnwumc.org, click on training events then The Race to Reach Out.

 Since this is the week of Thanksgiving and the end of the month we don’t have many meetings on the schedule. 

This weeks schedule:

Tuesday                           

• Active Listeners meet in the church library  at  10:00 am
• “First Light” study at Christensen’s LAST SESSION at 7:00 pm

Wednesday                   

•  “First Light study in the church library at 10:00 am
•   Choir practice in the sanctuary  6:30 pm

Thursday                          

• HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!  No meetings!

Saturday                         

•   “Hanging of the greens”(Jay scheduled 9:00 a.m. start, Jerry announced 10 –come when you can!)

*Next Sunday – First Sunday of Advent                  

• All-church potluck lunch after worship.

**I need the bulletin and newsletter information early by Tuesday

If you, your committee, your group, etc. has anything involving the life of this church during the month of December, please get the information to the office by tomorrow morning! 

 Have you noticed the papers on the tables in the fellowship hall on Sunday mornings?  These aren’t left there by accident, they are placed there by the Social Justice Committee.  They contain topics that should be of interest to all of us as United Methodists and as people concerned with making the world a better place to live.  If you haven’t already done so, be sure to notice the “Table Talk”!

 The last few weeks have been especially busy here at the church and today seems to be the time for a collective sigh of relief!  We have worked so hard and really deserve to take it easy, but only for a little while!

 We should all be so proud of the very successful “Our Passion for Justice” we hosted last Saturday!  It was a wonderful day.  Many people worked long and hard to make the event the success that it was.  As some of you may know, I am secretary of the Vancouver District Administrative Council that sponsors the event and Jerry and I were part of the planning committee for this year’s event.  I can’t thank all of you enough for the way so many stepped up and made the event a great success!

Our Passion for Justice was the second big event of the week here at the church.  Last Thursday was our annual Charge Conference with our District Superintendent.  Mike Graef presided over that meeting.  He is completing his 8^th and final as superintendent of the Vancouver District.  We all owe gratitude to Mike as it he who advocated and succeeded in getting financial support from the Conference Board of Congregational Development so that we could have a full time pastor and be able to grow as we have over the last 7 years.  Thanks to Jay Gregory for putting together and presenting a slide show of pictures of our many activities over the last year.  It was a nice “trip down memory lane”! 

 Here’s what’s happening at Longview UMC in the coming week:

Monday            

• Church Council meets at 7:00 p.m.  Everyone involved in the life of this church is welcome to attend.  All elected and appointed church leaders are expected to attend.

 Tuesday              

• Active Listeners meet in the church library at 10:00 a.m.
•  Quilt & sew group meets in the large class room at church
• “First Light” study at Christensen’s at 7:00 p.m.

 Wednesday       

• “First Light” study at the church at 10:00 am
• Choir practice at the church at 6:30 pm

 Thursday            

• Leadership Team meets at the church at 7:00 p.m.

 Save Saturday Nov. 28^th for  helping to decorate the church for Advent and Christmas!

 This is a very busy week at the church. I know that most of our weeks are busy, but this one is big!  Our annual Change Conference takes place Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.   Our District Superintendent will be here to preside over the meeting. Reports on the previous year and plans for the coming year will be presented. A slide show is planned to be shown on the power point with pictures of our many activities in 2009.   District Superintendent Mike Graef will be going back to pulpit ministry after 2010 Annual Conference, so this is the final time for him to preside at our Charge Conference.

Saturday is “Our Passion for Justice” which the District has presented annually the last several years. This year our church has the privilege of hosting the event. People from all over the District will be here, including Bishop Grant Hagiya. It’s a great honor and a rare opportunity to have the Bishop at our church. He will be the keynote speaker in the morning. There will break-out seminars in the afternoon. The theme for the year is “The Effects of Poverty on Children”. Presenters other than the Bishop will be Dr. Phil McGuiness, a Vancouver pediatrician and Paul Youmans from Cowlitz County Head Start. Each session will be presented twice so everyone will be able to attend 2 sessions.

Monday 

•  PFLAG meets at 7:00p.m.

Tuesday

•  Active Listeners meet in the church library at 10:00 a.m.
• “First Light” study group meets at Christensen’s home at 7:00 p.m.
• Ocean Park Site Advisory Team meets in the large class room at 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday

• “First Light” study group meets at the church at 10:00 a.m.
• Choir practice is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (This may be rescheduled because of Charge Conference)
• Annual Charge Conference begins at 7:00 p.m.

Thursday

• United Methodist Men’s monthly meeting at 7:00 p.m.
• Women’s book group meets at Klump’s home at 7:00 p.m.

Saturday

• Our Passion for Justice: 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Here is the schedule for the coming week. It is a very busy week, especially for UMW as we prepare for the  Monday

• Worship committee meets at the church 6:00 p.m.
• S.P.R.C. meets at the church 7:00 p .m.

Tuesday

• Active Listeners meet at the church 10:00 a.m.
• Bazaar set up begins in the fellowship hall 10:00 a.m.
• Quilt & Sew (bring your project & join us!) 1:00 p.m.
•  First Light study at Christensen’s 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday

• First Light study at the church 10:00 a.m.
• Bazaar set up continues in fellowship hall 10:00 a.m.
•  Choir practice (starting work of Christmas music) 6:30 p.m.

Thursday

• UMW meeting 10:30 a.m.
• Trustees meeting 7:00 p.m.

Friday

•  Bazaar set up 10:00 a.m.

Saturday

•  Bazaar 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

“Our Passion for Justice” is coming up soon, November 14th. Ann Ford will have the sign up sheet next Sunday. It will be a wonderful day devoted to learning about the effects of poverty on Children. Our Bishop Hagiya will be here in our very own church! Cost of the event is $12.00 per person and includes lunch. I know you are hearing a lot about this, but it is really going to be a special event and I hope you will all plan to attend. If registration cost is a problem for you, speak to Pastor Jerry.

As most of you will already know, Pastor Jerry is on the sick list. He has been hit hard by the flu bug and is resting at home. I hear he hopes to be ready to lead the Wednesday morning study. Please pray for Jerry to return to good health and for his family to stay well.

More thanks to Ann Ford for being willing and able to step in at the last moment and lead the service and deliver a beautiful sermon on such short notice. 

A very special prayer request was shared in worship yesterday and has gone out on our prayer chain. One of our church families has asked me to share this email. It says so much about the power of prayer! Here are their words: Please put Chris on our prayer request email. Our prayers have been answered and Chris is in a rehab clinic in. He hit bottom and asked for help. He will be there 90 days. Chris needs mentors from our gay community. If people could write notes of encouragement and such it would be wonderful. We plan to visit Chris tomorrow after church, he can have visitors from 1-5 on Sundays. He would love notes from all our members but especially our gay members.  I know the prayers people in our church prayed when Cindy talked at our church two weeks ago helped make this all happen! God is so good! Love Janie I know it is very important that Chris hears from people in the gay community of our church, but I think he should know that all of us value him as a beloved child of God. He needs to know that we all are happy he is getting help, so please consider sending a note or card.  Sharon has his address in the church office.

 It’s a busy week here at Longview UMC.  

Today

• Tuesday Active Listeners group is meeting in the library right now! “First Light” study is at Christensen’s home tonight at 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday

• “First Light” study at the church begins at 10:00 a.m.
• Choir practice at the church begins at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday

• Special church cleaning day at the church beginning at 9:00 a.m. The following message is from Ann Ford who is coordinating the cleaning day. Our indoor Fall cleaning will take place Saturday, October 31st at 9 am. With many helping hands we hope to be finished by noon or before. Refreshments will be provided. All cleaning materials will be provided. We are planning: washing all windows inside and out; thoroughly cleaning the kitchen; sweeping and mopping all floor surfaces; dusting in the Sanctuary, library, classrooms; washing all the chairs and tables in scout room, Sunday School room, choir room, library, meeting room and fellowship hall. Our Passion for Justice is soon before us and we want our “home” to be spic and span when we host the Vancouver District. Remember the Bishop will be our special guest. We are a welcoming church and we need to show it; not just for this event but everyday!!! If you are able to help please contact Ann Ford at church or at 360-636-0527. If I am not available please leave me a message. Thank you so much for your cooperation. 

Remember to set your clocks back before you go to bed Saturday night. 

Sunday is November 1st (ready or not!) and will be Communion Sunday. *Children (of all ages ) are welcome to wear their costumes to church Sunday. There will be trick or treats for the kids and they’ll have another opportunity to show off their costumes.