Weekly Announcements from Pastor Valerie Brown-Greenly, Senior Pastor
Dear Friends,
I hope you are having a good week! Tonight, we have Advent Crafts for the whole family at 5:45pm, followed by Wednesday evening Advent worship at 6:30pm. Advent Wednesday worship services are in person this year, so there is no live stream this evening. Our pastoral staff will be taking turns on these three Wednesdays of Advent. Please make plans to join us!
December has arrived, so we are moving forward with preparing Holiday Christmas Baskets for our families. If you or a family member is in need of a holiday basket, please contact me so we can get you on the list. It’s important you do so this week as we plan for the distributions. You contact will be kept confidential. For those of you who want to contribute to the basket ministry, please consider purchasing $25 gift cards from either Target or Walmart. We will include these in the baskets so parents can purchase appropriate gifts for their children. In addition, we are asking for donations of red and white candy canes, not the jumbo size, but rather the regular size canes. We are not doing mittens and hats this year as it is difficult to fairly distribute these across all the baskets.
The food donations needed for holiday baskets include , hearty soups, cooking soups, spaghetti-o’s and ravioli, peanut butter and jelly, pancake mix and syrup, macaroni and cheese, canned fruit, corn, green beans, tuna, chicken, and child friendly boxed cereal. Thank you!!
In the newsletter you received, please note the dates of special concerts and events. In addition, please note that the Women of Peace are having a Mini Boutique on Saturday, December 11, from 9:00am-1:00pm, and Sunday, December 12, from 9:00am-Noon. The Boutique will be closed during the Children’s Christmas Program at 10:00am.
National Youth Gathering youth and parents, we will meet on Sunday. December 12, following worship. We will meet in the Sanctuary. This will be a brief meeting to distribute our shirts and discuss our first service activity. Please let me know if you are not available that morning.
There will be no high school youth group on Wednesday evenings. Please make plans to attend worship with us at 6:30pm, and watch for event updates from Jessie.
For those of you who are submitting pictures for the directory or signing up for photo times in January, please contact Pastor Tim, as he is the lead on this project.
Because of the ongoing pandemic and the infection rate in our State, we will not be serving refreshments during the month of December. Appropriate masking is required throughout the building. Appropriate masking is the nose and the mouth remain covered for all worship services and hosted events. I know this is a point of contention for a small portion of our membership, and adjustments will be made when it is safe for us to move forward from required to recommended. I realize everyone has a bit of ‘covid fatigue,’ and we know that just because we are tired of something doesn’t mean we can ignore it or ignore the safety of everyone. So, we will encourage one another and move forward as we can. If you have a concern about our policies, I’m always ready to have a conversation. Reach out to me in any format and we can make a time to talk. Thank you for your understanding.
Poinsettias will decorate our Sanctuary for the Christmas holiday. Please make out a check in the amount of $10.00 per plant, and include your name(s) and in whose memory, honor or celebration the plant is being given. You may use a pew envelope and/or include the information on a sheet of paper. Please place it in the offering plate, mail it to church or drop it off at church. The last day to order is Sunday, December 12. Poinsettias may be picked up after the 10:00pm service ends on Christmas Eve or during holiday office hours.
Take care…Be safe…
Pastor Valerie
Cell: 612-280-6493 Email: [email protected]
Church: 763-757-4459 Email: vbrown-greenly@