Dec 2009 NO MEETING Next meeting Jan 16, 2010

Thank you “Blanketeers” & World Vision Sponsors

Blanket Distribution

*100 blankets have been set aside as a part of our mission trip to the Appala-chian country. (700 toward our goal of 1,000.

*36 blankets were made by World Vision sponsors and sent as Christmas gifts to the children they sponsor.

*100 blankets were given to Julie Edwards for the children in La Paz, El Sal-vado impacted by the dev-astation of Hurricane Ida.

*10 blankets were given to Sarah’s House, a maternity house in Simi Valley.

*12 blankets were donated to the Christmas Shoppe.

*30 fleece pillows were sent to Grace Children’s Home in Mexico.

Calvary’s Blanket Ministry

Blankets Delivered As a result of your time, effort and willingness to show God’s love, 19,883 blankets have been de-livered to 32 countries.

Solvay McDonald Esther McFadden Mary Lou McFadden Kel ly McLaughlin Kinsey McLaughlin Cameron McLemore Mary McLemore Gina McPherson Martha Mil ler Greg Mil ls Maddie Moore Sam Moore Dawson Morrow Jeff Morrow Tara Morrow Louise Myers Ann Ongania Darlene Polidoro Emily Rissman Wendy Rissman B Rogers Liz Rucker Kerrie Sadler Kay Satterlee Tammie Schuett Joey Scott Rosalie Seshan Barbara Simmons Mir iam Sprankl ing

Richard Hernandez Ji l l Hessick Tracy Hi l l Myles Hol iday Maria Hughes Byung Hwang Kira Imazu Cheryl Kari Angela Kim Rachel Kim Sarah Kim Abby King Jamie King Jeanne Korb Carol Kramer Katya Kramer Sonja Kramer Len Krukowski Linda Krukowski Kai Kwok Petula Lam Sue Leigh Randi Liepman John Liu Flo Livingston Teri Mareks Barry McDonald Braden McDonald Noel le McDonald

Judy Tedeschi Marri Thomas Jennifer VanNoppen Marianne VanNoppen Tina VanGent Chloe Walton Chris Weirick Tracy Weirick Karen Wensel Joyce Wiechert John Wil l iams Sue Wil l iams Kathy Wilstein Alex Witten Carter Witten Jeff Witten Jen Witten Debbie Yamada Sunrise Senior Living: Alvera Charlotte Denise Ginger Joan Josephine Pat Paula Sal ly Stel la

20,000 Blankets!!! Come to our January 16th meeting and be a part of the celebration as we present our 20,000th blanket. We have selected a special guest to receive this blanket and share stories with us. You won’t want to miss it!

Veronica Anguish Rachel Arnold Alicia Bueschen Linda Campbell Brandon Carignan Christian Carignan Jason Carignan Lisa Carignan Cora Chatman Beth Cook Barbara Crockett Dinah Deeds Hope Diana Joe Diana Tara Diana Lisa Eberhardt Carol Eisner Grace El izondo Li ly El izondo Sophie El izondo Trista Elizondo Susan Eschelbach Macie Gett ings Schel ly Gett ings Barbara Gibbs Franne Goldstein Mike Gregory Sandy Gregory Beth Greul ich

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Why Did He Do It? We love to be with the ones we love. So does God. How else do you ex-plain what he did? Be-tween him and us there was a distance—a great span. He couldn't bear it. He couldn’t stand it. So he did something about it. “He gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.” Phil 2:7 Max Lucado Next Door Savior

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Sunrise Senior Center December schedule for Sunrise Senior Center:

Saturday, Dec 5th from 10:00-11:00 am

Wednesday, Dec 16th from 10:00-11:00am

Meet in the lobby at 3101Townsgate Road in Westlake Village. You don’t have to do a thing but show up and enjoy the time tying and talking with the residents. For more information, please contact Marri Thomas at 818.707.2859 or email marrithomas@sbcglobal.net.

Donut Sales, December 13th! The blanket ministry will be selling donuts on Sun-

day, December 13th, Purchase a donut for yourself, a friend or sur-prise a stranger. It may only cost you $1 to make someone you don’t even know feel special!

$5 Per Month

If you have decided to help sup-port our ministry with a $5 dona-tion each month, thank you. Remember there will be no sign up for this, it is just a personal commitment. Your small amount each month can make a big dif-ference. (Writing a check to Calvary? Remember to include

“Blanket Ministry #756” on the memo line so it will be credited to our account.)

DONATIONS

Happy Birthday Craig George! A donation was received from the friends of Craig George as a way of honoring his 60th birthday and thanking him for his constant ef-forts to help the local community. What a wonderful way to cele-

brate his birthday by blessing many needy chil-dren throughout the world. Happy Birthday Craig!

Calvary’s Christmas Tea Boutique

The blanket ministry will be participating in Calvary’s Christmas Tea Boutique at 4pm on December 4th in the church atrium. Please look for our table and see the items we have for sale. We will also be offering our Gift Cards which many of you have used as gifts for friends, family and co-workers.

MOPS Jingle Bells Boutique Encourage your friends and family to come to the MOPS boutique Dec 1st and 4th 9am-noon and look for our table. We will have blankets, gift cards and many beautifully hand-crafted items for sale. All money

raised will be used for fabric and supplies to send more blankets to the needy children of the world.

Servants Serve with What They Have Real servants do their best with what they have. Ser-vants don’t make excuses, procrastinate, or wait for bet-ter circumstances. Servants never say, “One of these days” or “When the time is right.” They just do what needs to be done. The Bible says, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done” Ecclesias-tes 11:4. God expects you to do what you can, with what you have, wherever you are. Less-than-perfect service is always better than the best intention. One reason many people never serve is that they fear they are not good enough to serve. You may have heard it said, “If it can’t be done with excellence, don’t do it.” Well, Jesus never said that! It doesn’t have to be perfect for God to use and bless it. Excerpt from Daily Hope with Rick Warren

Decorator Fabric Available Several months ago we were given decorator fabric samples. We have used many of the pieces for our fund-raising projects. I will bring what we have left to the January 7th fabric squaring meeting. If any of you are able to use the remaining fabric, please feel free to take whatever you like.

We will not have our usual December fundraiser in the church lobby. Shopping at the boutiques is your opportunity to purchase blankets and gift cards.

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World Vision Sponsors Make Christmas Blankets The Blanket Ministry hosted an event for those who sponsored a child as a re-sult of World Vision’s “Experience Africa”. On November 14th, 36 sponsors came to make blankets, pray over them and write a personal message of love, hope and encouragement to their sponsored child. A

special thank you to Barry Livingston who took pictures of each family that were sent with the blanket and letter. World Vision will give these packages special handling and they should be delivered to each child by Christmas. (It is our hope that a picture will be taken of the child re-ceiving his or her blanket and sent back to us.) What a wonderful opportunity for each family to personally connect with their sponsored child. This event was the result of the efforts of so many—first and foremost of Jeff Witten, Area Director of World Vision, for obtaining approval from the corporate office. Thank you to all our “blanketeers” who laundered and squared the fabric and then volunteered their morning to offer instruction, encouragement and fellowship to these families. Thank you also to those who provided refreshments. This event was a team effort and would not have happened without the personal effort and commitment of each of you.

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Questions??? Call Linda Krukowski (805) 379-0125 or e-mail Linda_Krukowski@yahoo.com

Appalachia Mission Trip

We will begin our team building meetings in February for those who want to be a part of our June mission trip to the Appalachia’s. If you missed our information meetings, it’s not too late to find out more and join our team. There will be many opportunities for every-

one—construction projects, sports camp, vacation Bible school, teenage girl workshop, backpack ministry. We will serve from June 27th to July 3rd and plan to take a few extra days to spend the 4th of July at the nation’s capital in Washington D.C. returning July 5th. What a wonderful way to end our time of service and celebrate the birth of our country. For more information go to www.servesomebody.org/2009/09/29/appalachia/.

Spiritual Life from the Spirit Perhaps your childhood memories bring more hurt than inspiration. The voices of your past cursed you, belittled you, ignored you. At the time, you thought such treat-ment was typical. Now you see it isn’t. And now you find yourself trying to explain your past. Do you rise above the past and make a difference? Or do you re-main controlled by the past and make excuses? Think about this. Spiritual life comes from the Spirit! God is willing to give you what your family didn’t. Excerpt from When God Whispers Your Name by Max Lucado Now we do not live following our sinful selves, but we live following the Spirit. Romans 8:4

A Time To Give Thanks As we approach the end of 2009 it is a time to stop, reflect and give thanks to God for the many bless-ings we have received. Some of them we noticed right away, some we became aware of later but many have gone unnoticed. How easy it is to miss the little things that God gives us and yet, even though we do not see or say thank you, He continues to pour out more. As we learn to become more like Jesus, I think He expects us to do the same.

For the many times you have served me or the ministry “thank you”. For all the times you have blessed me and I didn’t notice “forgive me” and know that I appreciate your help and your thoughtfulness. You are all such a blessing to me and this ministry. We would not be able to serve so many, in a variety of ways, without you.

May you all have a wonderful Christmas with fam-ily and friends as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas! Love, Linda

Children’s Books for Appalachia

Did you know that only 28 percent of the children in the Appalachian country are reading at grade level? In middle-income neighborhoods, the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1. In low-income neighbor-hoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children! One of our goals is

to be able to send books for use in the classroom and to add to the children’s library. If you would like to donate new or like new children’s books, workbooks or teaching materials, place them in a bag, mark them “Appalachia,” and leave them behind the mission counter.

Big Things With Small Deeds

Against a towering giant, a brook pebble seems futile, but God used it to topple Goliath. Com-pared to the tithes of the wealthy, a widow’s coins seem puny, but Jesus used them to inspire us. And in contrast with sophisticated priests and powerful Roman rulers, a cross-suspended car-penter seemed nothing but a waste of life. Few Jewish leaders mourned his death. Only a hand-ful of friends buried his body. The people turned their attention back to the temple. Why not? What power does a buried rabbi have? We know the answer—mustard-seed and leaven-lump power. Power to tear away death rags and push away death rocks. Power to change history. In the hands of God, small seeds grow into shelter-ing trees. Tiny leaven expands into nourishing loaves. Small deeds can change the world. Sow the mustard seed, bury the leaven lump, make the call, write the check, organize the committee. Don’t discount the smallness of your deeds. Max Lucado,Excerpt from Cure for the Common Life