communion sunday change for change...month. this month that will be sunday 12/01/19. during the time...
TRANSCRIPT
Focus MONTHLY NEWSLETTER | FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
DECEMBER 2019
Change for Change Communion Sunday
First Sunday in Advent Decorating Christmas Tree
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 Change for Change
10:00 a.m. Worship & Commun-
ion
11:00 a.m. Coffee Fellowship & Tree Decorating
5:00 p.m. Boy Scouts
2
3 11:30 a.m. Advent
Lunch Study
3:30 P.M. Tuesday
Connection
4 10:00 a.m. Presbyteri-
an Women
6:30 p.m. Youth Group
5 6
7
8 9:00 a.m. Sunday School
10:00 a.m. Worship
11:00 a.m. Coffee Fellowship
5:00 p.m. Boy Scouts
9
10 11:30 a.m. Advent
Lunch Study
3:30 P.M. Tuesday
Connection
11
6:30 p.m. Youth Group
Supper & Study @
Jessop’s
12
13
14
15
9:00 a.m. Sunday School
10:00 a.m. Worship
11:00 a.m. Coffee Fellowship
11:15 a.m. Worship & Music
Comm.
3:00 p.m. Grand Concert
5:00 p.m. Boy Scouts
16
17
11:30 a.m. Advent
Lunch Study
3:30 P.M. Tuesday
Connection Pancakes
& PJ’s
18
6:30 p.m. Youth Group
@ Jessop’s
19
20 21
22 NO. Sunday School
10:00 am Worship & Christmas
Program
11:00 a.m. Coffee Fellowship &
Cookie Walk
5:00 p.m. Boy Scouts
23
24 Christmas Eve
7:00 p.m. Candlelit
Service
25Christmas Day
26
27 28
29 NO Sunday School
10:00 am Worship
11:00 a.m. Coffee Fellowship
5:00 p.m. Boy Scouts
30
31 New Year’s Eve 1New Year’s Day
Church Office Closed
Church Office Closed
ADVENT WREATH SCHEDULE
DECEMBER 1—DAUGHERTY FAMILY
DECEMBER 8—DARYL BLYTHE FAMILY
DECEMBER 15—STECKLY FAMILY
DECEMBER 22—TBD FAMILY
DECEMBER 24—DOUG BLYTHE
HOCKER, Olivia 12/03 SMITH, Tammy 12/06
BLYTHE, Dillon 12/09 TANKE, Olivia 12/09
HOCKER, Grant 12/12 PERRY, Barb 12/14
KABISCH, Suzanne 12/14 HARTNETT, Denise 12/17
GAVIN, Robert 12/19 PHILLIPS, Steve 12/20
ECKENROD, William 12/21 LINDHART, Don 12/21
SUBBERT, Heather 12/22 BLYTHE, Mervin 12/23
CLAYPOOL, Helenka 12/27
Have a birthday or anniversary in December and your name is not on this list? Please
contact the church office and update your personal information profile.
Pastor’s Pen Monday night, at our Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service, our friend and colleague, Rev. Don Dovre
of First Lutheran in Conroy challenged us to be grateful and to truly mean it. His words and message
got me thinking . . . How often do I say what I’m thankful for, let alone mean it with deep convic-
tion?
Sure, I end most emails and text conversations with a quick “thanks” and 99% of the time I mean it.
I do my best to write thank you notes for gifts and kind gestures in a time frame that would make
my Gram proud. I do my best to instill the use of manners and gratitude in our Connections and
Youth Group participants, working hard to model the lessons myself. But I’m not convinced I al-
ways share my thanks in the most heartfelt of ways. Like a million other things in our busy lives,
sharing our gratitude has become (at least in my life) another thing to check off the list to be seen as
a good person.
And after a few very trying weeks—of hard lessons learned, of words that stung, of challenging
tasks, of complicated relationships, and of illness and exhaustion—I’m weary. My soul is limping
along with the pressure of being seen as a “good person”.
Recently, with the thoughts of being a good person, I was a part of a very difficult situation doing
something I did not want to do. In the midst of it, I found my thoughts morphing into a prayer. I
went from being frustrated that I had to be a part of such an awful situation, to grateful for the ways
the Spirit was showing me how to love and serve. I went from being disgusted to heartsick at the
ways some are forced to live—whether by choice, or from complications of illness and unfortunate
events—and then to being grateful for the ways in which God has helped overcome those same hur-
dles in totally different ways.
Much to my own surprise, I found my prayer became a refrain of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for
the person we were serving, for the other people working to make the situation better, for the
knowledge of how to offer my gifts to make it better, for the lessons I was learning that would, or
could, help others in the future. For a body, that despite my own illnesses and challenges, that could
still move and function in a way to ease someone else’s life. For a calling, a job, a lifestyle, that is
often daunting and challenging, but that puts me in a million situations to find Christ and share His
light and love. For the grace and forgiveness of God and others, when I miss Christ in those situa-
tions and have to keep learning how to love and be thankful.
As we near Thanksgiving Day, and move into the Advent and Christmas seasons, I hope you’ll take
some time to look into the situations of your life and find ways to be both thankful and challenged.
To share your thanks in meaningful ways, but to also pause long enough to see how God could be
calling us into action with thankful hearts. Even when it is the last thing we want to do, I hope you’ll
join me in working to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
with thanksgiving & blessings,
Pastor Bethany
Prayer Requests Health concerns: Joy Fry, Vicki Sherman, Marilyn Heitman, Aaron
Jones’s sister Tonya, Sarah Stoutner’s dad Mike, Tate Schaefer, Ja-
mie Lillie family, Vicki Carter, Shane Mullnix, Tom Landeros’s mom
Marcie, Todd Subbert, Dena Stanerson, Dennis & Phyllis White-
head.
Grieving: The Family of LaVona Richmond.
Active military service: Angela Chipman, Grayson Groepper, Brian
Jones, Michael Miller, Matthew Schreiber, and Chaise Turner.
(Please let us know if you have a family member in the service for whom we
can be praying.)
Prayer requests and praises can be submitted any time to
[email protected] or fill out a form in the Vestibule or in the
pew and place it in the Prayer Ministry box. Requests will be kept confiden-
tial unless you ask they be shared with the congregation.
All prayer concerns will be lifted up for four weeks. If continued prayer is
needed at that time, please resubmit your request.
God bless you and those for whom you are concerned.
Pastor Dan Jessop - [email protected]
Director of Christian Education - The Rev. Bethany Jessop – [email protected]
Administrative Assistant - Suzanne Kabisch —[email protected]
First Presbyterian Church Williamsburg, Iowa
fpc_wburg Phone (319) 668-1375
Church Website www.firstpreswilliamsburg.org
First Presbyterian Church (USA)
504 South Highland P.O. Box 24
Williamsburg, IA 52361
Change Service Requested
Change for Change Everyone is encouraged to bring their loose change to worship the first Sunday each month. This month that will be Sunday 12/01/19. During the Time with Youth on that Sunday, we will pass the tin buckets and collect loose change to go towards Living Waters for the World. SO far this year we have collected $1,308.68. Let’s see if we can make a goal of $1,600.00