I so love our church family. Thank you for the wonderful way you responded to the mission project of re-gifting hope, peace, joy and love. The gifts for the Florence Crittenton Home, the Lowcountry Orphan Relief, James Island Outreach and Lowcountry Pregnancy Center look absolutely beautiful under the Worship Center Christmas trees. Thank you for the extra effort and, in many cases, the sacrifice of giving to help others. It is the added beauty of the Christmas season that reminds us to reach outside of ourselves. You do this all year long for many other ministries and then really pour on the love at Christmas time! To quote Tiny Tim in the Christmas Carol: “God bless us, everyone”.
CHECK YOUR CHRISTMAS CARDS
There is a Christmas card letterbox in the main hallway. You can use it to give Christmas cards those in the church family. Don’t forget to check for cards to you also. If you see someone’s cards “building up”, why not help them out by delivering them to them. Take them to your connection group or just hand them to them before the worship service. Connection Group leaders can help out here. After December 27, all left over cards, like the Christmas Card box, will magically disappear.
The original idea of the Christmas Card box was to help raise money for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The money saved on postage was given to missions. What a sweet idea. That was back when stamps were $.03 each. Now that postage stamps cost almost $127 each the game changed a little. Now it is just a nice way to remember friends at JIBC. You can, still of course, give a gift to International Missions. I can tell you it is the best way to get the most production out of your dollar. Every penny given to Lottie Moon is used to support International Missions. It would be hard to find a better way to support missions. Janie and I will absolutely be making our gift this year, as we have every year.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SEASON
Remember that you may have family and friends that would not attend worship with you during the year. Somehow, by the Holy Spirit’s calling, they do seem to be open to coming at times like Christmas. Invite them, encourage them. They will be moved and touched by the great music, the beauty of the Worship Center, the friendliness of our church family and they will hear the Word of God. Come early and hear the String Quartet in the atrium. Pastor Sean and I will be performing select songs from Handel’s Messiah. Ok, maybe not performing, but we will certainly be listening to it. Well, not so much listening to it as playing a CD of the Trans Siberian Orchestra…Never mind. But the String Quartet will be playing in the atrium starting at 5:30 until 5:55.
See you Sunday as we continue the Advent series on Christmas Re-Gifted. What does God’s gift of Love look like?
Pastor Tom
