ALL CONFERENCE E-MAIL
Dec. 16, 2009
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- Help your church children and youth attend Pilgrim Lodge
- Conference office volunteers needed
- National yearbook forms coming
- LOVE
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1. Help Your Church Children and Youth Attend Pilgrim Lodge
Does your church have fundraisers to help your children and youth attend Pilgrim Lodge? The Somesville Union Meeting House UCC on Mount Desert Island has been helping campers attend Pilgrim Lodge for many years. Some of the first to benefit from the fundraising are now in their mid 40s, plus. Interested parents or the Christian Education Committee have organized a variety of events such as all night (or longer) rockathons with campers and a few adults in rocking chairs for 50 minutes of each hour, snacks and entertainment available. Also popular are spring Car Washes, Pancake Breakfasts and Spaghetti Suppers. One mother held a summer rummage sale at a local school to help.
Surely your church could plan one of these, or other events to help your young people attend Pilgrim Lodge. At a time when camp fees have increased, and finances may make it difficult for families to send one or more children to camp, having fundraisers involving the community is a big help. Our goal is that the parent pays the camp week registration fee, and we pay the rest from our local Pilgrim Lodge Scholarship fund. Comments and questions can be directed to Thayer Fanazick zicks@toplinesoftware.com
2. Volunteers needed ! Pastors, please share this request with your congregation. With the budget cuts, and subsequent staff reductions, the Conference office is in need of a few good volunteers to help out with some simple office tasks – preparing mailings, filing, etc. I would like to set up one day each month to gather a small team of helpers who will complete the projects waiting, and share lots of coffee and good conversation. Perhaps, we will have enough volunteers that we can alternate months. Invite a group of your friends to join you at the Conference office, or come and make new friends. If you are interested, please call Sue Stevens at 846-5118. Thanks
3. Church offices – the National Yearbook forms will be mailed to your office the end of this week. The forms are late arriving from the national offices this year, but I am hoping this is a blessing in disguise. By mailing them to you later, they won’t be buried under all the piles of work involved in preparing for Christmas. So when you return to the office after your well deserved holiday, they will be right there waiting for you to take care of them.
These forms are designed to collect 2009 information about how your church operated this year. Both the church secretary and treasurer will have information to complete on the forms. The Conference uses the membership information to assess fellowship dues, and the National office uses the information to publish its yearbook and comparison statistics. Please complete the forms, make copies for your own files, and return the forms to the Conference office by Jan. 31, 2009. We appreciate you help. If you have any questions, please call Sue in the Conference office at 846-5118.
4. LOVE
If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another manipulator.
If I trim the Christmas tree with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of Christmas parties and sing in the Christmas cantata but do not focus on the love of Christ, I’m just another hypocrite.
Love stops the cooking to hug a child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss your spouse.
Love transcends being hurried and tired to embrace family.
Love doesn't envy another's home properly decorated to give God glory.
Love doesn't strike out at the kids, but is thankful they are there.
Love doesn't only give to those giving back, but rejoices giving to who can't.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Love never fails.
Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.