Church Calendar of events
Volunteer Schedule 2007
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 Message from Pastor Jim,

According to our Book of Order, we Presbyterians are to celebrate two "comings"
during the Advent season: the coming of Christ to earth 2000 years ago and the second
coming of Christ at some point in the future. There is however a third coming that I think
would also fit with the season. I am referring to the coming of Christ into the hearts of his
children. Christ comes to us spiritually to increase our faith, comfort us in our moments of
need, and guide us at moments of uncertainty. The early church traditions around Advent
focused on prayer, fasting and repentance. In other words the focus was spiritual renewal.
How easy it is these days to get to December 26 and feel that our spirits have been depleted
instead of renewed. In order to help with the "third coming" of Jesus this Advent, Grace
Presbyterian has purchased Advent devotional booklets for all members. Please consider
using this if you need a devotional resource this year. Also please consider using it with your
children or grandchildren. Sometimes our kids and grandkids have more hectic holiday
schedules than we do. Many times their childlike spirits need the special touch of the Savior
who was also a child. Let us open our hearts to the coming of Christ this Advent.

Stewardship Drive Follow-up
Devotion, Mission, Finances

The financial part of the stewardship drive is winding up and it appears that things have gone well.
Almost everyone has pledged that we have contacted and as of December 12,2006 we have had $71,306
pledged for the 2007 year. Having this information will help the session over the next 6 weeks as they develop a
budget. This is a significant increase over our 2006 pledges and will be a great aid in meeting our financial
needs for the coming year.
How are you doing with the second half of your pledge? Do you remember what you pledged in the
area of Mission or Devotion? I remember what I pledged and I am already having trouble meeting this part of
my pledge, and we haven't even entered 2007 yet. I did great the first week after pledge Sunday, but then I
started to fall back into my old habits. Changing 58-year old habits is hard to do. It is easier to just write a
check for a little more each year or month or week and feel like I am improving and helping the church more.
So, for me, it is back to recommitting to the Devotion, Mission half of my pledge. My pledge requires a daily
act and it is already more miss than hit. DRATS. Hope you have been doing better than I have.
Sincerely,
Gary Hayes, Stewardship Committee

Operation Christmas Child
     The twenty-three boxes for Operation Christmas Child from our church were brought to the collection site and will be distributed to children from third world countries who may never have received a Christmas gift in their life.  These boxes bring hope, love and joy to these children.  Thank you for helping and we hope you will partcipate in 2007!!
 

Mitten Tree
     Look for the Mitten Tree in the Fellowship Hall.  Please help decorate it with hats, mittens, gloves and scarves for children and adults.  Donate these before Christmas if possible.  Children's sizes will go to Rollingstone Elementary School and adult sizes will go to the Corcoran and Bethany Homes in Winona.
 

Winter Teachers
     Teachers for Winter Quarter, December 3, 2006-February 25, 2007, are the following:  ages 3 - K ...........................Dave Polachek
                  grades 1-4 .........................Kathy Rosendahl
                  grades 5-8 .........................Mary Rennells and Tammy Engstler
                  grades 7-12 ...................... Jean Hayes and Janet Nustad
                  adults ..................................Loel Gorden, Jim Scaife, and Doug
                                                                Rosendahl
                  Parenting .........................   Cindy Burt
                  Music Leader ...................  Kathy Weiner
                  Worship Leader................  Pam Lica
 

Upcoming Intergenerational Events in 2007!
     Be watching for details of time and place for some fun intergenerational events planned for 2007:  bowling, swimming, and a movie night.  Look in the C.E. section of each month's newsletter for more information. Then mark your calendar and plan to attend!

We are selling Equal Exchange coffee, hot cocoa mix, and chocolate bars as a firndraiser for our youth mission
trips to the Twin Cities and to West Virginia. Equal Exchange is a fair trade company: the fanners are organized into
cooperatives which offer them healthcare, education and training, and they are fairly paid for the products that they
grow. The products we are selling are organic. Coffee beans are shade grown, which means that rain forests aren't
cleared for coffee plantations, and the coffee tastes better. Our profits from the sales will go into the Youth Mission
Fund. Additionally, Equal Exchange makes a donation to PCUSA's Small Farmer Fund for every package of coffee
sold. Stop by Fellowship Hall, and buy some Equal Exchange items today!

GPC will be hosting Presbytery on February 17th from
8:30 - ??, and the evening before. We will need many
helpers (male & female). A sign-up sheet will be on
the bulletin board the first of January. Who we gonna
call? You if you don't sign-up!
 

THANK YOU ALL
Corporation: Thanks to Dan & Mel for working on the
heat tapes, and to Walt and Dan for taking care of the
leaves just in time for the first snow! Also, thanks to all
who helped clean the basement, it is a huge improvement!
 

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM
Everyone is encouraged to attend the 2006
Grace Presbyterian Church Christmas
program on Sunday, December 17* at
10:30a.m. Come and experience the joy
and excitement of that first Christmas day
in "Bethlehem Village" through a mix of
scripture and song. Sloppy Joes will be
served by Fellowship & Evangelism
following the program.
Practice for the Christmas program will be
held Saturday, December 16* from 9a.m.
to I la.m. for Grace Kids of all ages.

Nursery News
The Worship Committee hopes to begin
looking for a paid nursery attendant again,
provided there are funds in the 2007
budget. If you know of any reliable people
who love children and would be available
on Sunday mornings, please let us know.
In the meantime, think of us in a kindly
way and volunteer to watch the nursery for
a Sunday! We can't promise you the
opportunity to rock little Benjamin, or any
of the other new babies coming down the
pike, but it would be nice to provide a
friendly spot for Indigo or visiting children

Joys

David and Emily Hansen are the proud parents of Benjamin David, born
October 25. He was 6 Ibs-14 oz. Welcome, Benjamin.
Wally Thiele is home. It was great to have him back at church.
Candi Kohner helped her mother and father get settled in Arizona.
Myriah Morawiecki Varga recently received her Doctorate in psychiatry.
Her family, especially grandmother Evie Fuglestad, is very proud.
Congratulations Dr. Myriah.

CONCERNS
Mo Stark had hip surgery on Nov. 22.

CHRISTMAS EVE OFFERING

The annual Christmas Eve offering will be taken at the evening service on
the 24th. A goal of $300 has been set for the Christmas Eve offering so we
can purchase, through Heifer International, 2 sheep and some trees. They will
be given to people wherever there is need.
Heifer gives hope to people around the world with the gifts of farm animals
and products that help take care of the earth.
What a great way to share our Christmas spirit. Please prayerfully consider
your gifts to these special offerings.

CHRISTMAS JOY OFFERING

One way we can share the joy of Christmas is to
give to those who are in need. The Christmas Joy
Offering divides the monies received 50-50:
(l)to help support Presbyterian racial ethnic schools
and colleges and (2) to the Board of Pensions to help
dedicated workers when they find themselves with
unexpected financial problems.
We will receive the offering on Sunday December
19. Envelopes will be enclosed with this newsletter
and will also be in the pews. Gifts may be given at
any time - just be sure to mark them for the Joy
Offering.
This offering, that has been a tradition for nearly
70 years, is one of four special offerings designated
by the General Assembly ofPC(USA) to provide
congregations direct ways of supporting specific
causes that help those in need.

CIRCLE II will meet at Perkins for
lunch at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday,
December 13 . This will be our last
Circle meeting until April, when we will
again meet for lirnch. Watch future
newsletters for information.

CHRISTMAS PLANTS ~ It would be lovely to have
lots of Christmas seasonal flowers in the sanctuary for
Christmas. If you would like to provide a plant and want to
honor someone or give as a memorial, let Elayne know.

ADVENT EVENT on December 3"': 4:30 p.m. decorate church; 5:30 p.m. soup & bread supper:
6:20 p.m. caroling at Lake Winona Manor.
CHRISTMAS EVE t)A Y WORSHIP on December 24* will be at the regular time ~ 10:30 am. There will
be a 4:30 p.m. RECEPTION, followed by a CANDLELIGHT SERVICE at 5:30 p.m.

CROP WALK AWARD
Our church received the 1st
place award for having the greatest
increase in donations compared to
last year's receipts.  Our 8 walkers
and all those who donated to the
Walk are to be congratulated. The
award, a traveling trophy, is in the
front hall for a short time and then
will find a permanent place until it
travels to another winner next year.
(Or maybe we'll have a big
increase next year and will be able
to keep it at Grace.)
The grand total for the Walk was
$10,072.39.  Our share was $794.
Thank you to all who participated
in the Walk in any way.

Comments

All right, I have only been at this clerk's job
for two months and I am already blown out of the
water by what everybody does and gives to, for and
about Grace. I was clerk many years ago and I
remember it being busy, but this is exciting busy.
Some people say that we are so invigorated because
Jim is so active and so positive about everything. (Jim-
Leam to pace your self. We are going to need you for a
number of years. This is a marathon, not a sprint.)
Some think it is because the youth are so active and it
wears of Ton the rest of us. That is good and should be
embraced. Others suggest it is always busy, but I have
forgotten. There is probably some truth to that. But
my memory isn't so bad that I can't tell there is more
excitement now than a year ago.
One area of measurable change is the
stewardship drive. The committee didn't really do that
much different this year, but the congregation, through
their own decision-making, increased the giving level
by about 12%. This is a real vote of support for the
enthusiasm around here. In addition there were a large
number of mission and devotional pledges made on
pledge Sunday. It will be interesting to know how
people do with this part of their Christian giving.
Over the next month, there will be a huge
amount of things occurring. Advent, Christmas, end of
year festivities. It is a time of joy and also a time of
sadness. Jim suggests we all keep our eyes and ears
open for those who suffer during the holiday season.
Please take the time to listen to someone, talk to them,
perhaps send a card or make a phone call. The most
susceptible would be those who have lost a loved one
or who have been separated form a relative by moves.
People who normally suffer from depression, which is
a large percentage of us, can find this to be a tough
time, even if things are going well. As you all know,
expectations are so high this time of year that we are all
at risk of being disappointed.
So, raise up a shout of joy and charge ahead.
Grace is moving ahead and we don't want anybody not
embracing the experience. It is exciting around here
right now.
Have a rewarding and spiritually nourishing
Holiday Season.

The last meeting of session dealt with the
usual number of both interesting and mundane items
that every session encounters. Probably the most
interesting and exciting question that was decided
dealt with the authorization of the youth to go to
Minneapolis in January to do a mission project and to
go to West Virginia in the summer to work in
Appalachia. Jessica Arndt presented a brief outline
of the schedule and the need to do fund raising to
secure the adequate funding. Following up on
session's decision to emphasize the value of
respecting and nurturing all that God created, the
youth will be looking at selling ecologically
respectful products after church and also doing work
projects. In addition the M and S committee has
decided to donate $1500.00 to support the mission
work of this group. The funds will be taken from the
permanent mission {and. This is going to be a really
big year for the youth in our church. They are
excited and going gang busters. The M and S
committee and the C E committee are really taking
these kids on as part of their committee mission also.
Youth, excitement, synergy, direction-it doesn't get
any better than that.
Another part of the session meeting was
spent on dealing with the church's safe sanctuary
policy. We would all like to think that there is no
need to have a policy for protecting our kids when
they are in Sunday school or attending a church
firnction, but those days are gone. Our insurance
carrier is requiring us to have a written policy and to
follow it. This is true for every Presbyterian Church
in the Presbytery. We have borrowed the policies of
several surrounding Presbyterian churches and are in
the process of adapting them for our church. The
goal is to make it adequate and simple without being
overly restrictive to people who want to care for our
youth. Once the policy has been accepted by session
and sent to Presbytery, we will need to present it to
the congregation. This will probably be in the form
of putting it in the annual report every year and
perhaps into a newsletter. It is a cliche, but kids are
our most important resource and their well-being is
our greatest responsibility. Sometimes that means
thinking about things that Christians don't want to
think about. When the policy is completed, we will
be better for having done it.