Thursday, November 22, 2012

November Newsletter

Happy Thanksgiving! While you spend time with your family and friends being grateful for all that you have today, we too will sit around the table with our close friends to give thanks and enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving spread.


Be Rich

November 4th marked our first of two Sundays promoting our “Be Rich” campaign.  We want for the people that go to our church to know that wealth is relative and – if you have more than two pairs of shoes in your closet – you are rich!
BeRich
We are encouraging our churchgoers to donate their time and resources by focusing on three ministries: Young Life (hosting a Christmas party for teenage moms and their children; giving beauty baskets to each young mom), Futival (playing soccer with kids while teaching them spiritual principles and values), and a soup kitchen for children. For each of these charities, we have work days set up to go and serve together, in addition to giving financially.  
While our financial goal is a touch less than 
that of North Point Community Church (they gave $1.5 million in one Sunday!), we are excited to report that after our second service on Sunday, we surpassed our halfway goal of $20,000!

New Ballrooms 

Upstreet
UpStreet

Since our church attendance is growing, we decided to move around our children’s ministries to accommodate more and more kids.  It is difficult to teach four-year-olds about Daniel and the Lions’ Den with crying babies in the background.  A big improvement that was made last Sunday was to have babies to two-year-olds in one ballroom and three to five-year-olds in another.  What a difference it made!

As for the elementary school kids, an average of 48 kids at noon were cramped in an 1,100 square foot space, but now they have triple the amount of room to sing, dance, play, and learn!



Small Group 3
My women's small group.

Small Groups

Our first generation of small groups that began in February are now winding down to an end this month, but the "problem" is no one wants to separate.  They want to stay together forever!  No worries, we are going to form new groups after the Christmas and “summer vacation” (which is in January).








It has been fun reading people’s Facebook posts of what they’re thankful for everyday this month.  We are definitely thankful for you, our partner in ministry!  Your commitment to support us down here has enriched us and many families at our church whose lives are being transformed with the saving message of Jesus.  We thank God for you!