First News For  NOVEMBER 2018

REMEMBER IN PRAYER OUR MEMBERS AND FRIENDS IN THE MILITARY including Colin McLaughlin, Nancy McLaughlin’s grandson, who is safely home from Kuwait and now stationed at Fort Hood, TX. (If you know of other members or friends in the military, please let us know, so their name(s) may be added to this list. Thanks)

REMEMBER IN PRAYER THOSE WHO ARE HOMEBOUND IN ASSISTED LIVING OR NURSING HOMES Dorothy Brundige at home; Barry Leavitt; Jennie Mayer, Life Care Center, West Bridgewater; Winnie Robinson & Bud Talpey, All American Assisted Living, Hanson; Phyllis Titterington, Royal Rehab in Norwell; and Marion Whiting, Braemoor Nursing & Rehab, Brockton.

Dear Church Family, I would like to thank all of you for your loving, caring thoughts, deeds and prayers during this very difficult time of losing my Mom, June Webster, as well as during my recovery of my total knee replacement. You all are the BEST! Peace and Blessings to you! Susanne Ford and Family

The Men’s Breakfast Group will gather on Saturday, November 10th at 8 AM at Mo’s Place in Hanson. All men of the church are welcome. Nick Abbatangelo

SPECIAL OFFERING FOR NOVEMBER

Whitman Food Pantry

Now more than ever, as the weather turns blustery and cold, donations are needed to the food pantry. This is our special offering for the month of November, which will be taken up on Sunday, November 11th.

Also, this is the time to make “holiday” item donations. Buying items for your Thanksgiving/Christmas meal? Why not purchase one or two additional “like items” to donate to the food pantry?

Items which will be needed are:

banana bread mix, apple and cranberry juices, cranberry bread mix, cranberry sauce, brownie mix, pineapple slices, pineapple chunks/or crushed, cake mixes and canned frosting, Jiffy pie crust mix, holiday specialty items, canned pumpkin, hot chocolate, flour, sugar, stuffing mix, deodorant, bathroom cleaning products, kitchen cleaning products and toothpaste.

In addition to the above items, financial assistance is always most welcome and especially at this time for November’s special offering! Thank you so much for your continued support of this Mission Outreach program.

A WORD FROM OUR DEACONS

The Deacon of the month for November, Gail Clement, can be reached by phone at 781-447-4052 or email at iamgjc@icloud.com to answer any questions you may have or help you if you have a need.

All the deacons are here to help in any way we can, spiritual needs, visitation, or to help you find a Pastor if one is needed. Please let us help however we can.

Faithfully,

Ann DeGrechie, Donna Willis, Russ Greene and Gail Clement

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION UPDATE

Hello Everyone,

The yard looked so great full of fall colors with the pumpkins. It just glowed when the sun was setting. Thank you all who volunteered and watched over the “Flock” at night. See we all work through God!

The Ministry of Christian Ed is excited for the start of this school year. We discussed future topics (which will be here before we know it). We are still discussing Confirmation Class, and brought it up to the board as soon as we have a solution that will work for everyone involved we will let you know as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

We are in need of teachers/helpers. I am leaving this like last month. It really is like Sundae Sundays. Remember you can sign up for 1 class or many. The children would love for you to get to know them. Please see anyone on the Ministry of Christian Education if you are interested. The Sundays which have no teachers for a class is the day the children stay upstairs for the sermon. There is a small lesson (reading a ‘short’ story – most children love to read so they will read for you) and activity sheets (puzzles, word finds, picturegrams, mazes just to name a few). NO guesswork. I took care of all that. If you helped out with Sundae Sundays then you are a pro. The curriculum is just like that (just different topics/stories). The children love the activity sheets. Let’s help them learn our faith!! You may be surprised and learn from them. A positive spin: What do you have to gain? Be the example children see!!

This is a small insert for this month’s newsletter. That doesn’t mean a lot isn’t happening. I have put dates below for when the children will be doing a craft during class. The 7th – High School will still have a class. With the lack of teachers and helpers, the Ministry of CE, are trying to come up with solutions. So any suggestions are always welcomed. We meet the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00. We would love for you to join us.

Lauretta Boyce and Kathy Hall are co-organizing the Advent Workshop (I cannot thank you enough). If you have never attended before make this the first year you do. You will not regret it. This is a day full of laughs, memories, crafts, hot chocolate, fun, and just full of Christmas Cheer. If anyone is interested in helping at a table let us know.

Have a wonderful, happy, and safe Thanksgiving. Count all your blessings!!

Save the Dates (please note: dates may be tentative but will be confirmed closer to the event-thank you):

· Craft ~ October 28th

· Craft ~ November 18th

· Advent Workshop ~ December 2nd

· Craft ~ December 9th

· Children’s Christmas Pageant ~ December 16th Children Stay Upstairs

· Happy Birthday Jesus ~ December 23rd Children Stay Upstairs

· No Class on December 30th and January 6th

Everson Bible Class/Chi Kappas

We must note that we had the most wonderful gourmet May Breakfast served to us by Nick Abbatangelo and Mark Iverson on September 29th.

We arrived at church at 10:30 and were greeted the coffee, tea and orange juice (and the aroma of onions) ready for us to take to the table set for 12 and decorated with vases of fall flowers. We sat enjoying the beverages and the fellows came and took our order for omelets. After that we took plates and made our selection from an array of jumbo muffins (cranberry walnut, blueberry, corn and coffee cake), an attractive garden salad with choice of dressing and feta cheese, a platter of cut melon and whole strawberries, and a little bacon/cheese cup. All so very attractively set out for us. Omelets included grilled onion, peppers and mushrooms and were served with ham slices. It was a breakfast well worth waiting for. Nick and Mark, we really appreciated all your work. Thank you very much!

FINAL Tally

NB/BCampaign

With the delayed special May Breakfast for Everson members held on September 29th, more contributions came in. The final tally for the Non-Breakfast was $1,080.75. So much better than having the breakfast and raising $500 (m-o-l) with all items donated which probably cost almost that and needed 6 or more working 4 hours at least.

This was a wonderful total but couldn’t have been reached without all of you helping with contributions. Thank you, everyone, for helping.

Everson Bible Class

Chi Kappas

Our November meeting will be held on Saturday November 3 at 11:30 am. Bring a brown bag lunch. Dessert and beverage will be provided. Bring a friend to join in with us.

If you can help with the setup, please come a bit early to do that. Also, we will need help with the clean-up. Each needs to help in whatever way able.

EXTRA HALLOWEEN CANDY?

If you have any leftover individually wrapped Halloween Candy, could you please bring it to church the Sunday after Halloween to donate to the Mainspring Bag Lunch Program? Just mark the bag “Mainspring” and leave it in the church. kitchen. Thanks so much.

GOING ONCE…GOING TWICE…SOLD!

Auction- November 10th at 4pm

Preview from 2:00-4:00pm

Auctioneer Bob Hayes

Featuring paintings by local artist and church member Bud Talpey

Donations needed and just about anything goes.

Spread the word to family and friends

No mattresses, appliances/electronics or clothes.

Please bring auction items to the church library.

For questions please email Gail Clement at iamgjc@icloud.com

Thank you for your support!

CHRISTMAS SHOEBOXES

The Christmas Shoeboxes are in and the total is 24 almost ready to send to Chiltonville. From there the boxes may have another stop before arriving at the point of actual distribution. These boxes are tagged and the Chiltonville church will get notification of where boxes went.

They look very festive, as a variety of boxes were used. Good news also is that we have received enough money from our table to fund both our shipping costs AND new boxes for next year. At this time, we plan to buy the ‘authentic’ boxes as they have been redesigned to better hold the many items we put into them. They were just too small to hold a ruler as one example.

We will continue sales through next year as Christmas Shoeboxes will be an annual mission project.

We had the help of many, filling boxes and donating cash and items for sale and customers who bought. Team work makes success. Thank you, everyone.

Fall is Here!

Time for the fall cleaning of your wallet for the Thanksgiving Offering!

About our PUMPKIN PATCH

The Pumpkin Patch arrived on October 6th, when a big truck unloaded over 2000 large and small pumpkins and gourds. It’s a sight to behold and so very colorful with the large ones laid out on the lawn at church. Be sure to take a look if you are anywhere nearby.

These pumpkins were grown on the Navajo Indian reservation in Farmington, New Mexico. After harvest, the pumpkins are loaded onto trucks and sent to churches that are part of this program. We are one of the churches.

As there is no cost for the pumpkins, the money we get for selling the pumpkins is divided. The Indian Nation gets a portion of the sales, as does each church, and transportation costs must be met. Also, at the end, leftover pumpkin are used for cattle feed. Nothing is wasted.

As of newsletter date, sales were over $2000 and donations (we keep 100% of donations) totaled $64.25 from customers and $200 through offering envelopes Sunday morning.

Did you know? ~~ Picture this

Moses had the first tablet and downloaded data from the cloud.

Can’t you just picture Moses standing on Mount Sinai holding his tablet with the Ten Commandments. His face is uplifted as he listened to God.

An early wireless connection.

We, without tablets, always have our own personal wireless connection. Use it freely.

ANGEL/MITTEN TREE

One of our church’s Mission projects is the Angel Tree. With this project, members are asked to take one of the paper Angels from the tree at the back of the church as a reminder to purchase an age appropriate gift for either a boy or girl ages 8-12. The gift should be returned to the church, UNWRAPPED, and put under the Tree with the Angel tag attached to it.

This year the tree will be up December 2nd through the 16th. All donations should be returned by that date to allow time for sorting and delivery. For those who so desire......gift cards to Walmart may also be donated and/or monetary donations. When making a monetary donation, please indicate “Angel Tree” and the amount on your offering envelope.

Another Mission project which our church has supported for many years is the Mitten Tree. Like the Angel-Mitten Tree will be at the front of the church December 2-16th. Donations of handmade and store-bought hats, scarves, and mittens are put on the tree as decorations. Everyone is encouraged to purchase or make an item to put on the tree.........one year the donations were so many that the tree tipped over! The generosity of this congregation is AMAZING! Please keep this Mission Project in mind if you plan to go to any of the church fairs that might be held in our area. There are usually beautiful, reasonably priced hand-made item available for purchase. Again, thank you so very much!!

HOSPICE VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Are you looking for a meaningful volunteer opportunity?  Consider becoming a hospice volunteer with Hospice of the South Shore.  Volunteers provide respite and companionship to our hospice patients in their own homes or in skilled nursing facilities. You will receive training necessary to be the “good neighbor” for those who need your friendship and assistance.  Contact Lora Wooster, Volunteer Coordinator, at 781.624.7255 (lwooster@southshorehealth.org) for more information.

SAVE THE DATE!

ANNUAL ADVENT WORKSHOP

Sunday, December 2, 2018 1-3 pm

Celebrate the season and make Christmas decorations, pieces for the nativity, and Chrismons, to name just a few!

Light refreshments will be available.........

Come join us and be a part of this annual tradition!

2018 Southeast Area Fall Fellowship

Sunday, November 4th

First Church of Christ UCC Sandwich

136 Main Street

Sandwich, MA 02563

Program: NEW VISION FOR AN OLD STORY

Why the Bible might not be the book you think it is

Presenter: Cape Cod author Anne Robertson

Gathering & Registration: 2:30

Worship/Program & Assoc. Meeting: 3:00

Cape Cod Author, Anne Robertson, will be the presenter at the fall fellowship. Anne's 2018 Eerdmans publication of her latest book, NEW VISION FOR AN OLD STORY; Why the Bible Might Not Be the Book You Think It Is, will be covered in her one-hour presentation, followed by a question and answer discussion. Books will be available for purchase along with book signing by the author. All are welcome to attend this free event sponsored by the Pilgrim, Old Colony, and Barnstable Associations of the MA Conference of the United Church of Christ.

When Anne Robertson asked a bunch of people on the street what came to mind when they heard the word Bible, she was met with a flood of mixed responses- words like wisdom, lies, faith, rules, ancient history, bigotry, poison, and many more.

The book gives readers the right lenses to see beyond the printed page to the God who encounters us in dynamic relationship and transforms our lives. The very nature and message of Scripture are rooted in incarnation. When we need to navigate community, truth, fear, and suffering, the Bible- God's own story-can guide us through it all.

Anne Robertson is a United Methodist Church minister and is executive director of the historic Massachusetts Bible Society. She is also the author of God with Skin On and the popular curriculum Exploring the Bible: The Dickenson Series.