Christmas Peace to You!

Merry Christmas, Family and Friends of Peace!  This Sunday morning at 8:30 and 11:00 we will read about Joseph and consider what it means to receive the gift of peace at Christmas.   Hope to see you on Christmas Eve at 5:00, 7:00, or 9:00 for a wonder-filled, one-hour service of lessons, carols, communion, and candlelight as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. 

You can hear one of the most beautiful and well-known Lessons and Carols Services for one hundred years, broadcast live around the world from Kings College Chapel in Cambridge.  Tune to Classical WSMR 89.1 & 103.9 (WUSF Public Media) a little before 10:00 am on Christmas Eve.  It will run again at 6:00 pm.

Thanks for all the wonderful house-warming gifts for our new Peace-ful home on State Road 64.  The wish list total of donations and gifts is now more than $25,000.  Pledges and early gifts for 2014 are approaching $300,000. 

You helped four families at Mission Beth-el to have a much happier Christmas with your angel tree gifts!   We fulfilled our commitment to give away a tithe - 10% of our budget to benevolence, even in a year we were buying property.

Tonight (Fri) the families of Peace (moms, dad, and kids) gathered at the church for a night of grilling and chilling and what a good time we had.  How nice to have a building where children and youth can make lasting memories of fun, free-play at church!  A number of new friends are planning to join Peace in February.

We will dedicate the land and building to the glory of God with thanksgiving on January 26th at 4:00.

May Christ bring you all the gifts that are enduring and may you discover ways to use those gifts to make this world a place of greater peace for all people.

With love and joy,

Elizabeth

 

 

Prepare the Way

Peaceful Companions in Christ,

The new church is beginning to feel like home.  Thank you for the generous spirit you brought to our first week there.   For all the encouraging emails, good suggestions, and helpful comments, we are grateful.   For all the special gifts, wish list items, hours of labor, and 2014 promises (pledges), we are especially thankful! 

In case you are wondering, last Sunday in worship we had nearly 78 at 8:30 and 100 at 11:00.   We had 32 present for beautiful candlelight Service of Hope that our Stephen Ministers planned.
This week the choir is singing at 8:30 and the Bell Choir and Gospel Guys are providing music at the11:00 service.  Thank you, musicians, for your flexibility and your devotion to glorifying God and inspiring the congregation.

This week we consider the extended family of Jesus and their role in preparing for the Christ.   We will read Zechariah’s song from Luke 1 and his son John the Baptist’s call to prepare in Matthew 3. 

Christmas Eve services will be at 5:00, 7:00, and 9:00.  These services will be similar in content and style, with different readers and musicians.  You can choose the time that works best for you. 

If you want to be included as a Peace Pioneer (one who journeyed with Peace to grow in God’s grace in the “promised land” on SR64), please respond now by emailing back with your full name, as you want it listed.  Sunday is the deadline for signing up to be included in the graphic art piece that Peter Miller is designing.

Advent peace to you,

Elizabeth