St Paul Church

The annual reports are now available in the Narthex. Please pick one up to review it before the annual meeting (on the 22nd).

If you’d like one mailed (or emailed) to you, please contact the church office.

After dealing with repeated computer issues, I finally managed to get the sermon online from when Justin Schlueter led Sunday Worship back in August. My apologies for the lengthy delay. I hope to get a video clip of it online soon. Meanwhile, check out the audio version at http://stpaulchurch-davis.org/sermons/?sermon_id=17.

The following dates have been set regarding the 2011 Annual Meeting:

• December 31, 2011 – Church books close. All recorded membership contributions should be made by this date.
• January 4, 2012 – All committee reports for the Annual Report due to the office.
• January 8, 2012 – Annual Reports ready for pickup at the church or received via email.
• January 22, 2012 – Potluck and Annual Meeting following worship.
• January 23, 2012 – 7pm Council meeting with newly elected members attending
• January 29, 2012 – Installation of newly-elected council members

Please be in prayer as to how God may be calling you to serve at St. Paul. The Nominating Committee has met and will be looking for members to serve on the Church Council and various other committees. Should you be asked to serve, please take the time to pray about it and see if this is where God is asking you to serve.

We will be putting together a new address and telephone directory for 2012 and would like current addresses, telephone numbers and emails for those of you that may have updates. If you’ve canceled your home phone and are using only a cell phone, we need to know that, too. Please call or email the church office by January 16th with these changes. The 2012 directory will be available the first Sunday in February.

Family Life Ministries Presents:
The Art of Marriage
Friday, February 3rd – 7pm-9:30pm
Saturday, February 4th – 9am-4pm
at Highland Community College Conference Center

A marriage refresher. The opportunity to refresh your marriage and grow stronger in your love for each other. Cost is $50 per couple and includes the cost of materials and lunch on Saturday. Any questions, ask Pastor Scott or Sue.

For those ladies that have been part of the 2011 Secret Sister fun, we will have our “reveal” on Sunday, February 12th after church. We will share in a potluck meal followed by the reveal so please bring a dish for sharing, your table service and a small gift for your Secret Sister; drink will be provided.

We are looking for people to help run the laptop/screen during our worship services. If you’d be willing to help serve St. Paul in this area, please contact the church office.

The Building and Grounds is looking for some volunteers to help with shoveling the sidewalks this winter. There is a calendar on the bulletin board for anyone that may be interested. Please sign up for a week at a time. Thank you!

Due to the cold and snow, the north entrance will be closed until Spring. Thank you!

The Freeport Mennonite Church will be hosting the MCC canner again this year and would like to invite you to join us in the mission project. We will be canning at the church, located at 3416 Brick School Road on January 12th and 13th. If you’re interested in helping with this project or just seeing it in action, please talk with Mike Zettle as he will be there helping and would be glad to show you around. Last year MCC canned at 35 different sites in the United States and Canada from the beginning of October 2010-April 2011 and canned 525,096 cans of meat. Freeport Mennonite Church produced 11,047 cans from 19,000 pounds of turkey last year. 10% of the cans were held back for local missions at Freeport Area Church Cooperative, Rockford Rescue Mission and Gospel Outreach in Freeport. MCC distributed canned meat produced in Freeport to Bosnia this year. (This info was taken from a letter received from Chad Weber.)

Don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour this Saturday night (or early Sunday morning).

St. Paul Church of Epleyanna has a page on Facebook and we would love for you to search for it, “Like” it and share it with your friends and family! It’s a great way to keep up to date with what’s happening at the church. Awana reminders are posted there along with other activities throughout the week. Also, check out our website (right here!) to see pictures from our Fall Party and also to hear Pastor Scott’s weekly sermons!! Yes, you read it ~ sermons ON-LINE!!

And a little advance tip from your friendly “techie”: We plan to be on Twitter soon, also. Eventually, we’ll be “tweeting” up-to-the-minute announcements there.

Please join us for a reception honoring Robert and Neva Wise’s 65th Anniversary, Sunday, November 20th, immediately after the worship service. (Rumor has it there will be cake…)

We have three new babies that have been welcomed into our church family and it is our wish to recognize them and their families and “shower” them with our love and support. We will be honoring them on Sunday, November 13th with a reception in their honor following our worship service.

There is a table set-up in the Narthex for those of you wishing to contribute to the gift baskets that will be given. Thank you for sharing your love with the newest additions to our St. Paul Church family.

The Annual Stateline Ministerial Thanksgiving Worship service will be held on Sunday, November 20th at 7pm at the Winneshiek Evangelical Free Church located at 3842 E. Winneshiek Road.

Pastor Tom Bourke of the Dakota UMC will deliver the message of thanks and praise to God for all His blessings.

The freewill offering will be given to the FACC (Freeport Area Church Cooperative), and those attending are asked to bring canned goods to be donated to the Faith Community Food Pantry in Davis, which is available to our community the third Saturday of each month.

The Awana staff is looking for a few people that would be willing to get the Fellowship Hall ready for Awana each Wednesday and then set it back up for Sunday. This entails taking tables down and arranging chairs. If you would be willing to help out in the way, please give April a call in the church office and she can give you further details.

It has been a long standing tradition at St. Paul to honor and remember those members of our congregation that have passed on to glory this past church year. Totenfest will be observed during our worship service on Sunday, November 20th. This service of remembrance is always a moving and special time as we celebrate those that have gone before us in the faith: Mirla Miller, Elsie Welling, Wilmer Smith, Carol Schoonhoven, Jerry Henze, Pearl Clark, Lenny Marty, Fred Meinert, Connie Dornink and Josie Schlueter. We will also recognize and pray for those families that are friends of the church, and held services for and/or laid to rest their loved ones here at St. Paul: Betty Maize, Kristin Kloster, Ron Reed. We will also be dedicating any memorials given to the church during this service as well.

Looking for a night out with the ladies? Well, you will have that opportunity on Friday, December 2nd! We are planning an evening of food and fun in Pecatonica. We will gather at Cimino’s for dinner and then go to the Pec Playhouse Theater to see “Christmas Belles.” Tickets for the play are $10 and will be ordered on November 7th. A sign up sheet will be passed around October 31st and November 7th, or you can let Amy McKee or April Zettle know if you’re interested in attending. Dinner will be at 6:30pm with the play beginning at 8pm.

Here’s a bit of info about the play:

Christmas Belles, a church Christmas pageant spins wildly out of control as three squabbling sisters try to reign in the mayhem. Amidst an ailing Santa, a vengeful sheep, and a reluctant Elvis impersonator, a family secret emerges that just might derail the entire production. And on top of everything else, the pageant will be shown live on cable access television for the first time ever. Christmas Belles will bring joy to your world!

The Building and Grounds committee is looking for people that would be willing to help with the snow removal this winter. It would be nice to have eight people to help with this so each set of two would only be responsible for one week each month. Please talk with Lonny Schlueter if you would be willing to help serve your church in this way.

Family Life Ministries Presents: The Art of Marriage

• Friday, February 3rd – 7pm-9:30pm
• Saturday, February 4th – 9am-4pm

at Highland Community College Conference Center

A marriage refresher. The opportunity to refresh your marriage and grow stronger in your love for each other. Cost is $50 per couple and includes the cost of materials and lunch on Saturday. Any questions, ask Pastor Scott or Sue.

As the holiday season is quickly approaching, we are beginning preparations for our part of the Christmas Eve service. In order for us to prepare, we would like to know which Preschool—2nd grade children will be participating in the Christmas Eve service. If you can let Kristi Krahmer or April Zettle know by Thanksgiving, we would appreciate it so we know approximately how many children to plan for.

We know that this is a busy time of year, but we would like, if at all possible, that the children participating in the Christmas Eve service try to attend at least 2 Sunday school classes from November 27th—December 18th. This will allow the children to learn and practice the songs that we will be singing for the program. Thank you for your efforts in helping us have a wonderful Christmas Eve program! We all know the congregation loves seeing the kids say their pieces and sing their songs! Help us keep the tradition going!

Photos from our Fall Party (and Trunk-n-Treating) are now available here on our website and on our Facebook page. Different photos at each site, so be sure to check them both out!

St Paul Church is now on Facebook. Find us. “Like” us. Share us with your friends and family! Just go to www.facebook.com/StPaulChurch.

To share a link to any page or posting on our website, just click on the Share/Save button. To “like” a page or posting, click on the “Like” button. Or … do both!

On Sunday, October 9th during our 10:30am worship service, Rev. Robert Schroeder, Area Representative of the CCCC will join us for an Installation Service for Pastor Scott.  This is a very special time in the life of our church and we encourage you to be a part of this special service.

In true St. Paul fashion, we will share in a potluck meal following the service as we “officially” welcome Pastor Scott and Sue to our church family.  Please bring a dish or two for sharing and your table service.  Drinks will be provided.

There were 15 ladies that attended our ‘Back to School for the Christian’ event.  We started out the evening by ‘getting to know your friends’.  We had a devotion and learned some back to school tips that we need to apply in our Christian life.  We had ‘show and tell’ time where we all shared our school yearbook or photo (and a few laughs).   We ended the evening with a ‘milk and cookies’ snack.  What a great night of fellowship and fun.  If you missed this event, stay tuned for the next!