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.

December is a month that keeps the music program at St. Paul busy. We need to thank all who were a part of the various services during that month. Thank you for finding time in your schedules to participate. There were some new surprises with the choices of music from the bells, organists and accompanists, and assistance with percussion instruments.

January 2012 has five Sundays so I am suggesting that for New Year’s Day, we leave that open for special music and not a choir.

We will have Senior Choir practice on Wednesday, January 4th at 7:30pm and then sing for the January 8th service. The Women’s Choir, if desired, could sing January 15th and the Men on January 22nd. Watch for announcements of rehearsals in the Sunday bulletins.

Let us hope that the January weather will be mild as well, so that we can proceed with these plans. It has been great so far this winter. Let us start off the New Year right!

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.

Awana gatherings will resume on Wednesday, January 4th at 6pm. We hope to see you all there!

Confirmation classes for 7th and 8th grade students will resume on Wednesday, January 4th at 6:30pm.

Youth Fellowship will meet on January 15th at 6:00pm to take down the tree. We will also enjoy a time of games, fun and fellowship. We will also meet on January 29th at 6:00pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

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 Women’s Fellowship will not be meeting in January, bur rather in February. Watch the next newsletter and upcoming bulletins for the date.

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…)

Leap of Faith Ministries is sponsoring a concert by Sidewalk Prophets at the Freeport Masonic Temple on Saturday, December 3rd at 7pm. Tickets are $15 for the first 8 rows, which includes a “meet & greet”, with all other seats at $10.00. Tickets can be purchased at www.itickets.com or by calling Mary at 815-947-3063.

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 Puggles would like to ask Awana families to join them for a “turkey” dinner on Wednesday, November 16th. An invitation and RSVP card was sent home with the kids on October 26th. Please return the response card to Christina Boyer or email the church office and let us know how many we should expect from your family. Thank you in advance for sharing in this Thanksgiving dinner!

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.