St Paul Church

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.

November is coming faster than we realize. That means that the music program at St. Paul needs to really get into gear for the coming two months. We took it a little easy this fall but now the pressure is on.

The choirs have been asked to be part of the special November 6th Patriotic Concert at St. Paul. Rehearsals are being planned to meet this deadline. Watch for announcements from the various directors for these practices.

The Bell Choir plans to practice at 7pm on Wednesday, November 2nd followed by the Senior Choir at 8pm, and the Men at 8:30pm. Not sure what the Women’s Choir is doing at this point yet, but will let everyone know when something is decided.

We are looking for more people to be involved with our choir program. We are flexible with our rehearsals and try to arrange that you will know what we are working on if you can’t make it at times.

See you at the next practice!

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.

During the month of November the Board of Christian Education is encouraging you to help fill up the table with much needed items. After talking with someone at the Salvation Army, their food supply is VERY low and the following items are needed: canned meat products (i.e. tuna, salmon, chicken, Spam), Beef Stew, Chef Boyardee ravioli, beefaroni, spaghetti & meatballs, peanut butter & jelly, hearty soups—Chunky brand, Progresso, etc, paper products, coffee. They said they get a good supply of vegetables from the food bank, but are in great need of items that people can just open and have as a meal. The shelves at the Salvation Army are bare so there is a great need for food, especially with the onset of winter quickly approaching!

There is also a need of winter boats, boots, hats, gloves, mittens and blankets. If you have clean, gently used items please bring them to the church by November 13th and we will make sure they get to the Salvation Army. Thank you for your continued support of this local mission. May God contribute to bless your giving.