December has some great events in store, including making our regular Sunday nights even more special as well as 1 special event secured and 1 TBA that you'll want to be part of, for sure.

This Sunday night, we're going shopping for the new refugee family our church is sponsoring. We've been asked to buy clothing items, basic necessities like warm items, underpants, and socks. The items we take for granted. This family has arrived with essentially nothing and we're doing our part as our entire church pitches in to offer them radical hospitality in their new home. To do this shopping trip well, we'll need extra time, so please arrive at 5:00pm this Sunday to shop for the refugee family so we have enough time to get to Target, shop, and return to sort items in time for Journey rehearsal.

Next Sunday is the return of our Annual Youth Family Christmas Pot Luck Par-Tay! This annual tradition sees fun games, a year-in-review slideshow, a great meal, and news on the mission trip, ski trip, Confirmation trip, and LYFE Camp so you can be ready for all of the excellent youth group times in 2019. Sign up to bring a dish.

The Par-Tay will be a great time to process what happened the day before at the first-ever Hennepin Kids Dinner Theatre on December 15. Parents are dropping off their kids at Hennepin for the afternoon while they go off to get some Christmas shopping done. Meanwhile, YOU, me, Lynne, and other adults will work with the kids to create a special Christmas show and dinner. The script is funny, the food is yummy, and we need teens to RSVP to say yes, we can be there to help! Don't miss the fun!

What's happening over winter break? Well, we're off on Sunday nights and we're going to find a special time to set up the new studio space for podcasts in the Church of Youth Room. I'm looking at December 30 after worship with a little lunch but we may need to decide together based on who is around. Let's figure it out at the Par-Tay, stay tuned!

Thank you for your support and I will see you soon.

Jesus loves you!

- Rev. Nate Melcher,
Associate Pastor of Faith Development