Happy Thursday Church!

I pray that Advent HOPE is coursing through your veins and that you are awake and alert to where HOPE influences your life, how you live and how you affect others. Last Sunday was a great beginning to the Advent Season. Thank you to everyone who made it possible. I was especially moved by the blessing of the scarves and other winter wear for our quarterly trip to Ladle Fellowship. 133 scarves, handmade with love and grace. Thank you, Lee, Rocelle and the woman of our sewing ministry for all of you time and your compassionate hearts. Thanks also goes out to the Marquez/Montas family for lighting our HOPE candle. There was so much in our time together! When I looked at the clock before getting ready to preach, it was already about 7 minutes until 10:00. So, I either had to talk really fast or “cut on the fly.” I love Sundays like this. Of course, I usually don’t’ like cutting portions of my sermon, but I am always surprised when I do, that God takes what I have prepared and trims it up a bit. HOPE Indeed.

This coming Sunday we will celebrate the Advent Sunday of Peace. DeAnna, Mia and Arya Young will be lighting the Advent candle of PEACE. I HOPE that when we leave on Sunday morning, we leave with a renewed sense of the PEACE of Christ. One thing I loved about my time in the Lutheran church was their immediate response to this statement, “May the peace of the Lord be with you all.” It is an automatic reflex as everyone would respond with … “And also with you.” We might just try it this Sunday. Indeed, we all need to be reminded that individual PEACE is most often a choice. More on that Sunday Morning.

I hope you and your family are planning on joining us Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. to decorate our worship space for the remainder of the Advent season in preparation for Christmas. Everyone is welcome and will be put to work. Kids, there will be cookies for you to decorate. The cookies we do not eat will be shared with our congregation on Sunday morning. Hope to see you Saturday.

I close with these beautiful lyrics, from “A Gaelic Blessing,” by composer John Rutter:

Deep peace of the running wave to you

Deep peace of the flowing air to you

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep peace of the shining stars to you

Deep peace of the gentle night to you

Moon and stars pour their healing light on you

Deep peace of Christ the light of the world to you

Deep peace of Christ to you

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

I love being your pastor!

Holding you close and lifting you high!

Pastor Greg

Expectation in Music

Advent speaks of expectation and of longing. We remember the expectation of the Messiah the Israelites had as they longed for their redemption. We feel the longing in our own hearts as we think of our own desire for salvation in the conflicts and evils of our world. We long for all things to be made new today and also in some final way. There is this three-tiered longing and expectation we think of.

What better way to express or symbolize longing in my mind then through music? Many popular songs talk about the longing for intimate relationship. Many classical pieces keep us on edge waiting to hear that main theme again though perhaps expressed in a new way then in the last movement. Many of us hear a dissonance and long for it to be resolved. I encourage you as we sit in this advent season together to think about how our music evokes longing and for what it is that you’re longing for in your hearts and lives and in our world this advent season.

Nations at War, Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine

Alf Clementson, having surgery this week

Sharon, mother of Ryan

Mae Simone

Friends and Family of Tom, Marlene’s brother

Linda Hansen, sister of Colleen Clementson

David, friend of Rosemary

Family and Friends of Jim Siltanen, who passed

Freddie, recovering from surgery

Oscar, brother in law of Butch Young

John Savage, organizer of Ladle Fellowship

Larell, friend of Rosemary

Ivana, daughter of Anne Wallace

Dianne Florio

Joanne Jonas

Nina Melad

Our Church Leadership

Seeking dedicated individuals to contribute to the Communion setup and cleanup on six Sundays next year. Your assistance is vital, and the commitment is manageable – just six Sundays annually.

If you're interested in being part of this meaningful role, please reach out to Colleen at powclem@yahoo.com or call 858-663-6584.

Your support is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

Time to Deck the Halls

Saturday morning, December 2nd, we will be gathering to deck our halls for the Advent Christmas Season. We will begin at 9:00 a.m. We have found from the past, that the more folks we have, the quicker we create a beautiful result. Everyone is welcome, especially our kids.

Also, as we did last year, we are looking for those individuals who have an extra artificial tree at home. We would love to create a CCPUCC forest on the chancel. Let Pastor Greg know if you have a tree you would like to let us use. There will be food! Hope to see many of you there.

A LITTLE HEADS UP FOR CHRISTMAS EVE 2023

Well, the calendar is doing it to us again. This year, Christmas Eve happens on a Sunday. Christmas Eve morning, we will offer a very “unplugged,” intimate, worship time with Communion. This morning gathering will last only about 30 minutes. Then, at 6:00 p.m. we will gather in the sanctuary for a Christmas Eve Worship Celebration. Christmas Eve and Easter are two days when we put many of our eggs in one beautiful basket. We always have visitors who want to worship in a church on Christmas Eve, as well as your extended families. Make plans now to be here, family in tow, and invite someone you know who needs what we have in this beloved community. So … go right now to your paper calendars and iphones and log this information. It is going to be a wonderful holiday season

Greetings from the Outreach Ministry

Once again thank you so much for sharing your gifts this Thanksgiving Season. Your gifts will bring joy and fullness to our neighbors across the street. You are truly God’s hands and feet.

Well we have one more Mission before the end of the year!! That Mission is to share the joys of the Christmas Season with others. Our church is adopting one family from Solara across the street. We are adopting one Military Family and we are also adopting two seniors from Los Arcos! And of course we will be doing our Gifts to the Manger to help out the little ones from families who are a part of Interfaith Community Service’s in Escondido.

It’s so exciting to be a part of this church who shares their gifts with so many!!! Our church family and friends always come through to make life easier and bring joy to others!! You are most definitely amazing!!!

Look for our gift trees near the Basket of Hope! Take a tag or two with you to shop for that special gift. You can then wrap your gift and tape the tag on the gift you chose, so we will know what family it belongs too!!! Then bring your gift back to church and place under the tree until the special delivery.

As always, thank you in advance for sharing in these special missions!!!

God loves a cheerful giver and that cheerful giver is YOU!!

Many Blessings from the

Outreach Ministry

The JOY of FOOD!

Each week there will be a “Recipe of the Week” for the Buzz!

There will be a red basket in the Narthex where you can drop off your favorite recipes or please email them to julie@ccpucc.org. It can be any recipe from family favorites to ones recently discovered! We will be encouraging you to share your thoughts after you made the dish too. 

No new recipes this week but here is a previous one. The recipe is Oh So Easy Apple Bread.

Click Here for Oh So Easy Apple Bread Recipe!

Adult Scripture Review:

Sunday’s following worship in the fireside room!

Email Susan Gurriell

at sgurriell@gmail.com

Books & More

On Nov. 28 we'll discuss The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor by Eddie Jaku.

Books & More meets on Tuesdays at 10:30 am in the Fireside Room.

All are welcome to join us.  

Centering Prayer:

Tuesdays at 6:30pm

Contact Colleen Clementson at powclem@yahoo.com or on

her cell at 858-663-6584, for the ZOOM invite

Thank you for checking out our BUZZ! Here is what you were waiting for! If you have a favorite joke or any tips to make the BUZZ even better, please send emails to julie@ccpucc.org :)

This week joke is sent in by Dee L. Thank you, Dee!

Joke of the Week:

My dog can find anything. He’s a Labragoogle

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