The children's Halloween Costume Parade is THIS SUNDAY @ 11:30am! We hope you'll all join us. All children are welcome to come, and the event will be safely socially distanced, with children starting down the Yellow Brick Road at intervals. Please bring your masks!

There are two options you can choose from.

OPTION #1: Order one of the four wreaths as advertised on our flyer, and return the order form via email to vlborden1@yahoo.com. With this option, the church earns the most money back, however, shipping is not available.

The wreaths will be available to be picked up in the church Fellowship Hall the week of November 23^rd.  You will be notified of the date and time. If you are unable to pick up your order, please contact us to make delivery arrangements.

OPTION #2: If you want to order additional products from Mickman Brothers, or if you want to order for out of town friends or family, please see their web site at www.GiftItForward.com. The wreaths at this site includes a wreath hanger and are packaged in an attractive decorative gift box. There is a also place to write a personalized message to the recipient. Delivery is included free of charge within 48 states.

Be sure to use the church fundraising code when you order online and the church will earn $8 on each item ordered. Our fundraising code is UNITEDCO002. The online orders must be placed by November 30^th.  

As we look ahead towards 2021, our program ministry teams thank all those who continue to join them in carrying out their varied and important ministries. They also welcome anyone who might like to be part of the team itself which visions and implements their ministries each year. If you have an interest and feel God might be calling you to become a part of any of these ministry teams, please contact Pastor Deb or the current chairperson. We would be thrilled to have you serve in this new way!

Adult Learning & Fellowship: Pastor Dean Penrod

Children & Youth: Sarah Sailor

Church & Society: Carolyn Hohne

Lay Care: Jo Ann Dunn

Membership: Terry Vogt or Jim Ament

Missions: Bill Graf or Michael Eaton

Worship: Marleen Eggers

Pastor Deb will facilitate a 4-week Zoom Advent study, “Light of the World: A Beginner’s Guide to Advent”, beginning Monday evening, November 23 at 7 p.m. Author, professor, and biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine helps us explore the biblical texts surrounding the story of the birth of Jesus. We will trace the Christmas narrative through the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary, the journey to Bethlehem, and the visit from the Magi. These stories open conversations around connections of the Gospel stories to the Old Testament, the role of women in first-century Jewish culture, the importance of Mary’s visitation and the revolutionary implications of Mary’s Magnificat, the census and the stable, and the star of Bethlehem and the flight to Egypt. The class includes discussion based on a class book and a DVD with the author. Dr. Amy-Jill Levine’s studies continue to be popular short-term studies in our congregation. Please register through the church office. The cost is $15.

This Advent season Nathan is putting together a recorded choir singing Silent Night, and needs your help! Due to COVID-19, we are holding off on in-person choir for the rest of 2020. However, you all have the opportunity to participate in a choir activity before the end of the year as part of this virtual choir.

What is needed from you: First, please sign up. This Sunday, November 1^st, there will be a sign-up sheet placed in the narthex to indicate your name, email address, voice part, and where you will record your video (at your home or at the church). If you do not attend in person services but still want to participate, please email Nathan at njensen7@live.com with the information listed above. Second, send in your recordings by Sunday, December 6^th.

What Nathan will provide you: Karen and Nathan will record the accompaniment part with which everyone can sing-along. He will email this recording to everyone who has signed up, along with a pdf of the music and a link to the Google Drive shared folder in which you can upload your videos. Hard copies of the music will be provided by the sign-up sheet at the church starting on Sunday November 1^st. Nathan is happy to help anyone and everyone with recording at the church in-between services on Sundays. He will then put all of these recordings together to form one big choir video to show during the Advent season!

How to record: When you record your part, or we do it at the church together, please make sure it is a video recording so we can see your beautiful faces. This can be done on a phone, iPad, computer webcam, or regular video recorder. When you sing, please listen to the accompaniment track through a pair of headphones but sing out loud with no other noise behind your voice. If the only sound I hear on your recording is your voice, that will make it easier for me to put the videos together. Please sing all four English verses and feel free to look at the music as you sing. If you record your video at home, please then upload the video to the Google Drive account that I have provided via email.

We hope that every choir member is able to participate, but this is also open to anyone in the congregation. We would love this to be an opportunity for members to get a first taste at choir and possibly join us next year when we are able to do in-person choir again. We believe this will be a really great musical opportunity for the church and hope to have you participate! 

The Journey Toward Racial Justice discussion group would like to extend a special invitation to all congregation members to join us for a special Zoom discussion about Adam Hamilton's sermon that was offered to his congregation right after the George Floyd killing found HERE.

 

This sermon discusses our divided nation and what it's going to take to heal. We thought this would be a good topic for the week after the election. Consider watching the sermon, and if you're available, please join us for a discussion about healing our nation on Thursday, November 5, at 10am. Email the church office to get the zoom instructions sent to you for this session if you don't already have them. If there's enough interest, we could plan a second discussion in the evening.

Congratulations to all of you – as of Wednesday we received 2021 stewardship pledges totaling $261,800, exceeding the goal of $250,000. We give great thanks to God for the ministry your faithfulness will be able to provide. Going over our goal means we will be able to bring back in some things we have put on the back-burner, and introduce some new ministries for more folk to walk the path of being Christ’s followers with us, deepen our own walks, and reach out in a larger way to a world in need.

During 2020, the Church and Society team worked together to establish a mission statement that will guide our work in the years to come. The statement, "As followers of Christ, we listen, learn, and take action for social justice" , will serve as a reminder that in order to make a difference, we need to be willing to listen to others who are different from us and take time to educate ourselves about the social justice issues around the world. But it can't stop there. We need to use what we learn and work to make change happen. 

A mission that you can support from the safety of your home.

1.    Make home-made Christmas cards – Each year, the Casa delivers Christmas cards with candy bars to the detention center to be shared with those detained. It’s a way to let those held inside know that they aren’t forgotten. The greetings in the cards are limited to those in Chart 1 and you should sign the card generically using the list shown in Chart 2.

2. Make “Welcome to the USA” cards – The Casa gives each man and woman a welcome card when they’re released. Many keep these special cards forever – that’s how meaningful these cards are. The cards can be as simple as “Welcome to the USA!” or have a longer, encouraging message written, as well. Be creative; the brighter the card the better! Please be sure to write either US, USA, United States of America or the United States. Avoid “America” because there is a Central America, a South America and a North America. All languages are welcome. Spanish and English are used the most.

3. Become a Pen Pal - Write immigrants in detention, offering your friendship with someone who is isolated and cut off from their family, friends and community. You’ll be a reminder that they’re not alone, we see them, and care about them. This requires some training, but fortunately, it’s available online! https://casa-de-paz-cf11.thinkific.com/courses/casa-de-paz-volunteer-training.

The Online Silent Auction now open: Go to Silent Auction

Visit us on the web:  www.evergreenumc.org