Weekly Word | November 26, 2021 | Issue 17

Christmas Adopt-a-Family Angel Tree

The Christmas trees are bare right now but by this Sunday new angels will be available on the trees in the Narthex! Emmanuel’s Christmas tradition of adopting families in need continues—Emmanuel has adopted three families from Mountain View Elementary School. The angel tree tags will contain a toy item and two clothing items for each child, a clothing item for each parent, and a family gift. In addition, our quilters will provide a quilt for each family; and $250 from Thrivent Financial will be used to purchase Christmas dinner for each of the families. Gifts are due back by Monday, December 20.

Here is a photo of the gifts and food that we provided last year. Thank you for sharing the love of Jesus as we provide joy to these needy families in our area. Thank you for sharing the love of Jesus as we provide joy to these needy families in our area. If you have any questions, contact Jean Kiser at 928-777-8961.

The envelopes with the surveys were dropped off at the post office on Monday so you should be seeing them anytime! The Church in a Changing World Task Force’s survey is to learn more about our congregation’s thoughts on how to better serve members and our community. We want to keep church members connected with each other and provide meaningful worship options and opportunities to our neighbors as well.

The Fellowship Ministry Team meeting held last Wednesday led by council liaison Jim Rebholz was a great start, and this survey will give us even more information. The survey will come with an envelope addressed to the church so you can return it by mail, drop it by the office or in the offering plate or in the secure mailbox by the front door by Sunday, December 5.

Our next Interfaith Meal is on Friday, December 10, at 11:00am. We are holding only one meal in December due to Christmas Eve falling on our second meal date. We are serving 130 - 150 takeout meals at each event, so the more hands the merrier when it comes to cooking, packaging and making curbside deliveries! Over 30 people in our congregation have the food handler’s certification, so we know there are lots of folks qualified, but even if you don’t have one, you can help deliver food to cars. If you are able to help, please let the office know.

Pr. Adam Bissell is offering a Caregiver’s Support Group. Their next meeting is Thursday, December 2, at 11:00am in the nursery or Fellowship Hall, just check in the office when you arrive. Pr. Adam is also offering a Zoom alternative, in case it is difficult to get to the church. Call the church office to receive a Zoom invite via email.

Our Jubilate Handbell Choir will be playing a concert of special Christmas music at the Prescott Valley Library on Thursday, December 16 at 2:00pm! It’s wonderful that they are able to share the gift of music with our community.

We’re still looking for pictures!

The Website Task Force is working on a revamp of the church website! We need pictures of people doing church activities. If you are attending worship or Bible Study, playing handbells, meeting with the quilters, or helping with the interfaith meal…take a picture and send it to the church! If you have a smartphone you can usually upload it and send the pictures directly to the email address: emmanuelelca@gmail.com. We want to share with folks the personality and character of our church: giving, loving and learning!

The next season’s devotionals are in the narthex—make sure you drop by to pick one up! We have

Our Daily Bread

The Upper Room

and Christ in Our Home available.

We also have the ELCA World Hunger Advent Calendars available. There is a little window to open each day, with a prayer to share in the window.

Keep an eye out in January for updates about our postponed special youth event with St. Luke's!

We Want to Hear from You!

Just like we did in the monthly newsletter before the pandemic, if you have anything to contribute to our weekly newsletter, please send it in so we can share what's going on with each other! Email your submissions to Kimberly at ELCPVnews@gmail.com (or click on the email link, or simply reply to this email!) by Wednesday afternoon to be included in the Friday email.