December 23, 2021
This Week
Worship
December 24, 6:00 pm
Love Abides: Candlelight Christmas Eve Service
Rev. Joanna Fontaine Crawford
Join us Christmas Eve for a night of classic Christmas readings, carols, and candlelight.  Masks are required.


Sunday, December 26th
9:30am online only
Experience, Growth, and Hope
Congregation 
In this special all-online service, Live Oak members share their experiences of the pandemic and their hope for what lies ahead. 

Join us for Worship at 9:30am in person or online: the link will be on the Live Oak homepage: www.liveoakuu.org. The 11:30am service will not be live streamed.

Join us for Fellowship Time immediately following the service (approx. 10:15/10:30 or 12:15/12:30): https://link.liveoakuu.org/FellowshipHour

Share the Plate
Our December Share the Plate recipient is the Minister’s Discretionary Fund at Live Oak. This fund enables Rev. Joanna to respond to members facing an immediate hardship or others who seek help from our church. Rev. Joanna has used the fund to address such needs as travel expenses to a parent’s funeral, school tuition and Covid-related medical expenses.

Go to the Donate link on the Live Oak website’s home page. Use the drop down menu to designate your donation for “Share the Plate”. In addition to those designated donations, half of all undesignated gifts in December will go to the fund.
A Few Words from the Minister
Santa Claus and Our Larger Parish
A question that is often posed to churches to try and move them out of focusing only on their member-centered programs is “If your church closed down tomorrow, would anyone outside of the church even notice?” Read more


A Few Words from the DLFD
(Director of Lifespan Faith Development)
Faith Development 12.13 to 12.26.21
News for the remainder of December! Read more


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Special Notices
Year End Notice
The deadline for submitting reimbursements for 2021 expenses will be January 5th. Reimbursement forms and receipts should be submitted to Diane. Photos or scans for receipts are allowed.
Name Tags!
We need your name tags.
A few of us who attended the outdoor services took our name tags and just keep them to wear each week so we didn't have to going inside the church. We are going to update the tags at the end of the year and ask you to hang them in the Narthex (like olden times) so we have them to update now that we are meeting inside the building.

Nominations Deadline
It’s time to get in your nominations of organizations you’d like Live Oak to support with Share the Plate donations in 2022. The deadline is Dec. 31 for groups to be considered for StP through April. We will solicit nominations every four months next year. Recipients must be 501(c)(3) charities and will be chosen by the Social Justice Ministry Team. Send nominations with your name and contact information to Becky Gregory

IN SEARCH OF A PERSON!
As the Social Justice Ministry develops a Voting Rights initiative we have become greatly impressed with the important work of the League of Women Voters. If you are a member of the league please contact Wayne Gregory.

Ted Lasso Coming to Live Oak in January
Our January worship series will be drawing inspiration from the TV show on the Apple+ app, "Ted Lasso." You don't need to have seen the show to enjoy this series, but if you'd like to see it, but haven't budgeted for another streaming service, email minister@liveoakuu.org and ask for the "Ted Lasso Scholarship." If you're a Live Oak member, we'll get you all set up.

2022 Spring Campout April 8-10
Let's gather at Cedar Breaks Park on Lake Georgetown for our first church campout since fall of 2019!
All Live Oak members and friends are invited! Camp for the weekend or join us just for the day and the evening potluck on Saturday April 9. Our campouts are casual and unstructured, except for our traditional potluck supper on Saturday evening, hopefully followed by a campfire if there’s no burn ban. If you’re not a camper but want to be, or if it’s been a while since you’ve camped, join our camping facebook group and ask all your questions!

Make reservations here. Be aware that sites are filling up quickly, especially for the spring. Some of us already have lakefront sites reserved from #12 – 26 and maybe past that. If you have a national parks pass, you can use it at this Corps of Engineers park!

Feel free to contact me, Jen Swan, with any questions.
LiveOakUU.org Pages to Visit:
Worship Service & Fellowship Hour: http://www.liveoakuu.org/
Community Outreach & Social Justice: http://www.liveoakuu.org/justice/
The deadline for the weekly e-newsletter and the Sunday announcements is midnight on Tuesday. The submission form can be found here
If you have any questions or comments about this Newsletter please email: editor@liveoakuu.org