Dear Friends and Members of the Ark and Dove Community,

The Season of Advent is drawing to a close with this Sunday being the fourth and final Sunday. We will light the fourth Advent Candle and our children will present a Pageant as our sermon at the 10:30 in-person/livestream service. As we could not have a Pageant last year, I find myself looking forward to our children leading worship.  I know they have been working hard to bring us a Christmas message.  Our 9:00 in-person only service will have a traditional sermon. Carols and Christmas music will be at both Sunday services. Yeah, you can come to both if you want.

The purpose of the Advent Season is to ready our hearts for Christmas, God coming to be with us. Part of our Advent discipline is make room in our headspace for the needs of others, particularly people who face economic challenges. Each year we partner with the Department of Social Service in the program called Holiday sharing.  We asked for families to sign up to buy presents for almost 70 children and every slot was filled. Thank you. This is the Sunday that we bring our presents to church so they can be delivered.

In terms of other giving possibilities, we have added an option on our web page to make donations to the people who suffered devastation from last week's very powerful tornadoes in the Midwest. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is already at work. There is also our annual Christmas Joy Offering. 50% of Christmas Joy Offering will go to help resettle Afghan families in our country. 25% will go to Presbyterian related schools and colleges equipping communities of color. 25% will go to retired and current Presbyterian church workers who need emergency assistance grants because of hardships.

Advent, or Christmastime as it is called in the culture, can be overwhelming, a bit of a whirlwind, always a rush.  Just this past week I was driving with my granddaughter in the evening and we were looking at all the Christmas lights. One house and yard was brightly filled with lights and snowmen, Santas and elves, icicles and snowflakes, like no other.  It was quite the display. I pulled over and we just looked quietly for a minute.  It was in that minute we realized they had a creche at the center of it all. Sometimes we just have to pause and remember that Christ is at the center.

Peace,

Dear Friends and Members of Ark and Dove,

Ready or not, this Sunday we celebrate Christmas. Not officially, of course, we will be (as your bulletin will tell you in bold and capital letters) on the fourth Sunday of Advent. The church calendar keeps us there so we can do some more preparation, ensure our hopes are acknowledged and aligned. And yet, we can hardly contain the anticipation--at least that of children.

Our children, we might say, have been in Christmas before Advent. Many of them have been preparing since November for a pageant that will surely take you one step closer to joy (in the words of Pastor Tim). November to December is not a long time to practice, but these children, under the direction of Abbey Boudreau and Christina Nelson, have a few surprises in store for you. God, as we have learned from our Advent devotional, is full of surprises and children are God's best ambassadors.

For that reason, I am still looking for a few more children to be in our nativity scene at the 5 pm Christmas Eve service. There is no acting, only dress up. This service will be mostly carols and about 30 minutes in length. We are assuming we will be outside (only inside if rain), so I hope that we can all enjoy congregational caroling in the safest manner. Also, make sure to bring a flashlight.

Advent (or Christmas) peace,

While we have not all walked the distance of Joseph and Mary, O God, all of us are on the long walk of faith. As we step further towards Bethlehem, toward an expected destination, grant us the strength of hope. Give us the endurance of faith, that we too might arrive on Christmas day with a most precious gift that we treasure in our hearts. Amen.

PRAYERS OF HEALING AND SUPPORT for Mike and Charlotte Davie's friend, Dave Page; Frank Stillwell; Mary Caolo; David Johns; Carrie Dodson's friend Pan; Lou Kareha's brother-in-law, Gerry Golden, cousin, Thomas Kochis, and friend, Nando Smacci; Ryan Stavely's uncle, Jeff Gouldman; Louise Sharrocks; Angela Goska; Belinda Edwards; Karen Stokes; Ezra; Sarah and Bojan; Betty Small; a friend of Bob Fuller; the Unger family; Debbie and Bruce Arey's niece, Sarah; Calvin Latham; Brianna Lapp; Anne Hirschy's relative Isaiah and cousin Gordon; Diane Makar; Gabriele Mecca; Charlotte Davie; Hiley Green; Adell Gaurin; Dotty Kaufman; Carol Saylor; Ray Bussey's mother, Doris; Liz Olson; Margaret Floyd; Vaughn Brown; Patty and Steve Plander; Arlyce Lohr; Krista Klohr; Michelle Schoonmaker; Dick Paronto; Cheryl Walcutt’s sister Judy and mother; Christy Hipchen’s nephew and grandmother, Ann Chubon; Amy Hagemann’s sister, Susan Pratt; Mary Benson’s sister; Amy Carskadon Lifsey’s father-in-law, Bill Lifsey Sr.; Karen Dodson’s cousin, Miles, and Miles’ family; Tricia Gray’s grandfather, Paul Naggard; Helen Wilkens' mother, Jane Reinert; Christina Nelson’s grandmother, Patricia Dole; Judy Cooper’s daughter, Jessica Quigley; Paul Doughty’s mother, Ruth Doughty; Debbie Saylor’s sister, Christine; a member of the Tardiff family; Dionne Whitby's niece, Jannah; Dotty Kaufman’s daughter-in-law, Carol, granddaughter, Sarah, and grandson Nathan; Kathy Miller’s sister, Beth Krauth, and brother-in-law, Jeff Miller; Lewis Shorter and Lewis Shorter’s niece, Jennifer Schwandt-Gayle; Dot Forloine’s granddaughter Melisa Tucker Saatthoff, and her great-grandson Luke; Debbie Arey’s sister, Denise; Debbie and Bruce Arey’s daughter, Allison; Linda Taylor’s mother, Izola; Amy Goldberg’s grandmother, Ruth Cooper; Christy Yeager’s mother, Linda Jordan; Linda Jordan’s niece, Bonnie; Diane Johnson's Uncle Ed, Aunt Janet, and cousin Richard; Shelley Franklin's father; Amanda Wehage’s father, Dave, and sister; Laurie Barrow’s nephew, Gunther Kurtz; Sabonna Keeney’s mother; Bernabe and Griselda Solano, and Griselda's sister, Irma; Laura Doughty’s brother-in-law, Carl Hahn; Laura Willoughby's father, Norman; Ann Hirschy’s aunt, Cindy, and brother; Cheryl and Doug Walcutt’s grandchild, Gray Adacutt; Erika Sealing's grandmother, Margaret Schade; Lourdes Cordero's brother Jose, granddaughter, and friends, Fred and Arelene Jones; Linda Lewis’ friend, Carol Fudge; and Rob Yeager’s friends, Greta Daughtrey and Peter Brown.