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December
2009 Calendar
Click
here for the Current
Smyrna Calendar.
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Welcome Smyrna’s New Members
 On
Sunday, November 22, we took formally took in new members. Those who
have taken the steps to become formal members of Smyrna are: (Click
on thumbnail to see larger photo)
Renee Marshall, Molalla, OR.
Renee is a registered nurse and works at Hope Village. She likes animals
of all types and has lots of pets. Renee is Jeff Marshall’s sister.
Bill and Amy Morrison, Woodburn,
OR. Bill and Amy are students. They were both active as leaders at
Camp Adams this summer and are supporting our youth program. They enjoy
cooking, crafts, and the out doors.
Krissy Johnston, Hubbard, OR.
Krissy is a medical bill clerk/ greeter in Dr. Yoon’s office in
Portland. She is the mother of Lacy (13) and Madelyn (10) - two of the
stars of our children’s time. She enjoys reading and raising her
children.
Dave and Jean Akers, Vancouver,
WA. Jean is a landscape architect and planner. She works for the
Vancouver-Clarks Park Department developing municipal and regional
parks. She loves to garden and hike. She and Dave have two children, Ben
(29) who lives in Chicago, and Josie Gaeckle (26), married to Joe
Gaeckle, they live in Kansas City.
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Love INC
On November 8th, Bill Verheggen, the
executive director of Love INC (Love in the Name of Christ), shared with
our congregation the work that his organization does and invited each of
us to become volunteers. Smyrna is one of over 40 churches in Clackamas
County that is a member of Love INC.
We have joined with our surrounding
churches to provide a coordinated outreach to those in need. We are
contributing $100 a month and also want to contribute our time and
talent. If you have skills and time you can donate, please fill out an
enclosed talent survey and return it directly to Love Inc.
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Christmas Eve Service
Our Christmas Eve service will be at 9
p.m. on December 24th. The service will be a communion service and will
include special music as well as candle lighting service. We will all
hold individual candles as we sing Silent Night, celebrating the gift of
Jesus Christ— the light of the world. Communion will be by intinction—
the congregation will be invited to come forward and take communion by
dipping the bread into the juice.
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2009 Patriotic
Christmas for Our Troops
Thank You!
Thank you very much for supporting Bob and Shirley Pierce, from
Molalla, in the 2009 Patriotic Christmas, for Our Troops overseas, with
some much needed items and some monetary donations to help cover the
cost of shipping. A special thanks goes to Smyrna's Congregation, during
the October Children's Change Offering, for donating $320.68, so
Christmas boxes filled with requested and much needed items can be sent
to them. I am sure all of your contributions will help put a smile on a
soldier for Christmas.
Thanks for all of your generous contributions,
—Sandra J. Mahar
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Photography
As you may all know, by now,
photography is one of my hobbies, that I really do enjoy, and
especially love taking pictures of the Smyrna Congregation.
Thanks to Tom Daniels, for posting my photos for me, the 2004
- 2009 photos of the special events at and for Smyrna are
posted, in color, in the photo gallery, on Smyrna's website:
http://www.smyrna-ucc.org/Smyrna2009Photos.htm
Please take a look at them. You might see someone on there
you know.
—Sandra J. Mahar |
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Treasurer’s Report
Bal 09/30/09
$29,111.70
Receipts
6,992.26
Expenditures (20,104.29)
Bal 10/31/09 $15,999,67
— Irene Schriever
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Many of the names on the prayer list come from a list of people
that the Diaconate sends cards to every month. Some are get well
cards, others are simply “thinking of you” cards. If you know
anyone who should be on the prayer list in the Behold, please
let Jeannie or Elaine know. If they would enjoy receiving cards
let someone in the Diaconate know.
Healing and
better health:
DaNelda Strode; Caitlynne Schuebel; Mary Liechty; Josette Waitman;
Gabriel Perkins, nephew of Ernie and Ethel Henderson’s
granddaughter-in-law.
“Thinking of
you”:
Thinking of you: Ethel and Ernie Henderson, Jack Kieling, Frank
Peterson, Mickey Hester, Cheryl
Frank & Pat Peterson, Mickey
Hester, Eleanor Holbrook, Helen Kappler, Jack Kieling,
Orville & Dorothy Krebs, Jim & Susan Buffington, Cheryl Sano &
DaNelda Strode.
With Sympathy:
We send prayers of sympathy and support to Jack Kieling and
family on the loss of Willa Kieling, longtime member of Smyrna United
Church of Christ.
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Mission Statement
Smyrna United
Church of Christ is striving to be:
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A place of peace where we teach the word of God and the story of God’s
love. |
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A spiritual haven where we accept and care for all humanity in an
outreach of grace. |
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A lighthouse of God’s light, where worship, teaching, learning and
spiritual growth take place in community powered by thought and action. |
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A Christian people, working for God’s realm in ecumenical
harmony with other people of faith and conviction.
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Please let us know if you want to
be removed from the Behold!! mailing list.
You may also choose to view a very
colorful version at our church website,
www.smyrnaucc.org . If you would prefer it to
the printed edition, we can arrange that too. You will be
reminded each month when a new Behold!! is available.
Contact
smyrnaucc@canby.com
or
beholdemail@smyrnaucc.org
Announcements are available on our
website each week as well.
In order to avoid an interruption,
let us know if you have a change of address. |
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 Different
Gifts
Try as we might to get our children (and
ourselves?) to think about Christmas as a celebration of God’s love for
us, every year we find renewed emphasis upon gift giving. It may be that
the advertisers have won.
This year our Advent pot luck luncheon
will be on December 6th following church. In past years we have made
ornaments to decorate our tree in the Narthex and to take home. This
year we will focus on four different kinds of gifts:
| Rather than decorating the tree
with decorations, we will decorate it with hats, gloves, mittens,
and scarves. When Christmas season is over, we will donate the
various “gifts” to the homeless in Molalla and Canby. Please bring
your mittens, etc. on the 6th. |
| The Deacons are once again
sponsoring an Angel Tree. The tree will be up on the 6th and you
will have an opportunity to pick a child of someone who is
incarcerated to sponsor with a gift this Advent season. |
| We will be sponsoring a Christmas
party for boys and young men at the Kincaid Cottage at Maclaren
Youth Correctional Facility. There are 25 boys living at Kincaid and
our party will be on Monday, December 21st at 4 p.m.. There will be
a sign up sheet in the Narthex for people who would like to attend,
and a special offering will be taken during the potluck on the 6th
to buy the boys gifts. |
| We are also going to play a game
that will help us decide which organizations we want to support with
our gifts in the coming year. Everyone will be given a stack of
“Smyrna Decision Dollars” to spend on which budget bucket they want
to support. Dollars can be put into several different buckets or you
can vote by putting all of your bucks into one bucket. We will count
the dollars, and use the information to guide the development of our
budget. Examples of the buckets you will have the opportunity to
support include: youth programs, remodeling the kitchen, hand bells,
new media equipment, support for the Molalla and Canby centers, Camp
Adams and whatever other ideas you suggest. In the spirit of the
season, we will all have the opportunity to practice shopping with
someone else’s money. |
The best gifts are often free. This
advent season let’s also celebrate God’s love by being a little more
polite, a little more considerate of others, a little more generous, and
by smiling more. The smallest gesture can be a gift to a lonely person
over the holidays.
The peace of Christ be with you this
Advent season.
--Pastor Dave
DavidAkers@smyrnaucc.org
Christmas At Maclaren
We have the opportunity to celebrate
Christmas with the boys at the Kincaid cottage at the Maclaren Youth
Correctional Facility on Monday, December 21, from 4 to 7 p.m.. Food
will be provided. The boys are looking forward to visitors and a party.
In order to participate, your name must
be on the approved attendance list. A sign up sheet is in the narthex of
the church. You also must bring a driver’s license or other approved
state of Oregon identification. Visitors must be at least 18 years old.
Come and help some boys feel the love of
Christ at Christmas. A special offering will be taken on December 6th
during our Advent pot luck to provide gifts for the boys.
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WOMEN'S FELLOWSHIP BAZAAR
On November 20, Women’s Fellowship had a
wonderful auction during their annual Bazaar. Thank you to everyone for
contributing to it’s wonderful success. The hand-quilted, queen-sized
quilt brought $1500, raising the auction total to $3,641.50. The country
store made $77.50. Donations to Camperships were $1,880 and money from
the desert table, $241, is destined for Community Food Banks.
Youth Group selling baked goods
 Levonne, Pat, Elaine
and Mickey minding the Country Store
 Virginia , Josette, and
Amy browse before the auction.
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Children for Change
Update
For about 18 months our children have
been collecting change during the worship service. We started by
collecting change for a program called “Pennies for Peace” that is
dedicated to building elementary schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The response to our children’s offering was so strong that we have
continued the practice, collecting change for a variety of programs that
are working on making the world a better place.
So far we have contributed the
following: Pennies for Peace (schools) $694 Heifer International (world
hunger) $ 693 Clean water $ 529 Patriotic Christmas (gifts for soldiers)
$ 320
Our collections in November and December
will be split between the Molalla Service Center and the Canby Center.
Thanks for your generosity!
—Pastor
Dave—
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December Lectionary
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December 6
Malachi 3:1-4
Philippians 3:1-11
Luke 3:1-6
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December 13
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
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December 20
Micah 5:2-5
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-55 |
December 24
Luke 2:1-20 |
December 27 1
Samuel 2:18-20, 26
Colossians 3:12-17
Luke 2:41-52 |
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Smyrna Wednesday Night Youth Challenge
Fundraiser
Thanks to Chad Williams and his company,
we are proud to announce sweatshirts, t-shirts and draw-string bags for
sale. Simply go to www.acelineupathletics.com click on the Smyrna
thumbnail (it’s red) and start ordering. Chad has graciously waived
shipping if you don’t mind waiting until Sunday to receive your apparel.
A portion of the sales goes right back into making our WNYC program
strong!!!
 
—Carly Sether—
Excursions 4 All
Excursions 4 ALL
Nov. 8th — The hike at the Molalla River State Park was canceled
due to the bad weather. So, four Families and two Adults
went to the Silverton Palace to see the movie "Cloudy with
A Chance of Meatballs." It was a funny, family movie.
December—The date and excursion will be announced in the Church
Bulletin and during the Church Announcements before worship
services.
—Sandra J. Mahar
SandraMahar@smyrnaucc.org
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