Midweek: Wednesday, December 7th, 2022.

 

Midweek 12-7-22

Christmas Calendar of Events

• December 11: Madrigals come to FPC: sing at 10:30am service 
• December 11: Christmas Concert @ CCC, 3pm
• December 21: Service of Comfort & Peace, 7pm
• December 24: Christmas Eve service, 7pm
• December 25: Christmas Day service, 10:30am

In This Issue:       
    

•        Reminders & Music Notes                                
•          Advent Devotional
•           Lighting Candle for Advent
•          Summary of General Assembly Actions
•         Website! & Celebrations
•         Congregation. Meeting & Session Mtg. Reminder
•        Christmas Concert
•       Live and Learn on Saturdays
•      PPM Break & News
•      Christmas Song Rewrite 
•      The Christmas Attic, part 2: The Sound of Hope

“. . . that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Romans 1:12

    

Reminders: This Sunday the greeters will be the Brannons. There is still opportunity to bring a treat for December 11^th. Whether you’re here to greet or to share a treat, the real treat we enjoy is you! 

Music Notes: Presbyterian Ringers, Thursday at 6pm. Chancel choir, Thursday at 7pm. Flute ensemble, Sunday at noon. Madrigals will perform at the 10:30am service, Sunday December 11^th.

Advent Devotional:, There is an advent devotional we would like to share with you. If you have not received a copy and would like one, please contact Gretel in the office. Digital and paper copies available.

Candle Lighting for Advent: The following are the people currently signed up to light the Advent candles:    ~  December 11^th: Hutcheson family     ~   December 18^th: Amy Morrison   

                 ~ December 24^th: Piper family         

Thank you for your involvement, whether it is by helping light a candle or quietly worshipping in your heart.

Summary of General Assembly Actions: Copies of the General Assembly Actions are still available. Contact Gretel in the office if you would like a copy and have not received one.

Website! Our website is up and running! It looks great! Pastor Je and Neal have put in super work on this. You can find a calendar of events, Midweek newsletters, sermons – both written form and video form, and more. Hop on to the internet and check it out at www.lebanonfpc.org

“Congratulations to you! We celebrate with you! Know that we love you, and God loves you too!”   Happy birthday to: Gretel Magnuson, 12/12; Nancy Williams, 12/14. Happy Anniversary to: Craig & Casey Reynolds, 12/7; John & Arlene Quinn, 12/14.

Congregational Meeting: The Congregational Meeting to Elect the Elders to serve in the Session will be right after the worship service in the sanctuary on Sunday, December 18th. Session Meeting Dec.13^th.

Christmas Concert!  Christmas Concert Reception food is needed for our celebration reception after our joint concert with Central Christian Church on Sunday, December 11th at CCC. They

are providing fresh cider, water, coffee, decaf, and hot appetizers. We have been asked to provide 2 medium sized fresh fruit trays and 10 dz. homemade cookies, brownies, or bar cookies. Please let Jennie Woods know if you want to do some baking - nothing store-bought please - and just bring your goodies when you come to the concert. Thank you for helping our gracious hosts at

CCC. The program is on December 11^th , at Central Christian at 3pm. There is parking in the back with an elevator inside the back door for those who are mobility challenged.

Toy Drive! We are collecting for the Myrtle Bailey Boone County Toy Drive. Their greatest need is items for teens. Puzzles and games are always popular. They will bring gifts to over 800 children in Boone Co. There is a needs list on the big wrapped box in the entryway. The drive ends Sunday Dec. 18.

Live and Learn on Saturdays: Senior Exercise @ 10:30am with lunch following. Bible study/discussion with Pastor Je @ 12:30pm.

 

PPM Break & News: PPM will have winter break from December 19 through Jan. 2^nd. They will resume class on Tuesday, January 3^rd.

Happy December ! We have been busy getting ready for Christmas at PPM. We started off the month with an Amazing Christmas Program. A special THANK YOU to Neal Crouse for operating the sound for us and for all the work putting together the visuals for the screen; and to Jennie Woods who helped with narration and some great piano playing prior to the program.

I am attaching the link to Sunday's program.  https://youtu.be/ApDvoa9ncF0

This month I would like for you to pray for Miss Lanee Robinson in Pre-3 and Miss Tina Hawks in Pre-4 , the students in their classes and families. Miss L:anee is a first year teacher and she is going to school full time at Saint Mary of the Woods.. She will finish her degree in May for Preschool- 3rd grade education. Miss Tina has been at PPM for 16 years . Miss Tina likes to travel with her husband, and spend time with her 3 children and new son-in-law. We are so blessed to have these wonderful ladies on staff at PPM. 

We are also so blessed to welcome Melissa Page and Jordyn Pierce to the PPM staff starting this month . Melissa will help cover Miss Brooke's class when she steps down for maternity leave. Jordyn is working with Miss Lori Glauber and will take the Pre-2 class. 

On behalf of the PPM Staff and Board, we wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year ,

Christmas Song Rewrite: Sing to the tune of “Up On the Housetop”

Out in the playroom are happy sounds, whoops and hollers and clatter abound.

Selling ice cream or riding a trike, sliding or singing or maybe flying a kite.

O O O! There the cuties go! O O O! Off to class they go.

Hold these little ones in your heart – their adventures in life are just at the start.

First in the day is the teacher’s cup, filled with coffee – fill ‘er up!

In her day she’ll hear laughs and cries and probably at least one unexpected surprise.

But O O O! She loves them so. O O O! Don’t you know –

How much she loves these little ones! Just as Jesus loves every one. 

The Christmas Attic, part 2: The Sound of Hope

Have you ever felt forgotten, discarded, overlooked? Have you questioned if hope can be found? Has joy ever felt just beyond your reach? Have peace and promise looked like fairy tales? Last week we met a rag doll. This week in the attic we will meet a messenger of hope.

Then from a corner of the attic a gentle breeze did blow,

It ruffled the mane of the rocking horse, wiggled the rag doll’s drooping bow. 

The shutters of the tin dollhouse banged against its walls,

Old Teddy yawned and opened his eyes: Who or what had come to call?

From the corner of the attic, atop shelves once used for books

But now with boots and boats and balls and a box of Christmas tree hooks,

Old ball caps and Grandma’s taps, stacks of quilts, skeins of yarn,

Christmas lights with burned out bulbs, wooden walls to a child’s red barn.

From atop the shelves a voice was heard reaching every attic spot.

Sweet and melodious as a song bird but a song bird she was not.

She was an angel with wings as white as air,

A halo gold and shiny, draping robe, flowing hair.

The breeze came from her wings as she shook off the dust

She had gathered in her corner. “Are we discarded, the lot of us?

 Are we forgotten? Perhaps for a brief time, but not for all, my friends.

What exists for us now is the question, so let us seek that end.

‘Tis a time and a season, yes? Oh don’t I know that well.

For I did not always call this home, this corner in which I’ve come to dwell.

There was a once upon a time when I graced their Christmas tree.

No tree was really ready until they placed on top: me.

They ooo-ed and ahh-ed and sighed as they gazed upon my wings,

My halo, my robe, and how I completed things.

But then came the year another gift took my place.

A star magnificent, breathtaking, suddenly filled my space.

Off the tree and to the attic I was taken that year.

The next year Christmas came and went and I remained right here.

I was resentful. I was bitter. I was broken. I was hurt.

Did they not see my value? Did they not see my worth?

On Christmas Eve the following year a child came to call,

Looking for some lost item, what now I can’t recall.

What I do remember is what happened next:

When they left the attic, they left the door unlatched:

It creaked open a crack, enough for me to hear

The sound of peace I now treasure all and every year.

It’s the same sound as joy, as hope, as love.

I share it now with you, my friends, with my love.

I am an angel giv’n to remind them of the One –

The One who came to bring them hope and a victory won.

Victory over sorrow, over pain and over woe,

Victory over the heartache that every lost thing knows.

They sang of that peace that night, they sang song after song;

And I thought on the story all night long.

A light shone in the darkness, bright as can be.

Those that were discarded were the first visitors to see.

Surprising and unexpected and yet so full of hope,

The gift they saw still inspires awe, He is the knot at the end of our rope.

So hang on, my friends, hang on to light’s sweet song.

Hang on to the powerful hope that lasts all night long.

Dusty? Worn and tattered? Limp, naught but a rag?

Your inside fluff has lost its stuff? Your bow’s begun to sag?

There is life when all seems lost. There is light when all looks dark.

There is more to us than meets the eye, hope when your future appears stark.”

How did the attic friends react to the angel’s message? Why is it called a “Christmas” attic? Stay tuned for the next installment to find out more about The Christmas Attic. Friends, is there a character in this story that you can relate to? Old Teddy? The ragdoll? The angel? Have you ever felt relegated to “attic space”? The message from the angel rings true for us today: there is light in the darkness, hope when all seems lost. Those aren’t just words we read on greeting cards this time of year. They aren’t meant to live only in the music we sing at Christmas Eve services. Those words are meant to live in our hearts all year long. Jesus came as a babe, lived humbly among us, walked the earth and felt the pangs we feel, so he could die a death he did not deserve but we did, so we could be forgiven, redeemed, restored, renewed, and live with Him in eternal hope, knowing Shalom with the Father forever more. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” (Isaiah 9:2, ESV) Hallelujah!                                                                            

Interested in joining the prayer chain? Contact Phyllis Duff at (765)482-1485/ raduff2@att.net. Prayer based on “Silent Night, Holy Night!” by Joseph Mohr.

Dear Heavenly Father, We look upon a silent night, a holy night. All is calm, all is bright. ‘Round yon virgin mother and child! Holy Infant, so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace. On this silent night, holy night, shepherds quake at the sight, glories stream from heaven afar, heavenly hosts sing “Alleluia: Christ the Savior is born; Christ the Savior is born!” May we rejoice today as the heavenly host did that night. May we listen today as attentively as those shepherds did that night. May the heavenly peace the infant Jesus brought that night live in our hearts forever more. Amen.