I never cease to be blown away by the generosity of our church. Over the past couple of weeks, we've had two families in our church have significant house fires. This past Sunday we put out a special offering to try to help them get back on their feet. Would you believe that on one Sunday we raised just under $8,000 to support those families. What an incredible expression of generosity and love! I am so grateful to be a part of a church family that takes care of one another in our times of need.
And speaking of generosity, you may recall that a couple of months ago we did a series on generosity. At the time we talked about how coming out of Covid we had begun to fall behind financially as a ministry. Since then we have taken great strides to get back on track financially. You may recall that our weekly goal in order to fully fund our ministry is around $15,000 a week. Coming into the fall we had fallen quite a ways behind that over the course of the year. But I'm excited to say that almost every week since then we have exceeded our weekly need. I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone for your extraordinary generosity. Your sacrificial giving is making a big difference in the work of our church.
On top of all that, the response to this year's giving tree has been amazing. At all locations virtually all the gift tags have been claimed and together we are going to be able to bless hundreds of children with a joyful christmas. Thank you so much for sharing in this important work. Don't forget that Giving Tree gifts should be returned this Sunday so we have time to get them organized and distributed to the families.
As we get closer to the celebration of Christmas I want to be sure everyone knows what our schedule is for Christmas weekend. On Christmas Eve we will have four services over three locations. In Sandown and North Shore we will have 4:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Candlelight services. In Plaistow we will offer services at 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. Each of these will be beautiful joyful celebrations of the birth of the Christ child. Christmas Day this year falls on a Sunday. Because we will be together on Christmas eve, we are not going to hold in person services on Christmas day. But we are preparing a very special online service. That online worship will be offered every hour, on the hour, beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Christmas day. I certainly hope you and your family will take the time to join us online for that special Christmas day service.
Have a blessed week. I look forward to us all being together this Sunday as we continue our series “Home for Christmas.”
I love you all.
Pastor Steve