Hi Church! 

I hope this finds you doing well as we start making our final preparations for the “home stretch” before Christmas Eve.  It is always a busy time, but may we all pause and take just a minute to specifically pray for those that are not excited.  Those that are not anticipating the fun.  Those that are alone, grieving, going through illness, or otherwise blue.  Pray they take a step forward and come here on Thursday night for the Blue Christmas service. 

And pray they leave here that night with an increased hope, a moment of joy, a desire to lean into the Light of Christ. 

Thank you to those that are helping with this service, but also those that are coming to support it, and to anyone that has shared this event with someone who may need it.  The service will not be live streamed due to the sensitivity of it, but we will be recording it to share individually. 

Other reminders:

Make sure you get your BBQ and baked goods at the Pack 503 Winter BBQ & Bake Sale!  This helps the scouts raise funds for future events.  This will be on Dec 20th from 11am - 3pm and in the newsletter you can find a QR code to scan and preorder. 

Christmas Eve Service - 5pm

Make sure you take your poinsettia if you purchased one after this service.  Otherwise you can pick it up on the following Sunday. 

Upcoming in January: 

Jan 11th - District rally for the Gastonia District of the Global Methodist Church at Central Methodist Church in Kings Mountain. 

Starting Jan 13th - Esther: An Unlikely Hero Women's Bible Study

Devotion This Week: 

Ooooh can you feel that anticipation as we are now one week away from Christmas Eve?  The excitement is growing! 

Or not!

As an adult we may look at the upcoming day of Christmas Eve without that huge excitement, without that anticipation of what is to come, that eagerness for the day to arrive. 

But think back to when your children were little, or if you do not have kids, remember what it was like when you were a kid.  Even though Christmas comes every year, as a child, we see that true excitement, that glow on their face, that twinkle in their eyes…the giddiness, the not really knowing what it was going to look like on Christmas morning - what presents would be under the tree - what would be in the stocking - would it actually snow this year…

The anticipation of Christmas as a child was almost as fun as the actual day itself.  As an adult we have lost some of that eager excitement.  That joy. 

Children are looking forward to the presents and fun - and that is wonderful.  But we should be looking forward to the joy that comes as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.  Every single year we should have that unending joy - the anticipation of reading the birth story of the Messiah. 

This year - bring back that joy you once had as a child.  Remember Christmas Eve represents the night Peace, Hope, Love and Joy was born.  The night Immanuel stepped out of eternity and into the world to walk among us. 

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with us.”  Matthew 1:22-23