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Honest Talk In The Church
(See "Honest Talk" articles for the latest thoughts from co-pastor, Jan.)
Children to Children Blankets
As part of our involvement of Armful of Love, the children of Spirit of Joy will be making blankets for the children of the four families we will be
buying gifts for this year. This will be the focus of children’s church during December.
The blankets
will be made of fleece. The children will cut the edges and tie them, which makes for a very special gift. It will also be
a special experience for the children of our congregation to do this for someone else. Thanks to Melonie Sebring for the idea
and being willing to work with them to get it done.
The blanket effort is another example of the way we teach our children what it means to be Christian in
today’s world. It is also why we take them with us when we work at Feed My Starving Children. Even as we tell them each
week in worship that God loves them, we want them to grow up learning from us that one of the ways they can show they love
God is to show love and compassion to others. They are never too young to learn that important truth.
Armful of Love
This is our opportunity to provide Christmas gifts
to four families in need whose names we received from the Community Action Council.
We have done this every year since SOJ was founded. When you sign-up, please take one name for whom you will buy a gift.
Please bring your wrapped gift by December 8th. Attach
a note with the name and type of gift, but make sure it can be removed without tearing the gift wrap.
Centering Prayer Ministry
There is a new Centering Prayer Ministry that meets twice a month on Mondays from 7:00—8:00.
It is open to anyone who wants to explore whether or not this is your call to ministry.
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Thanksgiving Pajama Drive
Our Thanskgiving Pajamas/Books drive for abused and abandoned teenagers here in Minnesota was
a great success. We collected 44 paris of pajamas and 33 books. Many of these kids have been abandoned, something most
of us find difficult to imagine actually happens. The books and pajamas seems like a small thing, but we believe the church is called to put its
faith into action. What better way to do that than helping young people who may feel like no one even knows they are alive.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this effort.
Green
Church Interview
What is the Green Church group? Spirit of Joy members who
have been meeting monthly to discuss ways we can learn how to become more energy conscious and efficient as individuals and
as a church.
What
are Green Church Challenges? These are specific things we have been asking Spirit of Joy members to do monthly to raise our
awareness of what we can do to be good stewards of the earth.
For November we have been taking orders
for special cloth grocery shopping bags that are unlike any we have seen in the stores. So far we have more than 160
orders. They cost the church $2, so we are asking for a donation of at least that and more so we can use the money to replace
old lights for more energy efficient ones around the church building.
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