First, let me say, “Thank You!” for your faithful giving in
2011. We finished the year well and were able to give 10% of
our balance for the year toward Second Mile giving for
apportionments. Apportionments, for those who don’t know, are
the monies we pay to the district, annual conference,
jurisdictional conference and general conference to support our
various ministries as a connected church. We are able to do much
more together than any single church could do alone. Here is
what our district superintendent had to say,

“Thanks also to those that made District Second Mile
contributions. Because these 18 churches were willing and able to contribute
to help the 2 churches in the district that fell short, we as a district were able to
continue our long tradition of 100% payment. I am sincerely grateful for your
pride and determination in seeing that our district paid out in full!”

Second, I am pleased to report that we have more than 25 signed up for
Financial Peace University. That is a great response for the first time it is
offered here. It has resulted in the Trustees making a decision to move more
quickly than they had planned to get a TV set up in the
Fellowship Hall for large events. We hope to wire our internal TV set
up to include this location as well as the Nursery so that we can have a
space for those occasions when we have an overflow in the sanctuary. I
say, “Thank you!” to those who have already made a special donation to
help pay for it. If you would like to make a special contribution, please
mark your gifts for “TV.”

Finally, I want to say a few more words about our “Will you be
my neighbor?” program. The first phase, the trial run, will launch the
week of Ash Wednesday, February 22, and run to Easter Sunday. Here
is what you need to know:

We hope most of the groups will meet in homes to make it
convenient for people to attend close to their own home, so we are
looking for some volunteers to host it.

Each group will need a designated leader which we are
calling the “facilitator,” so we are looking for these volunteers as well.
We will provide training for both hosts and facilitators.

We hope the groups will be intergenerational so that youth
and children can be a part of the same group with adults of all ages. I
am convinced we need this kind of interaction in order to grow healthy
Christians.

The trial run will last six weeks and we will have a suggested
plan for what each group will do so that initially we are all trying the
same things. Then at the end everyone will have a chance to evaluate
what we have done. In the second phase, each group will have more
flexibility to shape how often they meet and how they spend their time
so that the groups meet the needs of everyone. Of course we will still
have some common goals, but every group will not be identical.

If you have not had an opportunity to sign up
to be in a group at a worship service, please call
Tamara in the church office and add your name to the
list. We need to have all of our groups identified by
Sunday the 19th. Thanks for your help in making this
happen and please sign up sooner rather than later!

See you Sunday in the place where God is
renewing us daily!

Yours in Christ,
Bro. David (home: 940-683-1724)
[email protected]