Joy is the pulse beat of the heart of the message of Christmas and it resounds through His birth.
The news is good: I bring you good tidings. The joy is great: of great joy. The focus is you: there is born to you. The time is now: this day. And God is here: a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!” Therefore the Joy of the Lord is Our Strength!
The Advent and Christmas Season has arrived. We as a congregation have the privilege of saying Jesus, our Emmanuel has come to New Covenant in our many activities.
Our Wednesday evening, “Academic Pantry” has been a success. Sarah leads and directs the children. We have been blessed by the number of people that have come to help the children with their homework. It starts at 4.30 after school and lasts until 6.00 P.M. The children then have prayer followed by dinner. The kitchen crew prepare and serve dinner. We usually serve between 45 to 50 children and adults and the number continues to grow. “Bible Club” takes place after the meal and lasts until 7.00 P.M. The parents of the children usually help serve the meal and help clean up afterwards. Many of the children act as interpreters for their parents. Karen leads the group of younger children. Help is always needed to set up the tables on Sunday mornings for Wednesday evenings, just as there is a need to taking them down on Wednesday evening.
Our, “Fall Trunk or Treat” gathering was well attended and the children always love prizes they receive for participating in the games. Chris supplied the hot dogs and hamburgers. He and Ben also cooked the food. Hope and her daughters supplied the pop corn and the machine for making the pop corn. Many people helped in so many different ways. Thanks for your help.
The women of the church participated in a Fall retreat at the Linn’s home. Twenty Five women attended. The teaching, “From Light to Darkness” was well received. We are the bearers of his light to the world. The women meet the third Thursday of each month at the church at 7.00 P.M. It is a time of sharing and fellowship. We will also gather at Gail Luehrs home for a Christmas Gathering 2215 Silver Hill Road, Stone Mt On Thursday December 10 at 7.00 P.M. Try to be there.
Karen takes pictures at all of our gatherings. You can see them on the internet. Thanks Karen for all the work you participate in at the church as a deacon and for your work with the Dave Ramsey’s , “Financial Peace University.”
The youth have been meeting together to learn and work. They are led by Nancy, George, and Joseph. They recently held a spaghetti dinner and sold cookies to earn money for a, “Youth Ministry Trip” they will be making to North Carolina. They also received some generous donations from others who have helped with expenses. Some of them also helped with the work we did with, “Operation Christmas Child.” Each year Nancy, one our youth leaders works with the children and adults in the church to purchase and buy gifts that we pack in shoe boxes to ship to children all over the world. Sarah and many of the children who attend, :Academic Pantry” along with adults packed and wrapped the boxes. The children wrote notes to the children who will receive the shoe boxes; the notes were put in the boxes. We all enjoyed the pizza that was supplied for lunch. New Covenant donated 31 boxes.
The Sunday before Thanksgiving we celebrated and rejoiced as we broke ground for our new building. The rain did not keep us from carrying out the shoveling. Many brought shovels and all adults and children that did, broke the ground for the new building. We prayed together and Pastor Marty prayed to the North, South, East and West to bless the ground and to bring people. We are blessed to report that we have $433,000 already to begin and over $20,000 in pledges. It won’t be long now before the building process will begin. We give thanks especially to the children of Idlette Babcock who visited our church and presented us with a check for $41,000 that Idlette bequeathed to the church through her will. She was a woman of prayer and was an elder and teacher of the children. She is greatly missed! The new building will be a blessing to us as will the donations given by so many. In the evening we celebrated Thanksgiving. Everyone brought wonderful food and the building was packed out. We enjoyed an, “Ed Sullivan Variety Show” after the meal. Our young children performed well. Finn said nursery rhymes. Silas and Caleb played the key board and Selena played the flute. Poems were read. Pastor Marty and George entertained with song and comedy. What a great day it was. Thank you God.
During a church service we saw a film presentation by Pastor Marty, as Dark Vader entering the church and others from our church participated in the presentation. It was very funny. Church was different that day in the film. Kenneth was the director and producer of the film and Pastor Marty was Co-director.
Our pastors presented a series of sermons on people from the old Testament. Pastor Ann spoke on Esther. Pastor Marty wrote a skit on the book a group from the church participated in the play, it was different, it was kind of a western according to the hats but it told the story, indeed it was for, “Such a Time as This”. All the cast performed extremely well. It was funny and yet the truth was there.
Our worship team Eric, Felicia, and Wayne and usually someone to play drums bring the blessing of the Lord in our services. Pastor Marty helps with Wednesday nights and also does drama with, “Young Audiences” in schools. Pastor Jim teaches classes on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. We have been studying Romans and Ephesians. Its important to hear the word of God.
Pastor Ann has been one of our Pastors, a counselor, and teacher plus she is invited to minister in other churches. She has told us that she will be leaving the church staff in January. She will remain a member. She has participated in Cursillos that take place in Atlanta, and she is actively interested in the sex trafficking in Georgia and what is needed to see it ended. She was a teacher and counselor for Living Waters. when we had it at our church. She will continue to be actively involved in her work in the body of Christ and in spending time with, her husband Mort. We give thanks unto the Lord for her work among us and we are sure that in many ways, “She has only just begun”! God’s Peace will go with you Pastor Ann.!
We were happy to be a part of the baptism of Preston the grandson of the Tully’s daughter. It’s always good to see so many of the people who come back to the church for special occasions. Many are called to different places but we continue to work together in the body of Christ and we rejoice together whenever we have the opportunity.
We also rejoice with the Nash family on the release of their new book entitled, “Big Box Little Box” a book written so that our children might know who they are and what is their potential because of how God made them. We saw the introductory video and Kiersten, one of our young people, spoke the words of Little Box. We have copies of the series and all you will need to give children their “potential.” The cost is $18.00. The Nash family members are friends of this congregation and have been partners in prayer with us for many years.
As you can see, our Lord has done great things for us in 2009 . Join us on Christmas Eve , Thursday December 24th at 7.30 P.M for the service to celebrate His Birth! Oh Come All you Faithful.
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Let the New Year be a year of growing in love, service and prayer. Remember there is nothing too great for us to expect since we have so great a Savior and Lord!
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