December 19th, 2018

Christmas Celebrations!

It is less than a week until the big day, and we have a lot of opportunities to celebrate together in the next few days.

On Sunday we will gather for worship at 9:30 am followed by Sunday School at 11:00 am as usual. We will continue our worship series on what made the first Christmas the best Christmas and what we can learn from it for this holiday season.

Later on Sunday evening, our choir will present their Christmas cantata beginning at 7:00 pm. This promises to be a great musical celebration of Jesus' birth!

On Monday, we are offering two opportunities to gather together for Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion services at 5 pm and 11 pm. The two services will be more or less the same and open to all, so feel free to come for the one that suits your schedule best. By offering services at two times, I hope that we can meet the needs of families with small children and those concerned about driving late at night with the 5:00 service as well as the needs of those who have afternoon family plans or who prefer singing in Christmas at midnight with 11:00 service. At both services, we will be offering our Christmas present to Jesus - an offering to support our church's mission work across the world and the local work of Mission Central, a clothing and medical supply closet, here in the Valley. I pray that our gift to Jesus will be a substantial one that will make a difference in our world!

I hope to see you as we celebrate Jesus' birth over the next few days. May God bless you and your family and friends in a mighty way! Merry Christmas!

Blessings on the journey, Jim

P.S. Since our office will be closed next week, there will be no newsletter. So I will go ahead and wish y'all an early "Happy New Year!"

Sunday's Sermon Snippet

The Best Christmas: The Deepest Joy (Luke 1:46-55)
What makes you happy? What bring you joy? Are these things different? These are questions we are going to explore alongside Mary. When Mary learned that she would be the mother to God's own son, she traveled to see her cousin Elizabeth, who was experiencing a miraculous pregnancy of her own. When Mary approached, Elizabeth's child jumped for joy in her womb, and the two women greeted one another in wonder and joy. Mary's joy overflowed so greatly that she burst into a song of joy. What brought Mary joy? First of all, Mary sang of how God saw her in her humble state and honored her. She is joyful for what God has done for her personally. This is what brings her joy. What she sings next, however, is a bit surprising. She begins to sing of how God has worked in the life of her people for millenia. God has shown mercy from generation to generation. God brings down the rich and powerful and raises up the lowly and oppressed. This is an odd thing for her to sing of with joy. It is not about her but about God's justice and mercy toward all people. This is what brings her joy. Lastly, she is singing throughout about how God has called her to be a part of this work of bringing mercy and justice into the world through Jesus. She is joyful to be a part of what God is doing. This is what brings her joy. Can you imagine such a deep joy as Mary had? Can you imagine being called to bring mercy and justice into the world? Can you imagine being lifted up from such a humble state to be an important part of God's plan? Can you imagine seeing God's amazing works and realizing you are a part of it? Well, of course we can, for we are all called to join Mary in this work. We are all called to bring justice and mercy into the world as we witness to the love of Jesus. May we find the kind of joy that Mary had in being a part of what God is doing! 

New Window Covers

The installation of new covers to protect our picture stained glass windows has been completed just in time for Christmas! The new covers are made of a safety glass similar to what is used in windshields, meaning that they are designed to stop a projectile from breaking through. Since they are glass, they will not yellow with age as the old plastic ones eventually did. This is important for preserving the color of the windows. With the new covers, our picture windows should be in good shape for roughly another 30 years. We still have one remaining phase of work to do on the stained glass windows. We will need to restore (take apart, clean, repair, and rebuild) the medallion windows in the "amen" section some time in the next seven to eight years, giving us time to focus on other maintenance issues. 
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We appreciate everyone's patience as this current phase was underway. The rainy summer and fall caused an unforeseen delay in the contractor's scheduling. We also appreciate everyone's generosity in making this and the other projects we have completed this year possible. In 2018, we also repaired our back stairs while including an accessible ramp into the fellowship hall and also repaired and repainted our parking lot. These three projects amount to almost $50,000 of improvements to our building this year alone! Good job, everyone, especially our Trustees and all who contributed to the cookbook fundraiser!

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Living in Community

Thank you, Davida, Sue, Jodie, Peggy, Norman, John, and Rad,
for your help packing away the Nativity scenes and costumes until next year!

Thank you, Mike and Lee, for picking up our poinsettias!
Thank you, Peggy, for arranging them in the sanctuary!

Thank you, Jean and Joe, for reading our Scripture
and lighting our Advent candles this week!

Please pray for our Bishop Sharma Lewis
who will be undergoing hip replacement surgery on Thursday.

This Week at Port Church

Wednesday, December 19
9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours
6:30 - Cantata Practice
Thursday, December 20
9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours
6:30 - Cantata Practice
Sunday, December 23
9:30 am - Worship: The Best Christmas - The Longest Night
11:00 am - Sunday School
7:00 pm - Christmas Cantata
Monday, December 24
5:00 & 11:00 pm - Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion Services
Tuesday, December 25
Merry Christmas!
Office closed until January 3
Sunday, December 30
9:30 am - Worship: Dinah will be preaching!
​11:00 am - Sunday School

Looking Ahead

Wednesday at the Port resumes January 16