Merry Christmas! It’s a wonderful season for the church as we celebrate the most important moment in human history. It’s a time to be with family and friends to celebrate the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is moment where a miracle became a reality and we learned that nothing is impossible with God. It’s a story of the eternal promises of life, Jesus becoming a man with the ultimate sacrifice of death to pay for our sins through His resurrection, the fulfillment of prophecy and becoming our Messiah, our Savior, our hope in a hopeless world. The reason we celebrate Christmas, the miracle that changed the world. It’s for me, for you, for us, and the world. May your Christmas season be joyful!

We are cruising along with our weekly meetings. We are still studying the “Commandments of Jesus” in our weekly gatherings of both youth & GRADS. On Sunday mornings we will be finishing “Being God’s Champion” series and then will do the “Christmas Story” lessons throughout the remainder of December.

November was a very active month for us. Connie, Pastor David, Leann Hadley and myself all attended the General Assembly with speaker Jim Lyon, our General Director of the Church of God offering us inspiring messages and a reunion tour of the Michigan Singers providing the worship music. From there we went to the Michigan Student Leadership Institute (MSLI) in Battle Creek where Jessi Smith graduated from the program this year. She has completed 3 years of leadership training with focus on her Christian identity, disciplines of the Christian faith and reaching others for Christ. Upon her graduation she received a certificate, a serving towel and a letter of eligibility enabling her to claim a $1000 scholarship for each year she attends a Church of God university. Congratulations to Jessi on this accomplishment. Our group then worked at the Thanksgiving Basket project for the Midland County Food Network where we packaged over 600 bags of groceries for families in need of help for their Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a good month!

Although our numbers are small, we are doing well with our weekly lessons, our fundraising our service projects and taking advantage of the opportunities that the Michigan Church of God offers. Our Kutchey’s Poinsettia & Wreath sale went well and will be delivered on December 3rd. Services that the youth ministry provide, the sale of gift cards and the clothing apparel made many people happy with their purchases. We have a group going to Winter Retreat on the weekend of January 8-10, 2016 as we collaborate with the Meridian CHOG to travel to CranHill Camp. We will also have a small delegation registering for the International Youth Convention in San Antonio, Texas next summer. We will be having a Christmas Celebration event on Friday, December 11th. Plans are to include service, lights, dinner, presents, dessert and a movie. There will be NO Youth on the weekend of December 27th. Winter Retreat balances will be due on January 3rd. GRADS @ Grahams have not missed a Sunday as we study God’s word, eat, talk and do some hot tubbing!

The Guatemala Mission is in full force and looking for cheap airline tickets. This year we will be building two bedrooms and a bathroom for Sonja, the school’s English teacher. Her house was built a couple years ago and it was never actually completed, as it needed to be. The money we send every year is not actually enough to build an entire home for a family, however, it completes a major share of the blockhouses we work on. The 2nd team meeting will be on Sunday, December 6th, 2016 at 2:00 PM in the Mt. Haley Church of God Fellowship Hall for the spiritual preparation of the trip, which will happen March 5-12, 2016 this year. We have 17 team members attending this year and many preparations ahead. Thank you for your prayers.

Parents and church, your prayers, support and encouragement are greatly appreciated and we look forward every week to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our people through interaction, study, fellowship and relationship. Thank you for sharing your son or daughter and our congregation for holding the youth up in PRAYER.

Love God, Love People, Live It!

Blessings, Pastor Jerry

Leave a Reply