Reminder

We will be meeting at McDonald's Funeral Home for the last time this Sunday. Beginning January 7, 2018 we will be meeting at the VFW. Same time.....different location....NEXT SUNDAY....not this Sunday. Please let anyone know that may not be on the blog.

Hope to see you there.

Immediate prayer need

From Trish Earhart:

Trish's father suffered a massive stroke yesterday morning. His name is Joseph Tako. Please remember him and his family in your prayers. We'll update when we can.

From Family Promise

State of the Program Merry Christmas!  As we come upon this glorious season, I look around at all the gifts we are blessed to give our families this year.  From families learning money management skills to families graduating into sustainable independence. The most wonderful gift is watching the children of our program flourish in the stability their families have found in and after our program. This year, we started our "From Your Family to Our Family" fundraising campaign.  It is a great time to aid in our mission of empowering families toward sustainable independence.  Because of your support, parents in our program will be able to go to work and continue saving toward graduation. Your donations provided tuition for day care and full-day camp at the YMCA for all the school age children in our program. Wondering just how your donation can help?  A donation as small as $60 provides a week of after school care to allow a  parent to work full time. $30 provides fuel to get to work. Click here to see other ways you can help. Kids Get Involved Recently, a few children, most about 8 years old, asked what they could give to our families.  WOW!  At such a young age, these children already have a heart for serving others. Building that within a child can be very easy.  One simple idea for engaging children or youth in giving might be to hang a Christmas stocking and have a family challenge to fill it with change to use to donate.  Another would be to wrap a gift with money in it and having them decide how they would like to use it to help someone they don't already know.  Of course, there are many other ideas, and we would love for you to share them with us. While we do hope you will remember us in your holiday and year-end giving, we also want to say thank you for your support each and everyday.  If you are interested in getting more involved with Family Promise of Forsyth County in 2018, we welcome you to join us for one of our upcoming Volunteer Orientations.  Whether you are affiliated with one of our host or support churches or not, you can volunteer in a wide variety of ways such as working directly with our families or serving on a committee.  We hope you will join us in empowering many more families toward sustainable independence in the new year! Finally, on behalf of our staff, board and especially our families, I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May God Bless You, Tina   Donate Now

From Jay and Diane Beeman

Jay & Diane Beeman

To all of you who have been an encouragement to us on our journey this year to minister in East Africa, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. May God richly bless you in your continued worship and service to Jesus our Messiah. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,     in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great     to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.                                           - Micah 5:4-5 Save the Date We would like to invite you to a prayer and sendoff event on our behalf, scheduled for Sunday January 7th at 6:30 PM at West Side Christian Church (room: The Hub) in Springfield, IL.

Cookie Drive Update

Praise God, we just got home safely. Needless to say it's bad out there. We will have to cancel the cookie drive until further notice. Schedule conflicts may warrant an after Christmas surprise.

So sorry if any of you had already baked your goodies, but you can always bring them to church on Sunday. 😋 OR freeze it if need be.

Please make sure everyone you know has been notified. We're trying to cover every avenue of communication we can think of. Hopefully we'll see you Sunday.

Jan

Reminder and some new info

CHRISTMAS COOKIE DRIVE is this Saturday, December 9, 2017 - We will meet at Judy's office at First Baptist Church at 10:00 am. If you can, please provide enough cookies/candies/bars to feed 13 fire stations. We will load up the trays of goodies and then deliver the platters to the various fire stations here in Forsyth County. If you want to provide the treats, but can't make it to the workday on the 9th, please let one of our leaders know so other arrangements can be made to obtain your baked goods.

Also, Christ The King Lutheran Church (beside the old FCC is having their annual cookie sale this Saturday starting at 9:00 am. How convenient is that?

See you all on Saturday.

From Pioneer Bible Translators: Jay and Diane Beeman

Jay & Diane Beeman

Thanksgiving Having just wrapped up the Thanksgiving holiday we are reflecting on the many things for which we praise God. Our family was able to come together Thanksgiving week and spend some time fellowshipping, taking family photos and catching up. We are thankful that our daughter and son-in-law could come home from their field of service for a couple of months. We are thankful that our son and daughter-in-law were able to host our time together in Joplin and Branson, MO. God is continuing to bless our time in Dallas. Our classes with Johnson University are finishing up this week and on Friday the 8th we make our final presentation to PBT, where we lay out our future ministry plans. Many of you showered us with loving support at the passing of Diane’s mother on November 7th. To all who attended her funeral, sent cards, letters and emails, fixed meals, and contributed to her memorial we are deeply grateful. Here’s what our remaining days in the States look like Tuesday, December 12 – Leave Dallas (Packing our car with all the warm weather we can) Wednesday, December 13 – Arrive in Springfield, IL. We will be spending the next three weeks packing, buying last-minute supplies, spending time with family, and saying good-byes. Tuesday, January 9 – Depart Chicago O’Hare Airport for Tanzania We appreciate your prayers as we prepare and count down the days until we leave for Africa. "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you." Philippians 1:3 For those of you who collected the desiccant packets (silica gel) and you need to mail them to us, please forward them to our Springfield, IL address. Thanks a bunch. Jay & Diane Beeman PO Box 7531 Springfield, IL 62791-7531 Any correspondence should be sent to the address above from now through January 2018.