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December Newsletter
Beloved Friends, Christmastide is here! As a boy growing up I remember the Salvation Army Bell Ringers. They faithfully stood outside in the elements to ring their bells and collect money for those who had special needs at Christmas. One ringer I will always remember used to have a small sign by his bell that read, “The Reason for the Season. Ask me!” I did! “Young man,” he said, “the Reason for the Season is that we celebrate the greatest gift we might ever receive, the birth of Jesus Christ. What better way to say thank you to God than to share freely with others not so fortunate?” He was a very wise man who spoke simple words of Truth. God's great gift to us is Jesus the Christ, a man who grew into his full divine potential and came to proclaim the divinity of all humankind. Our great gift to God this season is to share this Truth and give freely from the abundant blessings we have received. It is important to remember that every day can be a Christmas celebration, rediscovering the joy of Christ in you. Search your heart this Christmas. Rediscover the joy of Christ in you. Give freely of yourself and you will know the true Reason for the Season. Your reward will be treasure in heaven, and abundant happiness and lasting peace in your life! If Every Day Were Christmas If every day were Christmas, how different life would be, In Christ Love, MARK'S MUSINGS The Holiday season is upon us! Usually I am planning our gift giving, but this year we have decided to spend less for Christmas than in the past. It is part of our latest theme of order, organizing what we have. It also helps us to use what we have and appreciate what has already been provided for us. BOARD TALK The Board voted sent our November tithe to Interfaith Caring Ministries. We also voted to award a bonus to Rev. Steve in appreciation for his effective work with our church. The Teams are doing well. The Development Team and Marketing Team have merged into one team. Their current project of providing a Christmas tree angel for each $100 donated to the Building Fund is underway. The Special Events team will provide extra refreshments after church on December 26th and sponsor the New Year’s Eve Party. The Outreach Team’s Christmas Project will be Interfaith Caring Ministries. See the insert for ICM’s Wish List. Donation deadline is December 12th. Any donations after that date will be distributed to other charities. Dianna Marion and Sara Thompson will offer a six-week class based on the book The Artist’s Way. The Wednesday classes will begin on January 12th and continue through February 16, 2005. Tuition is $35 and text may be purchased in the church book store. All of our coupon books have been sold, resulting in $1125 profit. This amount, plus $151.38 from the Anniversary Luncheon, provides a total of $1276.38 added to the Building Fund in October. The updated Church Directory is nearing completion. YOUTH ED During this holiday time, I feel so blessed by God, all the beautiful people in my life, and the unlimited opportunities available to each of us, especially our children. I am gratefully reminded that it is the indwelling Christ Spirit within each of us that unites us as one family - God's children. Differences in language, culture, geography, living conditions, and appearances dissolve in the instance of a loving embrace with one another or even a smile offered with eyes of love. I had the wonderful opportunity of delivering the pillowcases that our youth decorated to our younger brothers and sisters in Honduras, on the island of Roatan. These gifts of love provided great inspiration for these children to decorate more pillowcases for themselves and each other. They loved all the wishes in their language. It provided an immediate connection as one family (probably much better than my attempts at Spanish, which provided some amusement!). We delivered and built 20 bunk beds for children who had previously slept on the ground or floor, complete with hospital grade vinyl covered mattresses, a set of sheets and a pillow. This project was organized by SOFTLY International for their program A Bed For Every Child, with a group from Unity of Fairfax, VA, and other volunteers. Despite the appearance of severe poverty by our standards, these families possess a very rich spirit of faith, hope and love. It was a great honor to be invited into their homes and lives. During a blessing by a local Pastor, he expanded on an idea that is very important to me. I may not have understood everything he said in Spanish, yet this profound and simple truth was very clear: It is true that our children are our future. However, they are not only our future, they are our present. I pray that we take this message to heart, live it and demonstrate it every day. Mostly because it's not what we do that is as important as how we do it. Youthful Blessings, JOSEPH AND THE COAT OF MANY COLORS A special video presentation from our YOU and Uniteens SUNDAYS IN DECEMBER December 12th – Abide in My Love! Have You Had A Prosperous Year? Giving is a way to express our greatest blessings, as well as our values. It demonstrates the principle of flow in our lives because we know that as we give, we also receive. Jesus taught again and again that as we sow, we also reap. Each gift supports the work of this ministry, sharing the positive message of God's unconditional love. Our church is funded solely through the generous giving of each of you, and we are grateful. So at this year’s end, as you are counting your blessings and looking for a place to share them, I invite you to consider our church. The seed you plant today will bloom into an abundant harvest! Blessings, THE ANGEL TREE This year our goal is to fill our Angel Tree with lace Angels during the Christmas season. We are adding an Angel to the tree for every $100 that is donated to the Building Fund. Whatever the size of your financial gift, each will become a part of our goal to increase our Building Fund and fill our tree with Angels. What a wonderful way to plant a seed for the New Year or to lovingly remember and honor a loved one! Our goal is to place 150 Angels on our tree. We will publish a list of all of our Angel contributors in our January newsletter. We thank God in advance for the abundance that is flowing to our church now! Christmastide at Unity Church of the Bay Area 1st Sunday of Advent 2nd Sunday of Advent 3rd Sunday of Advent 4th Sunday of Advent Friday, December 24th December 26th December 31st January 2, 2005 OUTREACH TEAM NEWS Our Christmas Project this year will be partnering with Interfaith Caring Ministries. Their Christmas Store helps those in need with gifts and presents. We will be collecting items for them in the Gathering Room at the Critter Corral. We will be taking our gifts to them on Sunday, December 12th. All gifts received at the Corral after that date will be distributed to other charities in the area. Please open your hearts and share the Good News of Hope with those in need this Christmas. CIRCLE OF HEARTS November brought “The Power of the Word,” Microsoft Office Word that is, to our Circle of Hearts group. We had a group of seven converge on Clear Lake Intermediate School’s library for fun with graphics in Microsoft Word. Everyone played with Christmas graphics, borders and formatted text to create lovely letters and cards for Christmas. This session was led by ‘yours truly.’ I had so much fun, that I would love to lead another computer night for us in the coming year. Circle of Hearts will not meet again until after the New Year. December seems to be a month with more going on than we can squeeze in, so it was decided at November’s meeting that we would bless ourselves by not meeting in December. That gives us ladies one more Thursday night to shop before Christmas or maybe a little more time for meditation! I wonder what next year will bring for Circle of Hearts. There are so many talented, wise and wonderful people in our church community; think about what you can bring to the group in the coming year. Please call Sue Witt at 281-474-7187 with suggestions and/or offers to lead a session. The Heart’s Intention: Manifesting through Grace A Workshop presented by the Reverend Mark Pope We gather to awaken the Heart Center and discover our Heart*s Intention. The awakening of the Heart Center is the experience of Grace and results in profound shifts in consciousness, giving us greater access to Compassion, Innate Harmony, The Healing Presence, and Unconditional Love. Through this awakening we open to the dissolution of the forms and structures (inner and outer) that may no longer serve us, thereby creating an opening for the Grace that Seeks Us! This Grace seeks to manifest as unspeakable wonderment, sacred awe, and the soul*s fulfillment. NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY! Join the party as we celebrate the arrival of 2005 on Eastern Standard Time. That is 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Texas time! Bring a snack or dessert to share and come join in! COMING IN JANUARY! BEGIN THE NEW YEAR WITH THE ARTIST IN YOU! Communicate and celebrate with your own inner artist through Julia Cameron's book, The Artist’s Way. Led by our own teacher-artist, Dianna Marion and featuring art activities, play and additional experiments! NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! Beginning January 12th, 2005 Six Wednesday Night Sessions 7 pm to 9 pm $35.00 Tuition It’s coming…Keys to the Kingdom! COMING IN FEBRUARY! Sunday, February 20, 2005: Marienne Kreitlow and Jerry Ford will be with us for a very special Sunday Service TREASURER’S REPORT OCTOBER 2004 10/01/04 to10/31/04 Weekly Goal - $ 3923.00 Building Fund Income - $ 380.00 Total Income - $19,560.30 Expenses and Tithe - $17,832.41 Net Income - $ 1,410.60
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