The Good News ~ December 2019

Mission Project for Christmas

This year’s Mission Project for Christmas through the Outreach and Diaconate boards is Reverse Advent Calendar. So instead of opening a window or a box on an Advent Calendar we are asking you to fill a box with items that our Food Pantry desperately is in need of for the winter months. The first three months of 2019 saw a total of 4,284, 3,780, and 3,444 meals served.

You may ask what the Reverse Advent Calendar is, well it is a list of items that the Food Pantry gives out every week to the clients. We will give you a box and a list on Sunday, November 24th at the service. All items on the list may be purchased at the Dollar Store or the Dollar Tree for less than $25. This is a great way for our church to help those in need during the cold winter months.

Once you have filled your box on the 24th of December, we ask that you bring it back to church either on Christmas Eve service or the Sunday after. We would love to fill the front of the Christmas tree with boxes. Also, if you have any left-over Christmas wrap- ping paper that you would like to donate to decorate the boxes please let Sylvia or Dawn know. Let’s fill those boxes.

Thank you,

Outreach and Diaconate boards.

Holiday Food Drives

The Outreach Committee would like to shout out a BIG THANK YOU to the Conway Elementary School for all the many items they donated on November 15’th from their Food Drive. The kids dropped off 1,067 pounds of food!

The pantry would also like to express our appreciation to all the volunteers who helped put away 60 turkeys from the NH Food Bank. And, a big thank you to the gang that helped put away all the food donations and all those turkeys!

A special thank you to Children Unlimited for their donations on Monday, November 25th. Two little munchkins maneuvered a very heavy cart of food!

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped on Sunday & Monday, November 24th & 25th, sorting all the donations & putting all the Thanksgiving Baskets together and to everyone who helped distribute over 45 turkey baskets to families in our community.

We are truly blessed to have such a generous community.

Special Christmas Offering

The Trustees have designated the Christmas Special Offering to replenish the Pastor’s discretionary fund. The envelopes will be available at the Christmas Eve Service. If you are unable to attend the Christmas Eve service, envelopes will be available for the Sundays following Christmas.

Reverend Hughes has assisted several families in need of various forms of assistance from vehicle repairs to housing support. All donations will help continue his vital ministry.

Thank you and God bless

2019 Holiday Fair

Thank you doesn’t seem enough to say thank you for all you did at and for the Holiday Fair for our church. From the donations of food, money and especially your time, I cannot THANK YOU enough.

With all of our efforts we were able to once again meet that magical $5,000 mark! The total for the fair without expenses was $5,017! As we have said in the past “It takes a village”, and I am so pleased and thankful to be part of this village, God Bless!!!!

Love Dawn

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, December 24th

Moderator’s Moment

Another year is about to become history. I can remember years that only seemed to go by fast during the summer months when school was on vacation. Now the whole year seems to be on a tightly wound clock with a short pendulum. All our fundraisers are over for the year and we get a month to rest before the New Year brings a new set of fundraisers to captivate our time.

It is in this month that we should take the time to reflect upon all the things that have been accomplished and to remember all our friends and family. December is a joyous time in the life of the church. We get to see the church and the community light up with wonderful displays of color and merriment. We are treated to glorious sounds of praise and anticipation to remind us of our Savior’s birth. We celebrate with parties and extravagant feasts. It is a time when we tend to be at our best. If only we could have December 12 months of the year.

I encourage you to attend the Secret Prayer Partners celebratory revelation Christmas Dinner on Saturday, December 7th at 5:30 down at Tradition’s restaurant at Purity Spring Resort. This banquet is open to all. The cost is only $20. Just let me know no later than December 3rd.

The Cabinet of the church will be meeting on December 10th to work on details of the upcoming Annual Meeting of the church in January. It is also at this meeting when we decide on the church’s entire year of fundraising events and to discuss and critique our past fundraisers. This meeting will begin at 5:00 and would really benefit from participation from more members of the church.It has been a hope of mine that we would have 4-8 at-large members present at the Cabinet meetings. This could be a very useful tool of the church to be able to dream, plan and implement all aspects of the church.  I hope to see many of you there.

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Carl Vitters, Moderator

Diaconate Message

I was recently given this book by my best friend.

She knows me very well apparently! I can sometimes stew and fret over things, I have very little control over (who doesn’t?).

Page 207 is entitled the Luxury of  Mindfulness.  I’m going to write a little excerpt without hopefully going out of the lines of the copyright issue!!!

I have taken the liberty of exchanging the word mindfulness with praying, which should keep me out of copyright jail!

“Rather than thinking of praying as that thing that you know you should be doing, try thinking of it as a luxury, one of the simple pleasures that you are Ford yourself in life.”  “Think of praying in the same way that you would consider a fine glass of wine or a really good piece of chocolate.”  “You may only have a few minutes of quiet prayer today but let that be enough. Cherish the time that you do have rather than castigate yourself for not having more. Cherish these minutes and seconds and you will become more present, more grateful, more alive.”

I hope these few little tidbits might help you during this very busy time of year to slow down, think clearly, be present. Take time to pray even for a moment.

May the start of your winter be joyous and peaceful to you all!

Louise Saxby, CVCC Diaconate Chairperson

Diaconate  Committee: Judy Workman, Dawn Vitters, Donna West, Suzanne Rancourt, Megan Vitters, Buel “Star” Almquist-Lee

Trustee’s Message

A very busy time of year for the church. We just got through with the Holiday Fair, thanks to all who put in many hours planning, setting up, running and clean up. The church raised just over $5,000. Thank you to all who contributed to the success of the fair.

In the same week, the Food Pantry began preparing to hand out Thanksgiving bas- kets which include all a family will need for a complete dinner. Thanks to Paul and Sylvia Weld for all the prep work and to those putting the baskets together and distributing.

The Trustees have started working on the 2020 budget. In order to do this, we need your pledge for next year. You received a letter with a pledge card in the last couple of

weeks. Stewardship Sunday was November 24th , but you can bring your card in anytime. Please submit your pledge card via mail or in the collection plate by December 8th.

The new website is up and running. Please take a look at it and if you have any ideas or suggestions, let us know. A big thank you to Nancy Irving, Buel Almquist “Star” and the committee for working on this.

Planning for the January Suppers has started. SAVE THE DATES ~ Fridays, 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st. We are still working on the menus and who will cook the meals. We still have a couple of Friday Night Suppers that need volunteer peo- ple/groups to cook, you may choose which date and the meal you wish to prepare. The sign-up sheets will be out soon. If you can help out, there are many opportunities and it is a lot of fun!

Another SAVE THE DATE The church’s Annual Meeting will be January 26th after church.

CVCC Board of Trustees: Anne Getchell, Nancy Divine, Duddie Andrews, John Edgerton, Nancy Irving, Kim Murdoch, Paul Weld

What does the Conway Village Church mean to you?

Is the Conway Village Church special to you?  If so we would appreciate it if you would write something about what this church means to you, or anything about this church and how it relates to you and/or the community. It can be a few sentences or a full-length essay or anything in between, what-ever feels right to you. We will be using these for website blog content and possibly for the upcoming capital campaign. It is entirely up to you whether or not you want your name or initials to appear or if you would like it to be published anonymously, please specify with your contribution.

Please label the paper, envelope or email subject line as “CVCC Testimony” and submit by dropping off your writing at the church office, mail it to Conway Village Church PO Box 333 Conway NH 03818 or email to cvccwebteam@gmail.com

Thank you for your contributions.

The CVCC Web Team