Good afternoon ladies

I don’t know about you, but it’s been a crazy busy week around my house. Hopefully I will get the Christmas tree decorated tomorrow. The tree has been up with no decorations for over a week. And the other decorations put up.

Todd has planned a really sumptuous lunch for everyone on Sunday. He really goes out of his way to make these luncheon special. So please be sure to thank him and tell him how much you enjoyed it. (All I do is go along to bounce ideas off and push a cart.) This is all Mr. Todd.

Sunday is going to be quite the packed day. Wow. Bible study with Pastor, regular service and welcoming new members, Women at Risk pop up shop( their are some wonderful things there, and if it’s not there, it can be ordered and shipped to your home. There is so much more available for you to chose from on their web site. We only have a small selection at church.) Pastor Nathan’s installation/welcome new members lunch, the installation service and guest from other churches. Wow busy day!!

If you can pitch in and help out any please do so. There is always lots of clean up after these big events( and with sharing the kitchen with Derrick’s group maybe even more this time — as we are all working it out) Plus the Women at Risk items will need to be repackaged for return to them —— or you could just buy all the items so nothing is returned?? Any ways lots of extra hands would be greatly appreciated. And then I did the dumb thing of ordering play tickets for Sunday back in early August! —- long before all these events started to be planned. But we ( the play group) will help all we can after we return from the play. like I said Wow what a day.

We are still reading the last few chapter of “If the church were Christian “ by Philip Gulley. We will be starting on page 139 beginning of chapter 8 and going to the end of chapter 9 page 171.

Girlfriends will be meeting on zoom on Dec 5, 2023 @ 6:30p

So just some questions for you to think about.

Some of these might be good whole church survey questions?

So what are you thinking about what this author has to say? Where do you see St.John’s in this book? Is St.John’s ahead or behind other church’s? In what ways? In our beliefs and how we do things? What do you think we need to change? How do we go about these changes? What is the biggest thing/ change you would like to see at St.John’s? What are you doing to help make these( or other) changes come to fruition? Why, if you do, think St.John’s needs to change?Or why not? What brought you to St.John’s? Why have you stayed? What could we do to make St.John’s a more inviting,welcoming,nonjudgmental inclusive space? Do we really live into our saying”You are always welcome here”? If not how do we fix that and be more welcoming?

Barb send out the list of books for us to look at and think about? So what are your thoughts? What stood out and said pick me to you? Just a question=== when this group was started a few ?? years ago, it was named after a book that was the first book we read. I think it was called girlfriends of the Bible? I’m not sure and I don’t remember who wrote it. Do any of you remember or still have a copy of that book?( I gave mine to a cousin who wanted it for her granddaughter) I know we brought the book at an annual conference book sale, but it was years ago. Barb and I thought it might be interesting to reread( first time for some of you) that book— if we could find it, And compare our group now and then? Just a thought. So what are we looking at reading in the New Year?

Girlfriends sends prayers of thanksgiving:

of peace, healing to areas of the world at war. Palestine, Gaza Strip, Israel, Russia, Ukraine
of gladness at the release of “some of the hostage “
for the remaining hostages
to the Carter family at the passing of former First Lady Rosalyn Carter
to Former President Jimmy Carter at the terrible loss of his life partner Wow 77 years of marriage.
of healing to Susan N, Sharon VB, Dave B
for the New Members joining us on Sunday Dec.3
To Pastor Nathan and his family on becoming our settled Pastor.
may they find true happiness and blessing with us.
lots of sales for the Women at Risk event, to help out those in need
to all that Derek’s’ place/house does to feed the marginalized of our area
to Teresa and her group on having another outstanding mobile food pantry on Dec.6 and all it helps out
the safe return of all the deer hunters
to safe driving everyone as we begin to see the start of the snow/ ice season slow down, double triple check each way
to all the snow plow drivers that keep our roads, streets, drive ways etc. clear for us
to all the police, deputies, fire fighters, paramedics,EMT’s ambulance drivers, Etc helping to keep us safe when needed.
for Christmas wishes to turn into Christmas blessings
praise for all the beans we were able to donate to UCOM, and the many families they helped out
for each other as we each face the challenges of each day
for having a God, our lord and savior who truly loves us

Don’t forget to get with Becky T about recording a short message of Christmas cheer to be on the web site for Christmas Eve/ day as we will not be having a service after the regular Christmas Eve morning 10a service on Dec. 24th. It will be fun to see/ watch that afternoon/ evening/ next day!

All items for the Senior bags need to be at church by 10a on Dec. 8th. If you are giving a monetary donation, please get that in this week. I will be doing any shopping that needs to be done on Dec.8 and we are planning to assemble the bags starting at 1:30p on Dec.9th. As many as possible will be given out at fellowship time or by the carolers on Dec. 10th. Might need to recruit a few members to deliver to other members. All are welcome to come help assemble the bags.

Happy birthday wishes🎂🥂💐🎂🫶🏻🥰👩‍❤️‍👨🍨🧁🍾

Dave B
Patti B
Delores R

Girlfriends is open to anyone who enjoys reading and discussing what you have/ are reading.,You do not have to be a member of St.John’s church. If interested please contact Barb H., or the office at St.John’s ( 616-453-2497) stating you would like information on Girlfriends. Please leave your name, phone number, email address for Sally to forward to Barb or myself. And we will reach out to you. Come join the fun and lively discussion. We welcome your thought, ideas, plans whatever.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88487225023?pwd=OUpWWHpMNURGRC8vWUt4L2F3N3NyZz09

Meeting ID: 88487225023
Passcode: 907522

Dial by your location:
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

Location:

Zoom
Dec 5, 2023 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM

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