comes to us in vulnerability, as a tiny babe in a manger -- inviting us - not forcing us, but inviting us - to accept the responsibility of caring for one another. Do we have room in the inns of our lives for this Godchild to be born anew and to grow into the sacrificial lamb?  Of course we have the room. The real question is, "Will we make the room for Christ to be born in us anew each and every moment of each and every day of each and every one of our lives?" If we will only answer yes, then the blind will see and the prisoners will be set free - and they are us.

Dear Friends,

I know that by the time you are reading this article Advent will have begun and you are gearing up for Christmas. However, Thanksgiving is still more than a week away as I write this and I have to comment on what an amazing autumn it has been!! The temperatures have fallen to that wonderful jeans-and-a sweater season and the trees are spectacular! God is so good to have created such an awesome world for us to live in and enjoy - and I pray that we are forever thankful for the fact that God does want us (all people) to enjoy our lives. I'm thankful that you folks recognize that we have a responsibility for helping to make life enjoyable for others. I know this to be true by the participation in our ministries of late.

As a congregation, we filled 45 flood buckets to be sent down east to benefit the victims of hurricanes and floods. Folks from the Outreach Committee have taken treats to the teachers at Haw River Elementary. Pastor Andy and some other volunteers kept the children for some of our younger couples so that they could have a Friday evening out. Wildflowers has given wedding showers and provided other opportunities for us to support loved ones on their special day. I didn't think we could top the number of volunteers who worked to make our school-supply giveaway back in July such a huge success. However, on Halloween I think we did as we provided a safe place for the children of our community to come trick-or-treating at our annual Trunk-or-Treat event. We had a large number of cars, trucks, vans and even one hearse, along with their drivers, decked out in Halloween garb and handing out treats to over 400 little angels, princesses, butterflies, super-heroes, critters and spooks. We also served up 400 hotdog suppers. (The line was so long and constant that many of our guests didn't even stay to eat. I believe they started serving about 5:30 and there was not a break in the line until 7:15 -- there were no leftovers.) I think almost everyone associated with the church participated in some way on that night - which is the eve of all Saints Day. Thus, making it very appropriate that so many of our saints were working hard to be the village that it takes to raise our children.

Members of the congregation also began two very important processes this autumn as we began the Plow Point processLonging to Belong, where 15-25+ folks have come together over a number of weeks to write a congregational covenant and look at how we perceive God's call on this congregation to move forward and what obstacles stand in our way.  This is a learning process that will help us in the future to come together as a congregation and discuss our joys, our fears and our hurts and how we see these either guiding us toward the future God has for us, or how these are obstacles preventing us from moving forward.  (We still have one meeting with the Plow Point facilitators on Sunday afternoon from 3 pm until 5 pm, January 29th.  This will be in lieu of our first SPRC and Administrative Council meetings, and so all members of these two committees are expected to be present at this closing meeting but everyone is invited to come and speak to the outcome of this process.)

The other process which we have begun is the participation of 6 of our people are taking part in a 4 district spiritual enrichment program. This program, known as ABIDE, will meet with folks from other churches in the 4 districts on four different occasions over the next year. They will also be meeting together on a monthly basis (in those months when we don't meet with the other districts). I am hoping that we can incorporate the information they will be gleaning from this process into our Discipleship Group, which meets quarterly. It's important that this process be seen not as a special group of folks who are being trained in some secret society. But instead we need to see the process itself as a means of spiritual growth for all of us. These folks have volunteered to be seeds -- both from and for -- our congregation, in order that we might discover anew, as the Church, what it means to abide in Christ. Many of you may say, "But we already do." To which I respond yes, but as the Church and as individual Christians we always need to be exploring ways and means by which we grow closer to God and to each other. Our District Superintendent Bill Gattis, along with myself, believe that this process is a valuable tool for congregations. So I ask for each of you to pray for this process, and these people who are participating in this opportunity. The representatives from our congregation are: Colette Dixon, Kathi Bunn, Charlotte Dewberry, Linda Mensch, Don Waugh, Ron Barnett and myself. Dates for our Discipleship Group to meet will be published in our next newsletter. I would like to ask everyone to try to make at least one of our quarterly Saturday gatherings, so that you might participate more fully in our learning and sharing process - and so we might grow together in Christ.

Now, I find I am out of room and out of time. Before you read this article our annual Charge Conference will be done, our community Thanksgiving service will be over and with the arrival of Advent the church may even already be decorated for Christmas. However, these events are rapidly approaching right now and I must prepare for all of them. Blessings of growth and wholeness and a Merry Christmas to all.

 Love,

Pastor Jeanne