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Grace Notes MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
DECEMBER 2015
Thank you to everyone who helped with this year’s Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes! We set a brand new record this year by everyone’s efforts to make and send 116 Shoeboxes around the world in the name of Jesus Christ!
Every year, the International Mission Board (IMB) has the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering to raise awareness and money for missionaries all over the world who reach people with the life-saving news of the gospel. The Week of Prayer for International Missions is from Nov 29th-Dec 6th, and our Missions Ingathering will be on Sunday, December 6th.
Join us on December 13th at 6:30pm, for our Christmas Program, “A Christmas to Remember.” It will be a festive evening of musical worship, remembrance, and rejoicing as we celebrate the birth of our Lord! We will travel through Christmases of the Past, as we share memories new and old, while centering on the very first Christmas, when Christ came to earth as a man to save us from sin. Refreshments will be served following the program.
Attention everyone involved with this year’s Christmas Program! We will be having a special Rehearsal on Saturday, December 12th at 10am in the Sanctuary. Please try to be there as we prepare for our special “A Christmas to Remember” event!
Thank you to everyone who has picked up an Angel Tree card. Please remember to drop by your new, wrapped gift in the hallway outside the sanctuary next to our “Angel Tree,” along with the angel card by Dec. 13th. Also please continue to pray for the families who are a part of this ministry. Contact Wendy Buchanan if you have any questions.
All GBC Youth (Junior Youth through College age) are invited to a Christmas Party on December 20th. Plan to be there for a festive event full of fun, food, and fellowship! More details to follow.
This Christmas Eve, we will be holding a Candlelight Service in the sanctuary at 6:30pm. Please join us for a night of Carols, Candles, and Communion.
Nursery Schedule
06 – Casey Elkins & Logan Reynolds 13 – Nandrea Groves & Maura Elkins 20 – Sandee Davis & Annetta Lind 27 – Charlotte & Cheyenne Hughes
Children’s Church
06 – Barry Jones & Maura Elkins 13 – Linda Daumen & Peyton Elkins 20 – Dale & Shelley Hollandsworth 27 – Paula & Logan Reynolds
Prayer Deacons
Lee Bryant Dec 06 Chuck Buchanan Dec 13 David Byrd Dec 20 Greg Carlson Dec 27
Announcements
Pastor’s Notes Pastor Mark Elkins
December
Events
Dec 6th
Lottie Moon
Christmas Offering
& Shelor/Carlson
Christmas Party
Dec 12th
Christmas Program
Rehearsal
& New Beginnings
Sunday School
Christmas Party
Dec 13th
“A Christmas to
Remember” Program
Dec 20th
Youth Christmas
Party
Dec 24th
Christmas Eve
Candlelight Service
Dec 25th
Merry Christmas!
Dec 31st
New Year’s Eve
Merry Christmas Grace Baptist Church!!! It
has been a wonderful year full of reasons to praise
God for His Grace. Let’s take a brief moment to
walk through the year together and bless His Holy
name for what He has done.
In January, we began the year with a focus on
prayer and fasting and look how God has
responded. In February, we had a record Baby
Bottle Boomerang for the Pregnancy Care Center,
raising over $1,200.00. In April, our Annie
Armstrong Easter Mission offering was over $700.00
more than the previous year. In July, we had a
record breaking Vacation Bible School with over 66
children in attendance each night. Then in August,
we had an amazing Mission Trip to a housing project
in Roanoke, VA, where we were able to put on an
awesome festival that celebrated the Grace of God
as displayed in the account of Jonah.
In September, we had another record breaking
start to our AWANA ministry and saw God gift us
with a free bus (from our Roanoke ministry partners)
to help push back the darkness that has cast its
shadow on so many of the children in our
community. In November, we set another record
with the 116 Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes
that we sent to children around the world, who most
likely do not know the name or the salvation of Jesus
Christ our Lord. And just this Sunday, I noticed that
all of the children’s names had been adopted from
our Angel Tree and that there was already a stack of
wrapped presents beneath the tree.
What do all these amazing blessings have in
For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
common? They are all examples of the
generosity of this body of Christ, which we call
Grace Baptist! Our generosity as a
congregation is a direct outpouring of the
Grace that God has given us through His Son
Christ Jesus. His Grace became incarnate in
the womb of a young virgin when the King of
kings left His heavenly throne and took on
flesh. When we are generous with what God
has given us, we are following the path of our
Lord and the Spirit within us. Just as the
Apostle Paul described in his letter to the
Philippians: “5 Have this attitude in yourselves
which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although
He existed in the form of God, did not regard
equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-
servant, and being made in the likeness of
men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to
the point of death, even death on a cross”
(Phil. 2:6-8).
Beloved, it is especially important this time
of year, when we focus on the generous gift of
God in the incarnation and birth of Jesus Christ
our Lord, that we both thank Him for the
wondrous things He has done in our midst this
year and beseech Him to do even more in the
year to come. My prayer is that this will truly
be a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year, for you and your family…in the precious
and powerful name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
GBC PICS
Left and Above: A few snapshots from our Women’s Retreat! It was a great time of testimony, food, games, worship, and devotion. Bottom Left: Thank you to everyone who helped in any way with this year’s Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes! We are blessed to announce that we set a new record this year by sending out 116 boxes around the world in the name of Jesus Christ! Below: This year’s Brunswick Stew and Vegetable Soup Event was a huge (and delicious) success!
SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY
1
2 Fellowship Meal (Prepared) AWANA AWANA MAMAS Isaiah’s Bells Truth Project Choir Practice
3 4
5
Marceia Bartlett
6 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering Ingathering 4:30pm Children’s Choir Practice 5pm Play Practice 5:45pm Youth Group
7
Nadine Smith
8
9 Fellowship Meal (Potluck) AWANA AWANA MAMAS Isaiah’s Bells Truth Project Choir Practice
Mike Jones
10
11
12 10am Christmas Program Rehearsal
Allison Hughes
13
6:30pm “A
Christmas to
Remember”
14
15 6:30pm Deacons
Meeting
7pm Women on
Mission
Nandrea Groves Chris Howell
16 Fellowship Meal (Prepared) AWANA AWANA MAMAS Isaiah’s Bells Truth Project Choir Practice
Mark Elkins
17 10am Women of Grace
Lewis Carroll
18
19
20
Youth Christmas Party
21
22
23 WEDNESDAY
NIGHT ACTIVITIES
CANCELLED
Charlotte &Murry Hughes
Jane Hall Clay Menear
24 Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
Leon & Chris Howell
25
CHRISTMAS DAY!
Winfred Stowe
26
Margaret Carlson
27
John Hughes
28
29 30 WEDNESDAY
NIGHT ACTIVITIES
CANCELLED
31 HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!
Laurie Salser
2016
December 2015 Birthdays Anniversaries