January 2009 Calendar

Click on Calendar to Enlarge:

The Roberts Have Chosen a Date ...

Hi Everyone,

The Roberts have chosen the weekend of January 9th for their get-away. I am in the process of trying to get children dispersed for Saturday/Saturday night. Check your email for details. Just wanted to let you know so you can mark the date on your calendars!

Joy

mele kalikimaka from the harris' family

Small Group Notes - Exodus 5

Verses 1-5: God’s plans for his people must take precedent over the world’s plans.
Verses 6-14: The world will seek to prevent the people of God from giving our full allegiance to Him.
Verses 15-21: Opposition from the world tests the resolve of God’s people to remain faithful to Him.

I think you can lead a fruitful discussion centered on one question per section. I recommend some version of the following:

Verses 1-5: Share an example of something in your life you believe that God may be calling/leading you to do.
Verses 6-14: What enticements of the world are particularly attractive to you? How do you fight against them?
Verses 15-21: How has your resolve to honor God been tested by the world recently?

Please pray for each other in these areas.

Two final questions: How does the knowledge that God’s preeminent concern for you in this world is to make you holy like his Son shape the way that you think about difficult circumstances? How are we to understand this call to holiness in light of the Gospel- the finished work of Jesus on the cross?

Par-tay

i'm so excited about our christmas dinner. i edited the menu a bit. feel free to bring anything else you like, but it seems to me that we have a good meal for tomorrow.
Ham - Joy

Green bean casserole - Dawn

Sweet potato casserole - Dawn

Deviled eggs - Dawn

Rolls - Russ

Dessert - Lindsay

Mashed potatoes - Lindsay
Macaroni & Cheese - Lindsay --- i had to add this, you can't have a holiday meal without mac & cheese its unethical :)

Corn - Lindsay

Drinks - Curt

hokulani

Wednesday Evening Followup

Hello everyone,

We covered lots of things last night! Thanks everyone for bringing the goodies for the two families we are helping out :))

We will not be meeting for SG on December 24th and 31st. We will resume meeting in January (on Wednesdays for the time being until Kevin and Lindsay start with helping with students in the fall), which brings us to our host schedule for the month:

January 7th - Chris and Kate

January 14th - Kevin and Lindsay

January 21st - Dawn

January 278th - Joy and David

Again, if there needs to be a switch for some reason, we are flexible with arrangements for the schedule.

Christmas Party at Kevin and Lindsay's on Wednesday the 17th (no children). Good news is Chris got an interview on the 18th at Seton Hall! Bad news is they will not be joining us for Christmas dinner :((

Here is what's on the menu for dinner:

Ham - Joy

Green bean casserole - Dawn

Sweeet potatoe casserole - Dawn

Deviled eggs - Dawn

Rolls - Russ

Dessert - Lindsay

Mashed potatoes - open item

Corn or corn casserole - open item

Drinks - Curt

Chris is checking into on the Patch project to see if that is something we will be able to take on.

We will post sermon notes on the blog for everyone to read and have a springboard for discussion.

And last but not least, a few pics to enjoy of Poo-Cookie Heaven:

Christmas Party

fyi...we would like the christmas party to be adults only. please make childcare arrangements for this night. as far as food goes...does anyone have any ideas? i, personally, would like it to be a traditional holiday meal. i'm thinking maybe a ham. i say 'traditional holiday' because we could always have turkey. we can talk it over this week.

see ya'll wednesday! lindsay

Small Group Gets on the Blogging Scene!

Welcome to our Small Group Blog! This site is meant to keep everyone in our small group up to date on prayer requests, calendar happenings, etc. This will be for whoever in our group wants to jump on and add pictures or give updates with the latest news.

Thank you Dawn for making such a great suggestion!

Prayer Requests

Here are things to pray for this week:
1. Chris has exams through the end of the week.
2. Russ is looking into what he wants to do for a job/career.
3. Curt is sick.
4. Crystal's pregnancy and health.

Things to Remember to bring next week:
1. Stocking stuffers for our couple (one guy and one girl)
2. Something to fill a "get-away" basket for our special family.

Recapping Wednesday Evening

1. We've decided to have a schedule/calendar (now it's on the blog!) We need to decide how/when we're going to start sign-ups (coordinate with Kevin's work schedule).
2. We're going to meet on Tuesdays or Thursdays. (Currently there are groups that meet on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays - we said we wanted to do a night when a group wasn't offered. We need to ask Curt if he's okay with us meeting on Thursdays
3. We're going to aim to be done around 9:00, work towards that but be very flexible about not cutting off how the Spirit is leading
4. We're going to be intentional about doing outreach together (maybe through Patch) - we want that to be a part of who we are and it's stretching for us.
5. We didn't really decide about format (did we?) - we should revisit that next week, maybe??

Remember gifts for next week!

Girls - one for a woman who has had a lot of health problems and is blind and one for a very tired mother who is getting a weekend away (like girlie/smelly things, decorating and chocolate).

Guys - one for a man who is out of work and is does construction and one for a tired dad who is getting a weekend away (and likes motorcycles)

A couple of snow flakes for Chris

December 2008 Calendar

Click onto the calendar to enlarge.

Pics of Isaiah and Christy

For those who did not get to see Christy while she was here, here is a link to the Newvines blog to catch a few pics of her and Isaiah. We were so excited to have them with us! By the way, David saw Benssy and Christy in Target over Thanksgiving. I think they will be coming for Christmas as well, so be watching for them!