DEC.  4,  2011
GREETERS: Rose Caulkins & Debbie Goodin
USHERS: Roger Meeker, Greg Meeker, Dwight Whitaker, Pete Wilson
COMMUNION: Mary Meredith
JR. CHURCH: Julie Nelson

DEC.  11,  2011
GREETERS: Virgil Dawson
USHERS: Mary Meredith, Monica Garman. Terri Heinhorst, Becky McGhee
JR. CHURCH: Donna Kennedy
 
DEC.  18,  2011                                            
GREETER: Judy Tisdale
USHERS: Sr. Youth Group
JR. CHURCH: NONE
 
DEC.  25,  2011
GREETER: Larry & Donna Kennedy
USHERS: Ron Garman, Duane Chaney, Allen Forsythe, Gerry Schneider
JR. CHURCH: NONE

12/03 8:30 AM JR. YOUTH GROUP - LINCOLN
12/04 ADVENT OFFERING
11:15 AM HANDBELL CHOIR
12/06 7:00 PM LADIES BIBLE STUDY   
12/07 6:30 PM CHANCEL CHOIR
12/09 6:00 PM ACTIVITY GROUP PARTY
12/11 ADVENT OFFERING
11:15 AM HANDBELL CHOIR
12/14 6:30 PM CHANCEL CHOIR
12/17 8:00 AM MEN’S FELLOWSHIP
CHRISTMAS BREAKFAST
1:00 PM JR. YOUTH GROUP
12/18 SUNDAY SCHOOL PROGRAM
6:00 PM “HIS NAME IS JESUS” CANTATA
12/19 7:00 PM CHURCH COUNCIL
12/20 7:00 PM LADIES BIBLE STUDY
12/24 7:00 PM CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE
12/25 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
9:00 AM NO SUNDAY SCHOOL
NEWSLETTER ARTICLE DEADLINE
12/31 NEW YEAR’S EVE!!!

“REMOVAL OF GREENS”
Our church will be taking down all its Christmas decorations on Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 8 AM. Your help would be appreciated

“His Name Is Jesus” CANTATA
On Sunday, December 18, at 6:00 PM, the Chancel Choir along with the hand bell Choir will be presenting a night of music. “His Name IS Jesus” by Mosie  Lister is a beautiful arrangement of traditional and some non-traditional Christmas music. Directly after the Cantata we will be having a time of fellowship with cookies and punch in the basement. There will be a sign up sheet on the bulletin board if you could donate some cookies. Please come help us celebrate the reason for the season as we sing praises to the Son of God!

SIDE NOTE:
The Choir will be taking our winter break the month of January, so no practices on Wednesday evening. If you have a special you would like to do, please contact Pastor Tom or Kay.

CHRISTMAS  PROGRAM
The combined Sunday school classes of Julie Berg, Margaret Hoerr, and Judy Tisdale will be presenting a Christmas Program on Sunday, December 18, 2011, during the regular morning worship service.  Our Junior Class and the Teen Class will be presenting a skit. Following the program, we will be distributing treat bags to all the children in attendance.  Be sure to attend this special Christmas presentation by our Sunday School Department.
  
CHRISTMAS EVE
We will again be having our annual candlelight Christmas Eve Service starting at 7:00 PM. We will be singing our favorite Christmas carols, hearing some of our favorite Christmas music, and listening to the  story of  the birth of the  Christ child.  Please make plans to join us with your family and friends on this holy night.
  
ADVENT OFFERING
This year we are taking up our annual Advent Offering on Sunday the 4th & Sunday December 11. We take up this offering to help the less fortunate with groceries this time of the year. If you know of someone or family that needs financial help, please let the church office know.
 
CHRISTMAS CARD DELIVERY
Our annual Christmas Card Delivery will be provided by the Junior Youth Group for those attending church regularly. Bring your cards to church and place them in the decorated box.  A donation may be given to the Youth for this service.
  
CHRISTMAS FLOWERS
If you would like to place a Christmas flower in our sanctuary for the Advent Season, bring it to the church & give the name of the memorial and your name to the church office.
  
MEN’S FELLOWSHIP
The men will again be meeting on December 17, at 8:00 AM at the Village Inn in Green Valley for our Annual Christmas Breakfast.  We will have good food & fellowship and then after breakfast, we will deliver our Advent food vouchers.
  
PHONE TREE
This year if we have to cancel church due to inclement weather, we have a phone tree set up to give you a call. If there is a glitch and you do not receive a call, you can also check WEEK TV (channel 25).  If you are not on the list, please contact the Church Office with your name, phone # and/or email address. Thank you!
  
CHURCH BOARD HIGHLIGHTS 
The Church Council met on November 21. A thank you to all that helped out on the November 5th Work Day!  The Advent Offering will be taken on December 4th and 11th. Food Voucher’s will be delivered on December 17. The Sunday School Christmas Program will be December 18 during the worship service and the Cantata will be in the evening. A reminder that there will be no Sunday school on Christmas morning. New Year’s Day Sunday school and the morning worship will be held as usual. Snow Removal signup sheets are made up and are on the bulletin board. If church needs to be cancelled due to inclement weather, we will have it on the news by 8 AM. You can check for our cancellation in the following manner: www.forestcitycommunitychurch.org, www.centralillinoisnewscenter.com, or tune in to WEEK-25 or WHOI-19. The Building Project funds are now at $31,000. If anyone wishes to have a receipt for his or her donation, Judi Kammerer can make one out for you. The Education Committee met and is looking at new teaching materials for all of the classes. It was discussed to possibly move Vacation Bible School to evening hours for the 2012 year. The thought would be to run from Sunday-Thursday, with the program on Friday evening. We are hoping this would bring in more volunteers to help out our directors. Let us know what you think. No definite plans will be made until we have some feedback from the congregation. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
  
THOSE IN NEED OF PRAYERS
John Berchtold, Ivan Berg, Karen Chaney, Bob Cook, Kay Garman, Frances Harms, Belinda Herndon, Matthew Madeira, Scotty Meredith, Jim Nelson,  Josephine Runyon, Donna Schimmelpfenning, Anne Schneider, Joe Swaar, Mike Travis, Vince Vonderheide,  Mary Watts, Mike Wistehuff, Donna Woll & Barb Worner.
  
ACTIVITY GROUP
The Church Bazaar was held on Sat., Nov. 19, 2011. It was a huge success again!  We want to thank everyone who donated and helped in any way with this project. The Women’s Activity Group Christmas Party will be held on Friday, December 9, 2011. The “Young Chicks” will be serving our meal and the cost is $9. Reservation deadline is Monday, December. 5. All ladies of the church are welcome to attend. If you want to participate, we will also have a $10 gift exchange.  Need a ride, call the church office or one of the ladies.
  
BUILDING FUND
There has been some interest shown in giving to the new church addition. If you would want to give money for the project, just place it in an envelope and mark it for the new addition. We already have an account set up for our Building Fund. We are hoping to have $115.000 or 50% of the building cost in by the end of the year so we can start construction next summer.
  
SNOW REMOVAL
As much as many of us dread it, winter weather is almost upon us.  This means for our church, coming up with volunteers to remove that pretty white stuff from our sidewalks and steps for services. We now have a sign-up sheet for volunteers on our bulletin board. The sheet will have the dates of the services that you, your family, or a group of friends could sign up to volunteer to clean our walks, should we happen to get snow on that particular date.
   
JUNIOR YOUTH GROUP
The Youth Groups would like to thank everyone who donated candy for the candy booth at the bazaar. We would also like to thank all those who purchased some of the goodies. In December, we have several activities planned. On December 3, we are going to Lincoln Christian University to watch the Christmas in the Chapel musical then out for lunch. On December 9, we are going to go shopping for our Christmas Snow Buddies. The van will leave the church at 6:00 PM and return home around 9:00 PM. If you would like to donate towards this, please see Anne or Gerry Schneider. On December 17, the group is going to meet at 1:00 to practice the skit for the Christmas program and deliver plates of cookies to people in the area. If you know of anyone that needs some Christmas cheer, please let Anne or Gerry know.
  
EMMANUEL’S WAREHOUSE
Our church has pledged to help Emmanuel’s Warehouse by supplying 90 cans of fruit a month. Our church has been running short recently so if you could help us out, it will be greatly appreciated. Also, if the cans are too heavy to carry or too big of a hassle, we will accept cash donations. Please see Cathy Meeker, one of our Emmanuel’s Warehouse representatives, if you would rather give cash or a check.