8505 Church Street (in Ridgefield)
Crystal Lake, IL 60012
815-459-1132 * office@rclpc.org
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RCLPC | |
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Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church 8505 Church Street (in Ridgefield) Crystal Lake, IL 60012 815-459-1132 * office@rclpc.org |
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 RCLPC’s Annual
Cookie Walk (or until the cookies run out) | The Cookie Walk is Almost Here!And it's not too late to volunteer for RCLPC's biggest fundraising event of the year! Whether your talents lie in decorating, greeting, or baking, there's sure to be a place where you're needed. Signup sheets are in the Connecting Link. If you've already volunteered … THANK YOU! Through your efforts, RCLPC will be able to help a lot of people in need. The money we raise through the Cookie Walk goes not only to benefit RCLPC, but also to many local charities like PADS, Turning Point, Home of the Sparrow, and the Food Pantry. In these tough economic times, it's important to realize that donations to these organizations are down, while the need just keeps on growing. They need our help now more than ever, and through the Cookie Walk, we can do just that! Remember to drop off your cookies and other treats this coming Friday, December 12 in the Fellowship Hall. |
The Advent Conspiracy
Ever wanted to conspire with God to do something amazing in the world? Well, since Advent is the time we celebrate God’s doing the most amazing thing (by coming into the world as one of us), what better time to conspire than now? (No, that’s not conspire like by the fire in a Winter Wonderland, though you can do that too if you like!)The Advent Conspiracy is a movement involving four steps: Worship Fully. Spend Less. Give More. Love All. This Advent, we’ll be exploring ways to conspire with God in our worship, our learning, our shopping, and our giving. And we have a challenge ahead of us: Buy one less gift this year. Americans spend $425 Billion on Christmas gifts each year. It would take $10 Billion to provide wells, sanitation, and purification systems that would solve the world water crisis. Every year 29 million children die from hunger and preventable disease. So we invite you to buy one fewer gift than usual, and then take the money you would spend on that gift, and bring it to church and put it in the ark in the Fellowship Hall. Why an ark? Because our goal is an ark! Heifer International is a project that trains people in how to care for animals and how to improve their lives through agriculture. Then Heifer gives a family an animal, with the expectation that when the animal gives birth, the family will pass the gift (of the animal and the training) to another family in their village. In this way, whole communities can be lifted out of poverty, as they now have the means of producing food, fertilizing their land, and selling the excess milk/eggs/wool/etc, which provides money for school fees and supplies to help them improve their homes and farms. A gift of an ark is 2 of every animal Heifer has—from cows to water buffaloes to goats and sheep to chickens and ducks and rabbits and geese. We hope that, with donations that come from each of us buying one less gift this year, we can raise $5,000 to buy an ark, providing a way out of poverty for dozens of families around the world. Worship Fully. Spend Less. Give More. Love All. Conspire with God to do something amazing this Advent season. | |||
Session ReportAs we all truly feel and have shared over the years in many ways, our church home is a vibrant, exciting place with so much to offer all of us on so many levels. Each and every one of us is truly working together to take our community in such a positive direction as we journey toward the future together.Particularly during this time of pastoral transition, we (as Session) feel that it is important to keep all lines of communication open as we work together to continue to nurture what we have and to build upon it. As Session recently met and reviewed our financial position as a church, we thought it important to take a moment to share some pertinent information:
Pancake Party, Sunday January 11thJoin us in Fellowship Hall from 8-11.30am for a pancake party! The High School Youth (and their parents) will be making pancakes, served up with fruit, juice and coffee, for your dining pleasure! This is a great opportunity to gather before or after worship, to have some great food and great fellowship, and to support our youth ministry here at RCLPC. Cost will be $5/adult, $3/child. All profits will go toward the High School Youth summer trip to the Montreat Youth Conference, where they will learn more about mission—what the needs are, what they can do themselves, and how they can use their faith and their voices to empower others to help change the world. See you on the 11th!What is Montreat?This summer our high school youth are headed to a Montreat Youth Conference rather than a traditional mission trip. Each summer, Montreat hosts 6 weeks of youth conferences, each week drawing over 1,000 Presbyterian youth and their leaders from around the world. The theme next summer is “World on Fire” and is designed to help youth explore mission in various ways—what are the needs? What are the opportunities? What can they do? How can people of faith change the world? How can youth change the world? They’ll be finding their voices, learning about mission, and hopefully getting inspired and empowered to do great things. Youth Conferences include worship, energizers, keynotes, small groups, workshops, fellowship, and relationship building with other Presbyterian youth from around the country and world. This is a great opportunity for the youth of RCLPC to connect with other Presbyterians, to explore new ways of living their faith, and to come back to us fired up about being part of God’s mission both in this place and out in the world. We hope you’ll support our youth in this endeavor to learn and live as followers of Christ. The youth participating in next summer’s trip are: Alex Nelson, Amanda Nelson, Anna Zoerner, Carl Wesa, Dale Wesa, Jessie Gronset, Kayleigh Jensen, Meredith Mitchell, Norma Thompson, and Samantha Koenig. You’ll be hearing more about Montreat throughout the winter and spring, and you can learn more at http://montreat.org/current/2009-youth-conferences-at-montreat. Thanks for your support.Mission Focus: JanuaryIn January our mission focus is Good Samaritan Ministries. Good Samaritan provides resources for those in need here in McHenry County. They help with rent and utilities, gas and food, and various other needs that people trying to remain on their feet might have. Particularly in times such as these, the ministry of Good Samaritan is extremely important. Last year, Good Samaritan was only able to meet 25% of the requests they receive for assistance, and requests are rising while donations are remaining constant. This January, we invite you to pray for the people who work at Good Samaritan and the people who go there for assistance, and also to make any donations that you can. Please write “Good Samaritan” on the memo line of checks if you’d like to help us support this vital ministry in our community. Thank you for your support. |
Notes from the Office...There will be one service only on Sunday, December 28th at 9:30am.The office will be closed between Christmas and New Year’s. If you have an emergency requiring pastoral care, please call Jan or Teri. The next Spirit newsletter will go out on Wednesday, January 14. Deadline for articles will be on the previous Friday, Jan. 9. Christmas Joy OfferingFifty percent of the receipts to the Christmas Joy Offering are distributed to the Board of Pensions for assistance programs that provide support to retired and active church workers and their spouses and families. The other fifty percent supports Presbyterian-related racial ethnic education through the General Assembly Council.Taize Prayer Service Tuesday January 6th 7:30pmRCLPC Support for the Troops Online at Northwest HeraldThe Northwest Herald has featured RCLPC's Stocking Stuffing for the soldiers in the Woodstock National Guard in their online newspaper. The video opens with a shot of the front of our Church with the sign. You can watch it by going to www.nwherald.com click on Multimedia at the top of the page, click on "Christmas for Troops" posted Nov. 30, 2008. Thanks again to all of you who make the Cookie Lift happen!Coffee CartWe have coffee, tea, and chocolate available now for purchase on the "Coffee Cart" in Fellowship Hall. These fair trade products are purchased through the Presbyterian Coffee Project with Equal Exchange. It's self-serve, with prices labeled for each item. Thank you for supporting small farmers and their families around the world. ~ Mission Outreach MinistryBread Basket MinistryThe Bread Basket Ministry needs your help this winter! As you may know, when visitors worship with us and provide a local delivery address, we acknowledge their visit with a note and a tasty baked treat during the week following worship! Many of our new members have had this first sweet "taste" of RCLPC hospitality. There is a new winter sign-up sheet for January - April 2009 in The Connecting Link and a few spots left for December… please consider signing up for one or two weeks to continue this welcoming tradition! And please include your email address! We track who has received a delivery, so please plan to call or email back to Amy when the delivery has been made. Any questions, call Amy Collins.Thank YouThe family of Josh Flanagan would like to thank everyone for their prayers, kind words, notes and phone calls, concerning Josh’s vascular surgery on Dec. 2 at Children’s Memorial Hospital. The surgery went smoother than expected, and he is now recovering. Blessings to all. Leanna and Ron Miller (Josh’s grandparents) | ||
Cookie Lift Update:
What else do we like about the Cookie Lift program? Every penny goes to the troops – there is no administrative overhead! Thanks to all of you for your support, and please keep our troops in your prayers this holiday season and all year long. If you have a loved one who is deploying to the Middle East, please contact us. Mary Moltmann and Ed Bennett | |||
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