Expectation
This is Advent season. This means that we participate in the expectation of Christ’s return and the remembrance of His incarnation. We celebrate this season as a time of looking forward and looking back. It is a season of hope and joy, of peace and celebration. We are called to an expectant waiting on the Lord to reveal Himself to us again. A hope in the future that Christ has offered to us and is offering to us each day, a new life in the Kingdom of God. This is not the anticipation of a trip somewhere else but the expectant waiting for our King to return and reclaim what is rightfully His. As we step into Advent we are stepping into this expectant hope and the celebration of what Christ’s incarnation and His return mean for us.
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Ladies Annual Ornament Exchange will kick off the Christmas Season on Friday, December 7th at 6:30 p.m. Invite a friend and join us for a celebration of Christ’s Birth! Share in the joy & laughter as we fellowship together, interact with the story of the First Christmas and exchange ornaments. Everyone bring a wrapped ornament and finger food for sharing!
Some of us are gathering on Thursday night the 6th at 7 p.m. to decorate the church. The help of all ladies will be welcomed.
Brett and Cindi Garrett have announced they are stepping down after leading worship at Medford Friends Church for 25 years. They will be leaving MFC at the end of the year. There will be a celebration of all God has done over these past 25 years on December 9, at 11:00, following the worship service, no Sunday School that day.
We look forward to our Preschool and Koinonia Kids sharing Christmas songs during the 9:30 a.m. service on Sunday, December 23rd.
Our traditional “Come As You Are Family Celebration” will take place Sunday, December 23rd, at 6:30 p.m. Please join us in the sanctuary, followed with a time of fellowship. Please bring finger food to share.
There will not be a Christmas Eve service on the 24th.
Operation Christmas Child – Shoebox Gifts
We are so excited! A big thank you goes out to everyone who helped pack shoe boxes, and huge thank to everyone for their donations of filled boxes, and things to fill boxes for Operation Christmas Child – 118 boxes were taken to the drop off center and shipping costs were met!
You’re invited To a Christmas Open House
At the Hamilton House December 15th, 2-4 p.m.
Call the church office for details.
The Evangelical Friends Mission’s 2018 Christmas Catalog, located on the usher’s table in the foyer provides a way to share our God-given resources with our neighbors during Christmas. As you prepare for Christmas, please consider this catalog as an opportunity to do gift-giving differently.
White Elephant Gift Exchange Monday, December 31st
Join us at 6:30 p.m. in the fellowship hall for a fun time! Bring finger foods to share and a wrapped white elephant gift for the exchange game!
If you’d like to stay later that evening, bring your favorite board game and extra finger foods!
Prayer Chain Sign-up – Be a part of this Ministry!
We are putting together a new Prayer Chain list, if you would like to partner in prayer with others here at MFC, there is a sign-up sheet in the foyer. Please designate phone or email contact.
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Operation Christmas Child – Shoebox Gifts
Bring a sack lunch and join us on Sunday, November 4th after Sunday School & Bible Study for our “Build a Box” fellowship time!
If you would like to donate to the cost of shipping the shoeboxes, please designate your donations. This year the cost of shipping one box is $9, as of last Sunday we have collected $1,224 for shipping and currently have 31 boxes that have been filled!
Thank you to everyone who has donated gift items and shipping cost, it’s exciting to see our church family come together to bring the love of Jesus to children throughout the world. Again, thank you!
Friends Women Fellowship will meet at MFC on Thursday, November 15th, at 10:30 a.m. All ladies are welcome to join us in the fireside room. Following the meeting there will be lunch.
The Annual Thanksgiving/Christmas Bake Event
Sunday, November 18th – in the Fellowship Hall
Breads, cakes, cookies pies and more to sweeten your appetites! There will also be a mini Bazaar side table this season with gift type items. If you have any items you’d like to contribute be sure to contact Billie Taylor no later than November 16th, as space is limited.
All Church Thanksgiving Potluck – Sunday, November 18th
Join us for a time of celebration, fellowship and good food. We will meet in the fellowship hall following the Sunday School & Bible Study hour. Our all church potluck will have a Thanksgiving theme, so please bring generous side dishes and desserts that compliment a festive holiday dinner! Turkey and ham will be provided.
2018 NWYM Thanksgiving Offering
This year's offering is for camp scholarships for the NWYM camps, including Quaker Cove, Quaker Hill, Tilikum, and Twin Rocks. These scholarships help campers attend camp who would not be able to attend otherwise. We will take our offering on Sunday, November 18th.
Sunday – Nov. 18th MFC Sunday School Outing
Grades 1-6 – Depart at 1:15 p.m. after the church potluck and return to the church at 3:45 p.m.
Come with us to Astral Games – we will depart right after the Thanksgiving Potluck and return by 3:45 p.m.
Cost – $5.00 each. Parental or Guardian permission slips required. See Drew Krupp or Patsy Burton if you need a current slip. Questions? Call Drew Krupp.
Activities Committee will meet at noon on Sunday, November 25th to plan activities for 2019.
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Always Thankful
November is a time for us to consider the blessings that God had granted us over the course of the last year. We take time to celebrate those blessings with friends and family. Our moments of remembrance and communal acknowledgment of God’s blessing in our lives is something special. This is a great practice and part of me wonders what it might be like if we did this more often.
“16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Scripture encourages us to always be celebrating what God is doing and in constant communication with Him about what is going on in our lives. We are to give thanks at all times, recognizing what God has given us and thanking Him for His power and presence in our lives. God’s will for us is a continual stream of communication and connection with Him. To understand that we were created to have that kind of intimate relationship with God is a pretty powerful thing. As we move into this season of Thanksgiving, let it be only the beginning of this process and practice of communicating with God that we are grateful for all He does for us, not just one day or one month a year, but every day of every month of the year.
What are you thankful for today?
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The Christian Ed Committee invites you to a
Kid’s Carnival
at MFC on Saturday, October 13th – 1 to 3 p.m.
“Fun with God”
There will be lots of fun game booths, face painting,
popcorn, hotdogs and drinks.
Invite your friends and family to join us.
Friends Women Fellowship will meet at MFC on Thursday, October 18th, at 10:30 a.m. Following the meeting there will be a buffet lunch. All women are welcome.
MFC is Celebrating 76 Years – Sunday, October 21st
All Church Potluck – Please join us in the fellowship hall for a time of celebration following the Sunday School & Bible Study hour. Please bring your favorite potluck main dish, and a salad or vegetable enough to feed eight people to share. Cake will be provided for dessert! David Howell will be guest speaker in Worship that day.
Make Medicare an easy step. Gain confidence and clarity about moving to Medicare with guidance from Everence, a faith-based organization that partners with our church. Join an upcoming webinar: Wednesday, Oct. 17: 2 or 8 p.m. (EDT). Learn your key steps to getting Medicare, how to move from current coverage, plus enrollment details and deadlines. To register, visit everence.com/MedicareMadeEasy or contact Melissa Short at (800) 222-5054 ext. 3392 or melissa.short@everence.com.
Friends Summit 2018
Sponsored by Evangelical Friends Church -North America
December 28, 2018 – January 1, 2019 in Denver, CO
“Summit 2018 is coming up at the end of December! This is a great opportunity for youth and young adults to explore their place in the Friends Church. As an attender of the last two Summit sessions, in 2010 and 2014, I was blessed to be there and take part in some amazing conversations and a great conference. If there is a young person in your life please take a flyer and ask them to check it out. It is well worth it and if they are interested there should be some financial or other assistance from the yearly meeting for travel. Please be in prayer for this Summit session and all those who are involved!” – Pastor Jesse Davis
October is Pastor’s Appreciation Month.
Sunday, November 4th Daylight Savings Time Ends.
Be sure to set your clocks back 1-hour Saturday night, November 3rd.
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Healthy Hearts
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Mark 7:14-23
In this passage we see that Christ is challenging the idea of dietary uncleanness within Israel. He uses the biological process He created as an illustration for teaching. Food goes into your stomach, is processed, and then expelled. By highlighting this process Jesus is showing that it is not food which defiles a person but their hearts. What goes into you isn’t defiling, what comes out of your heart is.
Christ says that it is what comes out of our hearts that matters. The thing that reveals what we are consuming in our hearts is what we are producing from them. Good goes in and good comes out or evil goes in and evil goes out. Sometimes we receive evil things and, through God’s processes in our hearts, He is able to make good come out. A healthy heart is revealed by its output. We are known by our fruit. As we go into fall, a time of harvest, I wonder what kind of fruit is being produced in our hearts and what bounty the Lord will gather in us.
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Putting Down Roots
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
The idea of trust as the thing that roots us and sustains us is a pretty amazing one. In the passage above we are told that trust in the Lord is essential to getting through life’s difficult times. Trusting God’s goodness to sustain us is not always easy though. We experience a lot of pain and suffering in this world and it often makes us question God’s goodness. We wonder why He would allow terrible things to take place. Or why our loved ones have suffered in the ways they have. Or why He hasn’t come back yet.
Whatever we wonder it isn’t unique to us. Humanity has been asking these questions about God’s goodness since the first time we questioned Him in the garden and found ourselves in a broken relationship with Him. Yet over and over again throughout scripture God continues to reveal His goodness and love to us. He remains faithful to provide a source of life in the deserts of life. Sometimes it is hard to trust in His goodness but it is the only way to make it through the darkness and the drought of pain and sorrow. God provides fruit for our lives even in those seasons when we trust in Him and allow Him to be our sustainer.
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Wednesday Night Bible Study will begin on September 5th, at 7 p.m. Pastor Jesse will be using the book “The Good and Beautiful Community” by James Bryan Smith. The book is available online.
Friends Women Fellowship “Back to School Bake Event”
Look for us in the fellowship hall
September 9th, between worship and Sunday School
This fun event celebrates the beginning of the new school year with a variety of treats that would make any sack lunch proud! Cost is by donation. Funds go toward unbudgeted needs of Friends Serving Abroad and local outreach projects.
September 14-16, Twin Rocks' Men's Retreat will once again combine the comforts and quality of a top-notch weekend retreat with the rugged outdoorsy flair of an old-fashioned camp-out with good friends.
Camp speaker David Williams & music led by worship leader Dan Banham.
AFFORDABLE PRICING. $160/person (sleeping in a cabin), $98/person (bringing own tent), or $60/person if your wife attends Women's Retreat. For registration and answers to Frequently Asked Questions, please visit: www.twinrocks.org
Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018 – All Church Business Meeting We will meet in the sanctuary after the worship service. Sunday School will follow the meeting.
All Church Potluck We always have a great time of fellowship and good food!
Did you know the word "potluck" originated in 1592, describing an unplanned meal — the "luck of the pot?”
Sunday September 16th! You are invited to join us for fellowship and a “luck of the pot” following the Sunday School & Bible Study hour. Please bring your favorite potluck main dish, and a salad, vegetable or dessert enough to feed eight people to share.
Friends Women Fellowship will meet September 20th, 10:30 a.m. at MFC to begin the 2018-19 program year. Following the meeting there will be a buffet lunch. All women are welcome. If you are interested in being a part of the Friends Women program but cannot attend the regularly scheduled meetings, contact Nadine Brood for a way to do it.
NWYM Friends Women 2018 Fall Retreat
September 28-30 at Twin Rocks Friends Camp
Speaker – Mindy Burns
Brochures filled with information and registration form are located on the table in the foyer. This year first time attenders are offered a partial scholarship. Registration must be postmarked by September 15th with a $25 deposit (after that the fee is $35). Questions about housing or registration, please call or e -mail: Meg Rice at 503 -701 -2971 clanrice@aol.com
What a Blessing! Thank You to Everyone who donated school supplies for Howard Elementary School.
Donations can still be brought to the church for the Shoe Box Ministry. More information to come on that project. If you have questions contact Kay Goeres.
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