"The Spirit"

St. Andrews Presbyterian Newsletter

"Go and Serve"

January 4, 2012

In This Issue Epiphany Children's Worship Class Prayer Vigil Prayer and Nurture Team Presbyterian Women News Souper Bowl Upcoming Meetings Memorial Gift Thank You!

Get Ready for Epiphany Many Christian denominations celebrate Epiphany each year on or near January 6. "Epiphany," which means "showing forth," celebrates the visit of the magi, or wise men, to the baby Jesus. These men, also known as kings, saw the star that led them to Bethlehem. The fact that these wise men were Gentiles, not Jews, teaches us an important theological lesson: Their search for the Savior shows that Jesus came for all people. In 1875, Philip Bliss wrote the hymn "The Light of the World Is Jesus." The first stanza captures the meaning of Epiphany, a season of light: The whole world was lost In the darkness of sin, The Light of the world is Jesus! Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in. The Light of the world is Jesus!  The NewsletterNewsletter

Children's Worship Training Class

Children's Worship Training Classes begin this Sunday, January 8th.  We welcome all children  who have completed 1st grade.  Please sign up with Dana Tate If you have not already done so.

Dana will be at the back of the sanctuary during worship at the same time as the younger children leave for Children's Church. You may pick up your child after worship from the last classroom on the left of the children's wing. You may contact Dana at dana0164@aol.com  or 420-2334.

Submitted by Tami Wall

Prayer Vigil Planned for January 21st

The Prayer and Nurture Team is sponsoring a 12-hour Prayer Vigil in the church sanctuary Saturday, January 21, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

A signup sheet will be in the Narthex this Sunday (January 8) for you to sign up.  There is no limit to the number of people who may sign up for each time slot nor to the number of time slots chosen by each person.  It would be nice to have at least two persons per time slot. 

The Main Entrance door will be open during these hours for this purpose. Please use this door as voting in the Republican Presidential Preference Primary will also be going on in the multi-purpose room during these hours.

Margaret Borry

Prayer and Nurture Team Meeting

January 8 at 4 p.m.

The Prayer and Nurture Team will meet at 4 pm this Sunday, January 8.   At present the Team is comprised of Donna Rhyne, Sarah Prevatte, Sallie Coker, Bill Russell, Shelby Wood, Shirley Caligan, Suzanne Shennan and Margaret Borry.  We would love more volunteers!  We have a time of prayer for all known needs of our members, visitors, and friends and our church.   We also discuss and study ways in which we can best nurture our church family and friends.   Some things we hope to accomplish and for which we invite volunteers:

-----Organize a medical team to evaluate the need for and to help procure medical equipment and/or supplies to have on hand at  church...and to help provide for  anyone that might have a medical emergency at church.  If you are interested in helping to organize or in serving on this team please come to the meeting or contact Margaret Borry at 244-9627 or 567-3871.

-----Compile a list of emergency contacts for each member in case of an emergency so we can contact that person in case an emergency arises.   A copy could be kept at church and with each Session member...we are studying how best to do this.   We invite each member or friend who would like to, to provide this number to Margaret Borry at mkborry@yahoo.com  or to standrews@charter.net.  In light of some recent occurrences, we feel this would be a wise thing to do.

-----Improve our frequency and variety of contact with our shut-ins:  providing communion once a quarter as is practiced at church, visiting at least once a month.....We are always open to ideas for nurturing our church family.  Thank you.  Hope to see you Sunday!If you cannot attend the meeting perhaps you could volunteer to be a regular shut-in visitor.

Margaret Borry

Presbyterian Women News 

Thursday, January 12, is our Presbyterian Women's day for this month. 

The Morning Circle will meet in the multi purpose room at 10:00 am.  Sarah Prevatte will lead the third lesson of the Bible Study, Confessing the Beatitudes.  Afterwards we will go to the Pizza House in Travelers Rest for lunch.  Join us for a great time of spiritual growth, fun and food!    You can come to both meeting and lunch, just the meeting, or just the lunch. 

The Evening Circle will meet at 6:30 pm in the multi-purpose room for a light supper and Lesson 3 taught by Ann Pecht.  We invite anyone who attends either circle to bring a canned good for the food cart in the Office Hallway: our mission project for January. 

If you have not been attending a circle, we invite you to join us at one and increase our fellowship, learning and joy!

Margaret Borry

Souper Bowl of Caring Canned Food Drive

Cans of Soup & Monetary Donations

We are collecting cans of soup as well as money for the entire month of January and the first week of February for "Souper" Bowl Sunday.  I want us to "blow it out of the water" this year for our soup collection! 

So many people are in need of food, so PLEASE ask your Family, friends and church members to bring soup and money now until the Super Bowl. 

Please place your cans of soup in the appropriate area in the Narthex. See Amy Jackson for more information. 

St. Andrews Youth Group

Upcoming Meetings for your Calendar...

January 8 - 8:45 a.m. Christian Education Team; 4 p.m. Prayer and Nurture Team;

January 12 - 10 a.m. Morning Circle; 6:30 p.m. Evening Circle;

January 15 - 5:30 p.m. Session Team

January 16 - MLK Day - Church Office Closed

Memorial Gift

A gift in memory of Rachel Tate has been placed in the sanctuary. It is a handcrafted bookcase holding Children's Bibles of varied reading levels and is located at the center back wall of the sanctuary behind the sound center.

It is hoped that each child will select one Bible on Sunday to read during the worship service and then replace it at the end of the service.

 Additional Bibles have been ordered and will be added when they arrive.

Bettz Whitehead

Thank You

The Blick Family would like to thank the St. Andrews church family for the prayers and thoughts during my mother's illness and passing.

Randy, Barbara and Cameron McCracken