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Hello families!
We have adventured into Advent, learned about unbounded giving from St. Nicholas, heard the stories of Mary's visit from Gabriel and John the Baptist preparing the way, and now we come to THE Story, the holy story passed down from faithful family to faithful family through the centuries.
I've shared with some of you my story of "The Day We Missed the Christmas Pageant by an hour". Somehow, I got it wrong and my kids were 9 and 12, and they were not happy. So we left church, jumped in our car, ran home, and everyone was sent to their rooms to find a costume. When we gathered by our tree, Emma had a baby doll and was dressed as Mary, Luke was a shepherd and had made a sheep costume for the dog from a sheepskin in his room, Nick (hubby) was a King/Magi with a crown of tin foil and a bathrobe, and I was an angel in a sheet toga with hubby's trumpet to herald the news. We were all amazed with ourselves and then something came over the room. We stopped giggling and quietly entered into the story, narrated by Luke the Shepherd, and it was holy. The giggling began again when the story was over and the sheepskin wrapped around the dog slipped down over his face. None of us will ever forget The Best Pageant Ever!
And now it is your turn. Read the story to your kids tonight. Luke 2:1-20. Then when the kids come to the Pageant on Sunday, they will be familiar with the words. Read it a couple times over the next few days from different Bibles or versions. I use biblegateway.com and you can pick any translation - International Childrens' and The Message are ones I use for kids along with New Revised Standard Version. Have them act out the parts - even your dogs and cats can join in and it will be holy.
Everyone is invited to enter into the story this Sunday at our "Come As You Are" pageant. We have costumes for angels, shepherds, wisemen and wisewomen, and many assorted animals. If your child has an animal costume they are dying to wear and you think is not appropriate, let me just say that we have had a toad, crab, unicorn, and tiger show up - all God's creatures are welcome!
Come to the 2nd floor of the Pritchett building between 8:10-8:45 to pick a costume to borrow and then take your child back to sit with you until their character is directed to come forward in the bulletin. Feel free to come and sit with your child if they need you.
4th and 5th graders will act out the parts and help wrangle the little ones as they come up. They need to be on the 2nd floor of Pritchett at 8:00.
After the pageant, please put your costumes in the tub labelled for their character, against the right-side wall in Ellis Hall.
We will be honoring the 21 years of nursery service of Marie Louise and Job Muhumuza as they get to enjoy sleeping in on Sundays! You will still see Marie Louise in the front office, so don't worry. If you would like to write them a note, I will have a basket for those on the way into Ellis Hall.
Enjoy some old and new favorites of mine.
Spotify Advent/Christmas Playlist
Peace,
Kathy
Thanksgivings
Thanks to all the folks who jumped in to help with crafts at Advent Adventure.
Much gratitude to Sarah Sullivan, Kate Mabry, and Lilian Huber for leading and decorating for St. Nicholas Dinner in Ellis Hall. And to the Youth that helped St. Nicholas with filling shoes with candy. It was a beautiful night!
Thanks to Todd Fuller for helping in Children's Church and joyfully dressing up as John the Baptist. You, too, can have fun with us in Children's Church - sign up below.
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