Prepare to be inspired by Handel’s masterpiece performed by a premier chorale and an extraordinary 17-piece orchestra in the beautiful Dayspring UMC Arcadia sanctuary (3530 N 32nd St, Phoenix, AZ 85018). Come for the glorious Messiah with Hallelujah Chorus and stay for dessert and coffee and hot chocolate. Spend time viewing the amazing collection of dozens of nativity scenes from all over the world. Meet some new friends from the Arcadia area. The festivities begin at 3:00 pm and end by 5:30 pm giving you plenty of time to get to any holiday parties or dinners. No tickets are required, but bring your checkbook as you'll want to make a tax-deductible donation to the Arizona Cantilena Chorale so they can continue performing beautiful music in the year to come. Come and bring friends!!

We host Family Promise the week of December 11. We may get a chance to go Christmas caroling again and hope some members of the congregation will join us. We would love for families, friends, small groups, and/or single volunteers to provide evening activities. Decorating cookies and gingerbread houses seems to have been a favorite over the years. We welcome you and your ideas! Volunteers are needed for set up, tear down, and overnighting, too. Please email Howard or Maria for more information or to volunteer. A signup table will be outside on Sunday mornings as well.

Dayspring will once again be filled with beautiful poinsettias on Christmas Eve. Each plant is given as a memorial to, or in honor of, a special loved one or friend. In addition, gifts may also be made to UMOM’s Shelter for the Homeless in lieu of a plant. Both of these gifts will be listed in our Worship Bulletins, projected before services on Christmas Eve and online. The deadline is 12 noon, December 18. Order HERE.

Have you ever had a time in your life when you were having difficulties, or were seriously ill? Have you ever had a time of special need and hoped for some extra care and attention? Most of us have. This year you have the opportunity to become a Secret Santa and provide some extra nurturing for a church family member(s) by secretly sending them cards the 12 days before Christmas and brightening their Holiday Season. Email Pastor Joel to learn more or to sign up.

Dayspring folks can be a blessing to refugee families and other people in need by participating in Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest’s Christmas gifts campaign, now through December 12. We would like to collect as many new pajamas for adults and new toys for children. Please deliver them to the Dayspring office before December 12. You can help from the comforts of your home by “adopting” an individual or family directly through the LSS-SW Virtual Angel Tree HERE. Email Paola for more information. Thank you in advance for your generous, giving hearts during this season of Hope and Love.

Join us on Saturday, December 17 from 6:00-11:00am. Volunteers are needed to pack boxes of approximately 70 pounds of produce that we sell for $15. This is a great chance to spend time in the Arcadia neighborhood, reduce food waste, and bring healthy food to local families. Email Amy for more information or to volunteer. 

Our annual Children's Christmas Musical, Scrooge in Bethlehem, is next Sunday, December 18, during the 9:00 and 10:30 services. 

Our suggested labyrinth activities this month will center around our celebration of Advent. We invite you to walk the labyrinth as you reflect on the journey of Mary and Joseph, the Magi, the shepherds as they all journeyed to Bethlehem.  What might they have been thinking or feeling? What might they have learned along their journey? How is your journey to the center of the labyrinth similar to their journey? Rev. Rosemary Anderson and Laura Hudson will be available December 18 before and after services with finger labyrinths to try and to answer any questions about the labyrinth.

This year has been hard for us all in one way or another. Some have lost loved ones, either friends or family. Some have lost their jobs. Connections with others have been severed for one reason or another. We have all suffered. We all have, for one reason or another, an empty chair in our lives, in our homes, in our hearts. The holidays can be difficult, we want this time to be full of joy and gladness but many times is filled with despair or loneliness. We acknowledge this.

Our Blue Christmas Service offers a different way to look upon the empty chair. It can be difficult to envision hope and salvation as we look upon that empty chair. Yet, we have the promise of God’s everlasting love, in the birth of the Christ Child, that our individual lives will receive the future with hope. We will know that God will never forsake us even in the hard times that we are experiencing.

Our Blue Christmas Service will be held at Dayspring Tempe on Sunday, December 18 at 6:00pm. Please join us for an hour of Music, Scripture, Meditation and Silence.

If you're interested in carpooling to the 11:00 service at our Arcadia campus, please meet at the gate by the parking lot in Tempe at 10:20.