Grace Notes Weekly Update

GRACE NOTES

December 20 - 27, 2022

For Worship services please visit our YouTube channel.

Advent Mid-Week Worship Services with Holden Evening Prayer

Join us at 7pm on Wednesday, December 21 for the last Advent

Mid-Week Worship service .

Christmas Eve at Grace

We will have 3 opportunities to worship together on December 24th:

5pm, 7pm, and 11pm

Each is a Service of Holy Communion

The 5pm service includes an extended Children's Message which serves as the sermon

Christmas Eve Worship Acolyte Roles are Still Available for 7 and 11 pm!

Please contact the Church Office to sign up. Click HERE for the current schedule.

What's Going On At Grace

+Wed, Dec 21 - Advent Mid-Week Worship at 7pm

+Sat, Dec 24 - Christmas Eve Services at 5, 7, and 11pm

+Sun, Dec 25 - Christmas Day Service - 10am (one combined service)

+Sun, Jan 1 - Lessons & Carols Services at 8:30 and 11am

+Sun, Jan 8 - Tour of Grace at 10am (for anyone who'd like to know the building better!)

+Sun, Jan 15 - Sunday School & Coffee Hour resume

Many of these events have more details in other sections. This section is updated each week, so keep checking in. You can also see the full church calendar HERE.

The Grace Craft Group delivered handmade hats and scarves to our in-house Outreach Partner, Palmetto Community Health Care, earlier this month!

Our Craft Group donated more than 26 hats and scarves to our neighbors.

We give thanks for this group, which focuses on fellowship and generosity!

If you'd like to learn more about the Craft Group, please contact Sabrina Blanks.

END OF YEAR GIVING

As the year comes to a close, we look back on the wonderful ministry we have done together in 2022, and we give thanks for the financial gifts that were given to make this ministry happen. Your continued faithful support of our ministry will enable us to finish this year’s work strong and position us well to begin next year’s ministry in January.

At our Annual Meeting, we announced our intentions for offerings received over and above our Missional Spending Plan expenses in 2022.

These funds, up to $10,000, will be designated as follows:

10% as a tithe to the SC Synod

90% toward our 100th Anniversary Celebrations in 2023

Thank you in advance for you gifts which support these two endeavors!

Please remember that for financial donations to be counted towards 2022 tax

deductions, they must be received in 2022. Grace will make its final 2022 deposit on Friday, Dec. 30, so please have your giving to the Church Office by 5pm on Thursday, December 29 if you would like to make it count for this fiscal year. Thank you!

The New Year is about to arrive, and with it comes opportunities to sponsor our Sanctuary Candle and Altar Flowers! We invite you to take part in providing these beautiful signs of faith and our life as church together.

2023 Sanctuary Candle

Grace continues to keep our Sanctuary Candle burning every week, a sign of the continuing presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. Members are able to sponsor the candle in memory or honor of someone. The cost of the candle is $25.

Click HERE to sign up.

It has been a long-standing tradition at Grace for members to sponsor the weekly flowers, often in honor or memory of a special person or event.

The cost is $45.00 for one (1) or $90.00 for both (2) vases.

Please click HERE to sign up.

Daniel Roland Volz

1945 - 2022

Members and friends, we are sad to inform you of the death of our brother, Dan Volz.

A funeral service was held yesterday afternoon.

Click here to read the obituary

We continue to hold in prayer Dan's wife, Jewell, his daughter, Jessica, and all those who mourn this loss. We trust in the eternal promise of the resurrection and entrust Dan to the heavenly care of Jesus Christ.

OUTREACH UPDATES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Grace is hosting Family Promise guests

Jan. 1-8, 2023!

Your time and effort given to host Family Promise make a concrete difference in the lives of our guests. Creating a safe and welcoming home for a week is a blessing, and we are grateful for your participation.

We need to have all roles filled by THURSDAY, to ensure we are prepared!

Our remaining needed volunteer roles are:

3 Overnight Hosts: Sunday Jan 1, Tuesday Jan 3, Saturday Jan 7 (8pm-7am)

1 Meal Host: Saturday Jan 7 (6pm)

2 Evening Hosts: Friday Jan 6, Saturday Jan 7 (6-8pm)

4 Tear-Down Helpers: Sunday Jan 8 (7:30am)

You can sign up to help by clicking HERE.

Thank you for your support of this ministry!

Opportunity to Support our Scout Troop: Zachary Zimba's Eagle Project

Zachary Zimba is a member of Troop 31, and is in the process of earning his Eagle Scout Award. For his project, Zachary is planning and constructing a 20’x15’ shelter for the Winthrop University Human Nutrition Department, inside the Rock Hill Educational Community Gardens. The Human Nutrition department at Winthrop will use the shelter as an outdoor classroom for students and community groups of all ages, hosting hands-on gardening, nutrition, and sustainability classes.

We asked Zachary to share a bit about himself and his project:

"I have been a part of the scouting program for about 12 years, starting in first grade and continuing to the present. Scouting has helped me develop my leadership and life skills while also allowing me to realize my love for the outdoors.

I currently attend Legion Collegiate Academy, where I just started playing lacrosse. Since LCA does not have a wrestling team, I am a part of the wrestling team at Northwestern Highschool and have been participating since 10th grade.

The project I'm doing now was different from my original choice; talking to the team in charge of scout projects at Winthrop and hearing how a new shelter in the garden would benefit students and staff at the school led me to choose this project. With that said, the shelter I am building will be used by the Human Nutrition department at Winthrop University to teach classes and grow food that goes into a pantry accessible to all students and staff at Winthrop for free.

The money I receive to support my project will go directly into the materials needed to build it, such as lumber, metal roofing, hardware, and perhaps a plaque to commemorate the hard work put into it."

Zachary's project will cost $850 to complete (this is in addition to discounts and donations made by material suppliers). If you'd like to contribute toward this project, please contact the church office for donating information.

OVERFLOW SHELTER PROJECT

THANK YOU FOR THE GENEROUS DONATIONS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN GIVEN! And thank you in advance for donations still to come!

From January 8-21, 2023, Grace will be hosting approximately 25 homeless men at the old Project Hope location on Park Street due to a shortage of beds at the Bethel Men's Shelter in these cold months.

You can take part in this mission by helping provide any of the following much needed items:

+underwear 3-pack black or grey +hooded sweatshirts +sweatpants w/pockets +disposable rain ponchos w/hood clear one size fits all

+anti- perspirant deodorant +crew t-shirts +bathroom tissue +black backpacks

Bins for these items can be found in the Fellowship Hall.

Thank you for your support!

Biggest needs at HOPE:

Peanut Butter, Jelly, Pull-ups (3T-4T, 4T-5T, 5T-6T), Diapers (4, 5, 6), Laundry Detergent, All Purpose Cleaners, Feminine Hygiene Products

You can drop items off in the bin located outside the church offices when you're in the building, and a volunteer will take them over to HOPE. Please only place non-perishable items in the bin!

Grace Craft Group

Join us on the first Tuesday of the month (January 3) from 11am to 1pm in room 107! This group is for crafters of any skill level and any craft, with the group’s purpose to craft items that will be donated to different organizations in need of those items.

Congregation Connections

Click here for our current Prayer List

Click here for our Memorials & Honor Gifts

Click here for our December Birthdays

The Sanctuary candle for the month of December is given by Pat and Bill Yoos in honor of Bill's 80th birthday and in memory of our parents.

The Altar Flowers for December 25 are given by Frances and Walker Stockley to the Glory of God in the Highest.

Worship Assistant Schedule

Click HERE for the Worship Assistant Schedules.

Don't see your name? Want to be part of leading worship? Email the church office today!

Offering envelopes for 2023 are now available and may be picked up in the Fellowship Hall. At this point we have prepared sets only for those we expect to be using them. Therefore, those of you that have been giving electronically or are having your financial institution send checks directly to Grace will not find a set with your name. However, we do have extra sets and will happily provide them to anyone that asks. Just let us know (either contact the church office or Financial Secretary Bob Stonebraker or 803-980-1834) and we’ll get a set for you.

Offering Our Gifts to God

Your gifts to Grace allow our ministry to happen! You can give in several ways:

Give via the offering plate in worship
Give online by clicking HERE (you have the option to offset the cost of giving online)
Set up giving though your bank
Mail your offering to the church office.

Thank you for continued faithful giving!