Tonight:

6:15 PM - All Children's Choirs will meet, and the Youth Missions Group will do some fun holiday activities at the church. This will be the last meeting of this year.

7:30 PM - Chancel Choir will rehearse for our Christmas Musical. (We will also rehearse tomorrow night at 7:00 PM along with the orchestra.)

This Sunday @ VBC

This Sunday is our annual Christmas Musical! This year's theme is "Have You Heard? A Celtic Christmas Celebration"! There will be no Children's Worship or Children's Church; children are invited to remain with us in the sanctuary. Jodi will have special activity bags ready for them in the Welcome Center. We WILL have Nursery for newborns - 2-year-olds and Next Step for 3- and 4-year-olds. If you are unable to attend worship in person, please watch the livestream at www.vintonbaptistchurch.org or through our Facebook page.

We'd love to see you at Sunday School, as well, at 9:15 AM (Young Adults at 9 AM at RND).

You are also invited to a Church-wide Fellowship at 4:15 PM Sunday, featuring cookies and beverages provided by our Hostess Committee! All are welcome. If you would like to bring some cookies to share, feel free to do so, but there will be plenty to go around. Plan to stay for this quarter's Ministry Matters meeting at 5 PM.

The Youth Progressive Dinner will also take place this Sunday, beginning at 5 PM. Please see Whitney with any questions.

Annual Giving Tree

Giving Tree gifts are due by this Sunday, December 14th. Please return your wrapped gift(s) - with tag(s) attached - to the Welcome Center no later than Sunday. If you would like to help Whitney distribute gifts next Monday, December 15th, please let her know as soon as possible. Thank you for making a special Christmas possible for all of these kids!

Family Christmas Tree

Our Giving Tree is transforming into our Family Christmas Tree! If you are new to our church this year, or if you have never donated an ornament in the past that represents your family, we would love for you to add an ornament to our tree this Advent season! Please note your family’s name and the year “2025” somewhere on your ornament.

Poinsettia Orders

Thank you to everyone who ordered a poinsettia in honor or memory of a loved one. All memorials/honorariums will be noted in The Witness next Wednesday. You are welcome to pick up your poinsettia and take it home with you after worship on December 28th.

Children's Ministry Update

Families are invited to join us at Valley View Grande on December 20th for the 3:00 PM showing of DAVID! You can purchase your tickets online now. Plan to meet us at the theater. Please let Jodi know if your family is coming.

Fun & the Son's Jingle Bell Bash

All newborns - preschoolers, along with their adults, are invited to our Fun & the Son Christmas Party, the Jingle Bell Bash! It will take place Thursday, December 18th from 10 AM until 11:30 AM. This will be our last gathering of 2025. Questions? See Betty Jo Overstreet.

Christmas Eve Worship

Please plan to join us at 5 PM on Wednesday, December 24th for our annual Christmas Eve Worship service. Let us celebrate the birth of Christ together!

Youth Ski Trip

We are planning a Youth ski trip for February 6th - 8th at Wintergreen Resort! Click here for all the details, including costs and the actual registration form.

Judy Thomas

c/o Brookdale Senior Living

Garden House Room 25

1127 Persinger Road SW

Roanoke VA 24015

Wednesday, December 3, 2025:

Children's Choirs: 30

Youth Missions Group: 10

Sunday, December 7, 2025:

Sunday School: 210

10:30 AM Worship

• in person: 357
• online: 411

Due to the weather this week, Sunday's donations have not yet been counted. They will be reported in next week's Witness.

Thank you to the Open Door Sunday School class for their donation to the Food Pantry.

Giving Deadlines for 2025 Reporting

Following are the final dates that we can accept donations and report them for the 2025 fiscal year:

• Sunday, December 28th for in-person (cash/check) donations
• Tuesday, December 30th for online donations through our website

Questions? Contact Patsy or Jennifer in the church office at 540-343-7685.

Operation Christmas Child Update

Thank you very much for everything you did to help with the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes! Whether it was wrapping boxes, donating items to go in the boxes, filling a box, transporting boxes to the drop-off center, and/or helping to pay for the shipping expenses for the shoeboxes, we appreciate you. Initially we turned in 291 boxes, but more came in for a total of 342 boxes. This will make it possible for 342 children to receive a Christmas gift, when many have never received any gift in their lives. It also helps the pastors to lead a study on Jesus, the greatest gift. God bless you!

Christian sympathy is extended to Freda Saunders and family in the death of her mother, Gertrude Saunders, December 3rd.

Food Pantry Requests for Christmas Boxes

Following are the only items we need in order to complete our Christmas food boxes. If you can help, please drop these items off by Sunday:

• 6 canned hams (shelf-stable, 1 or 2 lb.)
• 10 cans of cranberry sauce

Thank you for helping us help our community this holiday season!

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering

& Post Office

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is collected annually to support international missions. It was named in 1918 in honor of a missionary to China. Every dollar you give goes directly to the mission field and frees missionaries from the burden of fundraising so that they can stay in the field 100% of the time. There is an envelope in your box of envelopes, and they are also available in the pew pockets. Our church goal is $5,200.

The Lottie Moon Post Office is open at the Missions Tables. You may use it to “mail” your Christmas cards to VBC members and regular attenders only. The “postage” for each card is 50 cents this year. Please sort your cards alphabetically by last name, put them in the appropriate slots, and add your donation of 50 cents/card to the collection envelope in the bottom right corner of the post office. VBC members and regular attenders, please check the post office regularly throughout the Advent season for any cards you may have received.

Bible Reading Plan

I hope that you are continuing to enjoy the Gospel of John. We only have 3 more chapters, and we'll be done with the gospels for 2025. Starting next Monday, December 15th we will finish out the year with various Bible passages from the Lectionary. The Revised Common Lectionary is a list of scripture readings that are prescribed by an organization called the Consultation on Common Texts. "The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary are meant to coordinate with one another as well as with the Christian calendar, giving church congregations an understanding of the greater context of the Bible and God’s redemptive plan for humanity. Today, the RCL is used worldwide in 24 different countries across several denominations." (https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-a-lectionary.html)

As we finish out the year on our Bible Reading Plan, please know that you will be joining thousands of other Christians in reading various scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments that have been chosen specifically for this Advent season. May these passages point us all to the redeeming work of God in our world.

-- Kim