Tidbits from our Church

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Our Church has a lot going on and you won't want to miss any of it!

FELLOWSHIP TIME: There will be Fellowship Time between the early service and Sunday school, between Sunday school and late service and after late service.  Worshippers are invited to come over to the Fellowship Hall for coffee and conversation.

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS potluck will be held in the Fellowship Hall immediately after the second service, 15 January.  (New members feel free to come without lunch as we want to serve you.)  We can keep your potluck item warm or warm it up if you bring it to the kitchen before the service.  Bring enough lunch for your family plus two more (also desserts).  We will provide the drinks and fellowship.  come get acquainted with our new members and give them a warm First Lutheran welcome!

FAMILY DUCKPIN BOWLING is January 22. Please join us! Reservations are necessary. Please sign up in the Annex or the Narthex ASAP! For info, click HERE!

THE SOUPER BOWL is starting up once again this year.  Our Christian Assistance Program (CAP) will begin collecting cans of soup for the Food Pantry.  Be a SUPER friend by donating cans of soup to help feed our less fortunate neighbors.  Our church will compete with the 12 other CAP churches to see who can bring in the most cans of soup from 22 January through 5 February (inclusive).  The winning church will be able to hang the Souper Bowl Trophy in their church until the next Souper Bowl.  No matter who wins the trophy there are no losers only winners.  If you have questions, contact Jean M.

LOVE BOXES: There is a box in the narthex to collect items for the valentine boxes our auxiliary will send to our members who are away in the service or at college. We will send these members the items (could be snacks, hygiene items, stationary, etc.) to let them know that we miss them and are thinking of them. The “love boxes” have been much appreciated in the past so please help us by donating items. Jean is still in need of more names and addresses of the members who fit this category.

2006 GWCEA Convention is being held at the High Point High School in Beltsville, MD January 27-28.  There is on-line registration at www.GWCEA.org.  The Board of Education has reserved several spaces for this event.  There are currently 3 available open reservations.  If you'd like to attend please contact Dana  T and reserve your spot.

THE MESSAGE ON CD ~ TAKE THE WORD WITH YOU! We will now be making copies of the Message available each week on CD. There will be a table in the narthex where you can sign up for the day’s Message which may be picked up the following Sunday. (Normally it is the late service message that is recorded.) You may also pick up a copy of a past week’s Message as there will be many available week to week. The cost will

be $2 per CD to cover production costs. CD money may be left in the basket.

2006 OFFERING ENVELOPES:  The 2006 Envelopes for offering will be available for the first of the year for all who use envelopes for their offering. If you do not currently receive envelopes but would like to, please contact the church office or the Financial Secretary.

USHERS NEEDED!  First Lutheran is looking for a few good men or women to step forward and become part of the usher  team.  The Early service has never had more than 2 regular ushers, and the Late service is down to 2 regular ushers due to members moving out of the area.  We would like to have 4 for each service, so that each usher is responsible for only 1 Sunday per month.  Advent and Lenten Services are covered by ushers from either crew, depending upon who is available.  The current ushers will be happy to train you, and the task is really not all that difficult.  Please contact any of the current ushers  or Alan for more information.

COFFEE TALK BIBLE DISCUSSION:  Please join us on Tuesdays at 7pm for a cup of coffee and some good conversation.

GIRL SCOUT TROOP 1702:  Junior Girl Scout troop 1702 meets the first and third Thursdays of the month from 6:30- 8:00 in the church basement. Our troop is comprised of 14 4th and 5th grade girls. We just recently completed our Girl Scout cookie sales. On Sunday afternoon we will be visiting the Veterans Hospital in Baltimore to deliver half of our approximately 140 boxes of cookies that were donated to the Veterans. Our girls had 6 booth sales and our regular door-to-door sales to work our way up to almost 140 boxes for the Veterans. The second half of those cookies will be delivered just before Valentines Day.

Our troop just recently headed up a Toys for Tots service project at Arundel Middle School. On Saturday, December 3, the kindergarten through 3rd grade Girl Scouts in our surrounding neighborhoods headed to Arundel Middle School to enjoy a few hours of Christmas crafts. The "admission price" was a new, unwrapped toy for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots Program. Although we didn't get a count of the toys, I would guess that we collected well over 100 probably close to 150 toys for those less fortunate children to enjoy on Christmas morning.

We are looking for ways to "give back" to the church and our community through service projects. We will hopefully be joining forces with the Cub Scouts for the church’s Spring clean up day. We will possibly be providing the child care for the adult game night scheduled on January 14, and we are also hoping to join forces with Jenny M as she provides art instruction to the seniors in our congregation (and hopefully through that service project might end up "adopting" some grandparents). We're still working with Brenda Gerhardt’s Fellowship Committee on possibly doing some clean up in the basement.

Girl Scouts is available to all girls from kindergarten through 12th grade. If any girl wishes to join a troop for their age group, please have them email scrim1009@aol.com for the paperwork.