I N S I D E TH I S I S S U E :

Minister’s Letter 2

Jubilee Updates 3

Donation Dinner 4

Craft Bazaar Report 6

Women’s Fellowship 7

Holiday 2019

Covenant United Church of Christ

C ALEND AR AT A GL ANCE

Bfast w/ the Pastor Thursday, Dec 5, 9:00 am At Sunrise Café

Deacon’s Meeting Thursday, Dec 19, 1:00 p.m.

Council Budget Meeting Tuesday, January 14

ANNUAL REPORTS

Please start working on your annual reports for the January 2020

Meeting. Katie Rose is scheduled to be

out of the office for the end of December

and beginning of January.

ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS Season

WORSHIP SERVICES

Advent Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Our worship services will draw us

into the advent season with a choral piece, “The Hope of Your

Coming” that accompanies a narration and will be repeated each

Sunday in Advent with a different narration.

December 22, Sunday at 10:30 a.m. The Sunday School classes

will present the service for our congregation, followed by a

Birthday Party for Jesus. Come join the fun and festivities!

December 22, Sunday at 4 p.m. Covenant members and friends

will gather to carol for church neighbors and shut ins. We will

provide the caroling books. Dress warmly, bring a flashlight, and

share the joy of the season in songs that spread Christmas cheer. All

voices are welcomed!

December 24, Tuesday Christmas Eve at 5:30 p.m. The

Children’s Christmas Celebration returns again for children and

their families and the young-at-heart! This service has special

surprises and interactive parts designed to delight children and

share the message of Christmas. All children are encouraged to

wear their pajamas! The sanctuary will be filled with whimsical

Christmas decorations! Hot chocolate and cookies will follow in

our Fireplace Room with a candy cane Christmas tree and a piñata!

December 24, Tuesday, Christmas Eve, at 11:00 p.m. with

music beginning at 10:45 p.m. Our Christmas Candlelight Service

will begin with special preludes and end at midnight. This worship

service will be intimate and peace-filled with carols, scripture

readings, communion, and candles. It will feature a classical

guitarist, our keyboardist Fran Woodmancy, and our Worship

Chorus. Afterwards, the congregation is invited to gather in the

Fireplace Room to greet Christmas Day with the traditional

partaking of the Minister’s Wassail!

Sometimes the movement of time catches me unawares. I can scarcely believe that Thanksgiving is this week, though the snow of last week was a sobering visitation, and Christmas is a mere month away. I look at all that has to happen at church and with my family, and I wonder how I can possibly do it. Yet in the same breath, I have to say I love this season of the year when the autumn of pilgrims and turkeys give way to the nativity of Jesus and pine boughs. What works for me is staying focused. I try to hold in my mind’s eye what is really essential. Yes, even I - as traditional as they come (New England Heritage, Grandma Hemingway’s recipes) with my Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions, work to keep it all in perspective. I’m not always successful, I confess. I work to remember people, not things or decorations. I work to remember the

happiness of others and how I can contribute to that happiness. And when I do, strangely enough, I find myself happier. I know Jesus came to me at Christmas. I also know he came for others. And if I can help other people know that reality, I find myself drawn into the wonderful story of Christmas. P.S. Mark December 24, Christmas Eve on your calendars. It’s going to be a wonderful celebration of joy for our children at our Children’s Christmas Eve Service at 5:30 p.m. and adults at our Midnight Worship Service beginning at 10:45 p.m. !

P a g e 2 C o v e n a n t N e w s

Minister’s Letter...

Holiday Focus

Stewardship Alert! If you haven’t returned your Pledge Promise Card for 2020 and intend to, please do. Our Budget committee will be meeting this month to plan for our 2020 Church Budget. What you give provides resources and programs for young and old. From Jubilee to the music our Worship Chorus sings, your gifts make a difference! Cards can be returned in the mail or in the Sunday offering plate. Thank you!

P a g e 3 C o v e n a n t U n i t e d C h u r c h o f C h r i s t

The birthday hat strikes again!

Happy Birthday Don!

Some Jubilee

fun in

November!

The Youth Group thanks you for supporting our annual Christmas auction!

The donations and purchases that you made will be used to make our yearly mission work

possible. With your help, we are able to provide birthday bags to the families at the

food pantry, meals, and desserts to Lockport Cares and Salvation Army, and attend

projects (local or out of state) that help people truly in need. We would have had to

sell 5000 candy bars to make as much money as we did at the auction!

Can you help Jubilee? We can always use donations of food to help offset the expense of feeding our Jubilee kids at every Jubilee session. Our menu follows an established weekly rotation, so these items are used every month. We’d appreciate your contribution of any of these items!

• Large Pasta Shells Meatless Spaghetti Sauce Italian Bread • Hotdogs Hotdog Buns Frozen Mac and Cheese

• Frozen Pizza (Cheese/Pepp) Frozen French Fries (regular) Frozen Chicken Nuggets • Cookies (without milk as an ingredient)

Alert Rev. John or Jeanne Bobzien to your donation so they can mark it ‘Jubilee’ and store it in the church freezer. Thank You!

P a g e 4 C o v e n a n t N e w s

DONATION DINNER REPORT How do you serve 650 turkey dinners in less than 2 hours? Just use the tried and true centuries old recipes, and ask for help from your tried and true church family and friends! It’s always amazing to watch the magic that happens in the kitchen. It’s the people that love this church and love this tradition that make it happen. Shopping, cleaning, prepping, securing donations, more shopping, more cleaning, more prepping; people donating money and supplies, squash pickers and cookers, cranberry washers, sorters, smashers and taste testers, turkey cleaners, cookers and carvers, stuffing makers (two sessions!), the potato and gravy chefs, servers, people taking care of our diners, and then….the pies! So. Many. Pies! And the dishes! So. Many. Dishes! Our wonderful church family is there at every step in this process. People sign up or just show up asking to help. We turned off the lights in the kitchen at 7:30 and it looked like nothing ever happened that day! 650 dinners in less than two hours? The Dinner Committee thanks you-all of you!

- Jeff and Kim Yates , Scott and Pam Brauer

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, this is my list of some of the things I’m thankful for as they relate to Covenant per John Tipton

The people who volunteer for the Bazaar/Donation Dinner and the individuals who serve as its leaders.

The church member who walked in on Veterans Day Sunday and was willing, last minute no less, to host

our Sunday school with the prepared lesson while our regular teachers got the day off.

Our youth group and its leaders

Jubilee volunteers

Youth Auction and Pam and Scott’s skill in ‘pulling this off’ each year.

Sandy’s cookies

Carol and her craft helpers, especially Bea

Jean’s Jams and jellies

The people who make the pies

Deacons who hand out the bulletin on Sundays

Congregational humor with our new style of Minutes for Stewardship

Fran’s skill at the keyboard

Covenant Chorus

Katie’s graphic art skill and office decorum

Samantha, who you’ll never see but keeps the building very clean

The way we clean and can ‘put the building back together’ after big events.

Our Halloween outreach and the energy our volunteers bring to this event.

The people who will help me dismantle our Children’s Christmas Eve service (It’s a lot of work!)

Our own personal Santa and Mrs. Claus

The shovels and salt that find their way to the doorways each Autumn

The volunteers who empty the trash and set it out to the curb.

There is so much more but I hope you sense how all our efforts make Covenant a vital loving church!

P a g e 5 C o v e n a n t U n i t e d C h u r c h o f C h r i s t

P a g e 6 C o v e n a n t N e w s

After the sale, we donated several items to the Medina Hospital Bazaar and here is a thank you note they sent:

Dear Carol & Members of Covenant, We would like to thank you for your very generous donation to our fundraiser. We

have few people to make things for this sale and your donations were a big hit. - The Medina Hospital North Wing Resident Council.

ANOTHER OVER-THE-TOP CRAFT BAZAAR!

The Craft Bazaar and Donation Dinner were a huge success, this happens once a year and what most people don't know is it is worked on for months and months. We try to step up our game every year and try to make things that we think you ( the public) will like and want to purchase and display in your home.

With that said, it is something that would not happen without the wonderful members and friends of Covenant UCC Bea Potter, Patti Logan, Onnalee Landers Sandy Seward Allen Barb Harrington, Gina Carter, just to name a few. Bea and Patti Onnalee and Sandy your great talents in making and arranging things is amazing, Barb and Gina your baking was such a hit our Bake Shoppe sold a record amount this year, Thank you. Lorie Simons, thank you for all your work helping with workshops and set up. We have the most energetic members a church could ask for. We all go about our days doing what we need to do all year long but wow you mention Bazaar and it seems we all dig deep and find an energy we never knew we had, I so love the fellowship and laughs we have all week long while setting up this beautiful masterpiece. I must admit I do think I drive a few of you crazy with my OCD personality but you all humor me and do it my way and always with a snicker....Hmmm!

We also have a very dedicated crew that works all week long preparing and setting and cleaning everything to make it a perfect dinner for all that joins us. I also would like to thank Pastor John Tipton for all his leadership and help he is there working right along side his congregation and that to me makes me realize a church that works together stays together!

Our raffle once again was a huge success, with all the prizes donated and clear profit. A big thank you goes to Kevin and Lorie Simons who as usual did a great job on the cedar chest. Thank you to the people that donated money for the lottery tree, the rocking horse (made by Jay Silsby many years ago and sold at Bazaar and was donated back after children and grandchildren used it), and the $50.00 gift card donated by the very generous Bob Confer. Thank you also to all that partook! Great job on sales Onnalee!

We had a record year upstairs, and after Sunday sales we topped seven thousand...$7029.75. Total breakdown is listed below. Thank you and have a Blessed Holiday!

Your fearless leader, Carol

PS: We can tackle anything, Now get ready for the rummage sale...Coming soon!

2019

RAFFLE 1638.00

BAKE SHOPPE 1177.50

CANDY 510.50

FIREPLACE 920.50

BACK WALL 913.50

W. FELLOW. 113.50

VEGGIE BIN 404.75

LUNCHEON 535.25

BE ON THE LOOK OUT! We are in need of artificial trees that don't smell of smoke or dust. Bea cuts them up and that is what we use to make all of our arrangements and some wreaths. Also looking for ceramic tiles the 4x4 size. Thank you for your help!

https://www.facebook.com/covenant.ucc?__tn__=%2CdK-R-R-R-R&eid=ARACvpXrYCTB1IEWn2YyWanwq5izYq8aFWJtpvtI9f1kzIaLCOu7XY-A5S71KyK_Muve3aVo73LIZRgf&fref=mentionshttps://www.facebook.com/bea.potter.5?__tn__=%2CdK-R-R-R-R&eid=ARCv6f_5XEEKpS0NKq149rZ2_Q0sopdZhe_dDauScDH8WuBdltkNn736fHWXW2gnwzABA3Z1lLSIGpJN&fref=mentionshttps://www.facebook.com/covenant.ucc?__tn__=%2CdK-R-R-R-R&eid=ARACvpXrYCTB1IEWn2YyWanwq5izYq8aFWJtpvtI9f1kzIaLCOu7XY-A5S71KyK_Muve3aVo73LIZRgf&fref=mentionshttps://www.facebook.com/bea.potter.5?__tn__=%2CdK-R-R-R-R&eid=ARCv6f_5XEEKpS0NKq149rZ2_Q0sopdZhe_dDauScDH8WuBdltkNn736fHWXW2gnwzABA3Z1lLSIGpJN&fref=mentionshttps://www.facebook.com/covenant.ucc?__tn__=%2CdK-R-R-R-R&eid=ARACvpXrYCTB1IEWn2YyWanwq5izYq8aFWJtpvtI9f1kzIaLCOu7XY-A5S71KyK_Muve3aVo73LIZRgf&fref=mentionshttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006037543674&__tn__=%2CdK-R-R-R-R&eid=ARC8de7V1h4MInyHr8kaSlY-S9xqaiWOqc3bF0meWFJRNA2v7R4qXUZ0QcLkVoaNZAran-GnO0lXpN8T&fref=mentions

Thank you to the many hands that make our dinner and bazaar happen and as always you step up and make it look like a play day. Without all of you, of course, it couldn’t happen.

I would like to express a huge thank you to a few who without their leadership and dedication it really couldn’t happen.

Carol Genet for taking charge of organizing another WOW bazaar. If you didn’t know better you would have thought you were inside the gift shop at Gould’s or Creekside Florist’s.

The Brauers and Yates for taking charge of the dinner and as expected it was dee-liious, well organized and yes, we sold out again!!

If you were wondering about what happened to the left over pie pieces from dinner and the baked goods and fresh vegetables from bazaar, it was taken to the Salvation Army and they were so very appreciative of it. They will serve it at their lunch meal and on an average they serve as many as a 100 people a day. The fresh vegetables will be distributed via their food pantry.

- Donna Rice

Women’s Fellowship

P a g e 7 C o v e n a n t U n i t e d C h u r c h

Victorian Tea Saturday, March 7

Watch the bargains for Tea Baskets as you Christmas shop or

the after Christmas sales. We will hope for 50-60 baskets

again, as you remember we do for each seating. Themes can

be anything and gift certificates are awesome!! Basket

question can be directed to Donna Rice.

Save the Date! Grandma’s Attic Rummage Sale is March 21, and we

will start collecting donations after February

15. We appreciate it if you can store your donations at your homes until March, as

storage at church is very limited. Sale questions can be directed to Carol Genet.

Covenant United Church of Christ 4449 Main Street PO BOX 348 Gasport, NY 14067

www.covenantny.org

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